In theory this was second stage of a three part trip that was supposed to cover Europe from Nordkapp (the North Cape) to Sicily. The plan being to pickup from where last year's trip left off in Copenhagen and head south to Freiberg in Germany (for a week's break and a holiday with the family) and then onwards to Venice via the Alps.

This was my toughest tour to date. The bike was damaged on the flight over, leaving me with a limited selection of gears and the tour happened to coincide with a heat wave the like of which no-one could recall. Most of the trip took place in temperatures close to or over 40 degrees celsius (104 fahrenheit)!

Things got worse at the half way point (just south of Frankfurt) when the loss of my mobile phone, money and credit cards forced me to abandon the trip a day later at Strasbourg. It was only a total stranger's act of kindness that allowed me to get that far.

I returned to Germany in September, with the aim of completing the Freiberg to Venice portion of the tour but, once again, I was foiled by events outside of my control at the half way stage, but that's another story.

However, even if the tour wasn't a resounding success, there is much worth remembering and I am glad I did it. Es ist immer das Gleiche!

	Route	Date	Distance	Total
	Københaven to Fehmarn	18/07/06	164 KM	164 KM
	Fehmarn to Hamburg	19/07/06	160 KM	324 KM
	Hamburg to Hannover	20/07/06	170 KM	494 KM
	Hannover to Kassel	21/07/06	169 KM	663 KM
	Kassel to Gießen	22/07/06	124 KM	787 KM
	Gießen to Mannheim	23/07/06	164 KM	951 KM
	Mannheim to Strasbourg	24/07/06	145 KM	1096 KM
	Strasbourg to Freiberg	28/07/06	109 KM	1205 KM