Germany
Baden-Württemberg Region

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    • Day 7

      Day 7 - Josef Buffler, my saviour…………….

      March 5 in Germany ⋅ 🌧 6 °C

      ………the world’s most expensive parking attendant!!!

      As predicted, I struggled to get any sleep. I was still watching Top Boy, when the Italian got up to go to the loo at 2.20am. My alarm went off at 6.30am & after showering, I went to breakfast at 6.55. To my horror the 50 odd school kids were already in there, but they had doggy bags & left almost straight away for the United Nations.

      My breakfast consisted of just 2 slices of toast, 3 coffees & yoghurt & granola, but I got the proportions wrong & it had the texture of concrete. I then packed in the dark whilst my dorm companions slept and left the hostel.

      I set my SatNav at 7.57am to get to the Holiday Inn Express, Munich City West by the fastest route, but avoiding tolls. My SatNav showed that it would take 6 hours 39 minutes, a distance of 273 miles. I was due to arrive at the hotel at 2.42pm if I didn’t stop. I wanted to get to Munich in plenty of time to make the rendezvous, be totally sorted out for the next stage of the trip & not the one perceived to be unreliable.

      The weather was best described as miserable, drizzly with stormclouds on the horizon. The roads north out of Bern were uninspiring A roads following the Aare River. At 10.30am, I arrived at Koblenz, where I crossed the Rhine River into Germany. I decided that I would stop at the 1st hopefully now reasonably priced McDonalds I saw after 11.00am. Needless to say they went into hiding. I saw one about an hour later, but incredibly there were roadworks preventing me from getting to it.

      I continued onwards towards Munich, passing Lake Constance on my right. This was on a road that Jackie and I had driven the other way on our way back from Croatia a couple of years ago. It was notable for all the vineyards along this stretch of the route. Eventually I pulled into Friedrichshafen, still on Lake Constance & hunted down a McDonalds. It turned out to be a tiny one in the railway station.

      I returned to my bike & opened up the throttle to arrive at my hotel at now just after 3pm. I was speeding east along the A96 dual carriageway, when my heated handlebar grips kept turning themselves off. Next all the lights turned themselves off & I managed to turn on the a slip road, just before my bike whirred to a standstill. I turned the ignition off then tried to-restart by bike, but nothing was happening. I got off the bike & the bike toppled over , knocking me down and prone in the middle of the road with the bike on top of me. Out of sheer absolute embarrassment, I managed to out & heaved it back upright. I then pushed it up a slope to the junction at the top where it was less of a hazard to other traffic. I was in the middle of absolutely nowhere & didn’t know how to describe where I was. All I knew was that I was beside the A96 & just over 100 miles away from Munich.

      After several unsuccessful attempts to start it, I rang Jackie and gave her the good news. Jackie very helpfully provided me with some suggestions as to who to call & she did some research for me. The upshot was that I was not covered with a breakdown service outside of the UK. I rang my bike mechanic in the UK, who got me to try various things which didn’t work, but he couldn’t help without seeing the bike. I then rang the emergency number for motorway breakdowns (not dual carriageways) and they said would get the police out to me who would arrange a recovery truck.

      Several motorists stopped & one recommended I rang a local garage who might be able to help. I rang the garage, Moto Punto, and spoke to the owner who spoke only a little English. I tried to explain where I was, but he couldn’t understand & said that I was too far away. I later rang him back & asked him if I managed to get my bike to him, would he be able to look at it. He said he would. After several more phone calls of almost pleading with the garage owner, he agreed to come out when I finally was able to give him a better idea of where I was.

      Whilst waiting for him, now 3.55pm, the police showed up. They didn’t speak English, but recorded details of my bike, driving licence & passport. Whilst they were interrogating me, my saviour in his beaten up old van arrived. He was an old man with a gammy leg from a motorcycle accident 20 years ago. We managed to get the bike in the back of his van & we drove to his garage 8.5 miles away.

