It's over now...well almost

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And so our European adventure is over … Total kms 14,493

We had a lovely time in Ravensberg with Aloisius and Irmgard and they were so welcoming and generous to us. Aloisius took us to Friedrichafen to see the lake – but unfortunately with the low cloud we didn't get much of a view. He also gave us a guided tour of Ravensberg which is a beautiful little town – apparently the mayor surrendered very quickly during the war, so there has been no damage to all the lovely old buildings. Ravensberg – we hadn't made the connection between the name and the brandname of so many puzzles and boardgames. On the next day it was not raining, and we are not used to sitting still in once place for so long! So we hopped on the bike and rode through to Austria and Leichtenstein for the day. It was so pretty, and the alps are beautiful. There were a number of longer rides Warwick had hoped to do from this area, but unfortunately the cold and wet weather has been against us. Next time ….

We took two days to drive from Ravensberg back to Oldenberg. The first night we stayed at Kassel, and it had been an extremely cold and wet ride , in temperatures of about 3-5 degrees all day. We were really glad to arrive at the motel and try to thaw out a bit. The next day to Oldenberg was not much better and we were stopping every hour just to try and get warm, but we were excited to see Hildegard again. We are very sad that Heiner is so unwell, but it was a lovely treat for us to see Marie-Kathrin again, and also to meet Bjorn and Michael. Thank you all for making us so welcome in your home, and for all the help you gave us.

We spent Thursday afternoon cleaning everything, and repacking what was to go in the crate with the bike, and what was to go to Canada with us. Organising the return shipping of the bike has been somewhat fraught, with emails not being replied to, and vague information, etc. However, we finally had a booking number and a confirmation document, so set out for Hamburg early on Friday morning hoping it would all go smoothly. Bjorn kindly offered to drive for us which was fabulous, as it saved me having to drive, plus we had the benefit of his german language to help sort things out at the shipping yards. Warwick had gauged the amount of petrol left in the tank to be just about perfect … until Bjorn missed a turn-off on the motorway, and we had to travel under the Elb river and then back again. Now we needed a petrol station urgently!! Fortunately there was one very close by.

At the check in at the shipyards, the most unhelpful clerk declared there was no way we could pack the bike on a Friday as it was much too busy. We could come back on Monday and do it … except we were flying out on Sunday. So he said we would just have to leave the bike and someone else would do it. No doubt not realising what a big job it is – having to remove mirrors, and handgrips, windscreen, etc, and disconnect the battery. Not a good start to the day. But we took the bike around to the warehouse area where we were supposed to just leave it, and a much more helpful supervisor located our crate (we always wondered whether it would still be there waiting for us 3 months later??) and was very happy to allow us to use a corner of the warehouse to sort everything and get it all packed. He certainly did not want the job of doing it! Bjorn helped with explaining in german what we needed – and even signed off all our paperwork at the end for us. We are not sure he hasn't just slipped 200euro to this chap and arranged for the bike to be redelivered to Oldenberg!

Packing things with Warwick is always an adventure. I was over to one side bubble wrapping the mirrors, and he had just finished disconnecting the battery and taping all the wires, and rescrewing the cover in place, when I asked why the supports for the windscreen were still extended and shouldn't they be put down? Dang ( for our anonymous comment writer...) – now to reconnect the battery and start again. But then after everything else was fitted in well with no problems and the whole crate was all screwed down, addressed and labelled, portable drill was wrapped and put in through one of the inspection holes, and the forklift waiting to take it away …. when Warwick realised he had left his wallet in his motorbike jacket – now securely packed in the crate! Here we go again – where's that drill?

So we were enormously relieved to have that all done, and hope that at some time in the future our bike will make it's reappearance in New Zealand. It has been fantastic without a single day's trouble.  Bjorn gave us a bit of a tour of part of Hamburg before we left which included going through a different tunnel under the Elb River - an old system that used lifts to get the cars down to the tunnel and then back up again.  

Our last night in Oldenberg with Hildegard's family was great fun and we saw some of her slides from a trip of hers to NZ nearly 40 years ago.

Now the next part of our journey begins as we travel by train to Amsterdam and then onto Vancouver to see Chris and Gemma.