The last days – from Frankfurt to Vienna

Sebastian: After around 14 hours in a matchbox like airplane we finally reach Frankfurt where I need some time to feel my legs again. I leave the plane a bit after Martin and when I finally get out guess where I find him… in a smokers box, a glass cage for the poor addicted members of our society (some would call it the real freedom, wouldn’t they?). After an intensive intoxication Martin is ready for the next step, which is picking up the bikes from customs. With an airport bus we reach the cargo department where we have our first nice surprise. The lady at the entrance is a motorcycle fan and goes completely nuts when we tell her what we are just about to finish – our trip around the world. With a big, warm smile she hands us the entrance pass and we head to the customs office where we have to wait just a few moments before,… yes before we have to pay the transport :).

After that we finally get to see our ladies again. Talking to a staff member I learn that he called me already twice to inform me that our bikes had arrived in Frankfurt. Of course I couldn’t answer the phone, being still in the plane, but I have to say I was surprised by the effort and the customer service. While unpacking the bikes we get to talk to some other guys who work at the cargo department and explain a bit what our trip was all about. We spend a nice time with them and in the end they offer us a coffee, let us leave the wooden pallet without having to pay for it and EVEN invite us to use THEIR staff toilet instead of the worn down guest toilet :D.

From Frankfurt we head towards Munich where we meet Karl and Ariane, two friends that I got to know while working in online marketing. When we arrive there we have another situation that we didn’t expect like that in Germany. Almost in the city center I drive over to a police car to ask them for the way. They explain it to me and I can feel quite some excitement of one of the police men when he looks at my bike. We continue driving and two crossings later somebody touches my sholder… it’s the police man who tells me that we should follow them, they will show us the way… I just think “WOW” even here people are nice and polite as we experienced it all the way around the world! We end up at the hotel talking with the 2 guys for over 10 Minutes and telling them how happy we feel about the fact, that they helped us and have the time to chat with us since this is nothing one would expect in Germany or in Europe in general, would it?! In the end, and this is really an amazing story to us, the police man who was really into our story, Hannes, even came down to Vienna to our welcome back party 3 weeks later!!! Just unbelievable :)) !

After a night in Munich, which surprised us with almost no open places after 22:00 and a morning brunch at the Mozart Café our next stop is Mattighofen – so we finally come back to the point where it all began! At the KTM Headquater we meet Lisa, Thomas and Andreas – the team that supported us in a great way throughout the trip. Andreas, our personal mechanic even changes our tires, braking pads and fluids so we can get a new test certificate for our bikes. After this is done we get ready to head home.

Our next stop is Admont where we meet Ervin, a good friend of Martin who joins us with his BMW 1200 GSA. We stay one night at a beautiful cottage in the middle of Austrians beautiful mountain scenery. The next day we drive through the Gehäuse, a part of Austria that I didn’t really knew before. It is an awesome trip to Mariazell where another two friends meet up before we continue to the Kalte Kuchl to finally meet with our families. Of course now we have to be stopped by an austrian police man who is not as charming as the guys from Munich, so Alex, one of our friends has to pay 20 Euros fine for an exhaust that doesn’t equate to local law. We have to laugh loud since we didn’t get any fines for the last 12 months and 40.000km!

The last stop today is the farmhouse of my father close to Hainfeld in Lower Austria where we enjoy an all day long BBQ session with around 20 friends and family members. The slightly rainy weather that kept some people from joining us turns out to present us the biggest surprise of the day: a beautifully and shining double rainbow! So, we had to travel around the world and reach our home to see this natural spectacle which we haven’t seen ever before in this intensity! The whole day was perfect and we feel that our timing was too.

We are home after one year of excitement, fun, great encounters with people from so many different countries, cultures, ages… and so on and now we are happy to be here again and to have the time and peace to let all these impressions be digested by our minds. There are no words to describe what if felt like to travel around the world on the motorcycle… Maybe “incredible”, “unbelievable”, “perfect”, “impressive”, “moving” or “best decision in our lives” can give our readers a slight idea of the feeling that completely fills our bodies when we now think about what we did – making a dream come true! We want to say thank you to everybody who followed our journey: family, friends, people we met along the way. It was, as we always explained, very important for us to be able to share our emotions with you and we hope that you could enjoy our trip at least a little bit. Let’s keep in touch and maybe we will continue this blog in the future… with south-, west- or northbound :)) !

Cheers,

Sebastian & Martin.