Back to Finland

No more D-Days! Germany was conquered in 21 days but I missed some parts. This needs to be fixed...

After not that nice time in the ferry, it finally arrived to Helsinki.



I didn't want to drive straight to home but instead went to the southern harbor for a coffee. It just felt strange to be back and was nicer to hang out somewhere with all your stuff on the bike. This was the 1st trip with the motorcycle and it was really a great experience.

Big thanks go to the people who made it possible: Julie for showing around Hamburg and other places, I hope to see more next time! Jenny, Mr.T & Frau S for showing around in the G-City and Mr.T for wasting so much of his valuable time with ordering me a navigator and many other things. Klára & Max in Heidelberg, wish I could have stayed for a longer time! But with so short planning it was really a great day!

The stop in Freiburg was also really short but I'm sure I get to see it again some day. My most deepest apologies to Michelle for being late. More gray hair for me... Switzerland was really one of the most impressive part of the trip, I hope to see more of it soon!

Yasmin and David for the hospitality in Vorarlberg. The trip, playing Star War -games with Wii, everything. Steffen for providing the Kellerbier ;) I hope next time there will be more time to hang out. Karin, Anja (& Sabine) for having a moment for me along with their busy schedule.

Herr & Frau Halas in good ol' Bayern. Probably the place I've visited the most in Germany and it always shows up new sides. Hope to be there again next year! Audrey for having a moment of time (and the great coffee of course ;) even during a busy day.

Last but not least Ina and Raffi in Hamburg. The time was short but thank you for every second!

D-Day +21: From Göttingen to Travemünde (via Hamburg)

Finally three weeks were coming full and the realities of life were knocking behind to corner. All fun ends and also the trip so it was time to head back to Travemünde to catch the ferry. I also wanted to drive through Hamburg to meet Frau I.

The driving itself went quite fine. Did one stop before Hamburg and also got soaked just before Hamburg with a short (but heavy) rain. Luckily was so short that my clothes dried up before I got to Hamburg. There I met up with Frau I and Herr R in a beach bar. Had some Bionade, talked for sometime and then went out for some schnitzel. After that the dear people had to go for a movie so I headed to the center of Hamburg. There I took a small walk around the (Binnen)alster and checked the city hall.

But the clock was again ticking and I had to get to Travemünde because the boarding started around the midnight.

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D-Day +20: Gosslar

During the day I went to the center with Frau S to have something to drink. It was again a beautiful day, the Sun was shining and the birds were singing. For the evening Jennylein had invited me to Gosslar, a small medieval city in the Harz mountains. It was known because of mining and because of the water management system it's also an UNESCO World Heritage sight.

Before going to the party, we took a little walk with Mr.T. Because we arrived late, the pictures are pretty dim. We also tried to find some Gose, a special kind of beer from the area but we failed since it was late and the most places were already closed.

After the party we went to a city festival though we had only time to grab a beer or two. Then a drive back to the G-Stadt...

D-Day +19: From Peißenberg to Göttingen

Again a rainy day but too bad one cannot always choose the days to drive. Since I was running out of time, I had to go anyway. Went to say goodbye to Robert's parents & Chrissie and drove off.

Must say that this trip was one of the worst I've done. More than half of the trip I drove in rain and in some parts it was so heavy that I was thinking of pulling off. I made a stop in Ulm to visit the local Louis shop to see if they would have gotten some nice offers with driving shoes (cos mine started to leak!). Too bad I found nothing interesting, I just changed my socks and wrapped my feet with plastic bags and continued driving. Luckily at some point it stopped raining and the end of the trip went fine. Again Jennylein and Mr. T were waiting with some hot beverages. Seems all the trips towards Göttingen were not that successful.

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D-Day +18: München & Kesselberg

After series of sunny days it was great all the time. Since I managed to find a spot when it was raining, I decided to go for a drive because I didn't want to sit inside all day. So I fired up Viffer and headed towards Munich to visit Audrey. Of course after short drive it started raining but so far it was pretty light so I kept going. After I got to the Autobahn it started to rain move heavily. I took one false turn close to the Alliance Arena but finally got to her place.

After coffee, some delicious chicken and taking a look at her impressive photo equipment it was time to put the stuff on again and head to Kesselberg. The navi took me through Munich but there were no problems. There was some light rain but it wasn't bothering at that point. But I managed to drive only short time in the Autobahn until it started to rain move heavily.

