TravellingStrom

Mayan Prophecy Countdown

Well, I was feeling quite OK this morning and even woke up early. Apparently brekky is from 8am, so I had plenty of time to pack my gear and be ready to go. Here are a couple of photos from another photographer that was there, the first is a panoramic of the valley we were in and the next is a group photo, I am in there, I have a green hat on in the middle, only head and shoulders.

I met a fellow rider called Fern, she was just starting her ride to China and beyond when she noticed silver sludge in her oil and decided to head back home to blighty and get the engine stripped for inspection. Her dad hired a van and came down to pick her up, shame about the bike , but these things happen. (She has since posted the bike is OK and she will be back on the road in a day or so, good to hear).

After breakfast, Simon arrived from his overnight hotel, so it was time to move, Simon had some routes planned for our ride to his place in Lucerne, Switzerland. This involved many smaller roads through the hills rather than the highway, of course 🙂

I took it gently at first due to my tyre but after a short while I was confident it had been repaired properly this time and I could have some fun :). We rode down past a lake where we stopped for a quick feed to keep warm, it was a very cold day up there, around the 1000m mark.

After lunch we rode through some more forests and hills, it was great and still dry at this stage, then we crossed the border into Switzerland, a river border over a bridge, but of course no check points any more. Here we fuelled up as it was apparently cheaper than in Germany, and so it proved to be, although Simon being generous shouted me my first Swiss tank full, thanks m8 🙂

We were not far from his place by now, but rather than take the short route, we went the scenic route, past another lake before we stopped at a popular meeting spot for bikers to have a beer 🙂

From there is was only about 15km to the house with the rain about to fall, so I donned the wets before heading off and we were soon at our destination. Simon lives in the suburb of Bremmen and has many facilities very close by and I would need all of them. There is a Suzuki shop about 100m away, closer than that is a post office, banks, food stores and a bus/tram line if I need to use it.

So, I met his mum and dad, Hildagard and Sepp and we had a great dinner and while I practised my German, Hildagard practised her English. Although in her 70s, she is going to school once a week to learn English 🙂

We had a few beers during the evening while getting the paperwork sorted out for Kazakstan, then it was an early night as two long nights in a row had taken their toll. Tomorrow I was going to check out some new riding clobber after sending my passport away, then I need to locate the chain oiler, it has not arrived, and even though this area was supposed to be in the alps, I cannot see any because of the rain and low clouds, so I will take that on advisement 😉

Cheers from Lucerne
TravellingStrom