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Holy Moley! How did I miss this ride report?

Well I'm all over this puppy now

Can't wait for more
 
Just as the one ride report is coming to a close, there is another epic one to follow. Great reading so far, thanks  :thumleft:
 
Forgot where I left off.    Life-changing decisions and all that  :biggrin:
I don't like cities. I'm a bushman at heart, but for some reason Munich and London has always excited me,  I suspect because of their historical nature.  And I haven't even been to Cairo or Leptis Magna or Istanbul yet.

A view of the "Verkehrszentrum"or for all you non-kraut speakers, "Traffic centre"or transport museum:


This museum is not bike-oriented, but has some very unique and beautiful bikes. I'm not an expert on BMW history except I know that BMW IS MUNICH. You see the white and blue circle all over the place, in the museums as well as on the streets. BMW assembled components from different OEM's and called it theirs   ( just like those fat fu-man-chu mustachioed posers you see on TV nowadays  :laughing4: ) until 1925, when they produced the R32, which was the first true BMW bike:


It was a 494 cc machine, don't know much else except that I want one :biggrin:
One of these, too. It's a 1928 R57:


I finally got to see my Auto Union wet dream:


I was so excited I hardly noticed the Mercedes W156 and BMW bikes behind it. Or the penny-farthing bicycles and BMW F1 car in the same display. After a while you suffer from sensory overload, that's my excuse.
Like Nurburgring it's hard to explain unless you're standing there looking at things. There's a buzz about the place that every two cycle oil-sniffing, gear grinding, engine noise loving race pervert like me feels. This simple, boring exhibit had my pulse racing from old Kyalami memories:


Specifically, 1972 club races Gunston Ford Capri V8 and 1974 Kyalami 9 hour., Arnold Chatz's Datsun 240Z. They finished fourth overall.(This is actually a 280Z, but same idea)
The Capri was driven by Basil van Rooyen, whom I ran into at Carlton Centre one quiet Sunday evening when only the CNA was open and  going there was a family outing and not a suicide mission.
I was ten or eleven, and both Basil and Arnold were very gracious to a young race fan who overcame shyness and hero worship to go up and ask them for an autograph. I still have those, pasted in a scrapbook at my dad's house.  I still vividly remember those momentous occasions.

Another exhibit that intrigued me was one about bicycles. Now understand that bicycling is ginormous in Europe and especially so in Germany. From riding my Specialized Stumpjumper with more suspension than a 1978 MX bike and hydraulic disc brakes front and rear, I never would have guessed that bicycle tyres used to look like this:
   

Or this:


My favourite was this one, made of cork:


French, no doubt.  It  made me realise once again that I'm out of sync with time. I would have been a tycoon had I lived 100 years ago, from  inventing a beer bottle cap bicycle tyre.   
With my sense of timing and finely-tuned financial instincts I would have taken the Titanic from Liverpool to New York in 1912 too.
I also saw an example of the pinnacle of communist engineering, the East German  TRABANT.  It had a wooden chassis, a plastic body and a 500cc two-stroke engine. The 1990 model at least, who knows what the 1960 model was made of. Probably bone and snot.   There was a 12 year waiting list, and the amazing thing is that the people who designed it think it was a technological achievement.

I had two harsh reality checks as well. In 1984 KTM sold this "chopper"assembled from various Zimbabwean and  Albanian parts, it had an 80cc engine and a  fake KTM sticker on the tank:
 

Even the museum exhibit said ".....not a big success...."   :imaposer:

Even more heart-breaking, a 1957 MAICO:


I fail to see the resemblance between this oversized rollerskate and the mean machine 250 I raced in 1982/3.  A cruel joke, I'm sure.
I did enjoy seeing the vehicle that a certain swimming  pool serviceman who sometimes went by the name GUY GADBOIS drove. Into pools, as I recall.


All in all, an absolutely magnificent museum. Don't miss it if you go to Munich.

The ouzo is kicking in,  time for bed.  Some more BMW stuff  next.  :ricky:
 


 
On another nice day I took the subway and train to BMW Welt, ie BMW World. The trains, subway, trams and buses in germany run on time by the way. When that sign on the platform says "arriving at 1027 " the train stops right in front of you at 1027.
BMW Welt is north of the city centre, the well-known towers are visible from far away. The recttangular building at left is part of the factory, and the bowl at right is the BMW museum. You can tour both, i had other things on my mind but it would be well worth it.


BMW Welt is in a very futuristic looking buidling, a draughtsman's nightmare. It's an  extremely impressive showcase of German technology, and specifically BMW's . The inside:



They even make bicycles, one I looked at cost 4900 Euro.


The ultimate video game - all these were linked together on the screen, and they handled and reacted just like the real F1 cars. I didn't play, there was a kong queue as you can imagine.


The real thing was close by:


I don't know enough about art and design to throw around impressive-sounding  words,  but there is a very obvious design philosophy in just about everything I saw:   high tech, as simple as possible and  top quality.
Even the mens' bogs were designed that way:


I was anxious to see the bike display, but I was disappointed. There were only 5 bikes on display, including the new GS 800, the first one I saw. Very nice looking bike. I'm not selling my 950 KTM to buy one, but one day I too, will own a BMW bike of some kind  :biggrin:


Speaking of bicycles, I saw some interesting ones during my wanderings:


Bit of a letdown but I was happy to see these  :biggrin:


Also saw NSU, HERCULES, LOTUS and ALEX bicycles.  No shit.

You can spend months in Munich and not see everything worth seeing, but I was getting restless. The Auto Union mission had been accomplished, and I wanted to get on the beach in Greece, the previous three months had been very stressful, what with moving between continents and all.

Of course it was raining the day I left Munich. Drizzling, really, nothing my barely used raingear didn't laugh at, but the skies were cloudy and therefore the scenery not as spectacular as it could be. Froom the south side of the city where I stayed at my friend's house I headed to Bad Tolz on the back roads.  Traffic was light, and I cruised around enjoying the scenery through Kochel,  past several lakes. I stopped for coffee and a pie at the Walchensee. The Germans have it backwards: they call a lake  "see" and a sea (like the Med) a "meer".  Linguistics is not their thing. they should stick with technology  :evil6:


The foothills of the Alps are full of lakes, stunning little villages and some excellent twsity riding. At times it looked like riding through a huge park.



This village is URFELD.



In the centre square is a memorial to the inhabitants killed in WW2. Most were 19 and 20, some things never change.

Imageshack is acting up, more later
 
Wonderful photos and excellent writing, thanks a lot.

I like this report. Its a bit of a different kind of thing that we are used to, with the European montages and all.
I feel a stirring in my soul when I see the German landscapes. Maybe its the little bit of German blood left in my veins..... :biggrin:

Keep it up, I am enjoying every word. 8)
 
The memorial in Urfeld:


KOCHELSEE::


Bad weather fishing on the Kochelsee :biggrin:


High speed German duck and wingman. Driven by well-engineered propulsion systems, no doubt:


If you take the time to look around you see many interesting things even in such an advanced society that frankly, can be  a bit boring to an anarchist like me. I saw many railway stations in little villages and towns that are right out of WW2 movies like "The Great Escape" or  the more sinister "Schindler's List".  As I mentioned previously, even the mealies in the fields seem to be finely engineered. 
I saw many small cattle pens along the road with a few cows placidly grazing or lying down. The pens consisted of ONE wire strung between small posts, and initially I thought they were extremely well-trained and obedient bovines. Until I noticed that the wire was electrified   :laughing4:
Once again, minimalistic design and highly functional  :evil6:

Riding through one small village some strange colouring on the walls of a farmhouse caught my eye. Except it wasn't brown paint. These people were ORGANISED. It was the 8th of August, high summer in Europe :biggrin:



After wandering around for four hours and stopping numerous times I crossed under the Autobahn leading north to Munich. The sign said "MUNCHEN 73 KM".  :eek7:   I had to get my arse in gear.  My old school navigational technique had me make a few wrong turns as there are many more small roads than my map showed. I just maintained a general direction and sooner or later found the waypoints I was looking for, usually a decent-sized town.  I found myself on the DEUTSCHE ALPENSTRASSE, a scenic loop  that took me through the very  busy town of Garmisch-Partenkirchen, and later Ober - and Unter - Ammergau. GP and OA were a bit touristy for my liking but still stunningly located with lots of ambience.

G-P is where they've held the Winter Olympics, and I believe various German winter sports teams train. Built in a narrow Alpine valley with steep mountains on two sides, it has a MOERSE skijump that gave me a rush just looking at it.
O-A is famous for the  Passion Play, a ginormous  theatrical  production that involves over 2000 actors and extras, and has been held every 10 years since 1634.  Apparently there is also a NATO operational training school in town, a military academy of sorts  ???

The only indication that I entered Austria was a sign saying OSTERREICH 1 KM and a small rock post shortly afterwards;


The switchbacks that started 200m later was another clue I suppose:


This was the first shock to my american - conditioned perception of international   travel. 
I rode out of one country and into another, and there wasn't even a sign indicating that it happened. Or a soul to be seen. The stone post only said TIROL.
The same thing happned twice more, entering Italy and Greece.  In fact, except for a quick glance at my passport by an immigrations oke in uniform at Frankfurt airport, NOBODY official asked me for ID of any kind ANYWHERE in FOUR countries. I had to leave my passport at reception at one campground in Italy but that was a silly exception.

I won't get off on a tangent, will save it for my book "The Big Lie" one day  :angryfire:   :biggrin:  but in the "Land of Freedom" you have to show ID to take a shit.   Well not yet, but a shop by my house where I lived in Phoenix had a sign on the till stating "For alcohol and tobacco we card under 45" .   "Card" means "show me some ID before I shoot you fucking terrorist".  WTFO??? 
They're fucking insane. 
The word  "freedom" has been SERIOUSLY perverted in that country. Like much else too. Nuff said.

I went through Austria like shit through a goose, trying to get into Italy before nightfall. The riding was very fun, the constantly twisting mountain roads were slowly but surely turning me into a roadie  :eek:   Because of the weather the stunning scenery was mostly hidden and didn't give me many reasons to stop anyways. One scenic overlook I did stop at had a map of the mist-shrouded valley below and once again I could only imagine.....


A strange gold-painted bike on top of a 3 metre pole here caught my attention, no sign or anything else with it, couldn't tell if it was a memorial of some kind or just modern art:

I chose to cross the Alps via the TIMMELSJOCH/PASSO ROMBO. Aistrain side/Italian side. Not sure what "joch" means, can't find it in my mini-dictionary but probably "pass". The road climbed into the clouds going up the steep alpine valley towards the summit, and soonl it was raining steadily. At 7 pm I chickened out and got a nice room for 23 Euros in yet another gasthaus in the alpine village of SOLDEN.  A hot shower, dry clothes, and an excellent ""Pizza hawaii" and two cold beers at a little Turkish-owned bar later I slept like a righteous man   :angel9:

On the road at 7 am, I was bummed to see more cloud. not as bad as the previous evening but enough to spoil the view. Tunnels became more frequent, by the time I reached Athens I must have gone through at least 50.  Many in the Alps were open on the downhill side:


One of several typical alpine villages on the way to the top:


The clouds were spoiling the highlight of the ride, crossing the Alps  :BangHead:  Very foggy and drizzly at times and not much to see.  Above the tree line the road got steep and interesting, and I could only imagine the scenery hidden in the mist:


On a flat stretch, a toll gate appeared in the thick fog, presumably the Italian border.  Turns out it was just to collect 11 Euros for admission to the Passo Rombo Park or something.  Not used to the way they do things, I thought I was supposed to stick the ticket into a slot to make the boom open. The oke in the tollbooth started yelling at me and waving his arms around and I knew I was in Italy  :laughing4:

A word about tunnels.  German tunnels are high-tech and clinical, with gentle curves and excellent road surfaces, well-lit with energency parking spots and red telephones every click or so.   Tunnels in Italy, especially in the Alps, are holes through mountains.  The tunnel on top of Passo Rombo looked like a mine shaft from 1900 Joburg - not a light anywhere and rough as hell.  But when I popped out the other side it was all worth it:



These things were SERIAASLY steep. Two switchbacks from the top I passed an oke on a mountain bike going uphill and gave him a respectful thumbs-up. Further down were some more bicyclists. Over the next 4 days I found out that the Italians are fanatical cyclists. Lower down, almost to the town of MERANO, which was absolutely gridlocked:


