SUNDAY 9th OCTOBER 2011 (Day two at Veterama)

Here we are in down-town Mannheim and this  is the view from our room. We only saw it in the dark last night while sharing it with a few thousand others.

It's not a bad city, as far a cities go, but you can probably guess what the mission today is...yep, attempt to complete the other half of Veterama.


With both sticks in hand away we went. My legs suffered yesterday so I knew I wouldn't last too long without help today...(and I was right).

Same as yesterday the first few hours were spent going from stall to stall to stall. Again, easier to say we checked hundreds of stalls before having a 'five minute break'.

Now here's something you don't see everyday - a GOGO Mobile pick-up.
Now that WOULD be cool to go and get the groceries in...!!!

Here's anothery I fell in love with. A glass topped Mercedes bus. It even had a matching trailer. Beautiful.

Yesterday we spent the whole day and only saw motorcycle stalls.

Today it was a mix of motorcycle, car and oddities. Still a lot of bike stuff though.

Now here's one of the best bikes (my opinion only) seen during the weekend. No accounting for some people's taste hey...!!! But in the flesh it was pretty sweet.

We were lucky enough to be in the right spot at the right time to see the Mercedes bus & trailer moving out. What a fantastic unit.

Also saw a pretty specky 750 Laverda leaving the premises. It had been for sale (and still was) but we never saw it. We thought we did a pretty good job covering the ground - obviously not good enough!






We left Veterama AFTER closing time happy as pigs in mud with the last two days of treasure hunting. Got a few little bits'n'peices but had we lived locally the story could of been a whole lot different!

We decided to head south to Ubstatd-Weiher to visit a new acquaintance we'd met a few weeks earlier.

That turned out to be one of our better decisions as Siegfried & Libby (who was born in Tassie) took us out to their 'local' for the night. It was no ordinary night...it was the last night of business. The GEIS family were closing up shop.

Tradition has it that the family-run business must make all their own grog and food and they have been providing a venue for socialising, singing (as only the Germans can) and eating for the past 16 years. Tonight was their last night of business and the emotion in the room was one of huge sadness and happy memories. There was much singing and drinking. I even had a tear in my eye when I looked around and saw how truly sad everyone was. It was the end of an era for the village. The younger generation don't wish to take on the responsibilities of such a place.

We were very privileged indeed to witness such an event. One of the guitarists proudly announced that he'd travelled the furtherest (40 kilometers) for the evening but his face fell to the floor when he learnt we'd come from Australia.

We walked back to Siegfried & Libby's place before driving to a little hotel just up the road.

We couldn't help but reflect on the evening and how lucky we were to share a night that meant so much to the local people.