Bringing Alonzo Home - Part 2

Sonja: The second day promised much better weather. I left Bingen after a good night's sleep and a perfect breakfast catering to my dietary requirements (which was in fact part of the standard breakfast.).

TomTom showed me the way through the German hinterland, and riding along those beautiful byways one could think that the country only consists of vineyards, orchards, forests and fields, with rivers flowing through.

Again, I was surprised that traffic was almost non existent. I remember my homeland as a very crowed place but I never made a real effort to explore its backyard. Vacation in Germany just wasn't considered cool.

When I left the river valley the scenery changed from rolling hills to plains, and wide open space. The still picture doesn't show but I got pummeled by wind gusts so badly that I had to slow down every so often to regain my balance, and I had a pretty good workout, too keeping the scooter straight.

I took the shortcut through France and learned how much French drivers don't care for scooters, or any other kind of motorized or pedal powered two-wheelers. It became quite regular getting tailgated and cut off, as well as being overtaken in the worst moments... it was almost like riding in Richmond, BC, except that most French actually know how to drive. In the beginning I was fairly upset but got used to it after a while, and remained alert in order to be able to defuse risky situations.

Alonzo got to visit its first foreign country! Since France is pretty much around the corner from where we live, I recon that my Italian stallion pony will touch French territory on many more occasions in the future.

Back at river Rhine again, right across is Germany, and I was in the last leg of my journey. I was getting hot in my gear and welcomed the cooling breeze by the water.

The mountain range of the Blackforest is getting closer as I meander through the farmlands of the flood plains of the Rhine. The land is very arable, and the climate is moderate, so crops and fruit of various kinds grow in this area.

I gathered another 330km and 7 hours of saddle time. What a bliss this trip was! It never ceases to amaze me what good riding can do to body and soul. At the end of my journey I felt rested, and got to liberate my mind from the worries of the last weeks.

It is not only Alonzo, that I brought home that day. I feel that I have arrived as well.

Bringing Alonzo Home - Part 1

Sonja: The morning was occupied with picking up the driver's license (it only took 8 weeks to process) at the overcrowded Führerscheinstelle in Leverkusen. Finally high noon I got to hit the road South.

First plans to travel through the Eifel were crossed by torrential rainfalls and thunder storms. It hadn't rained in four weeks, but I was pissed on only half an hour into my trip, so I donned my rain gear and changed my route and meandered along the river Rhine hoping for weather improvement.

 Castle Arenfels

Source - Castles galore along the Rhine

My TomTom Rider was programmed only to take twisty byways, which turned out to be a very nice feature, and so I got to see a lot of scenery and castles that must mostly remain nameless as I was passing by and too lazy too look them all up.

I was already past Koblenz when the rain finally stopped. I had a pucker moment just there while negotiating a wide turn, and the rear wheel lost traction several times. I suspect there must have been a diesel spill that must have added to the road's slipperiness.

The sky was grey at St. Goar but I welcomed the dry tarmac, and the empty roads. The castle on the right might be Maus (mouse), or was it Katz (cat)?

Near Kaub lies Zollburg Pfalsgrafenstein smack in the middle of the river on an island.

Downtown Bacharach

I overnighted in Bingen at a tiny Bed&Breakfast that offered vehicle storage in the backyard. Here's my humble abode. It was bigger than expected, and quite modern except for the pink (!) tiles in the bathroom (Bob would have liked it, I am sure.)

Where is Alonzo?

I strolled through the city and climbed up the stairs to Burg Klopp, who are known for their exceptional cuisine.

Waiting for supper and enjoying the view with a virgin cocktail. What would a journey be without the culinary experience? There was nothing specific on the menu but I ordered bits and pieces from different dishes, and the chef prepared it perfectly.

This bridge with its seven arches was built in the 11. century crossing river Nahe. It is the oldest medieval bridge in Germany and still fully functional and used by everyday traffic.

Nahe - Rhine conflux.

 Bingen from above.

From this vantage point strong memories of our travels along the Columbia River back in 2011 came up. I certainly miss Oregon...

Imagine the river sans ship traffic and castles, and there you have Columbia River gorge. I believe we even traveled through a smalltown named Bingen back then.

The Mouse Tower below with Ehrenfels Castle in the background. There is a legend around the Mouse Tower where a cruel arch bishop was eaten up by mice in revenge for letting people starve and die.

This first day covered about 220km on byways, with 4 hours riding plus 1 hour wasted on taking shelter from the rainfalls, hail and thunderstorms.

To be continued...

In the Claws of German Bureaucracy (Part 2)

Source: www.mickx-media.de

Roland: 11 weeks after our first encounter with the drivers registry in Leverkusen and over 8 weeks after we finally were allowed to apply for German Driver's licenses we thought it would be about time that we would actually RECEIVE our licenses. So last week on Tuesday I gave them a call to get an update on the status.

The Lady on the phone was very nice, but regretted telling me that the License Department was closed for two days due to being understaffed! So she asked me to try again on Thursday...

