I spent Wednesday walking Prague and snapping away. One of the first places I saw was a restaurant and jewellers called Kingstone! Later I went for a meal in a small courtyard restaurant. The waiter spoke German and offered me a 'typical Czech dinner. It was pork in a brown gravy with slices of dumpling that looked like bread with cream and cranberries. I did not like the gravy at all. I have tried many Czech beers but nothing was really outstanding. Still, the atmosphere was fabulous and I will return one day. Thursday morning I packed and went to ride off when the clutch lever just flopped to the bar. The Hydraulic fluid had gone. Now I was suspicious of a leak as I had had the bike serviced just over a week before. The hotel receptionist was extremely helpful and after a few miles walking I was back with dot4 fluid from a petrol station. Cost me a fiver. I topped it up but did not bleed it so it was a right fandango to ride with just a few millimetres of play. Add to that my misreading of the google maps and I ended up taking the old Highway6 out to Germany instead of the new Autobahn 6 directly to Nuernberg! It deposited me 50 miles to the north of the A6 in germany. The route was so tortuous and diverted and ripped up by endless roadworks that four hours later I cheered with relief as I saw the big sign declaring 'Freistat Bayern'. I had made it to Bavaria! I rode to a petrol station, tanked up on fuel and Nurnberger Bratwurst and a Weissbier. I had to cancel my visit to my former boss and ride all the way to Offingen (near Augsburg in southern Bavaria). My son-in law has a well equipped workshop there. He's designing and building a very specialised drill rig. It uses sonic vibration to drill through very difficult terrain. I managed to find the slave cylinder and bleed the clutch that evening. It's very satisfying to do maintenance work on your bike. Normally I am too lazy to bother. At the restaurant that evening I chatted to two lads who were WALKING from the very south of Germany to the far north of the Country. They were 
dressed in the traditional clothes of a journeyman (apprentice builder). People seemed to like that they were keeping the tradition alive and helped them in any way they could. 
Friday morning I spent servicing the RSV and learning all about Paul's rig. He invented a new type of slurry pump and I stayed to see it tested. I was late getting away and then I hit major traffic on the A8/A5/A6. It began to pour down so I dodged under an overpass with some other bikers and slipped on my waterproofs. A bit like closing the gate after the horse has bolted but I needed to minimise the soaking. Needless to say 15 minutes up the road on the way to Mannheim the sun came out and cooked me! I've worked out how to control the weather. If you want rain for your garden - light a BBQ. If you want sunshine put on rain gear. I couldn't make it to Brussel so I called my friend and then found a hotel in Aachen for the night. Wienerschnitzel and Weissbier fixed all the aches and I started my calculations for fuel consumption on the trip. I first called at a small hotel named Goering! It was full. I think I'd change the name if it was mine! Saturday morning saw me up at 6am and riding fast in the cold air to Brussel. Now as much as I like Brussel, it is the most difficult city in the world to find your way around. Every roundabout has 20 streets coming off of it and the street names are so long and the sign (if there is one) so small that you have no chance of reading it. I went by instinct and memory and managed to get within 2 minutes of Lionel's place before resorting to calling him for directions. It was great to see him again and after a few coffees he kindly drove ahead of me and put me on the E40 to Calais. Two hours later I was boarding the ferry for home. Where, of course, it was pissing down. I had a good chat with some BMW R1200GS riders and we all had to pull in and pull on the rain gear. It stopped raining.
Home, pub, reflect, calculate, download over 200 photos, sleep like Rip Van Winkle. One thing I learned, my next trip will be a relaxing tour with Extra Mile Bike Tours! The next weekend is the Bike protest ride where we can all pretend we are hippies. That's the next blog.
dressed in the traditional clothes of a journeyman (apprentice builder). People seemed to like that they were keeping the tradition alive and helped them in any way they could. 
Friday morning I spent servicing the RSV and learning all about Paul's rig. He invented a new type of slurry pump and I stayed to see it tested. I was late getting away and then I hit major traffic on the A8/A5/A6. It began to pour down so I dodged under an overpass with some other bikers and slipped on my waterproofs. A bit like closing the gate after the horse has bolted but I needed to minimise the soaking. Needless to say 15 minutes up the road on the way to Mannheim the sun came out and cooked me! I've worked out how to control the weather. If you want rain for your garden - light a BBQ. If you want sunshine put on rain gear. I couldn't make it to Brussel so I called my friend and then found a hotel in Aachen for the night. Wienerschnitzel and Weissbier fixed all the aches and I started my calculations for fuel consumption on the trip. I first called at a small hotel named Goering! It was full. I think I'd change the name if it was mine! Saturday morning saw me up at 6am and riding fast in the cold air to Brussel. Now as much as I like Brussel, it is the most difficult city in the world to find your way around. Every roundabout has 20 streets coming off of it and the street names are so long and the sign (if there is one) so small that you have no chance of reading it. I went by instinct and memory and managed to get within 2 minutes of Lionel's place before resorting to calling him for directions. It was great to see him again and after a few coffees he kindly drove ahead of me and put me on the E40 to Calais. Two hours later I was boarding the ferry for home. Where, of course, it was pissing down. I had a good chat with some BMW R1200GS riders and we all had to pull in and pull on the rain gear. It stopped raining.Home, pub, reflect, calculate, download over 200 photos, sleep like Rip Van Winkle. One thing I learned, my next trip will be a relaxing tour with Extra Mile Bike Tours! The next weekend is the Bike protest ride where we can all pretend we are hippies. That's the next blog.
No comments:
Post a Comment