      Back at his garage his mechanic got to work. He connected a large battery pack & the bike fired into action. My relief was short lived when he diagnosed that the ‘reactor’ (or something) was not working. Apparently there are two parts of the bike that keep the battery charged when the engine is running.

      After looking it up, they announced that they couldn’t get the parts until the morning, but they would take me to a hotel for the night. I enquired if I could get a train to Munich. I could & could I leave the bike with them for 10 days & pick it up then. The bottom line is that I loaded up my motorbike gear in the panniers and the owner, Josef Buffler, ran me to the train station to continue my tour. He told me to ring him when I was coming back & he would pick me up.

      My train ticket cost just €26 & arrived in Munich main station at 19.42pm. It was a 2.1 mile walk to my hotel. I could have got another train but I chose to route march to the Holiday Inn Express, Munich City West. I arrived at 8.30pm. It was a 4 minute walk back to the venue, Backstage, so I treated myself to a shower and fresh clothes.

      I arrived at the gig at 9.00pm & it was heaving with people. It was the biggest venue so far. I decided there was no way I would or could find the others from the Magic Bus Tour, so I WhatsApp’d Jack Cheung, the tour organiser and driver to let him know that I had arrived and would catch up with everyone in the morning.

      Another excellent concert seen from a totally different perspective. During the song, ‘If I Am Still Me’ Jack rose up out of the crowd near the front and was stood on the shoulders of others for his usual dance. He did the same for ‘Green and Grey’ and ‘High. The encores were ‘Bittersweet’ their 1st single and was dedicated to the original manager, Nigel Morton aged just 70 & ‘High’ & ‘Get Me Out’.

      At the end I rushed back to the hotel & my bed. The following morning I discovered that I missed a 2nd encore of ‘No Rest’ and ‘Poison Street’.

      I am just very relieved that my tour is still on course. The mechanical failure could not have been foreseen & hopefully won’t cost me a fortune. I rightly or wrongly trust Josef. Either way things could have been a lot worse.

      Song of the Day - Breakdown by The Buzzcocks.

      NMA Song of the Day - Stormclouds by New Model Army.
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    • Day 18

      18. Luxembourg - Baden Baden

      February 22 in Germany ⋅ 🌧 11 °C

      We woke up to quite possibly our rainiest day yet and that means it's really rainy with the weather we have had so far.. 😂☔

      We decided to head to Luxembourg city to take a look but unfortunately all the parking was a nightmare... After 3 drives around the city attempting to park and then going down a road definitely not designed for a van, we decided to move on as we weren't desperate enough to go to a park and ride into the city. It was still very pretty even in the rain.

      We then decided to slowly meander down to Baden-Baden, which is the start of Germany's Black Forest.
      This route (half motorways) took us through France and Germany on the way down. We arrived just as the sun set in the distance and made camp at a local park up. The next few days we are slowly driving down towards Switzerland, 40 miles of the route is supposedly one of the best roads in Europe to drive so we are looking forward to the adventures to come.

      We took Maddy on a walk through the woods with many signs about the aggressive Wildschwein, (wild boar) They would be with us as we have a got a German frankfurter sausage risotto for tea. We have no instructions on how you cook the sausages and no signal so we are going to attempt to boil them... If no penguins uploaded tomorrow we have both died peacefully of food poisoning or attacked brutally by a wildschwein 😂😂
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    • Day 90

      Neus usem Norde

      June 23, 2022 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

      Mer händ üs es ziitli nümme gmäldet, aber es esch bi üs grad chli de Wurm drinn.

      D'Rebecca esch am Donnschtig flach gläge und het müesse chötzle. D'Mayra het en Abflug gmacht mitem Velo, isch aber mit es paar Chratzer und em Schrecke devo cho.

      Am Samstig simmer denn äntli wiitergfahre.

      De Schwarzwald het üs würkli guet gfalle. 😃
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    • Day 1

      Abfahrt in Wyhl

      June 16, 2022 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

      Monate an Vorfreude, teils schon seit Wochen gepackt es Motorrad, kritische Verletzungen im Vorfeld, Räderwächsel am Vortag und doch... endlich geht es los.

