Arrived in Germany

We arrived in Heidelberg Friday afternoon and are staying at Stefan's Knopf's B&B.  Stefan has a motorcycle tour company, storage facility, workshop, campground, B&B and general hangout for adventure motorcycle travellers.

Our bike parked in front of our room.

B&B row at Stefans

I think I'll add a bathroom for one of these!

We left Fernie last Wednesday afternoon and spent the night at Lee's place in Calgary. Many thanks to Lee for putting us up, lending us a parking space and shuttling us to the airport. This was a good start to the trip. The flight from Calgary to Frankfurt, on an Air Canada Boeing 787 Dream Liner, was not exactly dream like.  We found the seating in the economy section of the aircraft was very tight, even for us relatively small people.  We did manage to a few hours of sleep but the trip was far from comfortable. There was no gate available when we arrived in Frankfurt so were on the aircraft for a little over 9 hours. 

Clearing customs and immigration was very simple and efficient.  We found the meeting point for our ride no problem. The trip to Heidelberg was an exciting experience. I was our first look at the the autobahn traffic.  With no speed limit, cars are speeding past you in the left lane. You feel like you are on the race track.  I think that we will be steering clear of the fast lane!

We are taking the day to relax and prepare for the ride to Spain, as well as doing some visiting around the local area. We took a tram to downtown Heidelberg this morning and strolled around the almost completely pedestrian area of old town.  The area is a total mix of retail stores, bars and restaurants. Being a Saturday it was a busy spot A good mix of locals and tourists.

An interesting old hotel in Heidelberg.

A typical pedestrian street. Lots of bikes!

Lunch with a glass of Prosecco

Linda loves vines...

 


After a  nice lunch at one of the many outdoor cafes we walked back to Stefan's place... about 4K. This time passing through a less touristy part of town.  One thing that we noticed was just how orderly everything is here.  Perhaps it is just that we have spent so much time in Mexico where exactly the opposite is normal!

Tomorrow we will leave for our trip to Spain. Our first destination in Spain is Bot, Aragon. It is about 1500 K from here to there and we have 5 days to complete the trip. Tomorrow we plan to stop for the night in Switzerland.  Somewhere near Biel.