Not a bike I know but too good to resist - Traction Avant spotted in Bonn today. Plus a Zundap Bella scooter. Evening ride to the outskirts of Koblenz
You Brits are lucky to have such fabulous places to visit and ride right at your doorstep. Don't take it for "granite", I've been there a time or two and it costs a lot for the rest of the world to go over and see the same. For you guys, just load up and within a few hours you're on another continent. A continent of incredible beauty and unsurpassed history. As to not saying anything about the war - probably a good idea. I often wonder about the old undercurrents and if any of the younger German people who weren't alive during the war (i.e. virtually everyone now) have any sensitivities about it. I was on the ferry from England to Calais a few years back and I was speaking with a Dutch couple in their 60's. They loved visiting and vacationing in London. Eventually the subject of Germans came up. I was a little surprised to hear that they still didn't like the Germans and thought they were "harsh people" or some such adjective. They still had a measure of resentment over what they had done in Holland, even though they themselves hadn't been born until after the war. I was a little surprised by this and it made me wonder if there were other euros who had inherited a dislike of Germans based on what had happened. I suppose old resentments would linger longer for those that lived in countries that had actually been occupied - so maybe that's why? Still seems odd. My grandfather was a Sherman tank commander during the war. He fought them in Africa and then in Italy before being severely wounded in '44 (the Sherman was no match for a Tiger). He's still alive today, complete with bits of 88mm Krupp steel still in his neck. He had a drinking problem like most vets after the war, but he eventually put the bottle down and got on with it. Today, and for many, many years he hasn't held a grudge against the Germans in any way. He completely forgave them and put away his hatred long ago. So it seems a little odd to me that children of survivors would carry an inherited grudge. The only thing that maybe makes some sense is that my grandfather killed his share of them before he was almost killed himself. Maybe if you knew you dished it out as well as you took it, it would make it easier to let bygones be bygones.
Now a French trip! Left Germany this morning and rode through Luxembourg to Verdun. Staying night here and then up to the tunnel tomorrow. Verdun memorial museum
