I survived a coupla laps round the Arch de Truimph in Paris no probs, cars everywhere though! Rode south to the south coast of France at Montpellier. Staying with Vanessa saw around the city and did some work on the bike, had the valve clearance check done. This was great but i didnt realize at the time that this had somehow stuffed the grip heaters and caused me many days of drama. On the road again heading east now towards the Alps and Italy. I was worried heading into the moutnains and gettting frostbite on my hands so many hours trying to sort out the grip heater unit. No luck but thankfully the weather held good and i had amazing views of the mountains. The alps certainly rival the rockies in Nth America i reckon.... Camped overnight in a forrrest in Italy and the following night also i was overlook the huge lake which also has the border with Switzerland. The following day i was in 4 countries in 1 day and only rode 300 bloody kms! Started in Italy, crossed the mountains into Switzerland, then Leichtenstein and finally Austria. It was great to se more of the mountains when i didnt even realise there were more of them! Also great was the weather and that my hands survived without frostbite! I stayed in a homestay that night in austria and woke in the morning to snow outside. Awesome, lets go for a ride i said! I ditched the plan to head further through the alps and up to higher altitude (especially looking at my now bald, offroad tyres!) in favour of heading along the hwy to Munich in germany.

I arrived and inally managed to contact Andrea who i met on tour in Perth and ended up warm, fed, and in great company for the evening with her, boyfriend Mike and Miriam. This time was probably the most successful shopping time of my entire trip, i got a new grip heater control unit, shoes, top box baseplate (broken in my fall in France), pocket knife, and all the while trying out the local Bavarian food. Went and visited the Dachau concetration camp from WW2. A horrifying experince but a must see, and very interesting to learn the modern opinions of germans from this time from Andrea, and how this is educated in schools nowadays. My departure was postponed by an extra day to visit the small towns where the girls grew up and to visit their families. A real treat to have done so much in such a short space of time and the hostpitality overwhelming, yet again....

From Germany it was Nth east to Czech. Lots of new things, communism relics everywhere again like in Russia. intersting and beautiful city though very cold now. Staying in a great hostel, full of aussies and the temp has dropped real low. Max temp today is +2 celcius. Hitting the road tomorrow to begin heading north for Berlin on the weekend, gonna try and not freeze my nuts off!