[YEAR 7!] Quit our jobs, sold our home, gone riding...

[lightcycle]

JRay is milking his victory lap around the stadium

Although JRay takes the top step in the podium ceremony...

... the crowd cheers for this 22-year old youngster. He is the first Dutchman to ever stand on the podium
in the history of World Superbike championship. And to do so in Assen...?! Crazy!!

Half-time event: Ducati stuntguy

Such a great time at Assen!

 

[lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/231.html

We're continuing our travels by cutting south-east across Germany, but we're going about it in an unconventional way by not passing through any major cities at all. We've traveled through and sight-seen a lot of large cities lately, and we're feeling burnt out on buildings, crowds and traffic. Neda is craving some nature and hiking, so she planned a non-urban route across Germany.

Along the way, I picked up some new German words from the signs on the road. "Ausfahrt" has now replaced "**********-Lick" as my new favorite word to randomly say out loud. Ausfahrt! Am I just being juvenile or is that not the funniest word ever? Neda agrees with me and everytime we see the "Ausfahrt" sign, we snicker together over the intercom like little kids.

Ausfahrt! kikikiki!

Ever since Neda emptied her tankbag of seashells, leaves, puppies and camels
she now has enough space to help me carry groceries.

Our first stop is to the Harz National Park where there's supposed to be some good hiking. Although it's half-way across Germany, this is Europe where the countries are small and the highways are fast. It only takes a couple of hours via the Autobahn to get there. The Autobahn between cities has no speed limit and the left lane is exclusively reserved for passing only. And passing happens at warp speeds! If you're only traveling in the impulse speed lane, you have to constantly check for Teutonic missiles being launched past your left shoulder or you'll get photon torpedoed by a Porsche, Mercedes or Audi.

Rammstein, Mr. Sulu!

We dropped out of the interstellar laneways of the Autobahn to a more sedate cruise around the densely forested Harz National Park. It's part of the Harz mountain range and the roads twist through its valleys passing through very quaint German towns. Most of the trees are still bare up here in the mountains where the temperatures dip to the single digits.

But Spring is in imminent bloom up in the Harz mountain range

The boarding house that we are staying in is in a small town called Sankte Andreasburg and the landlord who greets us is a kind and elderly German man who doesn't speak any English at all. Thankfully Neda took German in high school. Unfortunately high school was a long time ago. Her German is about as bad as my French - just enough to get us booked into the room, but not enough to answer his questions about our BMW motorcycles.

From listening to her speak to the landlord, I did pick up another German phrase that she repeated quite often: "Sehr Gut!" which means "I kinda understand what you're saying to me"...

Neda went out for a hike but returned very shortly after remarking that the trails weren't very good. And I was tinkering around with a new video camera, so no pictures of our ride. Well at least I got some blogging done and the roads in and out of the Harz National Park were great. *And* it wasn't raining for once so we were able to enjoy the riding.

A few Ausfahrts later, we are in south-western Germany

Our next stop is clear across the south-east of Germany, close to the Czech border. Believe it or not, I actually found a hiking trail for Neda. It's called the Malerweg and it's supposed to be one of the most scenic hiking trails in Germany. It's in a region called Saxon Switzerland, so we booked into an apartment in the area in a small town called Porschdorf.

Thankfully the owner here did speak English. Sehr Gut!

Sehr Fud!

 

[lightcycle]

Eine kleine schwein mit Nachtmusik

We've been eating nothing but groceries for a while now, so we decided to treat ourselves to a nice German meal. We ordered a dish down at the local pub called wildschweinbraten. It's German for wild roasted boar and after saying it out loud, for a second I thought about replacing it as my funniest German word. But no, Ausfahrt is still #1 and is also what you get after eating wildschweinbraten. **********-Lick!

We're told that the boar that we ordered was local to this area, in fact he was just running around the forest outside the other day. Things are done so traditionally here, I'm sure the boar was killed by bow and arrow!

I love that you can order beer in 1 Liter mugs!

Our love affair with dark European beer continues. Eibauer beer is brewed in the town of Eibau, just 50 kms east of here. We are having quite the authentic local cuisine!

Walking around town after a couple of liters of Eubauer

Very quaint buildings in Porschdorf

A very special number...

 

[lightcycle]

More colourful buildings in town

Outside our apartment, a kitten contemplates his fud

It's such a peaceful environment and a huge change of pace from the all the cities we've been visiting. We're starting to feel a bit more relaxed and we feel a lot more rejuvenated for travel.

Tree house amongst all the pretty flowers

Pretty countryside of the Saxon-Switzerland National Park

Saxon-Switzerland is atop some rocky and fissured canyon landscape

 

[lightcycle]

An example of the sandstone formations that dot the countryside

Village of Rathen in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains

The Malerweg hiking trail is 112 kms long, too ambitious even for Neda to complete in a day. It's broken up into 8 daily stages and we're staying at one of the more scenic stages, near the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. The hike takes us through the nearby village of Rathen.

