Long Way Home

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Thanks - well...hate to admit it, but after receiving an offer I couldn't understand, working in Amerikkka (for now) and when I'm not, bouncing between SA and the UK. Going through a corporate merger that MAY work out and allow me to live in Europe somewhere...if not, it's auf wiedersehen, fatboys.

But to get back to the story.....

As the road went higher up the Alps, the scenery became more and more spectacular. Unfortunately, the pass I was trying to cross, the famous STELVIO PASS, was still snowed in and I had to turn back a short distance before the top.

I figured all the others were too, so traversed eastwards towards the MERANO area and the motorway leading north to Austria and Germany. Along the way:



At the top of PASSO DEL TONALE is a monument to the Italian soldiers who fought here in the First World War. It was a brutal and hard campaign, from the little I've read about it.



Lower down, the scenery was beautiful:



Nature's perfection:


I can't begin to remember the names of all these places - after a while you start getting sensory overload.




This is a very interesting part of Italy called SUD TIROL. Even though it's in italy, just about everybody speaks German....well, Austrian....because it's part of Austria that was given to Italy after WW1. People seem resigned to it, they talk about it with some amusement, then go about their daily business.

Like this - the KURFENWIRT, literally Corner Pub.



BRILLIANT!!

But sadly I have a "no alcohol while riding" policy....riding on roads is dodgy enough for me, don't need to decrease my odds of survival by even one beer....

I spent the night in a nice family-owned hotel in MERANO and had a solidly Bavarian meal of weisswurst und sauerkraut, washed down with about two litres of excellent South Tirolian ice cold beer  :biggrin:

Crossed into Austria the next morning over the JAUFFEN Pass. The scenery was absolutely spectacular. I can say without any reservation that it's the most beautiful scenery I've ever seen. The time of season has a lot to do with it....springtime in Southern Europe is stunning, to say the least.






Practicing my storm trooper look before invading ze verfarkener Osterreichenz.....no wait, shouldn't it be the other way around?


Looking into Austria from the summit of Jauffen Pass.
 
Always enjoy getting the update email on the RR - Man that countryside and general landscape is just awesome!!!
 
The descent into Austria down the north side of the Alps wasn't s scenic as the south side, I can only guess that's due to the south side getting most of the sunlight, which stimulates all kinds of growth. In a little town called STERZING I got on the autobahn, and 20 k's later stopped at STENACH for a bite. Luckily a very chatty Russian and his girlfriend on the biggest white Gold Wing I've ever seen, started talking to me and told me about the permit required to drive on Austrian autobahns....basically a toll, but you buy the sticker for E4 (as I recall) and it's good for a month. I was planning on blitzing through Austria but E4 was cheap insurance against a fine or worse - and I was sure that the Austrians would be better organised than the Italians  :evil6:

At JENBACH I exited the autobahn and headed straight north for Munich - the autobahn loops east through Innsbruck to Munich, and would be a waste of time. Not to mention, I was out of money, and had to make Munich on the fuel I had.
The German border:


I reached my friend's house on reserve, so cleaned up and went to the beer garden. Next morning I took the 950 to the nearest KTM shop, and the owner was very helpful. I wanted them to change all the fluids except the fork oil, and replace a few parts like the clutch cover that was badly corroded from the time spent in the salty air on the Greek island. They agreed to keep it for a month until I got back from my 4 weeks on.

As always, I went to the Deutsches Museum, and saw a few new exhibits. In the 1920's and 30's rocketry was a big passion in Germany, and they came up with some really good ideas  :evil6:

Rocket cars:


This maniac's name was Ricky von Opel (I assume the heir to the Opel name). Check  his hair and eyeballs  :imaposer:



Rocket-powered bobsleds  :imaposer:



Most likely to succeed, a rocket-powered GLIDER  :laughing4:



Obviously Opel wasn't known for boring, underpowered family saloons in those days...why today?  My guess is FEAR and long memories  :biggrin:

At Munchen Flughafen, I saw this German version of a hot-dog stand. I just had to buy something from it....as expected, it was NOT typical yank rubbish food...sort of a Bavarian boerie roll.


Back to the salt mines for a month.....
 
