Fortunately I had a second night of pretty good sleep, pretty impressive since I was very excited about picking up the bikes and beginning the motorcycling part of this vacation. The three of us met down at the lobby of the hotel, grabbed a quick breakfast to go in the train station, and boarded the train for the 40 minute ride to Landshut. The dealership was only a few blocks from the station in Landshut, but dragging our luggage through the town made it seem much farther. The dealership was kind of in a back alley, making it a little tricky to find, but once we walked into the courtyard we were delighted to see our bikes lined up and ready to go.
Our train to Landshut had nice private compartments. This was also the first train (or bus or tram) that someone checked out tickets).
One of the reasons for going with Moto Maier was the large variety of rental bikes available. I had gone the BMW route last time with a too-big-for-the-Alps R1200RT, so I was eager to try something different. My main criteria, other than the bike being "right-sized" for the twisty mountain roads, was that it be a bike that is not available in the US. Between dealer demos and events like Americade I've demo'd almost every bike that interests me, so this was an opportunity to sample some forbidden fruit.
I wound up choosing a Yamaha TDM900. I liked the idea of a twin with upright ergos (similar to my Multistrada), and the TDM fit the bill nicely. Dave normally rides a BMW R1150RT and was also eager to try something smaller, but even more interested in trying something with more power. The new Honda CBF1000F was his first choice. Peter's daily ride is a BMW K1200GT, which is pretty similar to the Yamaha FJR1300 he chose to rent. I think one of his concerns was knowing what the hard bags would hold - all of the rental bikes had triple hard cases, but only the Yamaha's were factory and thus a known quantity. Frank's Honda Varadero was also waiting outside, though he wasn't due to pick it up until tomorrow.
One of the things we went back and forth with pre-trip was figuring out GPS options and heated gear hook-ups. Herman had Zumo 660 units for rent at 60 euro for the week, but then how would I get all the routes and waypoints on it? If I bring my Streetpilot 2720 how woud I get it mounted and powered? Should we ask Herman to wire the bikes for the heated gear or do it ourselves? This was an easy choice for me, as I didn't want to rely on someone saying that would do it. I get burned by that on an Eagle Rider Harley rental once and it soured me on "oh yes, we can do that for you". My concern about my Garmin 2720 was magnified by the fact that it required power to run as there is no battery. If I couldn't get it wired up for some reason I'd be in trouble.
Another option presented itself when Jim offered to lend me his Zumo 550 for the trip. Since it can run on batteries (for a short time) that was a better option so I took him up on it. I upgraded it with the latest 2011 Europe maps, transferred all my routes and waypoints to it, and packed it (and the mounting kit) in my suitcase. While getting the TDM900 packed up, I was delighted to see that Jim's Zumo 550 snapped right into the 660 mount on the bike. Powered right up and was ready to go - woohoo! I threw my Gerbings battery lead in the sidecase to be installed later - didn't really want to start pulling the rental bike apart at the dealership.
I had packed a little lighter for this trip than the last one, and still found myself with tons of space in the hard luggage. I could have done it without the top case if needed, though I prefer using one.
For the 2009 trip Jim and I brought all our gear over - boots, pants, jacket, helmet, gloves, taking up most of a pretty big suitcase. For this trip we chose to rent our gear from Herman (except Frank that is, he is wisely dubious as to the availability of gear his size). The cost was 50 euro for the whole outfit which seemed like a reasonable price to not have to lug my own gear over there. Dave and Peter benefitted even more from this as they would be continuing their vacation after returning the bikes and would need to haul their gear to Rome and Paris.
Herman took us to the stockroom in the back of the dealership and went about getting gear that fit us. Jackets and pants were pretty easy, Dave got a nice Dainese textile jacket and Peter and I got Held textiles, but boots and helmets were a little trickier to find good-fitting items. After a few helmets that didn't work, Herman cracked open some boxes of brand-new Caberg flip-ups in our sizes (we had requested modulars) and we were set. I also got a brand-new pair of boots (which took a couple days to break in to be honest). Overall we were very impressed with Herman's operation.
Bikes loaded, gear on, bluetooth communicators linked, GPS programmed, paperwork signed, we were finally ready to roll. Herman snapped some shots of us, some with our camera, some with his, gave us cards with his private number, and we pulled out of the lot...and promptly got lost. Just a little bit lost, but still not an auspicious beginning. Within 2 blocks of the dealership the Zumo had us turning onto a bicycle path. Hmm, that won't do. Turned around and took another crack at it. Eventually we found our way out of the bustling town of Landshut and onto the open road.
The route for the day
Moto Maier's parking lot / bike delivery area
Packing up
Packing up
Ready to roll (photo courtesy Peter)
Our goal for the day was pretty straightforward - take a mostly direct route from Landshut to the hotel in Bad Reichenhall about 90 miles away. The short ride should give us time to get a feel for the bikes, and when we got to the hotel we could make any adjustments/installations and maybe go for a loop in the surounding area.
I took an immediate liking to the TDM. Very comfortable riding position, more power than my Multi 620, and a nice engine sound to boot. We stuck to route 299, which would take us about 2/3 the way to the hotel, and after an hour or so stopped for lunch. There were only a few tables on the patio outside the restaurant, and we had to wait a bit to get one out of the sun. We placed an order as best we could to a waitress that only spoke German (more sausages for me, please), and started enjoying that "hey, I'm motorcycling in Europe!' feeling. It was only after lunch that we got into trouble. It was such a nice day, and we were all feeling good with the bikes, that a plan was hatched to take a more backroad way to the hotel. Problem was I had only programmed the direct route, and like an idiot did not have a paper map of the area. You should see what I brought for the other sections of the trip - laminated, annotated maps and route sheets, a Michelin map of Italy, the works. But of course nothing for Germany.
