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Tagged from Eddono420 with Germany

Travel blogs tagged with Germany:

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the bike

23. April 2008 | en

finally got on the bike that will carry me for the next twelve weeks. It is a sweet Honda, Africa Twin. a 650cc engine, with 50 horse power. been riding around in Berlin today to accustom myself to the bike. it is smooth and easy to handle, i think it will be a good traveler!!!
First night in Berlin was really nice. I arrived at Josh’s around 5pm and was greeted by Henrietta(a flat mate), she and I talked on the balcony in beautiful spring weather, the first of the year for Berliners. We were joined by Lina who came by for a smoke. lots of smokers in this group and it is a social outlet, ‘lets get a smoke’. Lina left for breathing /meditation class. Johanna-Sophie brought over all the ingredients to make spaghetti bolognese, so we sat around the kitchen table chopping vegetables and creating dinner.
Dominik arrived home from work at about 8pm and Josh at about 9pm, so dinner was fairly late for me and seemingly routine for everyone else!! It was worth the wait!! My first bolognese made with carrots and celery, yummy!!a glass of wine, a swiss desert of walnut paste in a pastry and a bit of chocolate-wow!!!
back to balcony for a smoke, then Josh and I talked about the trip, looking at maps and all of the supplies that I brought….then sleep!!!!

Tags: Berlin Germany
Map: N 52° 45.600 E 13° 40.332

Created at: 23. April 2008

To logbook | Author: Eddono420

what to take

24. April 2008 | en

today is another stellar day in berlin. it keeps getting warmer and the sun is shining.
went to the repair shop today to talk about some spare parts for the bikes and also to fine tune some little things…. josh and i discussed what to take with us until 3am and created a list of things we thought we should have with us…then we ‘x’ out the things that were not ‘necessities’...we still have way to much to pack and we still haven’t added clothing…if we aren’t wearing it when we leave then we won’t have it.
then of course at the bike shop we re-added all the non-necessities because they are necessities!!!!!!
everyone has an opinion….
it is truly amazing the way that people become when you start to talk about this type of adventure…at first you start a conversation in a shop about something that you need and the person ‘helping you’ is less than enthusiastic until you mention why it is that you are looking for such a thing….ooooohhhhh wellllllll…...how cool….yes, lets see if we can get that for you….no maybe we can’t help, but you will have better luck here,there, and suddenly you have what you need!!!!! or more that you don’t need perhaps…...this is coooool.

Tags: Berlin Germany
Map: N 52° 45.600 E 13° 40.332

Created at: 24. April 2008

To logbook | Author: Eddono420

preparation continues

25. April 2008 | en

to cook or not to cook…that is the question of the day…i brought a cool little cook stove…a gift from my friends val and sean, back in washington….the plan was to use the stove on the trip to boil water, cook soup etc….it would be very useful to have when we are unable to have a fire, which is what we plan to use to cook most often. josh and i bought a nice camp grill last night which will be very useful for cooking over fires…..so what is the problem you might ask…........well, the stove requires gas canisters, which, although not huge ,do take space to pack, which we are already short of. the canisters are also fairly expensive and according to the sales person, don’t last very long. so we either buy only a couple and hope we can find them along the way or buy a bunch and hope they last(where do we pack them). another problem was brought to my attention this morning…..fire bans, we will be traveling in greece and turkey at peak wild fire season, we may not be able to have a fire to cook over with the grill…....take the stove, take the stove my head screams…...or eat out, and eat cold…..ah, life on the road, we will be dealing with the basics of survival on this trip, which is probably the main draw for adventure travelers… it forces you to step away from the comfort of your couch and tv. and live for the sake of living!!!!! of coarse that means that i’m priviledges enough to not be just surviving…...reality check…...stayed tuned

