October in Germany is a beautiful time of year, the leaves are changing, the colors are gorgeous, the wine (and beer) are flowing and the Venison is fresh. For the second year in a row I to Frankfurt in October for work. Last year I rented a motorcycle and toured the Rhein River Valley and Northern Bavaria before I began work in Frankfurt. October in Germany can be cool and rainy and this year was very much of both before I arrived; it rained for 2 weeks straight. As I was packing I was watching the weather with much trepidation, riding in the rain every day is not the most enjoyable experience. As the date got closer the weather looked better for the days I would be on the motorcycle. Lady Luck, Mother Nature and some well placed prayers got me several beautiful days of riding weather. I only hit rain once when I was on top of a mountain the first day and it was not bad with my Aerostich gear and heated grips.
This year, the dates matched up with Veterama 2019 in Mannheim perfectly and I decided to fuel all three of my hobbies/passions/obsessions in one trip; Motorcycling, Vintage Motorcycles/Automobiles and my work. Veterama is the premier vintage motorcycle and automobile swap meet and I was tremendously excited to go for the first time.
I decided to rent again from Allround Frankfurt and they had a very nice BMW F750GS (white with the nice red accent on the seat) ready for me with all the paneers and full of fuel. Allround sells their motorcycles at the end of every year and my 750GS only had 10,000 kilometers on it. Last year I feel I traveled too long on the motorcycle the first day after being on two airplanes for over 14 hours and I decided to stay closer to the rental facility on my first night. I selected the town of Groß-Gerau for the first night as it was a short 35 miles from the rental facility and was the closest, eclectic town I could find. I stayed there one night and enjoyed it very much. It was the right choice not to try to do too much in the first day as being tired and jet-lagged is not a good combination for being safe on the roads, especially a motorcycle. During my first Venison dinner on this trip I struck up a conversation with a person who was staying at the hotel on business. Little did I know this would be the first of many great conversations I would have.
After waking refreshed on the second day I headed towards my next hotel which was in Weinheim, just outside of Mannheim where Veterama was being held. Veterama is about 15 minutes away from the hotel I selected and the hotel has its own private parking lot which factored into the selection criteria. After a ride of 70 miles (about 2.5 hours) on very tight and twisty roads I arrived at the hotel, left my luggage at the check-in and quickly got headed to Veterama. The gates open on Friday at 12:00 for vendors and premium ticket holders and my plan was to get there at 1:00pm. Most vendors were already set-up and I started my shopping expedition right away. I have included pictures of the event that show some of the interesting old parts and motorcycles. I saw many things I wanted and thought to myself, “I will come back for that if I don’t see anything better”. I learned quickly that by the time I was back, the item I was interested in was gone! If you want it, buy it right then and there and do not procrastinate! Veterama is HUGE, and my guess would be its the size of 10 or more football fields. I spied a very nice, seemingly original R51/3 that I should have purchased but thought I would come back to it in case there were others at the event. By the time I got back to where the R51/3 was, in under two hours, it was gone! Live and learn for next time. The amount of parts and pieces I saw for BMW motorcycles was overwhelming and it is not like the swap-meets here in the states where you hardly see BMW parts. Starting at 1pm, I walked up and down countless rows of parts, pieces and motorcycles until my feet hurt BADLY which was about 7pm. I spent 6 hours walking at a fairly brisk pace and in that time I did not cover even half of the show but I knew where I wanted to go the following day.
I rode back to my hotel, ate dinner and went right to bed to get ready for the following day.
The next morning (day 3) I was back at Veterama at 8:30am and left at 1pm. I knew what I wanted, where it was (or at least where it was the day before) and I was on a mission. In the end I got about 50% of what I wanted. I overspent on some items and did well on others. I never saw another R51/3 that was as nice as the first one.
I wanted to get some riding in during the afternoon of Day 3 and had another 70 mile ride through the tight twisty mountains from Weinheim to Miltenberg. If I took a direct route between the two the mileage would be about 15 miles but going out of the way through the mountains and the small towns is far more interesting and fun. Riding up through the mountains was exhilarating and I had beautiful weather. I stopped several times for coffee, to take pictures and to chat with the locals. I met so many fabulous people on my trip and everyone was more than happy to talk to me about myself, themselves and my trip. At one point I saw two interesting windmills with red and yellow stripes on the blades. The access road was dirt and more than a quarter mile long. I rode down the access road and parked under the windmills to take pictures. After about 15 minutes of taking in the views and snapping some pictures the farmer came over and asked if I was okay. I said I was fine and we talked for about 15 minutes about New York, farming and the beauty of the views. What a great country!!
I arrived in Miltenberg tired, caffeinated and very hungry. I arrived around 5pm to find that I needed to wait an hour to eat. My feet hurt from walking around Veterama that morning and I was tired from the motorcycle journey. I took a power nap, woke up and walked to the local restaurant for dinner. Along the way I took pictures and met a wonderful person who lived in Albany for 30 years. She was born and raised in Miltenberg and came home after living in the states. She helped me find the best local place to eat in the town! Dinner was fabulous, I had Venison (what else) and went to bed happy with a full stomach.
On the 4th day I was to drive to Frankfurt to stay in my final hotel for work and I rode another 80 or so miles through the mountains and small towns. As I was riding up a very twisty and wide open single lane road I saw an area that locals were sitting on benches made from whole tree branches. I quickly pulled off the road and onto the grass area that several other cars had parked on. The minute I turned my motorcycle around I realized why these people were sitting there; the view was amazing. I immediately struck up a conversation with several people and it was the gentleman’s birthday that day! I wished him happy birthday and we spoke about New York, Germany, Motorcycles and several other topics. About this time several other of his friends showed for the birthday celebration, many of them on horses! I asked where they were going and they told me there is a great castle where you can have lunch that was about a 1 hour walk from where we were. Motorcycles are not allowed on the walking path but they told me how to get to the castle by road. I followed their directions and was at the castle in 10 minutes, ate a Venison lunch and enjoyed every moment. As I was leaving they were just arriving and I wished him a Happy Birthday, a Danke and a nice Gutten Tag. What lovely people.
I got to my Frankfurt hotel tired, full of Venison and ready to settle down to work.
On the last day before work I rode about 2 hours north of Frankfurt and went through wonderful small towns and great twisty roads. The riding was great but I was getting tired and was looking forward to handing the motorcycle back in. I arrived at Allround and was greeted by the staff with a friendly smile, a cup of coffee and a bottle of water. The motorcycle was perfect and the staff are even better. I got signed out and was waiting for my taxi when a person came in and asked if the F750GS was able to be rented for a full week. They explained it had just come back and needed to be checked, tested and gone through but that would only take an hour or so. He agreed and started to sign paperwork, the little 750GS was on its way to another adventure.