Rathen

We don't stay too long in town, but head straight for the peculiar rock formations

The hike takes us up into the mountains to an overlook with a great view of the Elbe River below

The Malerweg is also called the Painters' Way because in the 18th century, it was a popular pilgrimage for artists to undertake so that they could paint the beautiful landscape.

 

[lightcycle]

Purdy

The Bastei is the most well-known feature of the Malerweg

The Bastei is a rock formation that towers 194 meters above the Elbe River and is the picture that comes up most often if you Google "Malerweg". There was a wooden bridge built across the rocks in 1824, but that was later replaced by an ornate bridge made of the same sandstone that makes up the Bastei. The Bastei bridge is now as famous as the Bastei rock formations and is a popular draw for tourists, even if they are not hikers. That would be people like me...

Neda is super-happy for this nature break in our urban schedule

Sandstone mountains in the light of the setting sun

Beautiful Bastei Bridge

 

[lightcycle]

I spent a few minutes chatting up this bird

I got a chance over the last few days to play around with the action camera that Sena sent us. It's called the Prism and it came standard with just about every mount you could need to attach it to your motorcycle. I only affixed a couple of mounts as a test, but will probably add more when I figure out some good shooting angles.

One feature I really like about the Prism is that it's remotely controlled via the Sena S20 communicator, so you can turn on/off the camera, start/stop videos and cycle through shooting modes all through the communicator, and the voice confirmations inform you when the camera is on and whether the video has started or stopped so you don't have to try to look at any lights on the camera while riding to figure this out. I'll do a more thorough review of the Prism when I've gotten a chance to put it through its paces.

This entire video was shot using the Prism. Thanks Sena!

 

[lightcycle]

Here's the video:

 

[takesiteasy]

Great! Enjoying your reports and seeing your continuing travels.

 

[profdlp]

Thanks again for sharing your adventure. :ylsmoke:

 

[lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/232.html

Just a three-hour ride north of us lies Berlin, which has been on both of our bucket lists for a long time. The city holds a special attraction for Neda and I for different reasons.

I remember watching the Berlin Wall fall on TV in 1989. It happened right about the time that the self-absorption of my youth was also falling away and I was becoming more aware of the world outside of me. Even at that age I understood the significance of that event.

But really, Berlin interested me because that's where U2 recorded their Achtung Baby! album shortly after the wall fell. They were my favorite band at the time and their last album was a critical disaster. They traveled to this German city that was in the midst of reinventing itself to perhaps catch a bit of its zeitgeist. When Achtung Baby! came out I didn't stop playing it for months. It was such a departure from their old sound, I often wondered what they found in post-Wall Berlin that transformed and rejuvenated them.

Riding by Checkpoint C (or Checkpoint Charlie as it's popularly known)

After the wall fell, Berlin also underwent it's own transformation. During the Cold War, Checkpoint Charlie was one of the most well-known border crossings between East and West Germany. Over time, the Eastern side of the checkpoint became more and more heavily secured with barricades and watchtowers. By contrast, the Allies continued to keep the simple shed that still stands to this day as a monument of sorts.

However, as we rode by it, the shed is now engulfed by modern-day Berlin. Busy buildings full of shops and stores and office buildings surround it and the road that once funneled soldiers, spies and defectors across the border is now one of Berlin's busiest intersections.

Very cool riding past it though!

When the wall went up, Potsdamer Platz was divided into two. What used to be a busy intersection became a wasteland, the eastern side full of barb wire and watchtowers overlooking a "kill zone" used to pick off East Berliners trying to escape to the west. This is what it looks like today!

Berlin is so shiny and brand new. It's incongruous with the Berlin I had remembered from my youth: the old-world grey communist society peering enviously at the west through breaks in the wall.

Of course the city had changed, it's been over 25 years since the wall fell. We went searching for the Berlin I remembered. Fortunately the one thing I could count on was that the RideDOT.com rains had followed us and I was able to take some photos of old monuments in the rain that approximated what I remembered of Berlin circa 1989.

Brandenburg Gate

Soviet War Memorial at Tiergarten Park

Berlin cityscape, famous TV broadcast tower on the left. There's a revolving restaurant at the top just like our CN Tower in Toronto

This street was in the U2 video "Stay (Far Away, So Close)"

 

[lightcycle]

Right about the time the wall fell, I also got interested in artsy foreign films. One that really stood out for me was "Der Himmel Uber Berlin" which was a fantastic allegory of the relationship between East and West Berlin. It was made two years before the Berlin Wall crumbled and in the movie, the East Germans were cast in the role of angels, who were unseen by the mortals (West Germans) although their presence was felt.

