Left Buenos Aires on an Airfrance 777-300 aircraft in 35 degrees of heat, then arrived in Frankfurt and it was considerably colder. It was comical at the cargo terminal, it was dark, everyone working there had big coats and scarfs on, and I was dancing around in jeans and a T-shirt trying to stay warm while waiting for the bike. But it arrived and I was straight into the bags to find a jumper and jacket.
The bike had recently developed a problem with the front breaks, if you squeeze the brake leaver the brakes closed, but then failed to open. The only way was to beed air from the system. So obviously I had a leak in the system somewhere where air was getting in. On top of this clutch leaver had started to leek also! Was thinking what more can go wrong. Right now I am thinking the bike has such a fantastic engine but the rest of the machine is shite. I mean why have a hydrolic clutch on a GS bike in the first place? Fix that in the middle of africa!
So to stop a rant.. I brough the bike to BMW in Ulm, (kindly organised by Stephan from Horizons Unlimited). I went through everything (very long list) with the mechanics there so will hopefully have everything back to 100% when I return on Thursday. In the meantime I have a brand new R1200GS on loan! Its cool, I like some of the changes on the new model. Its more comfortable to ride, the handlebars are higher, the breaklights are now LEDS (so they last much longer), and along with styling changes it feels better balanced than the old model. But I stil have a few suggestions for changes, I will have to write to BMW.
So after a nice ride though southern germany taking in some nice towns I am planning where to go next and what to explore when I am here.
St Patricks day weekend I spent in the "Captial of Europe" with Marion my old friend from Glenans sailing and Vincent. It is really a lovely place, and from an Irish point of view really old! Back in 1988 when Dublin was celebrating 1000 years,they were doing 2000 here. Its actually listed as an UNESCO world heritage site, It is the capital of the Alsace region and has been both German and French at various stages. I took the boat tour around the city which filled me in on all the details you are getting now!
Did you know that it was here in 1792 a red haired guy called Rouget de Lisle composed the Army of the Rhine's battle song, that was later to be know as "La Marseillaise". The Catherdal is awesome, started in 1176 it includes an Astronomical clock. Interestingly it was Irish monks that brough christianity to Strasbourg, and the catherdal contains statues depicting the four evangelists as the lion (Mark), the cow (Luke), the eagle (John), and the man (Mathew), exactly like in the book of kells. As far as I recal the images are from a vision by Ezekiel in the bible.
Elsewhere it is famous for the Christmas market held each year, the Kronenburg Brewery and the Museum of Contempory art is worth a look also. It houses a collection by Gustave Dore which is pretty good, along with works by Picaso and Kandinsky.
Finally at the risk of starting to sound like a tourist guide there is the European Parliment, which has its own complex at the edge of the city. Cool to look at and see where all the decisions are made.
For St Patricks day we found an Irish Pub called the Irish Times, who even had a piper present. Actually he was Scottish not Irish, but maybe the next best thing, (It still was live music). During the performance outside the pub, this dog wandered up and proceeded to howl along with the piper, think he actually got more applause than the guy with the pipes!
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