      Punkt 8:00 Uhr war Abfahrt

      Das Ziel: NordkappRead more

    • Day 34

      B A D E N . B A D E N

      June 13, 2022 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

      Après mes déboires d'hier soir, je me réveille de troooop bonne humeur car aujourd'hui je retrouve mon petit chat Morad !
      Les rayons du soleil au petit matin mettent une belle ambiance dans la chambre, je me motive à prendre le petit dej sur la terrasse avec une jolie vue sur un petit bout de forêt noire ~
      Mon hôte me dépose gentiment à la gare de Sankt Goergen d'où je prend le train pour Baden Baden
      Je chope un caddie abandonné car mes épaules et mon dos de sont pas encore remis des 8-9km dans la forêt noire en fin de journée KO complet !
      J'avoue ça m'a mis bien, j'en ai profité pour faire des petites courses ~
      Arrivé à l'appart une belle surprise m'attend ; la douche de l'appartement qu'on avait résa est cassée donc la propriétaire nous filé un autre appartement au moins 3x plus grand ! Y avait même un couloir ! UN COULOIR WEY ! On a appelé cet endroit le Palace ~
      Sincèrement même l'appart était plus enjaillant que la ville, donc je me suis fait une petite journée chillax/apéro avant de partir retrouver Morad a la gare vers 21h30

      Le lendemain matin on part avec regret de notre magnifique et somptueux Palace, et on se met en route pour Berliiiiin ~
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    • Day 26

      W Ü R T T E M B E R G

      June 5, 2022 in Germany ⋅ 🌧 20 °C

      Juste après Esslingen mon hôte me fait grimper une coline pour me montrer une chapelle, un point de vue sympa qui nous a permis de repérer la plus bieeeeen vénéré qui arrivait droit sur nous ! On a pu se réfugier a temps a quelques mètres de notre but, dans un bistrot où j'ai découvert une boisson de dingue a la rhubarbe ~
      Après la pluie on a pu continuer un peu plus haut jusqu'à la chapelle qu'un mec a fait construire y a longtemps en l'honneur de sa femme décédée, dessus on peut lire l'inscription 'Die Liebe höret nimmer auf' (l'amour ne meurt jamais)
      Someone's seriously grieving !
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    • Day 2

      Heidelberg Wow

      May 30, 2022 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

      Heidelberg als Universitätsstadt hat eine schöne und lebhafte Altstadt. Zusätzlich ist das eine Fahrradstadt, wie Zürich das wohl gerne wäre. Und wie ihr seht auch hier kann dss Ränzli italienisch gefüllt werdenRead more

    • Day 1

      Anreise nach Nürnberg über Stuttgart

      March 9 in Germany ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

      Heute geht es nun nach grosser Vorfreude wieder los. Wir fahren mit dem Twerenbold Bus nach Nürnberg, Bei recht schönem Wetter haben wir unterwegs einen längeren Halt im Zentrum von Stuttgart. Noch vor weniger als 3 Monaten waren wir beide schon mal hier und haben den grossen Weihnachtsmarkt erlebt. Es ist echt bereichernd nun bereits die blühende Natur zu sehen. Der Kerzen- und Lampenschein wurde durch blühende Magnolien und Blumenrabatten ersetzt. Einzig Menschen hat es gefühlt noch fast immer gleich viele in den Gassen. Am Abend erreichen wir dann unser Hotel im Zentrum von Nürnberg.Read more

    • Day 30

      30. Transit to Germany + Sledge Photos

      March 5 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 8 °C

      Both aching a little today after yesterday ! It was so worth it though. We had an early start this morning so we could leave the campsite for ten . The van was tidied and we topped up our water supply before setting off to Germany .
      It was a 5 hour drive to do 85 miles.... as we were being super stingey and avoiding all the toll roads (would have meant spending another 40 quid ) - we've already spent way too much in Switzerland !
      The journey was very pleasant ( well done James ) and we stopped off to give Maddy a walk about half way . It was nice to get some fresh air and stretch our legs too.
      Once in Germany , we bought some really nice food for the next few days before finding our next park up. It is lovely being back in Germany , the roads are so much nicer and we generally feel much more welcome here . Everyone is very nice and bubbly in Germany , often smiling and saying hello when you pass them.
      The first park up was at a really muddy woodland area , so we decided to move on to a really quaint town called Engen . James recieved some great news when we arrived , his boss from Hayley called and said that James has work for when we get home , which is fantastic ! I had a lovely catch up with Arnie too .
      Maddy had a walk around the park before we started cooking supper .
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    • Day 20

