Day 2, 15 July

We slept like lambs last night, our hotel was comfortable and quiet. I got up around 7 feeling pretty good and we went down for a nice breakfast spread. We were to meet Gabe and Rex at 10, but they weren’t quite ready so I caught up on loading the blog.

Our sightseeing today consisted of riding a train to Dachau to the memorial site and back. There’s not a lot left of the original site, but enough you could see the enormity of the process. It was a very sobering trip.

We lighted the mood after with a lunch of a Gyro like sandwich close to the traing station and missed a train back to Erding which made us late for our meeting at five, each of us pointing fingers at the others placing the blame, in a light hearted manner, of course.

When we got back the briefing had started, but we didn’t miss a lot. We were able to catch up quickly and Rex soon became a target, being the only Harley rider in the group.

The group is pretty varied, in riding experience, age, locale, and just about everything else. After the briefing, those that didn’t take the Alpine riding course picked up the bikes. The Harley hadn’t made it from the shop, so I wired in the GPS and looked over the GS for the paperwork. It has an accessory port on the dash area, and the RAM u-bolt mount went right in place.

We ride out at 8:30 in the morning.

July 15th

Landing in Munich, we got off the plane and grabbed a taxi to the hotel. We loaded some taxi drivers little station wagon to the roof and headed out to Erding. I don’t think we took the most direct route to the hotel, the meter rang up about 50 euros. That won’t be our first bite on the exchange rate, things are going to be expensive on us flatlanders this trip.

They let us put our stuff in the rooms as they weren’t ready yet. So we got a chance to walk around and look at Erding. It’s a beautiful area, with lot’s of corn, wheat, and I’m guessing barley and hops fields. I’m not sure how they get the harvest equipment in the field, everything urban is mixed in as well. We hoofed it around Erding and checked out the brew houses an shops for later. We met Martin and Justin Wenzel from Boulder checking in with their gear at the hotel, they’ll be joining us when the tour starts.

When we were finally able to check in, we grabbed a shower and headed to the train station to go to Munich. The train system is clean and efficient. You buy a ticket, but no one ever looks at it or scans it. Gabe told us they’d fine you if caught riding without a ticket on a random check. It’s an interesting system. Business picked up closer to Munich and getting off downtown, we walked into a mass of people. We were hungry and headed to the Hoffbrau Haus and ordered some liters of beer and some food. The service was slow, but we enjoyed the oompa band with the rest of the tourists. Walking out, we ran into Martin and Justin again. Justin’s 18 and rides a KLR, and it pumped up to make the tour. They’d made the BMW museum tour and enjoyed it.Landing in Munich, we got off the plane and grabbed a taxi to the hotel. We loaded some taxi drivers little station wagon to the roof and headed out to Erding. I don’t think we took the most direct route to the hotel, the meter rang up about 50 euros. That won’t be our first bite on the exchange rate, things are going to be expensive on us flatlanders this trip.

They let us put our stuff in the rooms as they weren’t ready yet. So we got a chance to walk around and look at Erding. It’s a beautiful area, with lot’s of corn, wheat, and I’m guessing barley and hops fields. I’m not sure how they get the harvest equipment in the field, everything urban is mixed in as well. We hoofed it around Erding and checked out the brew houses an shops for later. We met Martin and Justin Wenzel from Boulder checking in with their gear at the hotel, they’ll be joining us when the tour starts.

When we were finally able to check in, we grabbed a shower and headed to the train station to go to Munich. The train system is clean and efficient. You buy a ticket, but no one ever looks at it or scans it. Gabe told us they’d fine you if caught riding without a ticket on a random check. It’s an interesting system. Business picked up closer to Munich and getting off downtown, we walked into a mass of people. We were hungry and headed to the Hoffbrau Haus and ordered some liters of beer and some food. The service was slow, but we enjoyed the oompa band with the rest of the tourists. Walking out, we ran into Martin and Justin again. Justin’s 18 and rides a KLR, and it pumped up to make the tour. They’d made the BMW museum tour and enjoyed it.

Trip over

We had a very enjoyable evening with Rex and Gabe. Tuesday afternoon, we made good time and got to Decatur around five. Rex, Gabe, and their youngest, Cameron, were hanging out at the house and getting things together. Rex grilled some massive steaks and Gabe had some nice things to go along with them. Ther middle daughter, Stephanie, joined us after she got off work, and we all had an enjoyable time.

Rex and Gabe had to leave at about 0400 to catch a flight on American, using some of Rex’s miles. We took off about six, and it took about 1.5 hours to get to DFW, with a lot of construction on the freeways.

The flight over was not without a little pain. Checking in at DFW was an adventure. The long term parking had one or two spaces left out of thousands and we found the one at the very back of the lot. Checking our baggage proved to be the second hassle of the day. We were about lbs over on one bag and close on the other. We finally fixed the problem by me putting on my motorcycle boots and carring our Gerbings jackets.

After we met up with Rex and Gabe in Atlanta, it felt like we were finally getting our vacation started. After grabbing something to eat, we finally boarded the plane, and began sitting on there for over two hours while they tried to shut a sticky door, and reconsile a discrepancy in the fuel on board.

The flight over wasn’t too bad. KK was able to sleep almost the whole way. I listened to some Union Station, Zack Brown, and Ray LaMontaine, and watched a movie called the Adjustment Bureau.

Packed and ready

Well, I don't think there's anything left in the house to pack. The camera back pack looks like we looted a Best Buy. This may be the last update until we get to Germany unless we have some airport downtime in Atlanta, so I'll catch you up when get there, or Thursday in Munich.

Tomorrow we'll kick off our trip with a drive to Decatur to meet up with Rex and Gabe at their house. We'll spend the night there and leave out Wednesday morning. They are flying the first leg to Atlanta on American, he had some miles on it. The are flying non revenue (read standby) from Atlanta to Munich. Rex says if all the seats are taken, he can ride the jump seat in the cockpit. They'll let him use the pilot's lounge for the first 1.5 hour or so and the last 1.5 hour, but they'll kick him out when the plane's cruising so they can rest. Seven or so hours in the jump seat might be a little tough.

I did the last of the cleanup on the camera SD cards tonight, and finally put the helmet bags together for the last of the setup.

Counting down, gas prices in Germany

We spent a lot of this weekend packing up our stuff and putting together the finishing touches. Karan can get more stuff in a suitcase than you'd think possible. We're allowed 2 each on the tour, but we have it down to 3 total plus a camera backpack and our helmets to carry on.

I've done a little looking at gas prices in Germany, and it looks like we are going to see about 1.55 euros per liter. With the exchange rate, that's about 8.20 per gallon. It looks like it'll cost just short of $50 to fill up a GS. I'm guessing some of the remote parts of the Alps it will be higher. Oh well.

View Edelweiss in a larger map

I loaded the GPX file to Google maps so you can take a look at the points we are going through. Google maps won't load the routes, but it's fun to look at.

Sedated, laptop

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlFL2E2SFqY

This little ditty kind of sums up the last few days before you fly out.

We'll be taking a laptop along with us, so if you want to Skype, we'll be logged in on my ID, dgnewsom. I'll try and keep the blog up and the laptop should allow us to load some pictures while we are there.