Tags: Berlin Germany
Map: N 52° 45.600 E 13° 40.332

Created at: 25. April 2008

To logbook | Author: Eddono420

fun in berlin

28. April 2008 | en

so, today was relaxing, got up late, had a lesurely breakfast with joscha and dominik, then dominik and i went to the flea market and looked at alot of junk, but the people are why i like the markets and today was great for people watching. we sat for quite a while watching and listening to live music, afterwhich henrieta joined us and we took people watching to a new level…..yes or no….would you do them….............lots of nos
when we returned home we had another go at getting my computer to recognize the wireless system…. it won’t. if any of you computer gurus no what i should do…...............
anyway the excitement of the day started when joscha got home from work, he had taken my bike and was a bit worked up when he came in. i thought something broke, but no, apparently the machanic ,when putting new brake pads on, failed to tighten the wheel retaining screws….so the front tire was nearly ready to fall off!!! long story on how joscha discovered this ‘little’ detail but luckily it was not while riding!!!!!
needless to say we need to visit our mechanic ‘friend’ again and have a serious talk about his quality control….i’ll keep you posted, and if we get a poor response from him i’ll pass along the shop to avoid…..
well, aside from that the day continued to be fantastic, johana sophie invited us to dinner, gormet all the way…starting with a fresh salad, diced tomatoes, herb feta, and a slice of honeydew melon topped with a garlic herb dressing…..the main was roasted beef, buttered carrots and au gratin potatoes…yummy….and did i mention the olives sauteed with bayleaf and prosciutto, dam hard to stop munching on those!!!! the night ended with singing wine glasses…..hope no one was trying to sleep!!!

Tags: Berlin Germany
Map: N 52° 45.600 E 13° 40.332

Created at: 28. April 2008

To logbook | Author: Eddono420

last trip prep

05. May 2008 | en

well, it’s been some time since my last entry and lots has gone on…we left berlin on tuesday and went to Dominik’s family country house. the plan was to spend the last few days relaxing in the country taking care of the last details before the big departure….it was perfect!! Dominik’s father Octavo was a wonderful host, lending us all the tools we needed and filling us with good food and wine, we were basically spoiled the last week before leaving…maybe it was too nice!!
the work on the bikes was supposed to be simple, but that never turns out to be the case….i had to replace my muffler which would have been a simple task had there not been a screw broken off in the muffler where the sheild attached!#x%x$’####+*what could have taken one hour turned into all day, drilling out the screw only to find that the reason it was broken was because it seemed to have been cold welded!!!!! anyway….nothing is easy, especially if you think that it should have been….the next task was to find a way to use the rack that the plastic cases had been attached to for the aluminum cases, that turned out to be a piece of cake! next was to wire in the lighter socket so we could plug in battery chargers, also pretty easy, except finding parts proved to be the difficulty and so we had to improvise, in the end it worked out great. the last prep work was patching all the holes in the cases and installing locks on the lids.
so then the day of reckoning….actually packing all the crap on the bikes, this huge pile of supplies and clothing had to fit into small little cases and a bag, oh the task was daunting and i was skeptical, but believe it or not we fit everything on the bikes with room to spare….well, to say ‘room to spare’ is a bit optimistic because, now that we have had one night on the road we realize there are some things we still need, but i’m jumping ahead!!!
let me backtrak, so cudos to Dominik, and many thanks for the coffee breaks and home made sweets that he prepared everyday, and also the the fantastic meals that we ate each evening he was really cool to support us in that way!! Thank You Dominik!....
our last night in Barsikow was a celebration with friends from berlin, Johana-Sophie, Henrieta, and Rene came to join us for a dinner of american style hamburgers with cucumber salad and tomato salad, what a feast!!!!
let me just also say that the weather was astounding, you wouldn’t have believed we were in germany, sunny skies and warm temp.
again i must back up just a bit, and tell you of my first real off road riding….so joscha and i head off into the country, really just down the road because we are already in the country, but anyway, we hit a dirt road and take a couple of turns and come to a massive mud puddle. now mind you, this is all new to me, and on the road to this point i had gone into a tiny little puddle which nearly threw me to the ground, so i’m looking at joscha( he has this gleam in his eye) he’s happy as though he has been waiting for this moment, and i’m thinking ‘you’ve got to be kidding’ or ‘are you completely nuts’ and he says ‘the secret is hit it in second gear, not to fast, don’t slow down, let the bike find it’s course and don’t fight it, let the bike swim through it!’ yeah…. i’m thinking i’m going to swim and it won’t be thru anything….you want to go first?.........no, i’ll watch first thanks…...........so he makes it thru and fish tails at the far end, i’m not feeling so confident but what the fuck, just do it as they say…..so, I DID IT, heart pounding out of my chest and all that adrenaline rush, wow, cool!!!!we did it twice more!!! then we hit an enduro trak, i liked the puddle better….enough said.
so, it’s day of departure, another beautiful day, i’m feeling tense and nervous, i’m quiet and it’s noticeable, Joscha gets some bad news, the credit card that he has been waiting on to take with him on the trip was stolen and the thief has withdrawn 4000.00 euro from his account, so the tension is cuttable but we endure and finely get underway at about 1pm.
riding on the bike is a sublime experience, you are totally alone with your thoughts and yet you have to say sharp as to what is going on around you, because one false move and ….well lets not dwell on bad things. the smells of the world are your company when you ride, i smell everything, flowers, trees,grass, pig shit, and lets not forget diesel!!
the german countryside is beautiful, lush and green, we pass thru so may quaint little farming towns, each vary charming, oh the winding roads, this is motorcyling.
we crossed the Elbe river by ferry. it was a pendulum, anchored up stream and directed by rudder, cool!!!

