The End of the Journey

The view from the Hotel was spectacular and we were situated below a little castle and along the train tracks, which was not visible at night.

The final day started with another hearty breakfast of eggs, sausage, cheese and jelly along with plenty of coffee. The discussion turned to how to spend the last day - the Rhine or a visit to the Nurburgring to see some racing and the Nurburgring won! We left the hotel and head back to the Nurburgring encountering lots of bikes and cars along the way.

The entrance was lined with cars ready to run the Ring - the current version for tourists is 23 km with its 173 turns and is open to anyone to take a spin on. The cost is E40 for 1.5 laps and if there is a recession it was not evident at the entrance for the vehicles were a sight to behold.

We decided to take a view of the folks running the Ring - it is called the Green Hell - for while it is nestled in beautiful countryside many of the course turns are blind or over a hill. By the time one finishes a lap, the memory of the turns is gone and it is like a new lap. As we watched the cars and motorcycles go flying by, it quickly became apparent who knew the course and who was a novice. The drives who knew the course had the line to take and kept to it, knew where the best traction was. We saw one car almost spin and the driver kept control and every imaginable vehicle was to be seen - most were set up for racing. As we watched we decided our Harley's were likely not the best rides for the Ring and I did begin thinking about a BMW racer and what fun it would be to learn the Ring and then ride it. JJ became giddy as a little boy watching the cars and bikes go by - we decided a car would be the best vehicle the first few times out - my GTI would love it!

As I watched the action, I knew The Ring will be driven by me at some point in the not to distant future - it just looked like to much fun. Just like in real racing, an accident occured and the Ring was shut down while a wrecker, ambulance and track cleaner headed for the site - a good reminder that it will take practices and patience. With the track closed we headed for the bikes for it was time to hit the road - the gas station was filled with not your normal collection of cars getting gas.

For the last couple of hours back it was only natural we took the autobahn, seeing we had just been to the Nurburgring - an easy cruise of 150 km along with a little lane splitting made the time fly. The countryside looked peaceful and the sun was bright - we rolled along on our way to Holland.

We crossed the Rhine and I realized afterwards that I had used up my camera memory, so the pictures from the remainder of the trip and limited to the one below. The Rhine was majestic and filled with weekend activity - traffic was relatively light. We did manage to push our speed to 160 km for a stretch and it was about the peak of my comfort zone and my Road King was happy with that.

The end of the trip came at an Aral gas station just out side of Holland - as Robbert and JJ would be heading in a different direction and we would return to Eagle Rider. We said our good-byes and I know it will not be the last time we five ride together - it was no accident we came together for this trip. Robbert and JJ made the trip an experience for us and added so much - we are very grateful to them. Robbert program the Garmin for Stuart to take the lead which he did, even putting on the yellow vest.

As we headed toward Haaksbergen, it was odd not to see Robbert in the lead and JJ taking the occassional sprint - we rolled the last 55 km through the countryside recognizing several placed from a week earlier when we started our journey. We arrived at Eagle Rider (www.eagleriderholland.com) and were met by Andre and Harry - our goal was 16.00 and we were within 30 minutes. We unloaded the bikes and shared our experience with them - thanking Harry for his route. We thanked Andre and Harry for all they did, they made the rental process so easy, took us to and from the train and were open to us returning the bikes on a Sunday afernoon. We headed to the train for the ride back to Amsterdam and Harry informed us they rent BMW's also - the Ring entered my mind :-). We rode 3,061 km in seven days - awesome.

On the trip back to Amsterdam, there were a couple of brief naps and we each reflected on our journey - it was truly an Appreciative Journey!

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