Thirsty Thousand Miles: To the Alps

From Worms it was a nice ride to Speyer. As I was castled and cathedraled out, a visit to the “Teknik” museum was in order. It housed a space shuttle, and many record breaking machines. Bikes (rally, GP and land speed record), Cars (too many to mention) Planes, far to many to many to mention all- from the largest prop plane, a modern passenger jet (747 maybe ) to the replica of the Wright Bros flying machine. It had anything else mechanical from the industrial revolution to present.

Fast plane

Fast bike

Next it was off to Stuttgart for the Porsche, Mercedes and art museum. But apparently Mondays are the day museum close. Disappointed, I headed off to a town dedicated to healing, health and leisure, Baden Baden. I wandered around the ruins of the old roman baths then off to the” modern” roman baths, “modern” in a relative sense, it was built in 1877. It was a strict no cloths policy so you had to shed your threads and go naked. It was a three hour affair of 17 timed sequential activities the traditional way. It included hot rooms of 68 deg and cold baths of 18 deg. Between where were soap and brush massages, cream services and the “relaxing room”.

Suitably relaxed it was then off to the Baden Baden youth orchestra concert for some Mozart and Bottesini.

The next day it was off towards the Black forest. A few days enjoying the riding in the black forest.

When crossing the boarder from Germany into Switzerland a cyclist stopped to talk. As it turned out she rode a motorbike from Switzerland to Darwin where she married a guy from Aus. We had a drink and swapped stories. Her house was decorated with Australiana, I even had a beer with a VB stubby cooler. After getting a few tips on the best roads and exploring the area for a day I was off to Basel. It was great to meet like minded motorcycle/travel enthusiast, thanks Katharine.

In Basel (blotzheim) I met up with Paul, a motorcycle rider. We rode along the French/Swiss boarder and up around the French German boarder along some old WW2 battle grounds. The weather was not so good with visibility on the high passes around 15m and raining.

Roman ruins

Paul, Me, France and Switzerland

War memorial - France

Riding some passes in the clouds

From Basel to a village named Liestal, where the original Seilers originated from apparently. I headed over a pass called the Glaubenbergpass, most bitumen but some gravel. On top I was stopped by the Swiss army. The clouds had swallowed an army truck and taken it down into the abyss. The skid marks literally went over the edge and out of sight. A sober reminder of the perils of high passes in bad weather.

Seiler Street - It's a one way street

Swiss Army watching over tiger

While waiting I had a coffee with some of the Swiss officers who complained of the boredom and tried to justify the soccer match they were playing on the rocky pad at the pass.

After an afternoon of rain and thick fog I arrived at Seelisberg - a small alpine village. I met up with Doug, Gwynn, Hazel and Peter. I Walked amongst the wild stawberries and rasberries and ate cheese produced by a local diary farmer/cheese maker sharing the Seiler surname.

Water being blown back up waterfall

The weather took a turn for the worst and it rained and snowed. It's ment to be Summer? I had to stay put for a few days in Seelisberg. Over the next few days I got to know the local “Tell” bar quite well. Mainly just for its warmth of course. On the first visit, unbeknownst to me I sat at the “stamm tisch” which is the area set aside for the locals. Slowly more and more men came at sat at my table with inquisitive stares. Once we established I was writing a record of my travels and not recording their conversation we got on just fine. We talked about the quality of Australian vs German beer, the days football matches and the weather before snorting snuff and drinking “Kaffee trash” a coffee schnapps beverage. (quite nice contrary to what the name suggests.)

Black sheep with bling

I did a few local passes and some day trips around the area before turning into an ice cube.

Then it was off into the Alps again.... cold Alps. Did a few more passes (Grinsell, Furka and Susten) and headed towards Mont Blanc. Its rather difficult to ride in snow