Motorrad Tullius (BMW shop) at Weisbaden-Schierstein (40 km from Frankfurt) seems a very lean operation - 2 mechanics, 3 upstairs staff. They had a couple of C1's in stock, and I even saw one on the highway later. Their clothing and bike prices are about 30% less than Oz.
My RT is brand new, only 195 km on the clock when I got it. "Here's a litre of oil - please check the level every 500 km". There are a couple of clear improvements over our 2008 model; God only knows why they decided to put the computer readout control button on the accelerator handpiece in 2005 - they've fixed that now, as well as usefully combining the kill switch and the starter switch, and fixing the rear brake pedal, and making the speedo needle actually reach the numbers, but the instrument display is still almost unreadable in daylight.
I had to strip down before I could start riding - preparing for alpine weather later, I had the liner in my jacket and in my riding pants - it reached 26 and was still 22 at 6 PM.
The Roman focus of today was the Saalburg fort, a re-creation started in the 19th C, built on the original 2nd century foundations and housing recoveries from many sites in the area.
Excavations have also exposed earlier structures, so they have a history of the fort's development from timber stockade to stone walls and numerous large buildings for the garrison of 500 men.
Once again, no English, but a cheap booklet gave me enough to spend an hour walking around the site.
The Saalburg fort is close to the line of the Limes, their equivalent to the Great Wall. It functioned for 200 years and the 550 km of remains are similar to Hadrian's Wall in places.
From Saalburg I rode cross-country towards Koblenz to join the Rhine. Bad decision - the first half of getting to Koblenz was like riding through 50 km of green suburbs, and this was supposed to be good riding country. The roads through the villages twisted like spaghetti, and the speed limits were 30, 50, 60, sometimes 70, rarely 80. Slow going. Then I joined the A3; first time I've been sitting in the middle of 3 lanes, sitting just above the speed limit, a stream of slightly-slower trucks in the slow lane and a stream of cars flying by me in the fast lane. Some of those buggers must have been doing 160 - too close!
Lots of forest, repeated all through Germany and the first day (tomorrow) in France. Tall bright-green forest, close to the road and close to village houses. I can see why the rare fire is such a disaster. Also lots of vineyards, on amazing slopes.
Going down the Rhine from Koblenz to Bacharach was also not good riding. Just like riding beside the Hawkesbury near Wisemans, with more houses, and stone buildings, and 50 kph limits. The tax-collecting castles seem never-ending, but they hold limited interest from the saddle.
The little villages with their cobbled streets and the traffic having to pick its way through them - that was interesting. I think the Rhine is probably better from the water; saw lots of barges and a couple of long broad tourist boats. The Lorelei section was also interesting; quite narrow, so that you can look down into the barges as they come close to the bank, with lots of exposed rocks mid-stream. Wonder why they don't fix it up?
When I turned west from the Rhine towards Rheinbollen I found some good swervery and a great surface, but learnt that Germany expects you to stay sharp. 70 kph limit, sitting just above that on a gently swerving road, a green tunnel, no traffic at all and suddenly a blind RH hairpin with no warning signs, or at least none that warned me. No danger of crashing, but well over the line. The only incident of the day. Later I learned that both Germany and France believe advisory speed signs are for wusses.
The right-side driving is not coming easily, which is good in a way. Junctions are danger spots. I have to consciously look everywhere before I turn right or left, making me even safer than normal (so far).
The GPS has been very useful today; I've had it wired into my ears with the device in my jacket pocket. It successfully directed me on my first right-side 50 km, from Tullius to Saalburg, when I had no attention left for thinking of maps. It directed me in erratic paths at times; it doesn't know about roadwork, or roads that have become one-way, and it has a particular problem arising from it's mismatch with Google coordinates.
I've chosen riding routes in Google Earth (better maps, easier to move around), but I can't transfer a whole route from Google Earth to the Garmin, just waypoints. In order to make the GPS plot a path along a specific road, I'd choose a point in the middle of the RH lane somewhere along the road, and transfer the coordinates as a waypoint for the GPS to run me through. Unfortunately it sometimes felt these points were on parallel roads maybe 50 m from where I wanted it to take me, so a couple of times I was directed off the major road onto tiny mazes, just so it could run me over a (displaced) waypoint.
I will have to be satisfied with the audio-only approach. I purchased kit ( and bought it with me) to mount the GPS on the handlebar, using the spare mirror-mount hole of my 2008 BMW, but the 2011 doesn't have that hole. I also bought gear for mounting a video camera on the tank, so I could do some short videos of interesting roads, and I bought a small light video camera while in Singapore on Monday. But the BMW tank-bag I've hired covers so much of the tank that there's no room to place the mount. I may have to strap the tank-bag on the pillion seat while I film. As compensation, you might like to google "youtube route du pillon gsteig" (I can't copy the url on iPad safari)
Tonight I'm in Kenn, with no internet, so this will be delayed. Country-pub type of place German-style, so 3 stories but not rambling.
Ate in the bar but eventually had to leave because I couldn't stop coughing - the smoke reminds me of arguments in the Science staff-room at Richmond High 20 years ago before it was banned - I haven't coughed like this since then. My room was at the top of 2 stories of stairs connecting to the dining room, so walking out the door was a slap in the face. I had to sleep with the window open. 8 degrees.
Location:Kenn, near Trier, Germany
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