2014-08-23 Liezen

Does the interruption really make the journey?

Perhaps I should have listened to my new found friends in Innsbruck as they asked me for the tenth time to stay some more days with them. There was rain in the air. I figured that rain, motorcycles and steep mountain passes with hairpin turns is not a favourable combination of sorts. Gert and Christiane accompanied me leading me down the mountain to Innsbruck town to visit the local automobile club to buy a Highway Tax Vignette so I could you use the main freeways. Although the weather looked promising soon it started bucketing down and never stopped. I passed Salzburg in a haze and spend several hours negotiating traffic jams in driving rain. My two inner "waterproof " jackets had already been penetrated and so had my “waterproof “pants when suddenly about 25 km passed the town of Liezen I smelled something like burning plastic.. Suddenly I lost all power; lucky I was in the right-hand lane and not in an overtaking manoeuvre. The bike came to a halt along in the emergency lane. It was still raining steadily and the traffic passing at 120 kph spraying me with the layers of misty water. Normally I would say” it is time for a coffee” but the best I could do was to sit on the rail and gave my options some thought. In the distance I spotted a sign with “snow chains changing bay - 400 m.” or something like that on it. It would at least be a safer place then where I was at that moment. Pushing the bike about 500 meters is not easy. At least the rain kept me cool; I just hoped that no one would crash into me before I reached the safety of the parking bay. At arrival I saw a recue phone but...was out of order. There was a note with the phone number of the Austrian Automobile Club. My phone did not work though. I asked a motorist to make the call for me, not a problem. It would be 30 minutes before a truck would be there. Now I needed to call the Dutch Automobile club which was done by means of approaching a Dutch car which had pulled up near the toilet block. The couple in the car made the for me and offered me a drink before they continued on their journey.

The truck arrived; I helped the driver to place the bike on the special bracket designed for motorcycle recovery.

I often read that the interruptions make the journey and is the base for new adventures. At that stage I was not so sure about that. After dropping off the bike and taking me to a nearby hotel I made some calls to the Dutch automobile club and now need to wait until Monday for further proceedings.

Meanwhile I learned that the motorcycle and car of Max Reich's is on display in the Puch museum in the nearby town of Judenburg. Ah there is the new opportunity!

A 1.5 hour train ride took me there in comfort.