The non-working time has already started shortly before Pentecost and this with some great days in Leipzig. After years we went back to the Wave Gothic meeting to meet old and new friends and to see some concerts. The Wave Gothic Meeting, WGT for short, is a unique experience every time. Everywhere you go, the city is full of "goths", the mood is cheerful and people celebrate and enjoy the time. As with any WGT, the highlights are not just the concerts, but also the people you meet there again. People you only meet at this festival and it seems like no time has passed between the festivals.
After the WGT the last jobs were done at home and the last preparations on the bike were made. Small items were mounted, chain oiler, handlebar center bar, manifold protection, additional 12V plug ...
Now a new adventure begins and Europe, the old continent, awaits me. Historically, this part of the world has much to offer. And the cultures sometimes change from village to village. So one can only wait anxiously for what and whom one will find everything. The different landscapes, flora and fauna, smells, emotions ... With the motorcycle you experience all this much more intense and closer than if travel by car. When it is hot, you sweat, when it is cold, you freeze, there is no air conditioning or heating. You are exposed to the elements. It's all part of a big adventure, with all its facets.
Meanwhile, I have been traveling for two weeks. With Alex, a buddy from my motorcycle group, We drove through Austria and crossed the Gerlos Pass and the Nockalm High Alpine Road. Both beautiful passes and a joy for every biker. After Austria we went to Slovenia once again and of course we spent one night at Kamp Vili. A stop there has almost become a "must". The atmosphere is cozy, the food is good and everything is handled easily and uncomplicated.
The next day the trip continued. About small winding paths we went to Lake Bled. The lake is beautiful, but unfortunately the village Bled is full of tourists and you can hardly find a place to park the bike. So we made only a short photo stop and we went on to Trbovlje. There is the highest chimney in Europe and it is really, really high, around 360 meters. After this stop, we tried to make as many kilometers as possible in direction Budapest. We made it to Ptuj. There were about 360 kilometers left to Budapest. So we started towards Lake Balaton. The color of the water was greenish-milky. The average depth is only 3.25 meters.
We spent a few days in Budapest, did a hop-on hop-off bus tour and took a bit of rest. On the last afternoon there I met Emese. I met her in 2015 in Tbilisi when I was stranded there. At that time she was cycling with Hannah on her way from Oceania to Europe. Emese and I went then from the center to the outskirts of the Budapest to the Danube. There we spent the afternoon on the shore and talked about old times.
After the days in Budapest we took again our motorcycles and drove in direction Tatra Mountains. We spent three nights near Poprad on a campsite and made smaller day trips. We visited the Spišský castle and the ice cave near Dobšiná. Both are Unesco World Heritage Sites and of course there were other tourists as well. Most of them were from the Czech Republic or Slovakia itself. What surprised me was that many of the information boards, in addition to Slovak and English, were also in German.
We continued along the Tatra Mountains to the Czech Republic. There we had the Ossuarium Sedlec in Kutná Hora and the biker cave Pekelné Doly as waypoints. The Ossuarium Sedlec is really impressive, so many human bones piled up, assembled into door arches, assembled as chandeliers. You can look at the impressive pictures on the internet, but standing in the midst of the bones makes it even more impressive and indescribable.
The biker cave is a fine thing, you can ride your motorcycle into the cave, stand in front of the bar and order something to drink. There is not much going on during the week. I think the real biker parties are celebrated on the weekends and hell will be going on.
After one last night in the Czech Republic we went to Germany, first stop Lommatzsch. And what is there in Lommatzsch? Of course the Terence Hill Museum. And for me, who grew up with Terence Hill and Bud Spencer movies, visiting the museum was a great experience. The museum is only open on Saturdays and Sundays. We were there on a Wednesday. The lady who worked there in the Mullemaus T-shirt told us that the museum is only open to group tours, but since we've come from so far, she made an exception and let us in. The joy is still going on. Thanks Mullemaus!
Now it was not far to Heiko and Anja. I met Heiko on my first motorcycle trip in 2015 in Romania and since then we have kept in touch and met several times. On the way to them we visited the Kyffhäuser monument. The monument can be seen from afar. Not only its size is impressive. What really impresses is the Barbarossa statue, which was carved in red sand stone. The monument was built on the ruins of a castle. As a remnant of the castle you can still admire the deepest castle fountain in the world with its 176 meters of depth. Anyone who is there should should, should throw a fountain stone into it. let yourself be surprised. ;-)
After visiting the monument, Alex and I put our motorcycles back on the road and drove our last shared kilometers to Heiko and Anja. In the evening we also met Kai, who was traveling with Heiko in 2015 and Volkmar. In the meantime, we have become a small part of this crazy group.
Here the way for Alex and me parted. He drove back to Switzerland and I spent another day with Heiko and Anja.
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