      20. Triberg

      February 24 in Germany ⋅ ☁️ 5 °C

      Today we woke up to the most glorious crisp morning. We took Maddy on a walk around the woods before getting the van road ready and heading off. First stop was to get some food from Lidl, then we refilled the gas... (this was supposed to cost us about £13 and only cost us £7, so got me worried that we may be having issues somewhere in our gas system).

      We did a rubbish stop and then carried on to our next stop Tilburg, famous for Germany's biggest waterfall and cuckoo clocks. The drive down was super scenic and we drove through some really long tunnels under the mountain. Once we arrived we were greeted with old alpine style German houses and Cuckoo clocks everywhere. Eventually, after driving the town a few times, we found a suitable park up. We headed with Maddy straight to the waterfall, it was absolutely raging due to the rain fall and snow melting recently. We walked up to the top of the waterfall and saw it from all angles, we really enjoyed this.

      With our waterfall ticket , we had access to 3 more attractions around Triberg one was a photo studio with many amusing backgrounds for funny pictures- we had great fun messing about in here for a while. The next attraction was a Museum which was cool to see all the old clocks, Grace loved the museum as they had a huge section on crystals as many are mined here.

      We then decided to miss the last attraction which was a model village and head to some of the Cuckoo clock shops, they had literally thousands, one shop is famous for having 1000 on display. These ranged from £150 to about £20,000.

      Afterwards we headed quickly down to the "worlds biggest cuckoo clock" to chime at 5pm. It cost £1 million to build and has 30,000 uniquely made parts. The engineering behind them is great and massively ahead of the their time when they were originally produced.

      We then headed to our park up, approx 25 mins from Triberg. This took us over a mountain passing through the dark forests which seemed lit up from all the snow surrounding them. It started to snow which made it even more enchanting.

      We checked out the gas tank and had intermittent gas again... we think the regulator has failed but luckily this is a standard cheap item across Europe and should be fairly easy to replace ourselves or pay an engineer to fit.

      Had a nice curry and enjoyed sorting through the numerous photo's we took today.
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    You might also know this place by the following names:

    Baden-Württemberg Region, Baden-Wuerttemberg Region, Baden-Württemberg, 바덴뷔르템베르크 주, รัฐบาเดิน-เวือร์ทเทมแบร์ก, Badän-Vürtän, Badenas-Viurtembergas, Bādene-Virtemberga, Badenia-Virtembergia, Badenia-Wirtembergia, Badenia-Wurtemberg, Badensko-Württembergska, Bádensko-Württembersko, badenvirtemberg, Baden-Virtembergo, Baden-Vürtemberq, Baden-Vyrtemberg, Baden-Würrtenberg, Baden-Würtembärj, Baden-Wúrtemberch, Baden-Wurtemberg, Baden-Würtembergska, Baden-Würtembierich, Bade-Wirddebärsch, Bade-Wöötebersch, Bade-Wurtemberg, Bådn-Württmberg, Pays de Bade, بادن فورتمبيرغ, بادنورتمبرگ, بادن-وورتمبرگ, بادێن-ڤوورتمبێرگ, باډن ورټم بېرګ, באדין-בורטינבירג, באדן-וירטמברג, Βάδη-Βυρτεμβέργη, Баден-Виртемберг, Баден-Вюртемберг, Бадэн-Вюртэмберг, ბადენ-ვიურტემბერგი, बाडेन-व्युर्टेंबर्ग, バーデン=ヴュルテンベルク州, 巴登-符腾堡

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