biking about in Berchtesgaden

Berchtesgaden 12/6/2014

Yesterday was so hot the motorbike started leaking oil, and the engine warning light was on coming back from Konnigsee, a lake where we had been swimming. Slightly worrying, but it wasn’t a huge leak.

I spent 10 minutes on the internet finding a Moto Guzzi dealership in Austria near Salzburg and took the bike in this morning at 0915, speculating that they might be able to sort it out while I waited.

I was at the Guzzi dealers by 0945, got to speak to a mechanic immediately; and he said I had blown a cankcase gasket and he could replace it while I waited; it would only take an hour.

I had a look around the bike shop and then went upstairs where there was a very modern funky coffee shop, and had a coffee.

Exactly one hour later they had finished and at €70, I thought the whole experience was as painless as a trip to a garage could possibly be.

On the ride home I took a scenic route over the mountains back into Germany, which was so pretty and avoided the motorway.

In the afternoon we ride over to Hintersee, a drop dead gorgeous lake surrounded by mountains, and swim there. It is icy cold and my skin burns and tingles on getting out. 

There are bikers everywhere on touring machines, but mostly they get off and have a walk around and look, encumbered by leathers. We ride wearing lightweight stuff that can be stowed, and the panniers hold our swimming gear and towels.

13/6/2014 Friday there is a market in Berchtesgaden, the small town 3 km away. We go with another British couple from our site in their car for a change. It is a small affair, rather like the market n Woodley shopping centre, just a few stalls. We buy some cured bacon, (Spek) and sausage, some cheese, and bread rolls. Carol finds some cotton lace to trim a skirt, and bargains the lady selling it down to €3 a metre and takes 4 metres of it. We have a coffee in the town square and chat, and come back for lunch.

After lunch we go back into town by bike as one of the shower room neon lights has gone, and I want some repair stuff to fix the cracked van bumper. There is a hardware and tool store and we go in and ask for the stuff we need.

Outside it suddenly pour with rain, a torrent, and the roads are running like rivers. We stay in the hardware store just meandering around looking at all the tools until it stops. The guy in the hardware store finds us a bit of T shirt to wipe the bike down, and it has stopped raining. We have to go up the hill to another shop to get the fluorescent tube; he has told us where to find the shop.

The rain has freshened everything up; the greens seem more vivid and the air smells lovely.