Tags: barsikow Germany
Map: N 52° 84.894 E 12° 54.054

Created at: 05. May 2008

To logbook | Author: Eddono420

first night out

05. May 2008 | en

wild camping in theory sounds very romantic, in practice it presents some very interesting quandries. the 1st and most important is that there really aren’t all that many places you can just set up your tent and be left alone, however, we did find a fantastic location on the Elbe river. we set camp, built a fire, cooked ham steaks and drank a beer. say goodnight, listen to the rain that started at the most perfect time and sleep like a rock….today started with cold and dreary skies, luckily no heavy rains…found a nice coffee shop for breakfast and then rode for the next two hours looking for an internet cafe, not so easy to find in the little farming towns….our goal is to make the czech border by evening…we need to get riding!!!!!!!!!! see you next time, hopefully then i’ll be able to up load all my pictures…

Tags: torgau Germany
Map: N 51° 55.487 E 13° 00.781

Created at: 05. May 2008

To logbook | Author: Eddono420

wet riding

14. August 2008 | en

im back in germany…...the weather is so different from the last months…..so many dry hot days….no longer….it has rained a majority of the days that i have been here….it matters much less now…..for i have entered a new phase of the journey…..lots of visiting with friends and not so much riding….....i arrived at birgits place for a two day visit….it was a full house….kristine…birgit sister, who i met in italy was up for the week…..birgits two brothers were also home…..lots going on…including a birthday for birgits niece, carla…...i was welcomed as part of the family and it was a great place to relax…..spent 3 hours at the public pool tuesday morning…...it rained the whole day….after lunch it was time for a nap…...woke wednesday to crisp clear skies and headed into to swebian alp to ride some curves…..met birgit for lunch in tubingen and rode to the black forest for more great curves and my meeting with susi and thomas in baden baden….......

Tags: goppingen-schopflenberg Germany
Map: N 48° 67.155 E 9° 604.067

Created at: 14. August 2008

To logbook | Author: Eddono420

perceptions and possibilities

14. August 2008 | en

i arrived in baden-baden just at quiting time….met susi at the train station and followed her back to her place…..hiked up the five flights of stairs to her flat and put some beers in the frig…...just then thomas arrived home….i had not met thomas before…knew little other than the fact that he had just completed his dive instructor certificate…...so in walks this guy…...he towers over me by a head…..there is a slight hesitation on my part…..i had to recover from the sight of thomas completely filling the hall way…....this anxiety quickly melts as thomas welcomes me and we easily begin an introduction…..very relaxed guy….super interesting stories of his visits to australia…..we spent the evening bbqing on the balcony….drinking beers and telling stories…....we plan to scuba dive on sunday….another first….super cool…..strange that i had just mentioned to jannick last weekend while i was in uttwil that i had never scuba dove before and now…..im gonna dive…..amazing…..

Tags: baden-baden Germany
Map: N 48° 77.765 E 8° 218.052

Created at: 14. August 2008

To logbook | Author: Eddono420

i will breath

18. August 2008 | en

so…... turns out that scuba diving was harder for me than i guessed it would be…..didnt have any hesitations about the idea of scuba diving and i was looking forward to going…..but then i gear up and im standing in the water…..still a smile on my face…..when the time comes to submerge…...dive man dive….lets just sit on the bottom…..holy shit….i lost it….i mean my instinct took an abnormally strong control of my head and i got panicked i had to go back to the surface…..it was so strange…..i had to fight the normal breathing….through my nose to concentrate on breathing from my mouth only…..it was really tough…....

Tags: baden-baden Germany
Map: N 48° 77.765 E 8° 218.052

Created at: 18. August 2008

To logbook | Author: Eddono420

back to the adventure

19. August 2008 | en

joscha came to baden-baden, we saw susi and thomas off to the airport for their vacation…..now the two of us will complete the trip together…..back to berlin…..not yet sure of our route…..maybe thru france and holland…...???? ill let you know…...

Tags: baden-baden Germany
Map: N 48° 77.765 E 8° 218.052

Created at: 19. August 2008

To logbook | Author: Eddono420

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