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| 06-08-2003
: Austria |
| With
11 countries under our belt we were off to our 12th
and looking forward to seeing friends in Austria.
For those of you who have read our earlier diary
and remember our stay in Kirkenes, Norway, we had
met up with two Austrians, Christian and Arno. Christian
had offered us use of his garden area and whilst
in Hungary we had arranged to meet up with him and
take him up on his offer! On crossing the border
into Austria we called Christian and he arranged
to meet us at a point just off the motorway before
Vienna. We met up as if no time had passed and were
introduced to Robert who Christian had arranged
to also ‘pitch up’ in case he had had
difficulties himself. It wasn’t long before
we found ourselves driving through the outskirts
of Vienna with Chris in his Audi Quattro as our
guide. Awaiting for our arrival was Briquette, Chris’s
better half and after setting up our home in their
acre plot, which is also home to his ‘den’
(plush caravan), his inflatable swimming pool and
3 motorbikes – KTM 640 Adventurer, Yamaha
Enduro bike and his trusty red BMW 1100 GS - we
all settled down to beer, BBQ, land 5 litre jars
of Italian red wine (brought back by Robert following
his most recent excursion) and great conversation.
Chris, we found out, is the BBQ King whilst also
really enjoying his red wine! |
| 07-08-2003 |
| Bright
and early Robert pitched up, “ Have you been
to Vienna yet?” of course we hadn’t.
“I’ll be your guide”, Robert stated
enthusiastically. Unbeknownst to us Robert had already
arranged time off work and organised our trip into
Vienna and already arranged for the train tickets
into Vienna. Still feeling a little fragile from
the night before (too much sodding red wine!) we
climbed into Robert’s car and headed for the
underground station. Four short stops later we emerged
to glorious sunshine and found ourselves directly
in front of St Stephens Cathedral with its intricate
architecture, turrets and colourful tiling. We walked
through the main part of the city amazed at the
elaborate buildings that seemed to cover every square
inch. It is indeed a beautiful city worthy of its
reputation. After a visit inside St Stephens’s
cathedral we wandered up Graben Straße window-shopping
and onto Kahlmarkt towards Hofburg (the Imperial
Palace). Just past the statue of Maria Theresia,
which is placed between two almost identical museum
buildings, we met our chauffeur for the rest of
the day, Christian. The air-conditioned car was
most welcome as the four of us went to visit …
theme park. A visit to this park was a great opportunity
to venture up in the big wheel, which afforded us
absolutely fantastic views over the city…mmm
photo opportunity. By now the evening had drawn
in and it was time to eat and just by chance (!)
Christian had arranged for us all to go to a Chinese
restaurant very close to all our homes! This had
been a fantastic day in which we had been looked
after and ferried around like visiting dignitaries
– what a great welcome. |
| 08-08-2003 |
| Apart
from seeing friends there was a more urgent need
to stop in Vienna – with 42 thousand miles
on the clock the big red GS had decided it wasn’t
getting enough attention and a new clutch was needed.