Imagine my surprise when I called again on Thursday, not only did I get somebody on the phone after only three rings, but that person was also able to find out within a few minutes that our licenses were indeed there! I could not believe my ears! We anyway had planned a weekend in Leverkusen, so we decided that I would take a day of vacation and we would pick up our licenses on Monday morning.

We arrived at the registry at 8:40 and were right away greeted by a sign saying "today only online appointments!". We did not have such, but we decided to try our luck anyway. When we entered the waiting area we found out that no appointment was necessary for picking up licenses (in fact someone had just "forgotten" to take off the sign from last week), but that we would have to stand in line in front of room 14 and we would be called in. Well, the problem was that the line was quite long already and nobody showed up to call anybody in for a long time.

Shortly after nine the door of room 14 opened, a guy came out and asked "Is there anybody who wants to pick up a driver's license?". Like a perfectly rehearsed choir the whole line answered "Yes that's why we are standing here!" The guy looked a little bit confused, and after a few seconds of reflecting on the situation he said "OK, the first one can come in!".

A few minutes nothing happened, then the door of room 15(!) opened, and a Lady came out asking "Is there anybody who want to pick up a driver's license?" Crowd: "Yes that's why we are standing here!" a startled expression, then "OK, the next one, please come in".

This game repeated a few times (variation: "Are REALLY all of you waiting for their license?"), and then we were finally asked in. The Lady explained to us that she actually is semi-retired already, but was asked to help out due to the staff shortage. So we gave her our Canadian licenses, and she went looking for our German ones. Of course, she found mine, but did not have such luck with Sonja's. She asked here colleague, but he could not help her either. Then she decided to check the other offices and finally came back with Sonja's license. Hallelujah!!!!

At around 10 AM we finally took possession of our German Driver's licenses, and now we are allowed to drive or ride vehicles of the classes AM, A1, A2, A, B, C1, BE, C1E, CE and L. This translates roughly into anything from a 25cc Moped over a Tractor to a 7.5 ton semi trailer...

As long as we ride
Readin' the road
Doesn't even matter
Where we're gonna go
And we'll all be doin' fine
As long as we ride

From Spock's Beard: As Long As We Ride

Ever heard of the Blue Banana?

Yeah, neither did we. But Freiburg im Breisgau is one of the cities located in the so called Blue Banana corridor, which covers one of the worldwide highest concentration of money, industry and population. Thanks, Wikipedia!

Left: The Martinstor - one of the towers spared by destruction in WWII.
Right: Traveling back in time on a side street.

The city is about an hour drive away from our new home. We had been in the outskirts a few times to shop around (They have IKEA, too.) and to run some errands but we never made the effort to visit downtown as we had learned that Freiburg got heavily damaged during WWII. However, there is a small core that escaped the bombing.

Freiburg (literally translated: Free fortified town) was founded in the 12th century, and soon became a university town as well as an ecclesiastical center. The construction of the Freiburg Minster took over three centuries and was completed 1513.

Due to its location the city also became an important corridor for trade. In the old times all goods had to be channeled through this red building, a merchants hall built 1530, for taxation purposes.

Another interesting landmark of the old town are the so called 'Bächles', water filled runnels that can be found in almost every street. in the 13th century the water supply was supposed to provide drinking water to the population and help fight fires, as well as dispose of rain water and dirt.

After this historic excursion in temperatures well beyond 30C, we needed a Biergarten to the rescue.

The food and drinks in the restaurant Zum Rauhen Mann (the rough man) were excellent, and despite the name (we expected meat platters galore) there were plenty vege options on the menue. Our favourite drink on those hot days is the Radler, an ice cold mix of beer and lemonade, very refreshing.

Again, we learned some more about the region we live in, and Freiburg will certainly continue to seduce us with its various culinary options.

Another Milestone

As per 1st of August we will have a new home. We opted for a condo (what else...), but this time in a low rise building. Hence, not much of a view. Well, it has a garden view, that's something, and the lease also includes our own patch of garden to manage.

We already consider to pour concrete over and paint it green and put up a car bike port instead... But in Germany, it is not very likely to get permission or this. So, we will have to rent a slot in a nearby parkade, as this particular patch is already taken by our neighbour.

As soon as we have the keys in hand renovations will ensue, meaning we hire a painter, and meanwhile go shopping for furniture...

Nearby stork spotting.

Out and About - Scenery Snippets

A view from Brandenkopf on 'our' green valley.

The forest is black!

 All along the Watchtower.

It's time for cake!

I get the fruit, he get's the leftovers...

Sweet butterfly.

Longing to scoot along this roads.

A classic example of regional architecture.

Another picturesque farmhouse.

And more of it.

Watermill.

A view towards 'our' village...

...where a stream flows through.

Taking a single file logging road to nowhere.

A Zen moment by the lake (at Glaswaldsee).

It's almost like being back in Canada...

... if it weren't for the castles and ruins around   ;-)

Sunset calm.

So far we can't help comparing the Black Forest area to similar scenery of Eastern Canada, which makes transition and settling in so much easier.