Blue = Actual Route

Monday, September 1, 2003

Today's statistics:

Total Distance:    159.9 KM
Average Speed:     46.4 KM/H
Total Time on Bikes:   3 Hours 26 Minutes

We had to ride 19 kilometers through the streets of Berlin before we found ourselves out of Berlin. The city is huge but it does not fell like a big city when you are there. A very nice place and we were sad to leave.

We rode south to Leipzig - the home of Johann Sebastian Bach for many years, until his death in 1750. What a beautiful city. Miraculously Leipzig was not destroyed during the Second World War and the vast majority of the old town is still there. It is very obvious that lots and lots of money has been spent refurbishing the vast majority of the buildings in the city.

After we located a place to stay we headed our for a bit of a walk about. We immediately ran into the information office to escape the rain that started to pour down just after we were about two blocks away from the hotel.

After about a half hour the rain let up enough for us to run across the street to the train station; not something that is usually on our list of things to see in a town but we had been told to check this out. So we did. The entire station has been restored and there are two levels of a shopping mall below the area where the trains are located. And these are not jsut little kiosks and coffee stops. These are retail jewelers, clothing stores, a fruit and vegetable market, a supermarket and too many other shops to name. All very nice and the station is clean with new tile floors that continue out onto the platforms. This was really well done.

We also did a walk around the city center and discovered that Thomaskiche (St. Thomas church) closed 30 minutes prior to our arrival at 6:30 PM. That ended our sightseeing activities but we were amazed at the number of stores that were open late, until 8 or 10 PM. Until this year stores could only stay open late one night a week and even then not many did it. The law was changed and things have surely changed in Germany. It sure felt strange seeing all these people out doing their shopping in the evening.

See the Leipzig page in the Germany section for more information.

Tuesday, September 2, 2003

Today's statistics:                                      Top of Page

Total Distance:    133.7 KM
Average Speed:     41.0 KM/H
Total Time on Bikes:   3 Hours 15 Minutes

We are finding that many hotels no longer include breakfast in their fees and we did not feel like paying €9.00 each for a mediocre buffet breakfast, so we headed out first thing to get something to eat. After we ate breakfast we visited the St. Thomas church. This where Johann Sebastian Bach is buried. We also were able to get some more photos of many of the lovely buildings in Leipzig that yesterday’s rain storm prevented.

The we got on the bikes and headed south east for Erfurt. Yesterday and today while on the highway we managed to stay just behind the rain managing to miss almost all of the numerous thunderstorms that have been sweeping the area. We arrived yesterday just in front of a huge storm complete with lightning and thunder and lots of rain. Just after we got into the hotel it today it started to rain but it did not last long.

We spent about 30 minutes trying to reach our hotel with our access to the area where the hotel was located always being blocked by construction or pedestrianized zones. After riding in circles for about 25 minutes Jim had had enough and decided to use the sidewalk to bypass the most recent blockage by a construction crew having the street completely dug up. Some of the locals were not impressed by his maneuver but the hotel was just on the other side of the work and by this time he was in no mood to be trifled with.

We had a nice walk about town, and discovered lots and lots of gelato available. So, we had an “eis”, as the Germans say, as we discovered the old parts of the city. Erfurt also has had lots of money invested in restoration and is a beautiful city. Well worth a visit.

See the Erfurt page in the Germany section for more information.

Wednesday - Thursday, September 3 - 4, 2003

Today’s statistics:                                       Top of Page

Total Distance:    173.5 KM
Average Speed:     50.0 KM/H
Total Time on Bikes:   3 Hours 28 Minutes

As is our usual custom we changed our plan for the day after we were on the bikes fewer than 5 minutes. We decided to head further south and visit Bamberg . We used the “noodle” method of travel. This is where we create a way point in the GPS for our destination, and then create a line from our current location to the destination and just kind of wander from road to road as long and the road tends to go in the general direction we need to travel.

We saw lots of beautiful county that we would never have seen and stopped for lunch at a small restaurant located next to a small reservoir. It was a beautiful day today with lots of sun and blue skies. A great day to be on the bikes.

After we arrived in Bamberg we had a bit of difficulty getting to the hotel we wanted to stay at because of all the pedestrianized streets kept blocking our path. We ultimately got to the hotel where we discovered the hotel has blocked the telephone numbers we use to access the internet. We have four numbers that can be used anywhere in Germany. It seems that our access numbers share a common attribute with all the numbers that are used by the sex chat lines - they all start with the digits 019. Our hotel chain, so we have been told by the management here, is blocking all calls to these numbers. So it looks like our days of staying at IBIS Hotels has come to an end. These hotels are two stars but tend to be clean and are usually quite pleasant affairs. We had encountered this previously but were never able to understand what exactly the problem was and we had never been able to find anyone on the staff of the hotel who had a clue about the problem we were having. We are going to be here for two days and tomorrow we will look for another hotel because the only internet cafe in town will not let us hook our computer to their network; also a common occurrence. :-(

See the Bamberg page in the Germany section for more information.