Always good to start the day seeing that this thread has been updated, I am green
 
Rewind one day - as before, I went through Austria like a papsak through a bergie - one of these days will have to check it out....very scenic


After a month of slaving for a wage and only eating every second day, I returned to
Munich in mid-June and spent a few days at my friends' family "cottage" at the KOCHEL SEE, 70 k's south of the city. I was expecting something like a caravan on blocks, but it's actually bigger than that.....


As with departure and arrival times of trains, the Germans are very precise.....


A statue in KOCHEL in honour of patriots and people chock full of "vaterlandsliebe" from 1705 - not sure which Euro squabble that's from, but if they all looked like this, I'd bet they kicked some garlic-smelling French or red wine-sozzled Italian arse  :evil6:


Travel wisdom comes with time, experience and....money wasted.

I'm too ashamed to admit what I'd previosuly paid for Euro 'green card' road insurance in Canada, this time I went straight to the German version of AA and got it for 1/3 the price  :BangHead:

My 950 was ready, and I was very pleasantly surprised by how cheaply I got away. Hans, the shop owner, put me through hell though - he told me that the Erzberg Enduro was on for the next two days, only 230 km away, and that they were going, did I want to go with? I will debate my choice until the day I die....or go to Erzberg, finally  :biggrin:

After two days in the beer garden....


....I mean, with my friends it was time to head north.

The ride was very scenic, to put it mildly



The plan was to spend the night somewhere close to a place named SINSHEIM, where I had seen a very intriguing museum on my ride south four years ago. I stayed on back roads all day, and late that afternoon found a "gasthaus" in a little rural town named RICHEN. It is a true German rural town - nothing going on there except farming, NO tourists.....well except the occasional biker.... :biggrin:


The "Gasthaus Lowen" where I stayed was built in 1456.Yes, FOURTEEN - 56. And much of the building is original


The people were friendly, if uninterested in me. They speak "Schwabish" as in Bavaria, but the accent and even vocabulary is different enough that I had a hard time understanding them.  I was pleased to find out, on the road the next morning, that Sinsheim was only about 12 k's away. I was one of the first ones there....parking lot empty, and had to wait for the doors to open. This is the sign for the museum.....gives an idea of what to expect.....







 
Nice to follow you on your trip through Europe.
As much as I can see, nothing has changed and the small German towns will hopefully always look the same.
You probably speak fluently Schwaebisch by now. Of course you should have done this trip on a Beemer rather, to be more authentic  ;D
 
I spent four and a half hours in the Sinsheim Auto - und Technik ie."technology" Museum, and still can't quite find the words to describe it. I finally left because my head literally hurt from sensory overload....and I only looked at a portion of the exhibits. You'd need probably three full days to really see everything  :biggrin:

It's not a very "intellectual' museum like, say, the London Science Museum or the Deutsches Museum in Munich, but I have NEVER seen such an eclectic collection of anything that floats, fucks or flies....no wait....floats, drives, rides, shoots, or flies...in my life. Closest maybe is the Smithsonian hangar at Dulles airport in Washington DC, America. Same kind of place - no "cultural" or "context" displays, just several huge buildings crammed full of old machines......

Courtyard:


You see WW2 Sherman tanks at museums all over the world, especially in america....but never one that was klapped by a Panther tank  :laughing4:



The first hall has a huge display of dozens of ugly, oversized, chrome-laden yank tanks  and related....shit.  :sleepy2:



And OF COURSE there were a few old examples of the ugliest bikes ever made on display.....



I can appreciate the historic value of these, but wouldn't be seen dead on one    :eek:

There are old bikes in concourse condition scattered all through both halls - got most of them on photo but literally hundreds - can show only a few.
This is a DOLF


This hall also has numerous aircraft, and an extensive military display, steam engines, racing cars, beer trucks from the 20's and 30's....you name it....




What a beast - yes, the 2000 means cc


Those are 1920's and 30's Mercedi lined up


Closer view:



 
Yes DH I noticed that it was very difficult to get the KTM over the border from Austria into Germany....damn thing just died one me , had to push it  :imaposer:

 
Howzat for a crankshaft....out of a ship's engine



Behind it is a real armoured locomotive from WW2, like you see in films like the Great Escape, The Dirty Dozen, Schindler's List etc.

Old tractors....


Guns....


FARKEN big bullets....


Fold-up bikes.....



