2011 Alps Trip Journal Part IV

2011 Alps Trip Journal Part IV

Day 9


Landeck to Erding.




This ride was mostly an admin leg to get us back to our starting place, but it did have its moments. Not the least of which was the photo of Manuel in the lead and as beautiful a sight as can be had in Switzerland. You be the judge.

Although the tours gather at Erding, Germany, their warehouse and maintenance facility are in Egmating, Germany. Manuel took us on a little side trip to this facility but after a short tour, I looked across the street and saw a vintage BMW with a couple of guys on their butts working on the car. I asked Manuel what the place was but he had no clue. So… we walked over to see the car and struck up a conversation with the two guys working on the car. Turns out one of the guys is the owner of the BMW and a whole garage of unique autos and bikes. For me the most interesting of the cars is the collection of East German Trabants. Perhaps one of the most poorly designed cars ever. It has a nasty two stroke engine and smokes like a steel plant. It’s a combination of plastic and steel and none of the parts seem to fit. It was, however, cheap and most East Germans could afford one.

Another fact that was revealed to us was the 1952 BMW 327-2 Cabriolet had a motor built by Eisenacher. In fact, here is what Wikipedia has to say about Eisenacher;

Eisenacher Motorenwerk (EMW) was an East German manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles based in Eisenach. EMW also entered Formula One as a constructor in 1953, but participated in only one race, the 1953 German Grand Prix.

One of the pre-World War II BMW factories was located in Eisenach, which after the war was taken over by the Soviets, since Eisenach was situated in the Soviet occupation zone. The factory continued producing cars and motorcycles under the BMW brand, but after a lawsuit in 1952 they had to change the name to EMW instead. The logotype was also similar, but instead of the blue BMW used, EMW used red.
Later the automobile section of EMW became VEB Automobilwerk Eisenach and built the Wartburg. Motorcycle manufacture ended in the 1950s and was replaced by the AWO 425 built by Simson at Suhl.
There were a couple of cars that had engines of this manufacturer. You can see all of these cars at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HKGh0Zfbxzg.


We finished the ride at the Hotel Henry in Erding.

We inspected our bikes and returned them to Edelweiss. We had traveled over 2000 Kilometers. Had terrific lodging and meals plus a wonderful guide. It could not have been a better trip.

Well, some how I had screwed up the number of days of actual riding and I had to spend an extra day in the Hotel Henry and consume not one but two of their amazing breakfast spreads. I was fortunate though because the Senna’s planned for a day’s delay and we had a wonderful classic German dinner the last night. Just a little side note, across the street from the hotel was a Ford dealership. The original owner was enchanted by Henry Ford hence the name of the hotel he purchased years before.

Most of this journal is visual because of the video cam and my lack of vocabulary and creative styling to properly paint what is a most remarkable corner of the planet.

I hope the reader gets some pleasure out of this report.

Respectfully,


Gus Fitch