The European Chronicles

August 18, 2021

The European Chronicles - 2021 Ch. 8

Back to Deutschland

Leaving Pitztal was hard, especially on a beautiful sunny day in the valley.

I'm taking a wandering route to Garmish-Partenkirchen, back in the Allgäu region of Bavaria.

This was a particularly interesting but private, road. A 5 euro fee, and the road wraps around the southern end of Walkensee.

Here, to be exact.

There are beaches and picnic areas all along the road and the shore. Very pretty.

Also at Mike's Diner (it is so, so hard to manage a remote business, sometimes you have to visit 😂) was this rig:

So cute! Although I imagine you're not going anywhere very quickly...

Spent some time there chatting with Klaus, who noticed the AZ plate and was on a new Ducati Multistrada V4S. He's a recently retired factory production planner for Audi. He explained that after 40 years of work (he's now 62) in Germany, you retire with 80% of your salary, with healthcare and other benefits free from the government. Although he likes his new Multi, he hates the chain and the built in phone paring navigation never works in the mountains, neither a surprise. He was very jealous of Mia's belt, and when I showed him how the TomTom works, he vowed to order one as soon as he got home. 😂. It was also interesting to hear his perspective on the "dieselgate" debacle; he was very, very critical of management, seemed personally embarrassed by it, and betrayed.

That's Klaus on the left.

Garmish itself is a pretty busy place with, of course, a river that runs through it. The Partnach.

The Hotel Konigshof

Pretty little park out front, right about where I'm standing.

The river, the railings always decorated with flowers.

We did have quite the thunderstorm that night.

My next stop was back to the Black Forest on my way to Heidelberg. Different hotel this time, but I planned a similar route along the German Alpine Road, this time heading west. The problem: it was chucking down rain almost the entire day. West Virginia, there's a reason Allegheny rhymes with "always rainy," type rain. Pacific Northwest type rain, except when Krisanne is there. Monsoon all day rain. Chucking down. All day.

Not. Fun.

This is as close to clearing as it got, just a little tease, and it was still raining when I took this picture.

I, however, needed to go this way:

Not many pictures, and I rerouted to an autobahn stretch to save some time. That turned out well because it dried out for the last 30 miles or so, and the gear dries quickly in a 100 mph breeze. 😎

The Hotel Waldblick

A very cute place, nice outdoor dining patio and on-prem mini-golf!

Very nice room with a little balcony

Their sauna felt gooooooooood...followed by beer o'clock, dinner and Black Forest cake.

Really liked this idea for a bench, perhaps for The Wine Shack.

I wonder what's behind the gate?

The owner's a rider, and this is a "motorrad friendly" establishment. As almost all hotels are in Europe.

You literally ride through the dining area on this path to get to the garage. 😂

Love it!

And she doesn't have to wait long for company.

Surprise! There's a river with flower boxes!

The Kinzig.

The Turn for Home

Heading back to Heidelberg, with a stop at Louis Motorrad, a big EU motorcycle retail/online store. They have a shop in Mannheim, not far from Stefan's. I'm deeply disappointed in my Dainese Freeland Gore-Tex "guaranteed for life" boots...totally soaked in the gully washer, and still wet today. I emailed Gore and after sending in photos and the original invoice, they want them back for inspection and some resolution...same with the soaked through Held Air 'n Dry Gore-Tex gloves. But I have to bring them all home with me to mail them back; I want to buy another pair of boots here in Germany to leave with Mia so I don't have to pack them next year.

They all work well right up until they don't, which is usually when you need them most. Been that way since about forever. But still disappointing; over the years, more of my Gore-Tex gear has leaked than has not, it is just a matter of time, but this was a very short life for both. They were new in 2019, and have been worn a total of ten weeks worth of rides.

Heading north, it is drizzling, but nothing like the other day. Some Black Forest goat paths...

A "now this is just normal" fast stint on the autobahn takes me to the Louis Mannheim store for some boot shopping.

Went back to a pair of Daytona boots, had good luck with them in the past, even though I find their dual zipper system a bit of a PITA. A model "above" the RoadStar GTX I had in the past, and not available in the US, called the Traveller GTX.

And they were on sale! Very nice sales woman suggested using S100 Impragnier-Spray to enhance the waterproofing.

Developed by Dr. Wack, apparently. 😂. Dr. Wack develops an impragnier spray. You can't make it up.

I did mine and Krisanne's when I got back to Stefan's.

I'll sort the gloves out when I get home, those are easy to bring back

But the first order of business when I got to Stefan's was to get a Covid test...there's a test center a few blocks away. Scan a QR code, register, create an account and password, nasal swab. Emailed results in about 45 minutes. Free. Could not have been nicer, more helpful or easier.