Mission control was set up in Roberts lounge where
our hunt for parts and a workshop commenced. Robert
was commissioned as our new PR manager as he spent
the morning singing our praises and extolling our
virtues to various BMW garages in Vienna, in the
hope of getting us some healthy discount and the
parts we needed A.S.A.P. At around 2pm Robert had
located a dealer who could not only get us the parts
we needed but who was also willing to take a chunk
out of the normal price. The red GS needed four
new components of the clutch with the most crucial
being the clutch plate itself. I (Simon) then spent
the rest of the afternoon composing and writing
a letter to Touratech in Germany who amongst other
things manufacture and supply a ceramic/sinter racing
clutch plate which would outlive the normal BMW
clutch by 5-6 times. Unfortunately the price of
the unit made it prohibitive unless Touratech decided
to sponsor us directly. With the letter finished
and the e-mail sent, all we could do was keep our
fingers crossed that Touratech would find our journey
inspiring enough to support us. Whilst trying to
cover all eventualities I also got in contact with
a wonderful guy called Niki who runs and operates
‘Dirtbike’ and who is the official Touratech
importer for Austria. Niki has kindly offered to
supply the clutch plate at cost (!) if the response
from Touratech is unfavourable and for good measure
has offered us accommodation with him and his family
– hopefully we can take him up on his kind
offer – it would be great to meet him. Our
‘work’ for the morning complete, it
was time to play. Chris had arranged for us to meet
one of his friends and so with the sun shining down
and the three of us riding our bikes we trickled
through the Vienna traffic eventually meeting up
with Erwin in the foothills of the mountains that
surround this wonderful city. The road to the top
of the mountains was quiet and offered delicious
curves all the way to the top. The whole area is
a wonderful playground for GS’s not to mention
providing us fantastic views across the city. With
the evening drawing in it was time to head back
to the tent, as ahead of us was an evening with
the motorcycle club. An evening with like-minded
people was something we were both looking forward
to. Following Chris in his car we rode our bikes
to the bike club meet. What a fantastic evening.
Within minutes we were with new friends with Chris
now in his normal position at the BBQ. These guys
meet every Friday without exception at a private
clubhouse and we felt very privileged to have been
welcomed into such a close-knit club. Early evening
came and went and when the morning finally crept
round, conversation was in full flow as was the
beer and the constant supply of grilled steak and
sausage knocked up by Austria’s answer to
Jamie Oliver! Sometime later we were asked by Joseph
(the President of the club) do you like chocolate?
After explaining my addiction Joseph returned with
the largest piece of chocolate either Lisa or I
had ever seen – it was the chocoholics version
of junky heaven and Toblerone had cornered the market.
The next hour was spent with me slowly making my
way through one chunk of this huge bar to the great
amusement of the rest of the club. All in all a
memorable evening swapping bike stories and being
made to feel so very, very welcome. So thank you
to the club ‘Freunde Mannsworth’ and
all its members for providing us with another great
night to remember. |
| 09/10/11-08-2003 |
| Saturday
and Sunday came and went in the company of good
friends and with temperatures hitting the high 90’s
all we could do was eat, sleep and drink! Monday
rolled round and by 10 am we were back at Roberts
checking e-mails and catching up with our diary.
At 11 am the e-mail response for Touratech had arrived………the
e-mail was from Tina and to our great delight Touratech
had agreed to sponsor us by sending us the special
ceramic clutch, free of charge, directly to Roberts
address in Vienna!! We were elated with this great
news and could now organise the other components
from BMW Vienna. Over the weekend it had been decided
that Chris, Robert and I (Simon) would put the clutch
in as even with discount the BMW price for labour
was still a hefty one. Several phone calls later
Chris had spoken to his friend Harry who offered
us workshop space and tools to carry out the clutch
replacement. Things were now back on track and we
were both feeling relieved. Celebrations were in
order and so the evening was spent with Lisa cooking
authentic Chinese in a huge wok over an open fire
with us all drinking too much than is good for us………bliss!
|
| 12-08-2003 |
| Today
was to be a day of culture! We had all decided to
leave early in order to be at Schönbrunn Palace
before the sun became really hot and more importantly
before all the coach loads of tourists arrived.
In case you’re interested there is a web site
for the Palace at: http://www.schenbrunn.at
Unfortunately the cost of seeing the whole of the
Palace was too much at 38 Euro each (!) so we decided
to wander through the magnificent gardens and take
in the wonderful views from the Gloriette Panorama
Terrace. Although there has been a château-type
palace here since the 14th century, Schönbrunn
was originally erected as a rough structure between
1695 and 1696 but was not completed as the building
you are able to see today until 1749. Since this
date it has remained unchanged and is a most magnificent
building very reminiscent of Versailles. The area
that the Palace and its grounds cover is immense
and comprises of its own Palm house, Butterfly house,
Maze, Zoo etc…. Apparently the Royal family
used to collect a range of exotic wild animal for
their own private viewing and since then a Zoo has
always remained within the Palace grounds. However,
with the heat rising steadily and a charge to view
most of the outside areas we opted to move onto
my (Lisa’s) ‘need for the day’.
