Apart from seeing friends there was a more urgent need to stop in Vienna – with 42 thousand miles on the clock the big red GS had decided it wasn’t getting enough attention and a new clutch was needed.

Mission control was set up in Roberts lounge where our hunt for parts and a workshop commenced. Robert was commissioned as our new PR manager as he spent the morning singing our praises and extolling our virtues to various BMW garages in Vienna, in the hope of getting us some healthy discount and the parts we needed A.S.A.P.

At around 2pm Robert had located a dealer who could not only get us the parts we needed but who was also willing to take a chunk out of the normal price. My R1100GS needs four new components of the clutch with the most crucial being the clutch plate itself.

I (Simon) then spent the rest of the afternoon composing and writing a letter to Touratech in Germany who amongst other things manufacture and supply a ceramic/sinter racing clutch plate which I'm told will outlive the normal BMW clutch by 5-6 times.

Unfortunately the price of the unit makes it prohibitive unless Touratech decided to sponsor us directly. With the letter finished and the e-mail sent, all we could do was keep our fingers crossed that Touratech would find our journey inspiring enough to support us.

Whilst trying to cover all eventualities I also got in contact with a wonderful guy called Niki who runs and operates ‘Dirtbike’ and who is the official Touratech importer for Austria. Niki has kindly offered to supply the clutch plate at cost (!) if the response from Touratech is unfavorable and for good measure has offered us accommodation with him and his family – hopefully we can take him up on his kind offer – it would be great to meet him.

Our ‘work’ for the morning complete, it was time to play.

Chris had arranged for us to meet one of his friends and so with the sun shining down and the three of us riding our bikes we trickled through the Vienna traffic eventually meeting up with Erwin in the foothills of the mountains that surround this wonderful city.

The road to the top of the mountains was quiet and offered delicious curves all the way to the top. The whole area is a wonderful playground for GS’s not to mention providing us fantastic views across the city.

With the evening drawing in it was time to head back to the tent, as ahead of us was an evening with the motorcycle club. An evening with like-minded people was something we were both looking forward to. Following Chris in his car we rode our bikes to the bike club meet. What a fantastic evening.

Within minutes we were with new friends with Chris now in his normal position at the BBQ. These guys meet every Friday without exception at a private clubhouse and we felt very privileged to have been welcomed into such a close-knit club.

Early evening came and went and when the morning finally crept round, conversation was in full flow as was the beer and the constant supply of grilled steak and sausage knocked up by Austria’s answer to Jamie Oliver!

Sometime later (don;

't ask as I've got no idea what time it was by then) we were asked by Joseph (the President of the club) do you like chocolate?

After explaining my addiction Joseph returned with the largest piece of chocolate either Lisa or I had ever seen – it was the chocoholics version of junky heaven and Toblerone had cornered the market. The next hour was spent with me slowly making my way through one chunk of this huge bar to the great amusement of the rest of the club. All in all a memorable evening swapping bike stories and being made to feel so very, very welcome. So thank you to the club ‘Freunde Mannsworth’ and all its members for providing us with another great night to remember.

Saturday and Sunday came and went in the company of good friends and with temperatures hitting the high 90’s all we could do was eat, sleep and drink! Monday rolled round and by 10 am we were back at Roberts checking e-mails and catching up with our diary.

At 11am his 56k router whirred and blinked into life and delivered the e-mailed response from Touratech we'd been waiting for. We held our breath and began to read.

With the click of a mouse our day was changed as I read aloud the response from Herberts Swarz's (Owner of Touratech) secretary Tina.

"Yes!" I yelled as I punched the air with triumph. Herbert liked our journey and agreed to sponsor us with the brand new special ceramic clutch plate and even ship it to us at Roberts free of charge. We're beyond excited. We can now move forward and organise the other components from BMW Motorrad Vienna. What a fantastic way to start a day!

Over the weekend it had been decided that Chris, Robert and I (Simon) would put the clutch in as even with discount the BMW price for labour was still a hefty one. Several phone calls later Chris had spoken to his friend Harry who offered us workshop space and tools to carry out the clutch replacement. Things were now back on track and we were both feeling relieved.
Celebrations were in order and so the evening was spent with Lisa cooking authentic Chinese in a huge wok over an open fire with us all drinking too much than is good for us………bliss!

12-08-2003

Today was to be a day of culture!

We had all decided to start our day early in the hopes of enjoying the Schönbrunn Palace before the day became to hot to handle and more importantly, before the Palace was over run with the thousands of scramblig tourists that are coached in every day.

