Going to Germany...

[k75s]

I will be going to Germany on business trip end of January, so I am pretty sure will not be planning any time for riding. Will be in the Heidelberg area and will have a few days vacation. Looking for suggestions for visiting:

- BMW dealers
- Assessory companies like Hornig or Wunderlich
- motorcycle museums

[akbeemer]

I lived in and around Heidleburg for almost 6 years. Can't say I know where any of the things you asked about can be found; there is a BMW dealer of course, I just do not recall where it is. I can recommend a few places to eat. Zum Golden Rose in Kirchheim a few miles out of town is great; the Wormser on the Hauptstrasse down near the university is a pit... but I loved it. Walking the Hauptstrasse, the castle and strolling on the Necker are all worth your time.

[darrylri]

The Vintage BMW Motorcycle Owners club website has a great list of museums on this page:

http://vintagebmw.org/version6/index.php?q=node/24

Scroll all the way to the bottom. I can definitely recommend the Zweirad Museum in Neckarsulm and the two Technical Museums in Speyer and Sinsheim. At Sinsheim you can climb up into a Concorde and a "Concordsky" (Tupelov), among other planes on display. I recall that Speyer has a sub you can go through. The Zweirad Museum is in the hometown of NSU and has a lot of NSU bikes.

[GlobalRider]

Wunderlich is 210 kilometers away in Sinzig. You'd take the A61 towards Bonn.

Touratech is just as far away in another direction.

[jeff488]

+1 on the Sinsheim Tech museum.
They have a lot of really neat machines; a good number of automobiles and also motorcycles. You could easily spend half a day there.

[108625]

There's a museum of transportation technology in Berlin, or at least there was in 1988. I think it was in an old locomotive house, as I recall.

[rx35285]

Might want to check this place - http://www.knopftours.com/Web-Site/Hello.html - I always intended to do it, but never made it.

[jeff488]

There's a museum of transportation technology in Berlin, or at least there was in 1988. I think it was in an old locomotive house, as I recall.

I was there a few(3?) years ago. It's interesting but not great.
The tech museum in Sinsheim is orders of magnitude better, IMO.

[108625]

I couldn't exactly leave West Berlin at will to go exploring other museums.

Later on, I was stationed in reunified Germany, and as with my other overseas assignments, most of my sightseeing was not directed towards transportation technology.

[k75s]

Thanks everyone, this gets me started.

I especially liked the places to eat recommendations.

[ITSBOB]

Thanks everyone, this gets me started.

I especially liked the places to eat recommendations.

It's a REAL downer, but if you get the chance (nothing in Germany is more than 8 hours away).. go to Dachau.

I won't say lifechanging, but will remember it forever. i went when I was 9 years old, and remeber it like it was yesterday.

A LOT of castles around Heidelberg.. used to be a lot of breweries too, but I know with the change of laws to allow Anheuser Busch into the country a lot that I remember are out of business.

[akbeemer]

One of my favorite things to do in Germany was to go on a Volksmarch. These are 10 or 20 Km walks through the Germany countryside, normally done on Sundays. The typical Volksmarch is held in a small village. The walks start as early as 0700 hrs. and there is normally a fest tent with coffee and pastries for before the walk and beer and brats for after. We used to go to run them; on more than one occasion I found myself 40Km from home having completed a 10Km run and having gulped a liter or more of beer... all before 0900hrs. And, you typically got a stein or huge medal for your efforts.