21 May 2011
The ride to Zweibrukken was through a section of France, and we decided to change our routine, so stopped at a nice roadside restaurant for lunch. Following the gps instructions, we crossed through a tiny one lane track, from France back into Germany, and into a small village. Unfortunately, the gps led us to a spot 20 km from where Anja and Holger were, and after much battling, got some locals to help us get onto the internet, where we got the correct street address, and set off again! After finding the correct street, with 2 round the world bikes in the street outside the front door, we knew we were at the right place!
Thank you to Holger and Anja for your wonderful hospitality and to your family for welcoming us into their home. We enjoyed lots of wonderful typical German food, a braai, and the last evening we had a Rocelette, a small oven where we each had to cook our own food in tiny little pans, veggies and meat covered with special cheese, yummy! Very Typical in Switzerland, apparently.
We left Zweibrukken early on Thursday morning heading for Breda in Holland to see Anna, the Dutch Rotary exchange student who stayed with us in South Africa. Holga suggested that we ride along the Rhine towards Mainz, then follow the Rhine to Koblenz and then to get onto the Autobahn and head for Holland that way, and so this is what we did and the ride was wonderful with lots of really old castles on the surrounding hills, the architecture of all the villages that we rode through was very typical and beautifully maintained. We then exited onto the Autobahn and for the first time in a long while we were travelling at a speed of 120km. The Autobahn is wonderful if you are in a hurry but you see absolutely nothing of the surrounding countryside, the traffic moves well nothing like in Africa! We routed through a part of Belgium, to see a bit of that country, and left the autobahn to see some of the villages. We were fascinated by the language – we could understand all the signs there, and a “brood automat”, where you could buy bread from a machine next to the roadside!
We rode for about 500km and arrived in the small town of Breda where Anna is studying. A shock awaited – she wanted us to ride another 190 km to her parents house, but we really had had enough – 8 hours – for one day!! She lives in the centre of the old town and we were very lucky that motorbikes are allowed into this section of the town and we managed to park the bikes very close to her apartment. She lives in a very nice flat with 6 other students and she has leased out her room for the time that she is away in central America and so she had cleared out her room and Larry and I set up our inflatable mattresses on the floor and had a very pleasant evening meeting all her friends and a lovely meal in the old section of the town.
The following morning we left to visit friends in the town of Tilburg, Ad and Anker, who we met at Mount Elgon in Kenya. It was lovely seeing them again. We then left to stay with Anna’s parents in the village of De Wijk. On our way out of Tilburg we met another biker on a 1200 BMW adventure, Doekele, this was the first time in Europe that someone had stopped to talk to us and it was great to meet a local bike, he says that he has always dreamed of travelling to South Africa. So we will see you in SA next! Soon after we arrived, we got an email from him, inviting us to join him on a ride in Scotland, starting on 29 June – but I think we’ll be back in Africa again by then!
Roelina and Hilco welcomed us very warmly into their home and we were taken around the local area, and to Meppel, where Anna went to school. Everything is very green and lush, although they tell us Europe is in a drought at the moment!! The forests and open spaces have been a real surprise to us as we expected Holland to be very built up. There is lots of agriculture in the area and we were taken to a village where the people still dress in traditional clothing and farm in the traditional way, very interesting to see that people can still live like that. It must be really nice to live in the European countries, where everything works, transport is no problem, crime is scarce, etc!
It has been wonderful to see both Marius and Anna again and see that neither of them have changed a bit, Anna has just got very skinny!! She looks very good. And Marius has filled out from all his training for the army.
Tomorrow we will leave to visit Johannes who we met in Malawi and last saw in Tanzania, he lives about 70km from here, in Groningen. He has helped a lot with parts for my bike and we will replace the radiator and a few other parts on my bike. Harry from Bike Gear in SA also managed to arrange some tyres for us and these should be delivered to a dealer in Groningen where Johannes lives. Thanks Harry. Nearly 21000 km on those tyres, and still lots of life in them, but we will need to change before tackling another long stretch
L & S
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