Once again my razor-sharp sense of timing worked out well for me. I had chosen THE busiest summer holiday weekend, and following week, in Italy to ride through the country. By the time I got through the narrow, twisty two lane streets of Merano and the masses of people flocking in for some big event there, the 950 was barely staying within 6 bars and the cooling fan was running constantly. My temperature was even higher. Then 40 k's later my superior navigation system allowed me to do two full laps around the town of BOLZANO before finding the road south :BangHead:   I started to realise that navigation in Italy was a different kettle of fish than north of the Alps.
A slightly more civilised tunnel just after Bolzano. This one had a tar road and lights in it  :laughing4:

 
Whethefakawe said:
]

will save it for my book "The Big Lie" one day 
Click to expand...

Right. You have the abilitiy, and now we have the commitment.

...but for now enjoying this thread immensely.
 
Traffic was insane. I soon realised that I had to get on the AUTOSTRADA if I were to sleep for free at my friends' house in Pisa that night.
As in Germany, I learned a few lessons right away. First, ALL autostradas are toll roads. Second, the Italians all think they're fucking Schumacher. Without his skills, needless to say.
At least on the autostrada, and I never saw more than 2 lanes, all traffic went the same direction. Kinda like Nurburgring  :eek:  
And did I mention, very few off-ramps? Some stretches between were 50 k's or more  :imaposer:   Best you know where you're going, is all I can say. I only got bitten once.
Just south of Bolzano I noticed the extremely heavy traffic on the northbound, ie to the mountains, side of the autostrada. Now I'm used to horrific traffic. Note I said USED TO, not LIKE or even TOLERATE.  Having lived in Southern California, anything less than 6 lanes of stop-and-go traffic doesn't impress me, sad to say.
But here I saw 2 lanes of solid traffic for more than 160 K'S. And half of that was STOPPED because of 2 accidents  :eek: :eek: :eek:
I thanked my lucky stars I was headed south, and pulled into one of the many "servicio...." somethings, petrol stations with restaurants. While chowing a sarmie some oke and his woman pillion pulled in next to me.  After they went inside I had a good chuckle at their ride, a 650cc Suzuki SCOOTER.  :imaposer:


20 k's down the autostrada I was cruising along at 4500 rpm in 6th, good for a bit over 130 when I heard what sounded like a runaway electric carving knife. For a split second my heart jumped in my throat, but before I could even start wondering if my waterpump had taken a shit or something worse happened to my expensive V-twin engine, that same 650 scooter came by me at what I guessed was 170 plus.  TWO UP.  :eek: :eek:

I had to laugh. This time at myself  :laughing4:  
Later, in Athens, I saw an Aprillia 800cc scooter.   :eek:  THIS MADNESS MUST STOP!!! Fuck me, what's next? A 1200cc offroad scooter??    Unbelievable.

The road followed the valley south, out of the mountains and across the flat Po river valley. It skirted Trento, Verona, Parma, and gearhead heaven, Modena. Not to be condescending, but that's where  Ferrari, Maserati, Lamborghini and De Tomaso have their factories.  :eek:   Not to mention, places like Lake Como, Luzano, Milano, and St Moritz lay just to the west. I already regret it, but I was so focused on that beach on Ios that I kept going. With a heavy heart though. Life is short, you never know if you'll get to do tomorrow what you put off today.

On the south side of Modena I exited the autostrada and headed south on a road called SS12 towards PISA. State... something or other, meaning a secondary, two lane road through the mountains. I called it biker heaven  :evil6:
Two hours, and a good 180 k's, of twisty mountain roads. If I hadn't been before, I was now hooked. I WANT a Ducati 1098, dammit. I only took maybe 3 shots on this road, had too much fun to stop.  I was laughing out loud and yelling in my helmet for much of it.  Here's a boring one:
 

 
I'm getting bored of the TAR  part. Just a few more 'photos before things get dirty. It will have to wait though, I'm departing for Uganda in an hour  and a half, by boat and aeroplane for now. 
But it looks like I'll be riding the 950 down in about 2 months.
Gotta keep up with the Narduses, Frohans and Marks of the world    :ricky:  Just to name a few  :biggrin:
Cheers
 
Ag f@k. Now I have to work again. Will keep a eye on this thread!  :drif:
 
Great report and amazing pics.
Can't wait for the rest :ricky:
 
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