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Then it was lunch time and we were taken to a restaurant by Hari. Now a word about Mr Schwaighofer. He is without a doubt one of the nicest men that Richard and I have met. Birgit is chalk to his cheese but an equally nice person and between the two of them I was always looked after. We had lunch out every day and I made sure that I paid every other day but I'm convinced that Hari did not expect this. It would take me a long time to find anyone as nice as Hari or Birgit. My thanks go to them for making my return journey far more interesting and also for all the parts that Hari was prepared to accept as a warranty claim. I was hard pressed to find a reason to pay him for anything but in the end I owed him 3.60Euro and I managed to cram 20 Euro into his coffee collection tin.
After lunch Richard went off to see a shopping Mall just South (I think) of Linz whilst I was interviewed by Martin Franitsa from Motorrad Gespanne, the sidecar magazine. He has all my photos as well as some that he and his wife took.
In the evening Rich and I went for a walk and then turned in. A successful day with the bike now running on road tyres. It feels smoother than it did and that will be a boon on the long ride home.
An aside here...Thursday was a holiday where all the shops and restaurants are shut in Linz. The restaurant Hari took us to was outside the town and I had cheese for pudding. No, it wasn't the cheese board it was a pudding made of sweet cheese - note to chef...needs more sugar and less cheese!
The following day - Friday - some of the shops were open but most of the population seem to have taken a day off to make a long weekend. It is called something like a 'window' day.
Babs is back on my beloved Mitas H02 tyres. These were supplied by Mick at Tyre-Finder.co.uk
One of the KTMs with a sidecar. This one is a 950 SuperMoto and this one...
...is a 990 SuperDuke
The extended swinging arm on the SuperMoto
The elusive Mr Schwaighofer driving 'Death Race 2011'! The scared looking individual on the left is nobody I care to know!
2 wheel drive and a rear disc brake.....WANT ONE!
The walk back was as long as the walk there and Richard decided to make a move. We packed up what he was going to carry for me and he went leaving me here to enjoy the afternoon.
Hari then turned up and asked if I was riding out with the Treffen. I said no so he offered to take me in his sidecar. I said "Yes" and I must admit to only being afraid twice...once when we set off and again when we set off from where we had a drink and pudding stop. The feeling only lasted for a short time...all the way to the stop and all the way back. Hari is a wild sidecar rider but my trust in him was complete and I was returned unharmed apart from the general relocation of all my internal organs which I have got used to from riding across the Northern hemisphere.
This evening he took the nice American guy out for a lesson in how to ride a Ural and I tagged along with Babs. With road only tyres on I knew that I would be defeated by even a gentle muddy slope but fun was had and we returned to the camp at about 6.30pm.
Tomorrow I'm heading off quite early as it is 300+ miles to the hotel and I don't want to have to rush. I have the opportunity to see some of the beautiful Austrian countryside and I'm going to try and take advantage of it.
If this was Mongolia/Russia/Ukraine the car approaching would hit us. Hank goodness it was Austria. What I didn't know at this point is that Hari would be overtaking all the bikes we've just seen pass us...Hang on, it's going to get interesting.
This nice chap came up to me at the pudding halt and said he'd just come back from the North West 200 where it had rained for 10 days. Made me feel a lot happier.
An Enfield 500, ridden by Andrew, with a solo sidecar that he manufactures.
Considering I was pointing the camera backwards and just hitting the button I'm surprised I got even some of this magnificent Zundapp in. It is extremely heavily built but had hydraulic, drum brakes, all round.
We couldn't overtake this one as it's Franz and he was the leader.
Mr H Schwaighofer - the nicest man in Europe.
That's the Danube - that's called the Donau in Austria?
What, only 45mph...I'd swear I heard a sonic boom!
See all those outfits in front...they'll be behind us in a couple of minutes if Hari has his way!
Gunther...the best Ural mechanic in the world. he doesn't speak English but he's a really nice guy. In the back ground is the elusive Herr Schwaighofer.
Yes, Hari, Birgit and Gunther do know a certain Mr C Boorman.
The road stopped at the pub on the hill but the view was fantastic and this picture doesn't do it justice.
I arrived at the Best Western Hotel in Weingarten at about 2pm with Richard arriving close behind. It's nice to have a bathroom with a bath and a large double bed all to myself tonight. Tomorrow we're visiting the Zeppelin Museum in Friedrichshaven to see if we can identify this.
So we finally entered the museum at 09.15 and I asked the nice lady on reception if there was anyone who could identifyn where or what the mirror frame is/was? She rang a nice gentleman by the name of Gottfried Bleibler who immediately came and suggested that I send him a picture by e-mail so he could pass it on to a colleague 'up North' who knows the Zeppelins better than he and may be able to identify it. He then asked if they could borrow it in 3 years time when they are having an exibition making the 100th anniversary of the 'Great' war. This sound quite promising that the part is from the L31! To read more about the Zeppelin L31 may I recommend the article by Tom Morgan on his web page here. It makes quite chilling reading but shows the tenacity of the brits to conquer these killers in the skies.
Back to the story...
Richard and I then spent the next 2 hours exploring the museum with the help of the excellent 'audio guide' that we could hire for 3euros each.
Then it was time to cover the 400+ miles to Namur. We set off with the temperature hovering in the early 30's and made good progress until we managed to do two laps of Meersburg! This was a lapse of concentration by Richard, who was leading at the time, but it did mean we got to see Lake Konstance (Bodensee) twice and the ferries going across to Konstanz.
It was a gruelling ride with the section between Meersburg and Strasbourg being extremely pretty, twisting and turning through the Black Forest, but I was hot, tired and my hands were suffering even though Richard had brought me another set of gloves to replace my worn-out Alpinestars ones.
My satnav took me through the old part of Strasbourg and soon I was bombing up the autoroute to Luxembourg. Richard had stopped for fuel shortly after we left Meersburg and I'd pressed on as I was slower than him. We met again at a services in Luxembourg where I filled up with 95 octane at 1.28 euros per litre. The cheapest fuel in Europe but still a touch more expensive than Russia (65p).
Made it to the F1 hotel at Namur which I have to say is the worst one I've ever been to and I think that 'Mr Angry' will be writing to the F1 group to complain. One of the things that annoyed me was that the breakfast (5 euros each) is an all you can eat affair. Not at Namur..it was all you could find to eat as the bread was rationed and there were no yogurts.
Leaving at about 8am we made good time to the tunnel arriving at 10.45 and managing to get on the 11.49am train at no extra cost. A technical fault meant the train was late leaving, late arriving and even later disembarking the cars. I was at the end of the line so I got under way at just after noon UK time.
I managed to get very wet as a thunderstorm hit just after I passed the M25 Services so my next stopping place was Fleet Services on the M3. Luckily Richard was tailing me and had dry clothes as well as my all-in-one suit which I wore until I got home at 17.40.
Total Mileage covered - this is according to the SatNav logs not the highly inaccurate bike's speedo - 14549.2, or 23,278.7kms!
The adventure is over - roll on the next one!
An apposite sign at the Chunnel in France
These are the ones taken by Richard when he met me in Linz, Austria.