From the point of view of the organizers
Marquee is up, garage swept out, counter and tap tray installed, drinks all delivered, cooling is in place, tables and seating are in place, food bought and prepared, breakfast arranged, shower facilities arranged, toilet cart picked up and connected. Now all that’s left to do is hoist the GTR flag and tap a test beer… that was Thursday!
Friday morning is always good for the remaining work. However, Rita is already pottering in the kitchen, baking cakes and chopping the ingredients for chili con carne.
Around noon, Mark from Munich arrives first. He has taken a long way via Belgium and Holland and now has enough time to set up his tent.
In the course of the afternoon, the other guests will arrive. There is coffee and cake as a welcome, one or the other has already been spotted with a glass of beer.
Rob had made his way from the ferry in Hook of Holland to Weertzen with a broken clutch pullrod. Martin from Leeds had the spare part in his tank bag and so the damage could be repaired by Rob and Mark in my chaos workshop on Saturday, while the others were going for a ride.
So soon all registered guests were there and we had a nice evening with stew and cool drinks. Finally, around 11 p.m., Markus and Inette also reported from the hotel. The two had an arduous drive and had to deal with several traffic jams and road closures.
After a hearty breakfast in the “Pavilion am Birkensee”, we started our trip, which led us to Hamburg.
At the start: five T150s, eight T160s, an X75, a Rocket 3, a Bonni, an HD, an MV and two BMWs.
Unfortunately, the group was separated by a traffic light on the way, Kai with his Hurricane took over the second group without further ado and even arrived first at our first destination, the Elbphilharmonie.
Reunited, we climbed the “Elphi” with the long escalator and enjoyed the view over Hamburg and the port facilities during a tour of the plaza.
Back down we continued our journey, back through the Hafen-City and the harbour to Wilhelmsburg. There is a flak bunker from the Second World War, which has since been converted into an energy bunker. Here, electricity is generated by means of photovoltaics and hot water is stored for the district heating system.
Much more important to us than the interesting function, however, was the café, we enjoyed coffee, cake and refreshments combined with a fabulous view over green Hamburg.
The return trip went smoothly over the Köhlbrand Bridge, with the best view of the largest container ships in the port and through the Altes Land. A short rain shower at the moment of arriving home was simply ignored.
This was followed by a harmonious evening with grilled meat, salads, draft beer and other cool drinks as well as interesting conversations and stories.