Sun! Finally sun again!
After almost six weeks in wet and cold Germany, we enjoy the warmth and the joy of life that comes with it. We drink our cappuccino in the café outside, we feel the warmth on our faces and find pleasure in relaxed driving – past flowering almond trees and through orange groves, where the orange trees are almost unable to bear the burden of the many, bulging fruits.
Es ist nicht schwer zu erkennen: Wir haben die fernen Länder wie Tadschikistan, die Mongolei und Vietnam für einige Zeit hinter uns gelassen und schlängeln uns entlang des Mittelmeers und durch die Berge Kataloniens.
Catalonia? Spain? How so? Didn’t we want to see the world and travel to distant countries? We have heard these questions frequently in the last weeks.
Our original plan was to travel to Mongolia and then explore Latin America. The basis for this planning were the 18 months Daniela had on sabbatical. Now this trip and this lifestyle fascinated us too much to be satisfied with the 18 months. So Daniela put all her courage together, took the consequence and quit her job.
Phew, quite a step after 19 years with the same company. But it feels good to be on the road again and to make your own decisions. And one of those decisions was to be on the road a bit more quietly now after the exciting months last year. We got to know beautiful landscapes and met great people, but we also had to realize that we don’t know many corners of Europe very well. And since South America is not going to run away from us, we decided to travel through Europe for a few months. And after Wolfgang has been flirting with a Honda Africa Twin for a long time, we also allowed ourselves the luxury of second bikes: two new Honda Africa Twins with double clutch transmission, also called “automatic”. And so here we are cornering through the tiny mountain roads and enjoying not having to shift gears all the time. Granted, the Africa Twins are higher and heavier than our 650cc BMWs; if you want to see something funny, watch the Dashcam video showing Daniela fighting with gravel. We are still working on the lowering 😉
To South America we will definitely take the small machines again. For European asphalt roads, which are on our agenda for the next few months, the Africa Twin is great. We roughly plan to circumnavigate the Iberian Peninsula, visit Sardinia and Corsica and then drive north along the French Atlantic coast. Let’s see how far we can make it until autumn.
