Adventure can both be found and can find you! Today was a mixture of both. After our continental breakfast at Knopf Tours, we packed our meager belongings that would be travelling with us on the motorcycle and put the bulk of our belongings in short term storage at Knopf Tours. We said our goodbyes to the three fellow riders who were either departing today or in a few days. And we were off!
Today our route to Hanau would be by the autobaum so that we could make significantly better time. Just north of Heidelberg we made our only refueling stop. It was quick and we were back on our way. Soon it began to drizzle, but that turned into full fledged rain! We didn't stop as there was no covered areas to adjust our clothing. By the time we reached Hanau I was pretty wet. We found the town square and then looked for parking. I pulled into a parking garage but the ticket machine wouldn't print a ticket despite the help of the driver behind us. We were trapped between the security gate and a lady trying to get in to park her card behind me. Finally the garage attendent remotely released the gate and we entered and parked in the garage despite the admonition to not park in there.
After covering and locking the bike we walked to the main square where we found to the statue of the brothers Grimm along with a very active Farmer's market.
It then took a bit of looking to find the Tourist Information office. It was surprising the number of official people who didn't know where it was given that it had moved. We were able to get Sunday afternoon tickets for Rapunzel. We grabbed a quick lunch from one of the food trucks and the wursts were great. One of the bigger adventures of the day was to find the parking garage where we left our bike. Eventually Angela's sense of direction prevailed and we suited up and headed for Niedenstein, again by the autobahn. Portions of th trip were miserable due the drizzle and rain. About an hour from Niedenstein we took a break at a BK which allowed the rain to stop. The rest of the ride into Niedenstein was terrific and when we arrived I knew immediately it would be a hit with Angela due to the decor and location in the little village. Then when we saw the room with a terrace balcony there was further little doubt.
After we unpacked, it was time for some schnitzel in the little restaurant downstairs. Angela was able to help a Bulgarian/Canadian with the German menu.
After dinner the adventure found me!
I was working with my Netbook and GPS, and received an error message that my GPS maps were corrupt (it might have been an explanation for the problems I experienced a couple days earlier). So I pressed the button to fix it and whoosh my European map files vanished from my GPS! This was not a good sign. So I started the process of downloading the map files from Garmin which literally takes over 4 hours using the hotel's WIFI connection. So we went to bed hoping the download would complete on its own. Would it? Stay tuned.
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