Lunch stop
Needless to say, our plan of "we'll just head in the general direction" didn't go well for long. We couldn't really find any interesting roads, and the estimated arrival time on the GPS just kept getting later and later. We decided to ditch our meandering plan and set a direct course for Bad Reichenhall. Unfortunately that didn't work out too well either. We ran into some construction that had the road the GPS insisting we take closed off. It's interesting the way the Germans mark that sort of thing - you come to a roundabout, and there will be the normal sign for what towns are down the next road, but one of them will be crossed off. We didn't decode that until going 4 or 5 miles down the road (man, we have this place to ourselves) and coming to the bridge that was out. No choice but to double back and try some other road. It was during this back-and-forth and rerouting that my frustration with the Zumo began. I don't know if it's just the way the Zumo works, or maybe it was the mapset, but the unit took forever to notice it was off-route and decide to recalculate. Recalculation was very speedy, but the delay before it got around to doing it was doing us in. Combine that with it's tendancy to announce turns at the very last minute, and it became very irritating. You'd ride along, it would change from "turn in 0.5km" to "make right now!", you'd miss the turn, and for the next 30 seconds (maybe more) you'd roll along waiting for it to notice you didn't make the turn. By which time you've passed the other 2 streets that could have gotten you back on track.
Eventually the Zumo's routing left us no choices other than "Take A94 East". A94, of course, meant the Autobahn. I hadn't really considered taking the Autobahn at this point on the trip, having only been riding a new bike in a new country for a couple hours. We stopped for a little roadside chat and I advised Dave and Peter about Autobahn ettiquite.
With a combination of trepidation and excitement all of us merged onto the Autobahn for the first time and immediately saw the fabled sign on the right shoulder - the white circle with diagonal slashes, aka "No Speed Limit". Traffic was thankfully very light, and we mostly cruised about 80-90 in the right lane except to make a short pass of slower vehicles. Our Autobahn segment was short, maybe 5 or 8 miles, so we were just getting acclimated to it when it was time to exit. Just as I was thinking "OK, that was nothing too special" two Audis flew by us in the left lane, doing I would say at least 140mph. We were doing 60 or 70, getting ready to exit, and they passed us literally like we were standing still. Fun.
"End of Restriction" (web pic, not mine)
It wasn't too long before we got to another crossed-off town, another road closure, and this time the Zumo redeemed itself. A mile or so after detouring down a side road, it suggested we make a right onto this small road that led into the woods. OK, why not? As the road got smaller and smaller, my smile got bigger and bigger. By the time we were in the thick of the forest the road was no wider than one small car. What a hoot! I wish I had stopped to get a picture, but I was too "in the moment". The forest segment was (too) short, and opened up into some farm area before depositing us just on the other side of the road construction. Nice!
We had a short water break, as it was getting pretty hot. Peter's Caberg helmet was bothering him, so I swapped him my Shoei to see if it would help. We both liked our new helmets so much we kept them for the rest of the trip.
The Hotel Almrousch in Bad Reichenhall was a great choice. It was located on a quiet side street (though you could hardly call Bad Reichenall a bustling metroplis), had some room for bike parking directly in front of the door, and had spacious rooms with balconies overlooking the mountains. Check-in was good for a few laughs, as the woman at the counter did her best to inject some English words into her conversation with us. At one point she tried enlisting Peter's help in translating her German to us - funny, since she had no reason to think he spoke German (which he doesn't). Passports were handed over, documents signed, and we were given keys to our rooms - keys on very heavy red tassle keychains. Obviously they did not expect you to take your keys with you when you left the hotel.
The Hotel Almrousch. I had the corner room on the top right.
Convenient bike parking. The sign behind the bikes (featuring the tassle keychain) was ripped off the wall during the overnight storm)
They even rolled out the red carpet for us
The view from my room as the storm rolls in
After getting settled in our plans for an evening ride were scuttled when a storm system moved in. We didn't know how long it was going to last, so decided instead to check out the town and get some dinner. None of us had packed normal raincoats, so we used what he had on hand. My fashionably black Tour Master rain jacket wasn't too conspicuous (which I suppose makes it a crappy bike rain jacket), but Peter's hi-viz Froggs Toggs certainly get some looks in town. The pedestrian zone was pretty empty as we walked into town. Once the rain started again we took refuge in a small Italian restaurant at the edge of the main piazza (or platz, I suppose, since we're still in Germany, but piazza sounds so much nicer). After dinner we continued walking down to St. Zeno Church, which dates back to the 12th and 13th centuries. We also passed some sections of remaining wall that dates back to the same timeframe, as Bad Reichenhall was once a walled city.
Dinners were delicious all around, and we topped it off with some great gelato from the window outside the restaurant. Tomorrow would be our first full day of riding and the last of the four musketeers would be joining us later in the day. We got back to the hotel just as the rain started up again, and this time it came down with a vengeance. The driving rain was accompanied by strong winds, so much so that a large sign was ripped off the side of the hotel. Hopefully tomorrow would bring better weather.
The main square was not exactly thriving
Excellent pizza
Peter and Dave
St. Zeno church, parts of which are around 800 years old
The southern edge of town. Notice the white concrete tram towers in the middle-right.
Turns out this is the world's oldest aerial tramway still in its original design
Close-up of the tram station at the top of the Reichenhaller.
Walking back to the hotel we still only encountered a few other people