What motivated us to go on this tour is actually quite simple. In 1974 Robert M. Pirsig published "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance". The book describes a tour the author did together with his son Chris in 1968.
Since publication of the book no-one has tried to retrace the authors' tour. Why? You can find the answer under Tour.
Since Franz Schabmueller has read "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" for the first time, he has been fascinated by the ideas and descriptions of landscapes mentioned in the book. Gregor was immediately infected by Franz' fascination. As 2004 is the year of the 30th anniversary of the book and also the year of Franz' 50th birthday, going on the tour this year seems just the right thing to do. Besides, Gregor graduated earlier this year and also has a very good reason to go on a longer tour.
As a 50th birthday might turn out being rather stressful for the jubilee due to the amount of well-wishers, but also for the well-wishers lacking ideas for gifts, we thought the tour is a way to elegantly avoid stress for everyone. All those who would like to give a present to Franz Schabmueller are asked to buy miles of the tour, hence donate money to charities. If you are interested in how this works, please see Charity (still under construction).