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**saralou** · #**1426** 25 Sep 2015

Driving up here you could feel the testosterone. The place was packed with mostly very expensive and very fast cars. There were a few bikes too, but none with panniers and luggage. You get 2 laps for 27 Euros, but Dan said one was enough. It is pretty scary to have cars coming up on you at 200 km/hr. You got to like his Adventure rider style though…Ortlib bag and a water bottle!

mosel 34 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

mosel 30 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

mosel 31 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

mosel 32 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

mosel 35 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

mosel 36 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

mosel 37 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

mosel 40 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1427** 26 Sep 2015

Well now it was after 7 and we still had 50 km to go. We arrived to the Mosel area at 8 and opted for a hotel. In Germany you get Haribo on your pillow!

mosel 39 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

mosel 38 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

This is a wine region and all the hillsides are covered with vines and castles.

alzey 1 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Today we had just about 100 km to get to our destination in Alzey, but of course we found a long way there.

Screen Shot 2015-09-19 at 7.33.32 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1428** 26 Sep 2015

We rode along the Mosel River and then took a detour up into the hills to see the Burg Eltz. This looks like your classic Disney castle, and we haven’t even got to the Neuschwanstein Castle, after which the Disney castle is modeled. This is a medieval castle still owned by a branch of the family that has lived there since the 12 th century and 33 generations.

alzey 5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

alzey 3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

We returned to the Mosel River and then drove north to Koblenz, where we drove down along the Rhine. This section of the river is a UNESCO site and is lined with castles. There is no bridge over the Rhine River for 100 km from Koblenz to Mainz. There are a few ferries, but because of the UNESCO they cannot build the needed bridges.

alzey 6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

alzey 7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

We did another loop up into the hills where there is great German driving on their fantastic curvy mountain roads. You know it is going to be good and how good is in proportion to the number of bikes you see coming towards you and the frequency of the road signs warning bikers of the curves ahead.

**saralou** · #**1429** 29 Sep 2015

We arrived to Alzey to the home of our friends Uli and Annaleen. We had first seen them in a photo on another friend’s blog in 2011. We emailed our friends to ask about the couple they were traveling with that had the same bikes as us. We then contacted Annaleen and Uli and ended up hosting them when they came thru Vancouver on the way from Alaska. It was such a great opportunity for us then to meet long-term travelers and ask them all our questions. In true biker style one of their first questions they asked was do you need to do laundry! They unlike many Europeans have a DRIER!!!

alzey 9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

alzey 8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1430** 29 Sep 2015

Uli asked us to join up with his Harley Club ride out. They were presenting a cash donation to a living center for severely handicapped people.

Screen Shot 2015-09-19 at 7.33.58 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

alzey 10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

alzey 12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

alzey 13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

alzey 14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

alzey 15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

alzey 19 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1431** 29 Sep 2015

Here we were treated to a local delicacy. They cook potatoes under coals and serve them with a cheese that is kind of like sour cream.

alzey 18 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

alzey 16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1432** 29 Sep 2015

After this he took us on a tour of the local area. This is also a wine region and much of the land is covered in vines.

alzey 20 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

alzey 21 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

alzey 22 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

alzey 28 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

alzey 26 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1433** 29 Sep 2015

The guys went out to get ice cream. They were not gone very long!!

alzey 36 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

alzey 39 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1434** 29 Sep 2015

The city of Alzey has had a settlement since the Bronze Age. It was also covered by water 35 million years ago and the museum is filled with fossils of shells and sea creatures found near by. They have almost a full skeleton of a “sea cow”, which looks like a manatee. Uli was born and raised here and so doing a tour of the town with him was really interesting. There are a number of very old buildings in the city.

alzey 35 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Annaleen helped us by calling the BMW in Bamberg to see if they could fit in Sara’s 650 to look at the right front fork, which has had a small leak since 2 weeks after it was “fixed” in Finland. She also called to the Daytona boot factory in Eggenfelden to see if they would service our boots urgently. The normal process is you drop them at a dealer and they send them in for you.

**saralou** · #**1435** 29 Sep 2015

The mission now is fixing the fork in Bamberg and and refreshing the boots at Daytona in Eggenfelden. First we had to ride north to Minsk to get to the closest bridge over the Rhine. Then we took as many of the small roads as possible to get to Bamberg.

Screen Shot 2015-09-19 at 7.36.56 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1436** 29 Sep 2015

In Bamberg we took Lulu to the BMW. They had kindly dropped everything to do the work for us. They found a small ding in the metal on the back of the fork that we had not been able to see and sanded it down.

bamberg 1 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

bamberg 2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1437** 29 Sep 2015

The camping here is quite nice with our tent set up next to the river. One of the quirky things here in Germany is their love of bread. When you check in to a campground here they are so concerned that you order your fresh bread for the morning! We had dropped the bike off at BMW and then took a small tour of the old city. There is a beautiful cathedral in the center. From here we rode back to the campground and towards a HUGE black cloud. We arrived back just a massive thunder and lightening storm hit. It poured for about 20 minutes and then the sun came out again.

bamberg 3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

bamberg 6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

bamberg 8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

bamberg 9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1438** 29 Sep 2015

We decided to try to get to Daytona as early as possible so started off on the highway.

Screen Shot 2015-09-19 at 7.38.10 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Arriving in Eggenfelden we headed to Frey Daytona and were greeted by 2 lovely ladies, whom we found out later were Mrs. Frey and her daughter! They said that in the 2 days we had they could redo the soles, the tip caps, shift pads, and refresh the leather. They could not do the entire refurbish service they provide on the Gortex lining as this takes about a week.

eggenfelden 1 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

eggenfelden 4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

eggenfelden 6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

eggenfelden 7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1439** 29 Sep 2015

We rode south to near Marktl where there was a nice camp spot near a lake. Again the bread issue was quickly sorted, but because they spoke no English we did end up with pretzels in the morning.

Screen Shot 2015-09-19 at 7.39.01 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1440** 30 Sep 2015

For our day off we rode 25 km south to Burghhausen.

Screen Shot 2015-09-19 at 7.40.10 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

eggenfelden 9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

This town has also been a walled fortress city for hundreds of years. There is a lovely old city in the valley and “the worlds longest castle” on the hillside.

eggenfelden 8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

eggenfelden 10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

eggenfelden 11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

eggenfelden 13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

eggenfelden 14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

eggenfelden 15 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

eggenfelden 16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

eggenfelden 18 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

eggenfelden 19 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

eggenfelden 21 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr