Germany

After saying goodbye to the cat I made my way to Aarschot, Belgium where I was to meet two fellow Russian iron riders. This is getting confusing: you ride a motorcycle, but once a sidecar is attached you apparently no longer ride it, but drive it ... or so I have been told. It doesn't always sound right to me while writing, but you'll probably forgive me any mistakes I make.
Anyway, from Aarschot we set course to Maastricht, Netherlands to meet another member of our Ural-Dnepr club. Jo treated us to a nice lunch in his home. After lunch we made our way to Jalhay, Belgium. The camping site near the Gilleppe dam was to be our home base for the weekend. The Limburg delegation of our club had already arrived and set up camp. The rest arrived later. On Saturday we had a very nice tour and BBQ in the late afternoon, followed by chatting around the campfire. They are all very nice people and we had lots of fun and laughs. Sunday we broke up camp and each went on their way. If saying goodbye to friends and family before wasn't enough, there were more goodbyes to be said today. It's part of travelling I guess.
Sunday afternoon I arrived at my dealer in Oberhausen, Germany. They were just about to finish cleaning up from the Ural-Dnepr meeting they had organised. They were exhausted, but before heading home they showed me a place to put my tent and where to get water. I had a relaxing evening.
The next day around 11:00 Michael and Jürgen showed up to open their shop. My machine was taken care of first. New oil and filters, tensioning spokes, valve clearance check. My suspension was a bit soft, so after talking to chief mechanic Jürgen new coil springs were installed along with a spacer to further enhance the stiffnes. I took along some spare parts: drive shaft, carb-to-engine rubbers, part of throttle cable system (the two smaller cables to the carbs) because the main throttle cable was out of stock. I will have to pick this up somewhere along the way. I also bought a new tire. We had a talk about the trip and discussed what problems could arise. In general I feel even more confident than before since the motorcycle should actually perform very well according to the guys that have 10 years of experience with Ural and Dnepr.
Around 15:00 I set course for Adelheidsdorf, Germany. It is a small town part of the city of Celle, Germany. I spent one day here with Peter and Bärbel. I have known these nice people for as long as I can remember and it is always a pleasure to visit them. We talked a lot and Peter gave me some interesting items to take along my journey, for which I thank him.
So Wednesday morning, I took off again. Heading for Dresden, Germany. Football is big in Germany. Flags on houses and cars. That's one of the reasons I will bypass Berlin for now and only visit it on my way back home. It would be to crowded now with the world championships.
Max is a young guy I met on a ranch in Canada. He invited me to stay at his home. He still lives with his parents, Chrisina and Karl-Heinz, which are very nice people. By the way this used to be Eastern Germany, but a lot has happened since. We talked about the old days and Karl-Heinz showed me around Dresden. It is a very beautiful city that has managed to survive almost complete destruction by allied bommings. This is the last bed I will sleep in for some time I think.
Tomorrow I will be heading for Poland.

Schöne Grüßen aus Deutschland!