This was to see the burial place of one of the many
Strauss’s and Mozart – a strange need
some of you may think but after years of studying
music, reading and playing these composers works
it was most important for me to take this opportunity
and see where The Masters’ lie! The place
were they lie in the cemetery is marked, however,
it is so sad to realise that despite seeing a most
beautiful stone for Mozart, he was buried as a pauper
in a mass grave. In later years when his music became
once again recognised as work of a genius, his remains
were dug up. There is still a dispute as to whether
they have the correct remains and apparently they
were also unable to confirm that the skull located
was indeed his! Poor guy. The evening became balmy
and saw me (Lisa) cooking on an open fire again
– this time Thai – with some wine and
beer thrown in for good measure. |
| 13-08-2003 |
| Today
was a day of anticipation waiting for bike parts
to arrive from both BMW and Touratech. The first
call to come was from BMW, which meant that the
parts had arrived and we needed to collect the parts
from the other side of Vienna. Whilst out to collect
these parts Robert confirmed that the Touratech
ceramic clutch had arrived! We were now set for
the big clutch-changing day tomorrow. This night
saw us unable to cook and eat outside as Vienna
suffered the most horrendous storms we have seen
in a little while, however, they did little to appease
the heat and humidity. We had now been experiencing
temperatures of well over 35 degrees C for the last
2 months and it was becoming very exhausting, especially
when wearing bike kit so today it had been most
welcome to be ferried about by Chris and Robert
in air-conditioned cars! |
| 14-08-2003 |
| The
day started early with Chris pitching up early,
wearing his unwavering smile. A few coffees later
saw me explaining to Chris my heady mixture of excitement
and nerves about the day ahead of us. “It
won’t be a problem, we’ll manage”,
Chris said in his thick Austrian, Arnold Schwarzenegger
way. Before long we were off, Chris was in his Audi
with me following close behind. 40 minutes later
at 9am we had arrived at Harry’s. Harry’s
was a small private garage located in the backstreets.
It was packed. The garage had been run by Harry’s
father before him and with a good reputation was
always busy. It wasn’t long before some space
had been made and the red GS was up on a ramp. With
the bike strapped down, it was time for the ‘surgery’
to begin. Seats, back wheel, swing arm, paralever,
suspension, electrics, brake lines, everything from
the tank, back, had to be removed and lifted. 4
hours later things were still coming off and I was
beginning to wonder ‘how the hell’,
I/we were going to put it all back together again.
I was long past being able to remember what went
where. We were beginning to run out of space to
put the things we had removed. With an extra pair
of hands offered by Harry we lifted off the final
drive and could at last see the problem area. The
clutch plate was almost down to the rivets -it had
seen better days. Removing the old clutch was pretty
straightforward and the putting the new components
in was much the same. Special attention was paid
to putting in the spacers supplied by Touratech
with the new clutch plate. The spacers are important,
as the TT clutch plate is a different thickness
to the OEM BMW plate. With the new clutch installed
I was feeling ‘chuffed’; it was time
to put it all back together again. At 9pm we were
still going but almost finished. I was feeling particularly
awkward and guilty as Chris and Robert (and now
Lisa) were still with me. They must have other things
to do? With the bike almost complete we hit a problem.
The electrics had died and turning the key in the
ignition was doing nothing. The problem turned out
to be a simple one; one of the wires leading to
the ignition had come lose. A few twist of copper
wire and some insulation tape later, the bike turned
over and roared wonderfully. A large grin crept
across my face; it stayed there for quite a while.
