2015 - Southern Germany / Bavaria by Bicycle

Two hours after landing in Dubai, we boarded another A380, on time, for the shorter (six hours) flight to Frankfurt. We were hoping (after the debacle in Hervey Bay) that our bikes and gear were on the same plane. After sitting on the tarmac in Dubai for a while, we finally took off and arrived at a very wet and stormy looking Frankfurt just after 1pm (we made up quite a bit of time), with a temperature of 13 deg C! Lucky we are catching the train to our motel and not riding as we normally do.   After breezing through Immigration, we (Greg, Wendy, Gunther, Yvonne, Stewart and Alison) were all very pleased to see our bike boxes in the oversize luggage area.  However, as we were waiting for our bags, we heard an announcement that we were to report to the luggage claim counter. It was there that we were given the bad news -  Greg's, Yvonne ’ s and Gunther's bags were not there, but they knew exactly where they were - incoming on the next flight. Wendy gave them the hotel d...

After getting up very early due to the new timetable, we did all our chores in order to secure the house and our luggage.   It was then into the shower to freshen up and get ready to go to the airport.   Our friend John kindly drove us to the airport and dropped us off with plenty of time to spare. As we were checking in, the QANTAS man informs us that because the flight to Brisbane is a smaller prop plane our bikes "might not fit on".   “ Yes ” we said, “ that is why we booked the original one.   After much to ’ ing and fro ’ ing, he eventually told us that the bikes would get to Sydney, they might just not be on the same flight as us. Oh well, maybe we could do a walking tour of Germany? If that was not enough, the QANTAS baggage ticket printer at the check-in was outdated and they could only print a three-leg trip, not a four (which our re-routed trip was).   So, a hand-written tag had to be produced for each bike box (x4) and each bag (x4). We can only ho...

Just as we were returning from afternoon drinks with the neighbours, Wendy received a text message from QANTAS informing us our direct flight to Sydney had been cancelled. This is not something you want to hear the night before flying out to Europe. So after many, many minutes of Wendy waiting on the phone to speak to a real person, our flights were changed: we were to get to Sydney via Brisbane on a DASH8 (a much smaller plane than the direct flight of a Boeing 717, aka: bugsmasher)!!. This added an extra four hours to an already long journey and meant leaving home four hours earlier than expected!!   However, at least we were guaranteed of getting there!   As the flights were being re-arranged, Wendy asked about the bikes and informed QANTAS there were an additional two person in our group travelling with bikes and the reason for booking the direct flight to Sydney was to avoid the potential of the bikes not being loaded.   QANTAS informed Wendy that no luggage was guar...

After surviving our first cycle tour together in 2014, we (Greg and Wendy) decided to chance another one. We decided to stay in one country this time.   As Germany has such great cycling infrastructure, we picked it and decided that instead of doing the whole country, we would concentrate on the South Eastern parts. Additionally, we decided to invite a few fellow cyclists; Gunther and Yvonne (from Howard, we cycle with them regularly), Stewart & Alison (from Hervey Bay, we cycle with them occasionally) and Mick & Kate (from Canberra, Greg has ridden with them on tour on a few occasions). Cycling is just so much more fun (and safer) when it is shared with like-minded people. We fly into Frankfurt, will do a loop around South Eastern Germany then fly out of Frankfurt six weeks later.