I finally reached Kesselberg which turned out to be a really awesome route. Too bad the weather didn't allow me to enjoy it as much as it would have deserved so I'm really hoping to drive this again some day. As far as I remember no extra traffic is allowed there during the weekend so if you're going there, check out in advance if you can drive there or not.

I have no good pictures to show but there are plenty of nice pics & videos in the net, so here's a one.

Kesselberg. Wet and gloomy...

The trip back to Peißenberg wasn't that fun. It kept raining the whole trip and I was pretty much soaked when I got back. But Kesselberg, "I'll be back!".

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D-Day +16: From Dornbirn to Peißenberg

Again it was time to keep moving and leave the good ol' Vorarlberg behind. During the morning I went to say goodbye to the ladies of the International Office and Mr. F. Then quick visit to the Spar to buy some Mohren Bräu, Fohrenburger and Milka ;)

1st stop

Actually the 1st and 2nd places are already familiar. The 1st stop is where we waited for Hannu and in the pictures of the 2nd stop you actually see the same old wooden building. The next few pictures are from the 2nd stop  (Schrocken?).

3rd stop: Warth

Random encounter

There's not nothing much to tell about the trip otherwise. Besides few photos, I only stopped twice: once in Lechtal (?) to grab something to eat and later for gas. Got to Peißenberg in one piece where Herr and Frau Halas waiting.

To sum up the day:

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D-Day +15: Just hanging around

During this day I was pretty lazy. The weather sucked big time so I just drove to Dornbirn, had lunch with the lovely ladies of the international office and went to the center for a walk.

The Campus Cat

The church by the marketplace

Sadly they were out of the Ländle shirts I was looking for and I couldn't even find a sticker for Viffer. I also briefly visited Mohrenbräu's shop.

s'Lädele

The weather continued sucking so I returned back to Koblach and where we had a nice comfy evening.

D-Day +14: A bike trip in Switzerland, Liechtenstein and Vorarlberg

I was invited for a bike trip which suited perfectly since the weather was also really beautiful. Also I was able to drop the bags off. Here are some helmet camera pictures of the trip:

We made the 1st stop in Säntis (?) which I actually passed already during the way to Vorarlberg.

In addition we also made two more stops. One to fill up the tanks and 2nd one to tank the drivers (= coffee break). As a bonus we also drove through Liechtenstein though that was really a short ride ;) Later in the evening we were tired for anything more, instead we watched TV and played Wii. Later on the Swiss offered a nice show (with some help of the dear mother nature) on the other side of the river:

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D-Day +13: From Berikon to Vorarlberg

Time had passed and now it was time to leave Switzerland behind.

Zürichsee (1st stop)

The same view without a polarization filter

I also did a bit bigger mistake with the driving and turned a bit too soon before Neu St. Johann. But since the road was nice to drive, I did not bother to check out navigator but hoped that the road would have led me to road I had planned. Finally I made my 2nd stop (in Hemberg?), had a coffee and checked up the route in the navi. I could have continued on that route but I would then have missed the road (leading to Schwägalb) which I definitely wanted to drive so I decided to turn back. But since both roads were nice to drive there was no really harm done.

4th stop (after Neu St. Johann

Near Säntis (?)

I realized I had no pics of cows in Switzerland

I also made a short stop in Appenzell and walked around the city. It was getting a bit dark so I didn't even bother to take pictures. As this was the 2nd visit to the city, I did only short walk around it and left. Some more driving and I was already on a hill looking at Vorarlberg. When I got to Koblach, there was already a little BBQ-party starting up and Frau J & Herr F had kindly obtained few Kellerbier's which was nice after a hard drive.

Famous Austrian delicacy

A picture to sum up the day

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D-Day +12: Back to Berikon

It was time to leave the holiday house behind and head back to Berikon. Luckily this time the Sun was shining and there was no rush.

A panorama from near the restaurant

Apart from gas we made only one stop to a restaurant (the 1st stop in the map) in Schallenberg which was a popular meeting place for motorists. If you ever happen to come around, better stop at this place and have some of their excellent "Erdbeerkuchen".

Same view (but sometimes the polarization filter does magic)

The beginning of the trip was really nice to drive with a lot of curves but apart from that there was nothing special to see (or maybe I just had seen too many awesome passes already!).

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