we are in Germany and it was 1 for Spain!

EUROCUP FINALS 29 june 2008
Spain 1 : Germany 0

we just stayed in Slovania for a night, went through a tunnel of 7km and reached Austria, land of Edelweiss, remembered ´The Sound of Music´ in the 60s / 70s? it was filmed here. the national park of Grossglockner was beautiful. nice houses in the village and beautiful countryside scenery. all is so beautiful but when ever we travel in the mountain, which has a lot of slopes and curvy roads, there comes rain! it’s so cold and wet on the road! 2368 meters above sea level. We paid S$36 for the entry to travel this 40km of road here to enjoy the cold rain and wet roads. It was tough going up with Hope Too because this buffalo is much too heavy! It’s challenging for us to attack this alp on such a condition but it was worth the effort. This road was for bikers! Should you come to Austria, rent a motorbike or a bicycle to Grossglockner. http://www.grossglockner.at/


on the north, there was the classical Salzburg, where we saw a lot of people practicing music here. Mozart was born here.

25 June 2008, we reached the only factory for the world wide distribution. It was a Wednesday and the factory tour was only made on Fridays. I overheard from the from a westerner man speaking to the counter:

‘hi, I am a tourist and I hope I can visit your factory’

the counter lady replied:

‘I’m very sorry, the factory tour is only on Fridays. Maybe you can come again in 2 day’s time’

the man was disappointed and continued browsing the KTM boutique shop.

I waited for this tourist to make his exit and asked the counter lady for a factory tour today, which I gotten the same reply as she did to the previous man. I chanted some spells and make try to make her to see the ‘swinging watch’, I began my talk and I persuade her for all reasons that she must help me for this factory tour.

It works! She gave me some hints and I followed closely to her hint and we were in! There comes Micheal, where we would like to thank him for taking out time from his job to give us a special tour in the factory. We could not take any pictures in the factory due to the commercial secrets and there were new models for 2009 yet to be release to the press. We were really impressed by the technology and the skills that the factory managed. KTM is truly built for racing. we witness the real RC8 model.

This visit adds another tick to our ‘must do’ list in this trip.

Along the way to Czech Republic, we stopped at a Harley Davidson showroom. The owner of this showroom/workshop/pub/museum greeted us and they were very friendly. It was defiantly one of the bigger Harley dealers that we have met and he was

very humble. He treated us like a guest, not a customer like what we have back at home. Willi, the owner also invented the world very first CNG (compressed nitrogen gas) motorbike, from a Harley. If you need to rent a Harley or a Buell, this will be the best company to approach in Austria. They also allow me to test ride the Buell. At that moment, my left brain told me:

try it! it is one of the superbikes in the world. make wheelie and knee sliding corners which Hope Too can’t manage.
then my right brain spoke to me in Mandarin:

wait fall down you got €€€ to pay or not. It’s too powerful for you to handle.

for one second of conversation with my left and right brain, I thank Willi about the test ride. He gave us some souvenir and allowed us to camp behind his building for a night. It was a stormy night! We felt like we were in the dark castle when the vampire is awake, like as in the movies. visit the Buffalo American Motorcycles:

http://www.buffalo.at/

also check this motorcycle: 5700cc. it cost 59000euros. about s$120000,00.

0-100miles\hr takes 2 second plus! it´s brand is Boss Hoss

North up to Czech Republic, the big 40 footer truck drivers were not friendly. We managed to have a quick tour on the attraction in Plzen and rest in the campsite to re-organize ourselves like doing the laundry and have a good shower. The best of Czech Republic was not only the food but the beer.

Lager beer was invented in 1842. Plzen (Pilsen in German) is the home town of Pilsner Urquell, the world’s first Lager beer and now imitated all around the world.

Drink Pilsner and you will get the real taste of lager beer, not Lion Beer or Cheetah Beer or Elephant Beer but Singapore’s own brew TIGER BEER is one of our favorites.

Along our trip, eating, drinking, talking to the locals, observing the nature and study about local habits is what makes the trip important for us. Not forgetting meeting new friends or linking up with friends.

finally my peaceful pit-stop after 6 months, 23000km of travel. we are now in Thomas Beez house. we met each other earlier this year in Chiang Mai, Thailand, a horizons unlimited (world biking website) meeting. Thomas was the owner of a construction company and the family was very warm and helpful. He has ridden to many countries in his BMW GS and seen more things. Hope Too is getting his help to stock up the spare parts here and having a overall servicing before we met the tough South America roads. We had true good German sausages and lots of laughter with him.

N49deg 26.701
E 09deg 49.283
this is a very tasty wine that i must recommand! it cost only S$8.00. vine in wurzburg.
btw, invest your € in beer as it cost only about S$2.00 for a bottle!