With a quick scan of the tickets prices read, it was easily decided that a complete tour of the schoenbrunn Palace at 38 Euros was out of our budget. But, wandering through the magnificent gardens and taking in the views from the Gloriette Panorama Terrace, was still going to give us a shot of Austrian culture.

Although there has been a château-styled palace here since the 14th century, Schönbrunn was originally erected as a rough structure between 1695 and 1696 but was not completed as the building we're seeing today until 1749. Since then it has remained unchanged and is genuinely a magnificent building, very reminiscent of Versailles.

The Palace and grounds are immense and if you don't get lost in the maze, then it would be easy to go astray into the Palm House, the Butterfly House or even the Zoo. Wow, these Austrian's knew how to live to excess.

Apparently the Royal family used to collect a range of exotic wild animals for their own private viewing and since then a Zoo has always remained within the Palace grounds. However, with the heat rising steadily and an additional charge required to view most of the outside areas, we opted to move onto my (Lisa’s) ‘need for the day’.

In case you’re interested you can visit the Palace website at: www.schoenbrunn.at

Past the grandeur of the Palaces and austere architecture, Austria for me, has always held an allure. As a classically trained musician and violinist I've studied, read, learnt and played many of the major works of composers like Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. For me, today, it was important to visit his grave and final resting place and take a quiet moment to pay my respects to his genius.

Much like Mozart's life, even his death and subsequent burial was full of drama. After his death on December 5th, 1791, he was buried in an unmarked grave (not a mass pauper's gave) in the St. Marx cemetery in Vienna's 3rd district. A sad resting place for one of the greatest composers of all time. Half a decade later and with Mozart's music being once again appreciated, efforts were made to locate and maintain his grave and eventually even a memorial stone was erected in 1859. But, this is not the end of the drama.

100-years after Mozart's death a decision was made to move his memorial stone to the Central cemetery (Zentralfriedhof), to join the resting place of other great composers like Beethoven. This of course meant that for 200 years, millions have wrongly visited the central Cemetery and viewed a memorial stone and not Mozart's actual grave and final resting place.

With my research done and with the warm sun on my back, by late afternoon I was stood in the St. Marx cemetery and doing my best to absorb this small but very personal moment. Today, a simple bed of small flowers, a stone slab, angel and column mark Mozart's grave.

It's strange, obviously I'd never met this man, but having poured my heart, and so many years into reading, interpreting and playing his music, I feel a strangely personal and potent connection to him. Paying my respects to him in this small and difficult to find cemetery was worth the effort and in my own way pays homage to is life's work and what's it's meant to me.

Back at Chris's home, the night drew in and the temperature lowered to a balmy 70. The evening gently passed as I cooked Thai food on the open fire – with some wine and beer thrown in for good measure.

13-08-2003

Today was a day of anticipation waiting for bike parts to arrive from both BMW and Touratech. The first call to come was from BMW, which meant that the parts had arrived and we needed to collect the parts from the other side of Vienna. Whilst out to collect these parts Robert confirmed that the Touratech ceramic clutch had arrived! We were now set for the big clutch-changing day tomorrow. This night saw us unable to cook and eat outside as Vienna suffered the most horrendous storms we have seen in a little while, however, they did little to appease the heat and humidity. We had now been experiencing temperatures of well over 35 degrees C for the last 2 months and it was becoming very exhausting, especially when wearing bike kit so today it had been most welcome to be ferried about by Chris and Robert in air-conditioned cars!

14-08-2003

The day started early with Chris pitching up early, wearing his unwavering smile. A few coffees later saw me explaining to Chris my heady mixture of excitement and nerves about the day ahead of us. “It won’t be a problem, we’ll manage”, Chris said in his thick Austrian, Arnold Schwarzenegger way. Before long we were off, Chris was in his Audi with me following close behind. 40 minutes later at 9am we had arrived at Harry’s. Harry’s was a small private garage located in the backstreets. It was packed. The garage had been run by Harry’s father before him and with a good reputation was always busy. It wasn’t long before some space had been made and the red GS was up on a ramp. With the bike strapped down, it was time for the ‘surgery’ to begin.

Seats, back wheel, swing arm, paralever, suspension, electrics, brake lines, everything from the tank, back, had to be removed and lifted. 4 hours later things were still coming off and I was beginning to wonder ‘how the hell’, I/we were going to put it all back together again. I was long past being able to remember what went where. We were beginning to run out of space to put the things we had removed. With an extra pair of hands offered by Harry we lifted off the final drive and could at last see the problem area. The clutch plate was almost down to the rivets -it had seen better days. Removing the old clutch was pretty straightforward and the putting the new components in was much the same.