We thanked Harry for all his help and space and
made our way back across Vienna with the GS riding
like a new bike. We were all knackered, sweaty and
very, very dirty. Food and drink were the order
of the day. We met up with Uschi at the Brew House
Restaurant. This was definitely going to be our
treat after all the help I’d had from Robert
and Chris. |
| 15/16-08-2003 |
| Friday
15th was a holiday day (Assumption) in Vienna and
so the day was spent quietly in the garden with
some of Briquettes work friends whilst having a
BBQ and us sorting out our kit in readiness for
leaving tomorrow. We have had such an enjoyable
time here in Vienna – it will be strange to
leave and be just the two of us again – and
strange to be on the road again. It will also be
difficult to say goodbye to friends who have been
so supportive and in whose company we’ve enjoyed
so much. Saturday morning came round all two quickly
and we were packed and ready to go earlier than
normal. Christian, Bridget, Robert and Uschi had
arrived to see us off and take us to the motorway.
With the bikes laden up we had one small call to
make before we got on the road to our journey to
Italy. We had promised Johann at BP that we would
bring the bikes around loaded up to enable both
him (BP) and ourselves to get some shots of us all
together. Johann happily greeted us as he had done
each morning and after introducing us to his wife,
who had come in specially, we were off outside snapping
away with the bikes happily posed underneath the
large BP sign. With the pictures taken our appreciation
once again conveyed, we were off, but not alone.
Robert, in his car, and Chris and Briquette on his
GS accompanied us as far as the motorway. We were
both a little relived that we could put off the
forthcoming difficult goodbye for just a little
while longer. At the services we stopped, the time
had arrived to say our final goodbyes. So, with
a few tears shed and promises to stay in touch made,
we climbed on board our heavy machines, kicked up
the side stands, slipped the clutch and made our
way out onto the busy autostrada. We were on our
own again.Prior to heading towards Slovenia we had
an appointment with Hein Gericke in Graz. For the
past week we had been organising where to pick up
the silver, roll-top 70 litre bags that Hein Gericke
were donating to our trip. We had tried to get these
before we had left but everywhere had run out of
supply in the UK and in Germany – very popular
it seems! Now – with the help of Jo (HG UK)
we were able to pick up two bags that had been reserved
for us in Graz. With the aid of GPS, which took
us straight to their door without a single wrong
turning (!,), we arrived at 1pm an hour before they
were due to close. During our short time there we
were looked after by Bridgette and picked up our
long awaited bags with glee whilst trying not to
spend money in their fantastic new and shiny store!
We were both in our element but managed to curb
the need to purchase shiny new things! From Graz
we decided to head towards Slovenia a country we
know little about, with it being so close it seemed
silly not to enjoy a few roads in another country.
After cruising along a beautiful riverside road
(the route 1 from Maribor running West back towards
the Austrian border and a small town called Dravograd)
which carved its way through a lush green valley
- we made our way back into Austria aiming to find
a campsite for the night. Slovenia didn’t
seem to have any sites marked and we needed to fill
up with fuel so decided that we would pop back into
Austria and use the rest of our BP vouchers. From
Dravograd in Slovenia we rode on road 81 towards
Bleiburg– gorgeous mountains, with the largest
being Hochpetzen at 2113 metres, overlooking this
whole area. Unfortunately we could see the weather
changing fast, it wasn’t hard to work out
that something big was brewing upstairs –
we needed to find a campsite fast in order to save
getting drenched whilst putting up the tent! In
the very small town of St Michael we found a camping
sign but were amazed when we reached the site to
find a huge holiday campsite for, what mostly seemed
to be Austrians – www.petzen.net
- it was also VERY expensive at almost £20
for the night. However, we needed to stop and just
managed to pitch the tent and get everything away
before the heavens opened. A huge electrical storm
circled for hours. Gales, lashing rain, sheet and
fork lightening all came crashing down! |
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| ok
this part is over
click
here
to go to the Italian chapter |
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