2. European GPZ-Meeting / Maastricht 2007

[Ped]

While our US list members have been heading off for Fandango, a couple 
of the European list members have been participating in a European GPZ 
meeting in Maastricht, the Netherlands the 25 - 28 of May, 2007.

Our Dutch list member, Wouter, who is also a member of a German GPZ 1100 
Forum, arranged this year's Meeting for members of this forum. 11 GPZ 
1100's, 3 Yamaha GTS 1000 and a ZZR 600 with a total of approximately 22 
riders and backseat passengers participated (the number varied a little 
bit during the meeting because some arrived late and others had to leave 
early). The meeting took place at a small biker hotel, "La Chaussée" in 
the village of Sibbe, approximately 10 km (6 miles) east of Maastricht, 
the Netherlands. Some participants stayed at this hotel, others at other 
hotels nearby or at the local camp site. La Chaussée proved to be an 
excellent basis with good facilities, good food and plenty of good Dutch 
beer!

The participants met at the afternoon of Friday the 25th of May, some 
after having covered a considerable distance from the south of German 
near Austria or from Denmark (700 km - 435 miles). La Chaussée hosted a 
good dinner and plenty of beer at reasonable prizes. Most participants 
were from Germany, a few from the Netherlands and two from Denmark. 
Language was not a problem; especially not late at night where everybody 
basically spoke the same language... ;-)

On Saturday the 26th of May Wouter headed the 15 bikes on a 200 km (124 
miles) tour. Lots of curvy and challenging roads in the beautiful parts 
of southern Netherlands / eastern Belgium. Among other we visited an 
abandoned coal mine in Belgium. Some of the riders had years of 
experience holding a group of motorcycles together by making blockades 
at road crossings, roundabouts etc. They took turns in stopping other 
traffic, join up again, accelerate up front, block traffic again etc. 
Not entirely legal in all countries, but very, very effective and very 
well carried out. Not once during the two days of tour did the group get 
separated. In the evening La Chaussée hosted a barbecue in the garden. 
The colored lights in the party tent were mixed with lots of white 
flashes due to thunderstorm and the music sometimes drowned in the noise 
from heavy rain showers hammering on the tent roof, but food was 
excellent and there were generous amounts of beer...

On Sunday the 27th of May Wouter again headed the bikes on a 250 km (155 
miles) tour in southern Netherlands, eastern Belgium and a very 
beautiful part of Germany known as Eiffel. Among other we made a stop at 
the "Dreiländerpunkt" - the point where the borders of the Netherlands, 
Belgium and Germany meet. The funny thing is that when you ride on small 
country roads in this area you may actually cross a border without 
noticing it. Only different license plates on the cars and slightly 
different road signs indicate that you may have crossed a border. In the 
evening the farewell dinner was held at a Chinese restaurant in Valkenburg.

On Monday the 28th of May some made a stop at Wouter's house for a last 
cup of coffee before heading off for home. Comments on the forum and 
hundreds of pictures indicate that this was a very successful meeting, 
and we're all looking forward to seeing each other next year, probably 
somewhere in Germany.

There are a few pictures from the meeting here:

http://www.pedmail.dk/Kavalkade/album/

Ped
'96 "Black Stealth" GPZ
Denmark