With my time in Germany dwindling down I realized I had not done the things I wanted to in Germany. Neuschwanstein Castle, the Romantic Road, and riding through the Alps. Other things I wanted to do was see Burg Eltz and to take a few laps on the Nürburgring. So I loaded the bike up in the Taco and headed west with Sara. Our base for the weekend was Koblenz, a historic city in southwestern Germany.
On Saturday, I went to the local Harley-Davidson dealership (yes, they have those in Germany)and had them help me unload my bike (Sara is too small). We then took a day trip on the bike to Burg Eltz, a lesser known castle that I thought looked pretty cool. On the way, we saw German vineyards...
...and even a German RV Park and Marina! I wish I could have lived there!
We took plenty of breaks as the SV isn't exactly comfortable, much less riding two up
Anywhere else, this would be the castle to go see, but in Germany, it might as well be a rest stop
Finally made it to the castle and couldn't help but take a picture of the bike with the German forest backdrop
Of course, like many old structures, the view was spoiled by a crane
Tried to get a view without the crane...
...nailed it!
Putting out the vibe before going in
And the inside
Macro flower shot, I'm pretty good at this!
We got some lunch and headed back to Koblenz. It's where the Rhine and Mosel River meet and is called the point of German reunification or Deutsches Eck. It's a nice little park area to get a beer and a pretzel and spend the afternoon. Turns out I ended up with a thumb up my ass
Monument to William I who was a King of Prussia and the first German Emperor
You can go up in the monument and this is the view from the 14m tall horse
A view of sunset up the Mosel River
America representing!?!?!?
On Sunday we headed to Nürburgring so I could take the SV around the 154 turns of the 21km track. Specifically it's the Nordschleife which combines the F1 portion with what is technically a einbahnstrasse or one way public street. Getting excited
They didn't like that I was wearing jeans, even though they were kevlar lined and I pulled them down to show them. The Germans are notorious for their adherence to rules and they told me I could only do one lap and I also had to take off my GoPro. That was actually fine with me because it was 1 degree celsius or 35 degrees fahrenheit. As I rode off the F1 section was the first part and I tried to ignore the cold as I pretended I was a Moto GP rider even though my knee was probably a good foot off the ground. As soon as I got out of the F1 section, Porsches, BMWs, Audis, and just about every other kind of sports car you can think of began to blow past me. A Porsche scared me so bad coming out of a corner that I decided to let them pass on the straights and go into the corners without having to worry. Unfortunately, this does little for your confidence and rhythm. It was still fun and I'm glad I did it, but probably should have done it on a warmer, bike-only day. Just like the Tail of the Dragon, they had professional photographers taking pictures which I found later.
It was a nice little weekend that I should have done more of to see as much of Germany as I did Europe. Oh well, next time!
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