MONDAY 12th SEPTEMBER 2011 (Zundapp Doctor)

We were up early so we could be at Peter's shop bright and early. We missed him last visit but am pleased to finally meet up.

We put the diff and gearbox up on the workbench and then all eyes were glued to find out what's going on.

I took a photo and was immediately reprimanded by Peter ... "STOP", he said. "THIS IS MILITARY AND THEREFOR TOP SECRET".

I felt really bad...for about 1 second. When I saw the smirk on his face which quickly broke out into a huge grin and then a loud laugh, I knew I wasn't going to prison!

Josef and Simon got to work dismantling everything. The whole process worked like clockwork - I suspect they've done this a few thousand times before!

A price estimate was worked out (which was fairly hefty) but what do we do? We are on the other side of the world with a broken bike.

Yep, fix her up.

Paul was shown every part and what was wrong so we have a very good understanding of its condition.

We drove to MONCHENGLADBACH to attempt a bank robbery! We are only allowed to withdraw a certain amount of cash each day and we now needed to withdraw many days worth of money. We went to three banks three times and tried every card in our wallets. I'm sure the bank tellers were looking at us suspiciously as we kept on attempting to rob the cash machine!

The diff AND gearbox had all the shafts, gears and bearings replaced. Also, we found out why the clutch wouldn't disengage properly so promptly got the necessary throw-out bearing to replace the existing one.

Connie joined us and then we were taken to MONCHENGLADBACH where we had the best baguette we've ever eaten. Thanks Connie & Peter.

The damage bill came in a little under what was expected. There was some friendly 'play' where Paul acted really sad to be paying and Peter was really happy to receive the cash.

We bid our farewells to Peter, Connie, Simon & Josef at the end of the day.

We revisited the largest POLO motorcycle store in JUCHEN and finally got on the road at 7.00pm.

We made our way in to COLOGNE to check out the city sights while there's still plenty of daylight and, more importantly, less traffic.

Our first sight was the massive gothic KOLN Cathedral which has to be one of the most amazing buildings in the world. As the sun set and the spot lights came on the Cathedral looked even better and a bit spooky.

There was a large courtyard all around the Cathedral which led to the main Barnhoff (train station) which has a lattice roof - it looked great in the dimming light.

We walked to the Rhein River and watched the daylight disappear and the city lights begin reflecting in the water. We watched the boats motor up and down the river. It was all quite splendid. We were surprised at the strength of the current. The boats left quite a wake.

Before we knew it, it was 10.00pm and so we decided to make tracks for home. Not sure we'd make it all the way but we finally arrived in Crailsheim and fell into bed at 2.30am.

One thing that helped is the best radio station in the world SWR3. They play 'English' songs specialising in a great mix of songs from the 60's and 70's as well as contemporary. I've lost count of how many times we said..."Gee, haven't heard that song for

Y-E-A-R-S".