The film was about one angel's desire to become mortal and fall in love, and experience things like hunger, humour, music and art. It followed his journey to break through the wall separating angels and humans.

ooooh, deep.

Berlin Victory Column, one of my must-sees in Berlin

Anyway, the Victory Column figured prominently in the movie, being the perch from which one of the angels peers over Berlin and the mortal world. Because it was filmed in black and white, I had no idea the statue was such a brilliant gold. So I had to leave these pictures in colour.

Angel overlooking Berlin

One thing the movie didn't show was this fantastic tiling at the base of the column

Looking up at der himmel uber Berlin

Another thing the movie didn't show was this cool art installation in the tunnels under the column.
Cameras record your silhouette and recreate it in pixels in front of you. Cool!

It may seem silly, but the Victory Column was one of my highlights of our trip to Berlin, partly because I was a fan of the film but mainly because it was one thing that hadn't changed from my memories of it so long ago.

Speaking of which, Hollywood did a remake of "Der Himmel Uber Berlin". They took out everything that was good about the movie and turned it into an insipid romance called "City of Angels". Grrr..

 

[lightcycle]

Ich bin ein Pfannkuchen!

Two years after the Soviets erected the wall, JFK came to Berlin and gave his famous speech proclaiming, "Ich bin ein Berliner!". Some of his detractors made fun of him pointing out that a Berliner is a nickname for a German jelly-filled pastry called a Pfannkuchen. But Kennedy had it right all along. They only call it a Berliner *outside* of Berlin.

We downed a couple of Pfannkuchen in memory of JFK.

An exhibit at Potsdamer Platz shows the type of barriers erected as a precursor to the Berlin Wall

Neda reads up on the history of the wall

My fascination with Berlin is purely because I'm such a culture junkie. Neda's interest in this city is much more personal. The crumbling of the Berlin Wall was the epicentre of a huge social, cultural and economic change in Europe. As East Germany abandoned the communist system and embraced western values, a ripple effect spread across all the Eastern Bloc countries.

Neda was born in Yugoslavia. The echoes of the fall of the Berlin Wall fractured her country into many pieces, and Croatia rose from the rubble of communism. All of her childhood memories of Yugoslavia have been under this system of government, as she moved to Canada shortly after the war ended. So this trip to Berlin was a way of visiting the origin of where all this social change started.

A line of bricks running down the centre of Potsdamer Platz denotes where the wall once stood

Holocaust Memorial - 2,711 slabs of concrete rise up out of the ground like raised tombs to remember the murdered Jews of Europe

 

[lightcycle]

All the pedestrian traffic lights east of the Berlin Wall feature the Ampelmann, which was introduced to East Berlin in 1961

Ampelmann is a uniquely East Berlin symbol. Wearing his little East German hat, he has become a bit of a nostalgic rallying point

In addition to art installations like above, there are now stores selling Ampelmann T-shirts, stickers and other merchandise, cashing in on his popularity. You know, just like the communists would have done...

Another East Berlin symbol - the Trabant

The first time I ever saw a Trabant was hanging 50 feet above the stage of a U2 concert. It was angled nose-down, with it's headlights shining down on the band like a spotlight: ZooTV. Regularly topping automotive lists as one of the world's worst cars ever made, the Trabant was an East German monstrosity that originally could not be bought from a showroom. East Germans had to order one and wait for them to be built and shipped to them.

When the wall fell, jubilant East Berliners drove their Trabants across the border and they've been inextricably linked to the city and that seminal event ever since. Today, Trabants serve much the same duty as old 1950s Fords and Chevys do in Cuba - as taxis and city tour vehicles...

Very little remains of the original Berlin Wall. We rode out to a piece of it called the East Side Gallery

East Side Gallery

 

[lightcycle]

The East Side Gallery is a 1.3km stretch of the original Berlin Wall that features 105 works of art painted on the east side of the wall in 1990. There are so many great paintings here, but I've picked only a handful of them that really spoke to me.

Communism, where all property and means of production are owned by the common, as opposed to the individual...

I really like this one

And of course, an Angel one

A helping hand

Between 1961 and 1989, eighty people died while trying to cross from East Germany to West Germany. Before the wall was fully formed, East Berliners would regularly escape to the west via the west-ward facing windows of buildings that were right on the border. As the Soviets boarded up the lower-level windows, escapees lowered themselves via ropes or sheets, some of them died falling from higher stories.

Later on, when the wall was fully erected, many more were killed by snipers at the watchtowers aiming at them as they crossed a specially built "kill-zone" that was lit up by floodlights at all hours of the night.

The west-side of the Wall is covered in graffiti.