Salzburg to Berchtesgaden

The two putzes headed off once again. We left our European guardian angels and the bosom of safety it represented to us. Back to the strangers, the unknown and the potential for danger we had experienced so far. Our destination was Salzberg in the southern tip of Austria. I had been waiting to get there the whole trip, there was a good reason which Sol was not aware of. After several fine weather days in Bratislava we returned to the cold, the rain and the extreme winds. We left Peter and Maria's underground car park after chasing around a number of local stores to find small change for the parking meter machine. We had not realised that non residents of the building simply paid for parking with a few coins. After the length of time we were there the machine wanted a bunch of Euro and it had to be in coin form rather than credit card or bank notes. We gathered the coins from a number of stores, Peter fed the meter and eventually the boom gates opened.
It wasn't long after leaving we had to pull up under an overpass bridge to give the weather gear another stint on our frozen bodies. A long hard haul through boring freeways soaked in rain leading up to some beautiful mountain regions as we were skirting the Austrian Alps. At one point the rain was so heavy we simply stopped at a roadhouse in the mountains to fill up petrol, eat something and try to wait the heaviest rain out. No such luck. The intensity of the storms actually worsened as we sat near our bikes under cover. Looked at one another and immediately had nightmarish visions of the rains in France and elsewhere we'd been. The distance to Salzberg was a total of about 420kms and we still had approximately 120kms to reach a dry hotel.
As we eventually rode in the outskirts of Salzberg we became momentarily separated as I forded a roundabout with a deluge of water circulating its perimeter. Remember, if separated we could not call one another. The rule was simply...go back to where you had come from. We found one another and had only a few kilometers till we reached the hotel. The rain had finally eased to a light but annoying shower while the sun came out strongly as the cloud cover moved on.
We went into the hotel, located our room and dropped our bags there. Sol was ready to collapse on the bed when I instructed him to bring his valuables and his riding gear. I said to him once again..."follow me, we have an important mission about 25kms away". It was like a different day. The sun partially dried the roads, we took our wets but really didn't need them as it turned out. Traffic was heavy as it was approaching 5.00pm in the afternoon.
As we entered our destination town I pulled up to a sign post and explained to Sol where we were and why. The town was Berchtesgaden. We had crossed the Austrian/German border and were on German soil. This location is some of the most beautiful country in all of Europe. An alpine region of stunning proportions which made total sense. This was the location of Hitler's holiday retreat. This vile cockroach spent an enormous amount of time enjoying himself here while his armies and collaborators oversaw a war that killed over 60,000,000 people.
I had carried a YOW Motorcycle Club banner with me until now for one purpose. To display it in Hitler's little rat hole in the German Alps. To let him and all like him know..."Am Yisroel Chai" (The people of Israel live). You didn't achieve the final solution to the Jewish problem. You came a long way towards doing so but as history knows you failed, as will any future attempts to achieve this goal.
We attached our banner to the bikes, proudly displaying "Yidden On Wheels" for all the passing motorists to see. I also zip tied a small Australian flag to the sign post just to leave our mark. We were angry, proud and very satisfied that we'd lived to make it here to express our feelings.
A dry ride back to the hotel was finally greatly appreciated. A shower and clean up made all the difference. We walked over to a nearby mall for a wonderful dinner in a very classy restaurant. Tomorrow was another long ride day and the weather was not looking good. But we slept well with the knowledge that another chapter of our mission was successfully completed.