So how easy is it really – well actually it’s not that difficult if you follow the correct process which I will try to describe here;

• Purchase yourself a vehicle and make sure you get all the papers to go with it
• now since I am a local boy I then make my way to the correct office for “zulassung” where I then state my case at the information desk which is hosted by two young, very healthy looking, females. They then explain that I have to obtain a queue number from the machine on the wall behind me. So I do
• when it is my turn another young lady at a nearby counter challenge me for
  – bike papers
  – passport
  – government paper to show I am recident
  – numberplate of the bike
• First thing she will de-register the bike and that means I have to walk up to a centrally placed bin and scrape off the stickers
• returning to her I show that the stickers are removed and she then types something in to the computer
• now I have to leave all my stuff and go to a different building and obtain an export insurance
• in the basement of the other building I am confronted with a 60 year old tomboy who does not speak a single word of English so we communicate in Bavarian. I get the insurance (which is only a receipt slip) and make my way back to the first building
• upon showing the insurance slip to the young lady she then taps on the keyboard and I sit and wait for a while
• then it is time to walk to the second building, this time equipped with a plastic card that I should enter in to a machine an then pay some money
• the machine kindly provide me with a slip and I am then sent back to the tomboy in the basement to get a new export license plate. She gives me the biggest possible plate (could act like a wing) and then assist in punching matching holes so I can mount the new plate on the bike
• returning to the first lady I am then told that all my papers have now been moved to another counter where yet another young girl is host
• This time it’s the sticker-girl. She will grace my export license plate with a small sticker and hand back all my papers for the bike including passport and all that.
• Now I can exit the building and mount the freshly baked export license plate on to the bike and ride off. It is now valid for one month and then the bike is out of all German systems

So this little exercise now allows me to bring BlueBird back to Sweden in a crate.
And the story continues

//Jake