Sunday, 3 July, Jeremy and I flew from Berlin to Munich. I had called Kurt from the baggage claim and he wanted to meet up as early as possible, so we took a taxi from the airport to the hotel. Kurt was waiting there and I changed clothes and went to his garage.

Kurt had disconnected the battery as he had on all of the bikes in the garage. But he had also laid out some stuff for me. First, "Windex" for the very dirt windshied. Then brake fluid because he had noticed that the minimum level had been reached. We did that and indeed the fluid was dangerously low, which was hard to see since the fluid case was dirty. He cave me some cable ties and also some used but good brake pads in case I wore mine out on the trip. He was prepared to add oil, but that was good. We then cleaned our hands with carb cleaner and towels.

I cleaned some of the worse bits of grease off of the bike as well and thought about washing it. I probably should not have had that thought.

Bike prepped, I strapped on the luggage and he got one of his ducks and we went for a short ride. He showed me the nearby BMW motorcycle center (Munich Niederlassung) and the helmet shop acrosse the street. And also where the Polo shop was down the street. I had stoped into my favorite Polo shop in Berlin, where I have a discount card, to buy a new visor for my Schuberth Concept 2, but found out they had none. They claimed there were none in Berlin because Schuberth was having trouble delivering them.

Kurt led me to the hotel and went off to ride. I showered and Jeremy and I met up with my friends Wolfi and his new bride Linda. First we drove to a great Biergarten on a lovely little lake where we ate. Then we came back to the hotel and all walked into town together and attended a fabulous open air concert in Odeonplatz after visiting the Franzeskanner central biergarten. Wolfi had walked us around and shown us where he went to school, had offices, and grew up. After the concert (did I say "fabulous") , we walked to another little place and finally got back to the hotel after 1.

After breakfast with Wolfi and Linda the next day(Monday 4 Jul), I rode the bike over to the BMW store. There were an amazing number of bikes already there that morning. All customers. I find a niche among the many bikes parked on the sidewalk and went in. As is usual for these places, the cars are on one side of the building and the mortorcycles the other. What was unusual, is that the bikes took up fully one half of this big building, and for three (3) floors. I could see bikes being wheeled about up on the 3rd floor - looked like service people.

The first floor is a showroom. They have very nice displays, with torn-apart engines and big cans of Castrol Oil next to the parts and tools. The third floor was used bike sales. The second floor had the clothes and accessories. I needed new light-weight gloves. My two-year old gloves were starting to bleed black dye on my right-hand fingers. The nice saleslady helped me find just the right BMW summer gloves that fit beautifully.

I crossed the street to the helmet shop and they indeed had the visor for the Schuberth. The sales guy confirmed that Schuberth was having trouble delivering new ones but they had a stock. He installed the visor and I was on my way back to the hotel with a prepped bike and new gloves and visor.

Jeremy and I checked out and we took a taxi into the Hauptbahnhof with Jeremy's big bag. We bought train tickets for him, stowed the bag in a really big locker, and walked around.

From the train station, we took a U-bahn to Sendinger Tor and then walked up to Marianplatz. We toured the stores, including Hugen Dubel, the great book store. We looked at the open air market, and then walked over to the Hofbrauhaus where Jeremy had his picture taken with the band and bought a t-shirt.

After that, walked over to the residence, around the gardens in back, over to the Haus des Kunst, back through the gardens, back down Theater Street, and then back to the Franzeskanner beer garten. Then back to the train station.

Jeremy's train was at 4:22pm. I had showed him how to determine where to wait for his reserved car and seat, so I left with the U-bahn at 4 to go back to the hotel and get the bike. I figured that since his train got in at just before 7pm, I could meet him at the train station in Berchtesgarten. I should never have said, as leaving him, that it was a "race".

It took me about an hour at the hotel to recover from the heat (with water and coffee) and pack up and gear up. I soaked and put on my gel cooling vest, because it was so hot. I hoped the Autobahn would be cooler. I probably should not have had that thought.

There was heavy traffic now at about 5:30pm. Eventually I made it arround the outer ring (99) and onto the A8 towards Salzburg. It was still hot but that was about to change.

Out on the open highway at last, I saw a black sky coming at me from the Alps. I pulled over on the side of the road and struggled into my rain gear. Got back on the Autobahn and within seconds the first rain and wind struck.

This was a real storm. The cold rain was hitting so hard that it was hurting my hands through the BMW rain gloves that I had put on. The wind was threatening to blow me out of my lane. And there was nearby lightening. Some trucks and buses were pulling over. I pulled over under a bridge briefly, in front of a parked bus, but then decided that this wasn't doing me any good.

Traffic was proceeding at 60Kmph. At best. And the various construction detours were dangerous because of the hidden ruts under the water. It was clear that I was going to be late to Berchtesgaden and I was berating myself for not having given Jeremy instructions to take a taxi to our guest house if I was late.

I found a big truck stop and filled up with gas because, though I could probably make it to Berchtesgaden, I did not want to run out in this storm. At the gas station, there were about five bikes parked in the sheltered spots. One of the riders came over to talk to me as I was filling up.

He asked me if I had had problems riding in the strong wind gusts with my big windshield, paniers and big pack. I said it was manageable. He and the others were on sport touring bikes with small packs and they had gotten of the road when the storm started because they thought it was too dangerous. But I and my bike and pack probably weigh 800lbs and though it was problematic, I probably was being blown around less than they were. And I was used to riding in storms.

Actually, I realized that I had ridden in a lot of storms on the Autobahn on this bike. I had picked up an "Elric" novel by Michael Moorcock to read. I think I will name this bike Stormbringer after Elric's sword.

They were going to Munich, which, unfortunately, was where the storm was coming from. This meant that I was riding in the direction of the storm and so was hanging out in it.

We could see there was clearing sky in the direction of Munich. So we all took off. They, because the storm was weakening and they could see light at the end of the tunnel. Me, because my only chance was to go faster than the storm.

So I got back up on the Autobahn and was soon traveling at 120Kmph, passing all the cars. For once, I was king of the left-hand lane. Though my tires are almost done, these narrow tires cut through the water much better than car and truck tires and so I didn't have much trouble with hydroplanning. Occasionaly I had to slow down for construction detours, and strong wind gusts, but mostly I went along little slower than I would have in good weather.

As I neared the turn-off to Bad Reichenhall, near the Austrian border, I had reached the leading edge of the storm, and the rain lifted though the wind was more gusty. As I rode through the small roads towards Berchtesgaden, I had only a few drops of rain and a very strong tail wind. The bike was running great, usually below 100C, because the rain cooled it off.

This was pretty great riding - very cool and with a tailwind. I had to be careful around the wet curves, but it was all very pretty. I came in on the 20, until it hit the 305, following the train tracks. It was too bad I had been delayed by the weather. It would have been cool to have caught up with Jeremy's alow train and waved at him from the road.

I got the the train station at about 8pm and Jeremy was waiting. We found the lone taxi, gave her the address, and found the house. The storm was coming to Berchtesgaden now, and it was raining, though not stormy. We unloaded and caught the same taxi back into town. Since the grocery stores were closed, we stopped by a gas station and loaded up on coffee and eggs. Then we went into town and had a nice dinner of mushrooms and dumplings. Caught another taxi back and settled in two our guest rooms, which were the same ones that Christine and I had occupied year before last. It continued to rain.

Tues 5 Jul We rented a car and went to the grocery store. There is a space reserved for women parkers and I couldn't resist this picture. Then we went to the farmhouse where they were building a bakery. More in the next story.