Twintraveller in Winnipeg SUN Sunday Newspaper Edition
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English ....Deutsche Version siehe unten.

Dear friends,

after we wrote the last Email, we have been picked up by Terry, the firefighter in Thunder Bay. He invited us to his house and we spend 4 days with him and his friends riding the back roads around Thunder Bay. This was an incredible cool time. Thanks Terry for all your support and being so friendly to us. We met the whole Thunder Bay biking scene and got lost in peoples backyard while hiking through their garden!!!

After we left Thunder Bay we rode to Winnipeg, where we got picked up by Ken and Joanne after having an interview with a german newspaper for Canadians. We got invited in their home, Joanne organised an interview with the Winnipeg Daily Newspaper SUN (find below) for us, we have been in a radio station watching a local band playing live, the local BMW dealer helped us with some maintenance stuff on the bikes, the local Harley dealer invited us to his cottage for the weekend after we did a ride through the Winnipeg bars the night before with some Harley riders. Thanks to all the people here in Winnipeg, who have been so wonderful to us. Thanks to the VW Dealer who gave us 30 min in his Porsche 911. It was a great time here. Special thanks to Sparky and Joanne who treated us like being a part of their family.

Tomorrow we are going to leave to Calgary where we expect some good party and good riding in the National Parks.

Check out the article from the Winnipeg SUN and some new pics from Thunder Bay. More to come when we are in Calgary.

Deutsche Version....

Hallo Freunde, nachdem wir die letzte mail geschrieben haben sind wir von Terry einem Feuerwehrmann aus Thunder Bay aufgegriffen worden, der uns gleich in sein Haus eingeladen hat. Es war so schoen dort, dass wir 4 Tage mit ihm und seinen Kumpels die unbefestigten Strassen in der Umgebung unsicher gemacht haben. Eine unglaubliche Zeit. Wir haben die gesamte BIker Szene in Thunder Bay kennengelernt und sind beim Wandern in den Gaerten der Leute verloren gegangen

Nachdem wir Thunder Bay verlassen hatten, fuhren wir nach Winnipeg zu einem Interview Termin mit einer deutschsprachingen Zeitung fuer Deutsch Canadier. Dort wurden wir von Ken und Joanne, zwei Travellern aus Winnipeg aufgegriffen, die uns gleich mit nach Hause genommen haben. Joanne hat uns ein Interview mit der Winnipeg SUN, einer Tageszeitung organisiert (siehe unten), wir konnten bei einer Live Session einer Band in einer Radiostation dabeisein, und der lokale BMW Haendler hat uns beim Check der Bikes geholfen. Nach einer Harleyeskorte von 10 Bikes am Freitag abend durch die Kneipenszene in Winnipeg, hat uns der Harleyhaendler in sein Wochenendhaus am See eingeladen (Bilder von uns mit Bier im Whirlpool folgen). Danke auch an den lokalen VW Dealer, fuer die Runde die wir im Porsche 911 drehen durften. Es ist eine geniale Zeit hier. Wir kommen uns vor wie Familienmitglieder von allen hier.

Morgen geht es in Richtung Calgary, wo die Icehockey Jungs in den Playoffs sind und wir einige gute Parties erwarten, bevor wir uns in die Nationalparks zurueckziehen.

Check out the article from the Winnipeg SUN and some new pics from Thunder Bay. More to come when we are in Calgary.

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Article Winnipeg SUN, Sun, May 30, 2004

http://www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/WinnipegSun/News/2004/05/30/478747.html

Be grateful for gas prices, Germans say

Touring across West

By CHRIS KITCHING, STAFF REPORTER

Don't complain to Martin and Katja Wickert about how much you just paid at the pumps. They'll gladly pay 92 cents for a litre of gas any day, especially when the price of fuel back home in Germany is $2 per litre.

"It's much cheaper here, it's kind of nice," said Martin, 27.

In fact, the Wickerts, on the first leg of their incredible motorcycle journey across the Western Hemisphere, have only one complaint about the province they're about to leave behind.

"It's too flat," Katja said with a laugh. "We like the mountains."

"(Winnipeggers) have been friendly to us, warm and very welcoming," Martin chipped in. "You can see they are proud to live here."

During their stop in Winnipeg, the Wickerts have stayed at the St. Vital home of Ken and Joanne MacKenzie.

"I've been talking to a few people and they think I'm crazy because I have these two strangers in my house," said Joanne, a sales and promotions representative for EMI Music Canada. "But I like to have faith in a fellow human and believe in giving people a chance."

Everywhere they go, the Wickerts, who normally camp overnight in a tent, are besieged by admirers and people who want to help, said Katja, 26.

"We can't even get into a Tim Hortons to have a coffee without running into someone who is fascinated by what we are doing," Martin said.

They aren't sure, however, if the wave of hospitality will continue when they cross over into the U.S. later this year.

"(Americans), generally speaking, are differently educated, maybe not as well-educated," Martin said.

"You sometimes get the feeling they don't even know where Germany is."

The Wickerts' journey has a price tag of $50,000, (Canadian) and will take them thousands of kilometres away from their hometown of Hildesheim, Germany, to Buenos Aires by mid-2006.

The globetrotters, who were married last year, sold most of their possessions to pay for the excursion and had to quit their jobs in the marketing industry.