Week two

7th June: We went swimming in Freibad, Barenburg. After finalising monies with Michi. 

We loved the outdoor-heated pool. Complete with slide and springboards. Also grabbed a hamburger from the kiosk for lunch.  A couple of hours and we had cooled off enough to jump on the bikes for a run. We took the Bundesstraßen to the rehab clinic near Hildeshelm to visit Heino who had recently had a knee replacement. He seemed to be doing pretty good, walking around without crutches & enjoyed the visit from us three. He even remembered me, don’t know why?

Then we came back on the autobahns and got up to tour speeds 150-170 kmh. 

It’s reasonable to expect that this is the sort of speed we will need once we are attempting the GN-72. 

We rode approximately 350 km and are averaging around 5-6 l/100km. Not too shabby. 

It was a good test. Unfortunately, I lost the spark plug cover from the rhs of my bike. I’d only replaced it the day before. I may have to “find” one on my trip. 

In the evening Michi set up the BBQ and the whole family ate together. Then we sat around drinking & chatting till about 23:00. 

8th June: we headed into sulingen and had breakie at the cafe where Michi usually gets our bread rolls for breakfast. Then food shopping for our trip, the beginning anyway. We also got a couple of bottles of the hard stuff, Laphroaig and some Bismarck. Beer is too heavy to carry with and takes up too much space. 

After we popped into Heike’s work to show her boss Scott’s Apple Watch. He was super interested but the staff at the store couldn’t answer his questions. It seems we are a fountain of worldly knowledge. 

In the afternoon, we once again headed to be pool. The weather has been pretty hot and humid, once we spent a couple of hours there & cooleddown we all felt refreshed. 

Friday evenings are reserved for “Clubabend” where the members of Samhain MC get together and have a few beers and hang out & chat. It’s awesome how they accept and involve us in their day-to-day. There were around 12 of us, after that we headed ack to Michi’s and kept on drinking/chatting till about 0130. 

9th June:  in the morning we headed into Sulingen and had a stroll around the stadtsee. A place Michi used to hang around when he and Heike were younger. It was quite overgrown and not as nice as he’d remembered. But still, it was nice to get outside and stretch the legs for a bit. After that we popped into Lloyds, the biggest employer in the region. They are a well known shoe brand “with the red stripe” under the heel. Attached to the factory is an outlet shop and people come from all over to but the “discounted” shoes. Bloody expensive it you ask me. 

On the way back we visited Heinrich (club member) to borrow a stool for Scott and have a beer & catch up. He & Tina, I remember fondly. 

After that we got our stuff and headed to the freibad to cool off, it was about 35 degrees or so. 

I had a riesencurrywurst. It was big and covered in curry sauce, I was happy. 

At the pool, the lifeguard came up to me and announced that : ich will nicht pingelig sein aber du solltest Badehosen an haben. I don’t want to be picky, but you should really have swimmers on. I told him that I did, he didn’t believe me and asked to feel them. I offered, He did, then everything was ok ;-)

In the evening we joined many bikes to ride in convoy to Hahn Auf Hoya, motorcycle club party. Just under 100 bikes. Some of the way they stopped the traffic so we could ride through. We did about 30-40 km in convoy. And upon arrival we were once again greeted by a biker bearing schnapps. 

This evening we met another Australian, nickname Ozzy. Appropriate!

And his real name Bruce!  Cracked us up!

We left the after a few hours, 6 bikes. 

Back home we stood around talking till around 0130, Dennis, Maulwurf, the Drohn’s and us. 

It was a good send off. 

10th June:  bit of a sleep-in. Breakie together, clothes washing, packed the bikes, unpacked the bikes, re-packed the bikes, relaxed, planned the route for tomorrow. 

Everything is “ready for take-off”

Tomorrow morning we shall leave Germany and head up to northern Denmark and meet up with Øssur.