Going for a Ride!

Sonja: Finally! After three weeks, a day with sunshine and reasonable temperatures. A day without having errands to run. Roland took pity on me as I was suffering from severe PMS (parked motorcycle syndrome), and arranged for a rendezvous with Alonzo, the orange Vespa GTS 300 SuperSport.

He even programmed a tour for me on my new TomTom Rider, which actually has an extra feature in which one can specifically select twisty roads, and sent me on my way.

Alonzo was more than ready to oblige, and together we blasted through the Bergische Land. Below the Altenberg Abbey, founded in 1133.

A roundtrip of 100 km (62 miles) equaled two hours of bliss, taking winding and partially single line roads.

Orange goes well with the landscape.

Meandering uphills and downhills along those little backroads was food for the soul, and I came back relaxed and smiling, and Alonzo seemingly enjoyed the trip as well.

An Unguided Tour of Brugge

The historic center of Brugge can be entered through a variety of gates. By doing so a time machine will catapult you back into the middle ages.

Smooth tarmac turns into cobble stone streets, and one is suddenly surrounded by old red brick buildings and churches.

Houses get too small for their owners. We would have to duck if we were to enter.

And the roads are getting too small for cars.

 Bicycles are taking over where four-wheelers can't go.

Churches are omnipresent in the cityscape.

The town is criss-crossed by a canal system, which adds to its charm. The water is muddy, and the depth unknown.

 Another picturesque alley view.

 A flea market along the canal.

Is there a wrong time for fries and beer(s)?

 Built in bricks and stones, lasting forever and a day.

 Town Hall, build in the 14th century.

 Belfry Tower

 Grote Markt

 A Vespa car? It has got the Logo.

Leaving through another gate.

 And a walk in the park.

Brugge is definitely worth a visit.

Pigs might fly before we visit Belgium

Belgium... the unknown country. Little did we know about our neighbours, their culture or history. Belgium was merely the transit land, that boring (but illuminated) stretch of highway that that got in the way when traveling to France.

Belgium is actually a fairly young country, and only got its independence from the Netherlands through the Treaty of London in 1839. Due to their colourful history most people are fluent in at least two languages, Flemish or French, but often speak German and English, too.

Belgium, the mother country of fries and beer, waffles and pralines, and homeland to the Smurfs has actually a pretty country side, and some lovely historic architecture, which in the past we blatantly ignored. We wouldn't let that happen this time and hit the road to visit Brugge.

Another borderless border, gotta love Europe!

 Harleys in formation.

Brugge (Bruges), is a UNESCO world heritage. Its first mentioning was recorded in the 10th century, and in the Middle Ages it was a member of the trade union Hanseatic League. The canal system in the historic part of the town gave the city the nickname 'Venice of the North'.

So, pigs do fly, eh?!

We had the fries.

And the waffles, too.

And bought some stevia chocolate and marzipan for Sonja.

We also spotted tons of two-wheelers, and although illegally parked, they were tolerated.

 In your face, Vancouver!

Belgians have humour, too!

The weather was cloudy with occasional blue spots but again way too cold for this time of the year. (More sightseeing coming up with the next installment.)

The Light at the End of the Tunnel...

... Or second installment of our series "In the Claws of German Bureaucracy". After two visits and several calls to the Führerscheinstelle (Drivers License Agency / DMV) in Leverkusen we finally got confirmation that all data has been transferred from the license department of the neighboring city (Bergisch Gladbach) which handled our file prior to our immigration to Canada. And finally we were able to apply for a German drivers license. It only took three weeks (!) for the documents to travel the distance of 15km. German public service must be stuck in the stone age of communication. Even snail mail is faster than that. And they still use paper index cards. Duh! We pretty much felt like this...

... and after filling out the necessary paperwork and signing the documents we were more than ready and willing to work off our frustration. We chose an outing in the close by Bergisches Land, which is a low mountain range (or better hills) with lots of forests, creeks and rivers, hiking trails and old farm houses, and went for a long walk in the crisp air to clear our minds.

Below is Rausmühle, a mill which was already mentioned in the tax books of the 15th century. Today the mill is no longer in use. Instead you will find a lovely restaurant with traditional local cuisine.

The big city is only a few miles away but one feels remote in this forest surrounded by green grass and trees and a bubbling creek flowing by.

We follow a small path through the forest which then opens up into a meadow.

There we find serenity and watch the clouds chasing each other. We haven't seen blue skies in a while, and appreciate the dry spell today.

Whenever cloud watching is on, a certain lady blogger comes to mind. These pics are for you, Martha.

Live is always good after a long walk in fresh air. We are making progress in our re-settlement (ever so slowly), and might spend the weekend in another country or two... stay tuned.

And the "Worst Customer Service Award" goes to...

Customer service? No thanks, we are Germans! This is how it was when we left eight years ago. Germany was still considered a bit of a "service wasteland".

So, on our return we were quite positively surprised that business hours for shops and grocery stores have meanwhile extended from previously 6 or 7 PM to a regular 9 PM (some are even open until 10PM), and we were impressed to encounter friendly and helpful service personnel at all times, when in earlier days we were used to sales people who would duck and cover on a customer approaching.

There are of course some exceptions from the rule: Extended business hours still seem to be foreign to other significant services such as banks (Saturdays? You must be kidding.), insurances (We are on lunch break.), or of course any kind of public service (But we were never used to actually get service there anyway.). Well, you know it and get used to it, that's not what we are ranting about today.

Due to the torrential rainfalls we have encountered since our arrival we wanted to shop for decent motorcycle rain gear, and made the mistake to drive down to FC Moto in Würselen, who promote on their website to be "one of the biggest stores in Germany" and claimed to be "No. 1 in pricing", but they certainly weren't best in class in service.

First there was no greeting on entering the store, nobody even bothered to look up. Second, at no time we were approached and asked if we needed help. Third, we requested customer support twice at the front desk before somebody made a move for us. Forth, it took the sales person about fifteen minutes to find the requested goods in their warehouse. Fifth, he brought the wrong size for Sonja, and left anyway. Sixth, we asked for support again, but nobody came up to us. Seventh, we stopped a store guy passing by who claimed to speak French only, which would not have been an issue for us, but before we had the chance to pose our question, he stormed away like on a mission. Seventh, we told who we thought might have been a manager how we felt about the lousy service, and he mumbled something about lunch break and people away or busy. Long story short we ended up walking away without buying anything. Dear FC Moto sales staff, thank you very much for your "professionalism". Please take our apologies for wasting your time. We certainly won't come back and also won't recommend your "services".

Later on we went to Polo, Hein Gericke and Louis (located in Düsseldorf, in walking distance from each other) and got excellent customer service and product advice on a variety of rain gear. We ended up buying the FLM Stormchaser, a two piece rain suit from Polo, which offered the best features for our purpose to be worn over summer moto gear:

- Waterproof, windproof and breathable
- Adjustable sleeves (Velcro)
- Hood to wear unter helmet
- High viz features
- Easy access into pants due to zippers and adjustable velcro
- Jacket and pants connectible through zipper
- Small packing size
- Overall good bang for your buck

We would have preferred a bit more hi-viz orange or yellow but this doesn't seem to be very popular on the German market.

Thanks to the Polo, Hein Gericke and Louis staff in Düsseldorf for restoring our faith in customer service.