Friday - Sunday, September 5 - 7, 2003

Today's statistics:                                      Top of Page

Total Distance:    269.3 KM
Average Speed:     66.5 KM/H
Total Time on Bikes:   4 Hours 02 Minutes

As can be seen from the average speed, we did no spend the day on the “B” roads. After a lovely morning ride west from Bamberg we decided, after lunch, that we would get on the A3 and ride to Limberg for the weekend. There is nothing like riding your bike at 80+ miles per hour in the extreme right lane of the autobahn and being passed like you were standing still by the vast majority of the traffic (except the numerous trucks, of course). The phrase, Keep Right Except to Pass does take on a new meaning in this part of the world.

We stopped at a motorcycle only BMW dealer just before lunch today, that happened to be right on the highway, to see if they could repair the speedometer on Jim’s bike. Of course they could - even if it meant taking the part they needed off a new R1150GS Adventure on the showroom floor. In fewer than 40 minutes we were back on the road. Now that’s customer service!

We came to Limberg because it is a nice town, and is centrally located for our activities during the next week. There are several people in the area that we want to visit and there is a hotel here that offers a discount to seniors (over 55 years of age in this case) that we can take advantage of.

We had been able to use the telephone in this hotel with no problems accessing our ISP in the past. They too have now blocked the 019 numbers that we dial to reach our ISP. Grrr. There is a new internet cafe in town and we will visit them today and send the corporate headquarters of this hotel chain a customer opinion of the telephone service they offer. We will be relocating to Idstein on Monday and will not have a telephone or internet cafe at our disposal. So this is the last update we will make until we reach Dublin, Ireland on the 11th.

Monday - Wednesday, September 8 - 10, 2003

Today's statistics:                                      Top of Page

Total Distance:    29.8 KM
Average Speed:    57.6 KM/H
Total Time on Bikes:   0 Hours 31 Minutes

We rode south to Idstein today where we will stay until Thursday. On Thursday we will fly to Dublin, Ireland for our annual visit.

Thursday, September 11, 2003

Today's statistics:                                      Top of Page

Total Distance:    0.0 KM
Average Speed:    0.0 KM/H
Total Time on Bikes:  0 Hours 0 Minutes

Thanks to Jim leaving his passport on his motorcycle this morning we were forced to change our airline tickets to tomorrow, take the train back to Idstein from the Frankfurt airport to retrieve his passport and then return to Frankfurt and find a place to spend the night - the hotel in Idstein was full tonight.

Let’s just say that it was a very expensive mistake and one of us is really, really upset with themself.

Friday - Friday, September 12 - 18, 2003

Today's statistics:                                      Top of Page

Total Distance:    0.0 KM
Average Speed:    0.0 KM/H
Total Time on Bikes:  0 Hours 0 Minutes

We arrived at the Dublin airport mid afternoon where we were met by Michael and May Gallagher. After Jim’s profuse apologies to Michael for making him waste a good portion of his day Thursday at the airport waiting for us to arrive, we jumped in the Gallagher’s car and headed south for Dunmore East where we spent the weekend relaxing, taking a few walks along the coast and enjoying a very relaxing week end.

We returned to Dublin on Sunday and headed for our hotel late in the afternoon.

This is being written on Tuesday evening and things in Dublin appear a bit strange to us. The sky has been blue and the sun has been shining almost continually since our plane arrived on Friday afternoon. You could even say it has been a bit hot. We never experienced weather like this when we lived here. It has been a very dry and hot summer for Europe in general and it appears that Ireland has enjoyed mother nature’s largesse as well.

We will spend the rest of the week visiting friends and taking care of other odds and ends like getting additional pages added to our passports.

Friday - Sunday, September 20 - 21, 2003

Today's statistics:                                      Top of Page

Total Distance:    0.0 KM
Average Speed:    0.0 KM/H
Total Time on Bikes:  0 Hours 0 Minutes

We returned to Frankfurt on Friday the 20th and will hang about in Idstein for a few days. We will fly to the U.S.A. on Monday the 22.

For all practical purposes, this concludes this portion of the adventure. We never did get to Neuss because our friends Andreas and Sabine have both come down with the flu and we all decided that we would have to put off our reunion until next spring when we return.

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