Three very different MAICO'S   :ricky:




As many museums as I've been to all over the world, I'd never seen any of these - pristine examples of WW2 German tnaks.

Mark 3 - this is actually not a true tank, but a hybrid tank-killer mounted on a Mk 3 chassis


Mark 3 tank


Mark 4


Mark 5, named 'Panther'...this was considered to be THE best tank of WW2


There is also a Panther that was found in the Ukraine a few years ago


A Russian T-34 tank....


And an Italian tank

:imaposer:


 
This steam-driven roller was retired in 2002, as I recall....had been in use on roads since something like 1890.....


General views



Three different Volksie's including an aquatic type.....




A few racing cars and bikes - more in the other hall....






 
The second hall is just as impressive. This one is almost exclusively cars and bikes, with a few planes and boats thrown in. I can't imagine what the value of all these vehicles are.....












Some of the car highlights include:
The 6 wheel F1 Tyrrell that Jody Scheckter and Patrick Depailler drove in the 70's....not for long  :biggrin:


Three Lamborghinis.......






D-Type and E-Type Jags.......


A HORSCH that was one of Corporal Shickelgruber's official cars....


A ZIS-115 that his....colleague, so to speak, and Dr. Evil-wannabe Yusip Dzugashvili rode around in.....


(Somewhat later than the little corporal's perambulations, who by that time had been eaten and shat out by many worms in a Berlin park)  

Half a dozen Bugatti's, which would be enough assets to retire very comfortably on....

The types of Bugatti you see in Tintin books....




The least successful PORSCHE of all time....wonder why?


Of course, eine Deutsche Kak Wagen....


A post-WW2 Greek motorcycle that they...'engineered' from German vehicles left behind....


It was on the news in Greece last November that the African Union had bought the rights from the Greeks....got a smoking deal, around 15 Billion Euros.....and will start production sometine in 2055.....the headline was, "...an integral  part of the African Renaissance.".....  :3some:

And two examples of what happens when one has idle hands.....and endless beer supply.....




Bikes next
 
:thumleft:
Spectacular. Pics/scenes like this I will only see in post cards or library books maybe.
Thank you

:ricky:
 
Cool pic's, thanks for posting.
I have put the Sinsheim museum on my bucket list....Loved the pics of those 6 wheel Tyrrels... Brings back good memories watching them at Kyalami :thumleft: Very "out of the box thinking till the fun police  decided they all had to look the same with only 4 wheels!
 
If you're a petrolhead, that area is mecca....Hockenheim circuit, just outside Heidelberg, is 30 k's away, and Frankfurt only about 100 k's north. I posted some shots of the Hockenheim motorpsort museum at the start of this kak praat session - hundreds of vintage bikes there. You can also do laps of the circuit and a guided tour in the morning. I'm sure if one does some research you'll find more automotive and bike things in the area too.

But I'm not exaggerating - one's brain can only handle so much of Sinsheim in one day - so much to see and absorb, you literally get numb after a while. I'm NOT lying when i say I left there with a headache  :dousing:
 
Nice read this, thanks for posting. I visited the Deutsches Museum in 1990 when I was there for the beer fest, at that stage the satellite exhibits weren't open yet. Still very impressive but as you say you need to visit a few times to really appreciate it, there's just too much to take in. Would love to see the transport and flight displays you've posted about here.
 
OK....it's become a bit of a moot point, but I hate loose ends so let's get this over with.

The Sinsheim museum is full of bikes - didn't count them, but must be well over a hundred. They're scattered throughout the two huge halls so it doesn't seem there's that many, but there are....

Here's a small selection of the most interesting.

Jawa ice speedway bike. Not the sport for sissies...


MV Agusta scrambler


Moto Guzzi 50 cc....if we had these in 1978 I'd have gotten myself a 50....


Norton 16H


Ducati scrambler


 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

mother
Verneukpan November 2024 Ride
Replies
11
Views
218
Jacobsroodt
Jacobsroodt
B
Project X
2
Replies
32
Views
1K
bisybackson
B
DEON 1190
TAIL OF THE DRAGON
Replies
3
Views
246
EssBee
EssBee
M
My EDBA Kove Experience
Replies
7
Views
791
Muffin Man
M
J
American Southwest loop
2 3 4
Replies
75
Views
3K
Jabus
J

Latest posts

Top