So what’s next – a Re-invention?

41st Anniversary picture in Oberursel

Well after a beautiful day in Heidelberg and a visit to our friend and bike shipping contact Stefan, we changed oil on the Strom, took mileage readings and then headed back to Frankfurt where we met up with Heiko

Heiko, a true friend indeed!

for our anniversary supper. It was a beautiful evening in Oberursel and we ate out at Zum Schwanen, a pub that Sandra and I had discovered back in 2011.

Back when we began to plan our ‘retirement trip’ which became the 2011, 5 month 22,500 km 16 country 3 continent extravaganza, we had quickly realized that we really enjoyed the opportunity to travel this way and see all the places we wanted to see.  It became and always will be our “Trip of a Lifetime”.

We have now completed 5 motorcycle trips to Europe, spent cumulatively a year on the continent, visited 24 countries, and saw in excess of 180 World Heritage Sites and traveled approximately 60000 kms. by motorcycle. We even learned that we've stumbled across some of the best beaches in the world, not a target we had set for ourselves.

Ending where it began

We found on this trip that while we will never see it all, that we have now seen the best of the best and that with other regions of the world out there it’s time to re-invent our next travel plans. For sure we’ll be back in Europe, and have the friends we made here welcome in our home in Canada, but with we will now focus on eastern Asia.

And when I returned to Heidelberg today to turn over care of our beloved Strom to Stefan for it’s journey back home I met up with a BMW Motorrad group from Malaysia, coincidence?

I was introduced to “1$ ” the expedition leader of 24 bikes and over 40 travelers who attended  the recent 2013 BMW Motorrad gathering in Garmisch-Partenkirchen. As you can see the fleet was being readied to be shipped back to KL on Friday. It's too bad they didn't have 1 more pallet!

The group from KL

He invited us to look him up when we travel later this year and he’d work at arranging a ride with us.

Nice coincidence! and so the adventure continues.......