Special attention was paid to putting in the spacers supplied by Touratech with the new clutch plate. The spacers are important, as the TT clutch plate is a different thickness to the OEM BMW plate. With the new clutch installed I was feeling ‘chuffed’; it was time to put it all back together again. At 9pm we were still going but almost finished. I was feeling particularly awkward and guilty as Chris and Robert (and now Lisa) were still with me. They must have other things to do? With the bike almost complete we hit a problem. The electrics had died and turning the key in the ignition was doing nothing. The problem turned out to be a simple one; one of the wires leading to the ignition had come lose. A few twist of copper wire and some insulation tape later, the bike turned over and roared wonderfully. A large grin crept across my face; it stayed there for quite a while. We thanked Harry for all his help and space and made our way back across Vienna with the GS riding like a new bike. We were all knackered, sweaty and very, very dirty. Food and drink were the order of the day. We met up with Uschi at the Brew House Restaurant. This was definitely going to be our treat after all the help I’d had from Robert and Chris.

Friday 15th was a holiday day (Assumption) in Vienna and so the day was spent quietly in the garden with some of Briquettes work friends whilst having a BBQ and us sorting out our kit in readiness for leaving tomorrow. We have had such an enjoyable time here in Vienna – it will be strange to leave and be just the two of us again – and strange to be on the road again. It will also be difficult to say goodbye to friends who have been so supportive and in whose company we’ve enjoyed so much.
Saturday morning came round all two quickly and we were packed and ready to go earlier than normal. Christian, Bridget, Robert and Uschi had arrived to see us off and take us to the motorway. With the bikes laden up we had one small call to make before we got on the road to our journey to Italy. We had promised Johann at BP that we would bring the bikes around loaded up to enable both him (BP) and ourselves to get some shots of us all together. Johann happily greeted us as he had done each morning and after introducing us to his wife, who had come in specially, we were off outside snapping away with the bikes happily posed underneath the large BP sign.

With the pictures taken our appreciation once again conveyed, we were off, but not alone. Robert, in his car, and Chris and Briquette on his GS accompanied us as far as the motorway. We were both a little relived that we could put off the forthcoming difficult goodbye for just a little while longer. At the services we stopped, the time had arrived to say our final goodbyes. So, with a few tears shed and promises to stay in touch made, we climbed on board our heavy machines, kicked up the side stands, slipped the clutch and made our way out onto the busy autostrada. We were on our own again.
Prior to heading towards Slovenia we had an appointment with Hein Gericke in Graz. For the past week we had been organising where to pick up the silver, roll-top 70 litre bags that Hein Gericke were donating to our trip. We had tried to get these before we had left but everywhere had run out of supply in the UK and in Germany – very popular it seems! Now – with the help of Jo (HG UK) we were able to pick up two bags that had been reserved for us in Graz. With the aid of GPS, which took us straight to their door without a single wrong turning (!,), we arrived at 1pm an hour before they were due to close. During our short time there we were looked after by Bridgette and picked up our long awaited bags with glee whilst trying not to spend money in their fantastic new and shiny store! We were both in our element but managed to curb the need to purchase shiny new things!

From Graz we decided to head towards Slovenia a country we know little about, with it being so close it seemed silly not to enjoy a few roads in another country. After cruising along a beautiful riverside road (the route 1 from Maribor running West back towards the Austrian border and a small town called Dravograd) which carved its way through a lush green valley - we made our way back into Austria aiming to find a campsite for the night. Slovenia didn’t seem to have any sites marked and we needed to fill up with fuel so decided that we would pop back into Austria and use the rest of our BP vouchers.

From Dravograd in Slovenia we rode on road 81 towards Bleiburg– gorgeous mountains, with the largest being Hochpetzen at 2113 metres, overlooking this whole area. Unfortunately we could see the weather changing fast, it wasn’t hard to work out that something big was brewing upstairs – we needed to find a campsite fast in order to save getting drenched whilst putting up the tent! In the very small town of St Michael we found a camping sign but were amazed when we reached the site to find a huge holiday campsite for, what mostly seemed to be Austrians – www.petzen.net - it was also VERY expensive at almost £20 for the night. However, we needed to stop and just managed to pitch the tent and get everything away before the heavens opened. A huge electrical storm circled for hours. Gales, lashing rain, sheet and fork lightening all came crashing down!