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Alps
2008
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I wake up early this morning
to the sound of a light rain which has cooled things off a bit. It is
pretty amazing to me that in 2 weeks I've only been rained on twice -
and that for short periods of time. So I figure I've got no reason to
complain at all. Since breakfast is a ways off, I go ahead pack up my
stash and ferry it down to Snow White. I do my usual morning 'prep' and
strap the old yellow river bag on one more time. Now all I've got left
is to eat breakfast, check out, and suit up and I'll be ready to roll.
It's just a personal thing, but I hate for other folks to have to wait
on me, so I try to be ready to go when it's time.
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Finally breakfast
time arrives and Dave and I wander to the dining area to quite a feast.
You name it and I believe that had it on their breakfast buffet. The eggs
looked like they were fresh, so I steered away from them - having learned
my lesson in Andermatt. Granola, yogurt and fresh fruit was there not to
mention all sorts of meats, cheeses, breads and jams, so I had plenty to
shove down the old feeding chute. |
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We discuss our ride today and
Dave is comfortable that we can ride part of the route in the Black Forest
that we missed yesterday. I tell him
"That will be great. It's
hard to believe that of all the places you originally had mapped out,
we only missed one pass - thanks to that city traffic jam!"
So we finish up, check out,
and soon we are headed down the driveway to the Black Forest and whatever
lies beyond.
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As we leave Eguisheim, I am
fascinated by the surrounding vineyards and I mention them to Dave. He
tells me -
"This the Alsace part
of France - famous for their wine making."
As I will later find out, this
is where the Durenbergers - the 'original' Derryberrys - migrated from
to the United States.
The vineyards seem to stretch
on and on as far as my eyes can see.
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Then we come to the cornfields
that flank both sides of the road. I radio Dave and tell him -
"This could just as well
be any part of Iowa or Kansas with the flat fields and the corn."
Or any other part of the Midwest
back home for that matter.
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It's a short hop
to the German border from where we are. It seems that this area of land
swapped hands several times
between France and Germany over the centuries, but today the border is pretty
well defined. |
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I turn around and
grab a quick shot of the France sign since I have not been able to get one.
Because of traffic and the border guards giving me the evil eye, I don't
even swing Snow White around to include her in the picture. |
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I guess they finally
decided that the Rhine River would be the determining border for it is right
at the line now. |
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When we get into
Freiburg, the construction stops us dead still because the road that Dave
wants to take is closed with no detour signs. So he lets the GPS take over
and we work our way through some pretty interesting city streets. |
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We finally get around
the mess and my radio is acting up again. We find a parking place to pull
off and I decide I am going to change the batteries in the radio to see
if that helps. But that does not seem to do much good, so I come to the
conclusion that once again it rained last night and once again, the Autocom
is acting up. Hmm, could there be a direct correlation in this? It is very
frustrating to have this expensive piece of gear malfunction whenever it
gets wet - as if rain is not part of the motorcycling experience. |
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With nothing resolved,
we just motor on along and I determine I will just have to stay close to
Dave so he doesn't 'lose' me again like yesterday. As we make our way out
of town, we come up behind a Harley parade. It does not take Dave and I
long to put a lot of space between us and them. |
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Soon we come to
highway 500 which Dave tells me is one of the historic roads that run through
the Black Forest. We head north on it toward Triberg and Furtwangen. |
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But the rain will
not leave us alone today, so we pull off and I put on my rain gear. I'm
hoping that will stop the rain like it does back home. Usually when it is
blazing hot and raining and I suit up, it will quit raining about 5 miles
down the road as I bake in the bag. |
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As look to my left,
I can sort of understand why they call it the
'Black Forest'. In the overcast skies the pines and the firs do
look almost black. And I'm sure before commercial logging took it's toll,
there were a lot more of them in the area. |
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The roads are mainly
sweepers and not too technical, although we do manage to log in two hairpins
as we descend into a small town. |
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It's getting about
time to feed the beast and the skies don't look promising, but this place
does. There are some more bikes parked outside, so we follow their example
and make our way inside. |
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As it turns out, the other
riders are Brits on holiday, and the owners once lived in Vancouver, BC
in Canada, so English is well understood around here. Dave and I both
order the jager schnitzel, chips, and the usual Diet Cokes. We have some
interesting conversations while the food is being prepared. Then when
it arrives, it's enough food to kill a good man, much less two old rags
like us. But we step up to the plates and wade in to give it our best
shot!. Since we can still breathe, we see if they have any Black Forest
cake since we are in the home of the stuff. Sadly but fortunately for
our well-stuffed beings, they do not.
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The
rain really starts coming down now, so we decide our best option is to just
head back to the autobahn for the rest of the ride to
Bernkastel-Keus in the Mosel valley. We will be spending the night
there so Dave plugs it into his trusty GPS and we are off through the rain.
I am still fascinated that we can legally do 100+ mph pretty much the rest
of the day - and almost safely. Some munchkin in a little red car just about
takes Dave out by cutting right over in front of him. Since there is a US
military base nearby, I figure it's probably someone from there. At these
rates of speed, it does not take long to blow through a tank of fuel.
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And
it is still raining pretty heavily as we take a break. I decide I'll take
another picture and to my surprise my faithful old Olympus camera refuses
to cooperate. I fiddle with it and fiddle with it, but seems to have died
the death. I just hope that all of the pictures that I have taken so far
did not get trashed. I guess I'll see when we get to the hotel this evening. |
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We hit the road in the rain,
but it starts to ease up a little bit. I figure if you are going to have
to ride in the rain, the autobahn ain't a bad place to do it. At least
you can make good time. After another fuel stop, we finally arrive at
the quaint German village. Dave pulls into the hotel that he stayed at
last time and I patiently wait outside. When he comes back, he tells me
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"They are fully booked.
I guess we'll have to try somewhere else."
"Well, I'm just following
you Captain Dave!" I tell him..
We cross over the River Mosel
to the other side to another place that Dave discovered when he was here
the last time.
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Dave goes inside to see if
they have any vacancies as I watch over the bikes. Before long he comes
back with a big grin and two sets of room keys. I tell him
"I guess we're in like
Flint!"
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There's a narrow
covered area that they let us park the bikes in attached to the hotel, so
that works out real nice. What Dave doesn't tell me is that our rooms are
across the street ... |
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and there are
479 steps to get to them. Actually there are only 33 steps, but then who
is counting?
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The rooms are nice
enough and actually at a decent price so we unload our stuff and freshen
up a bit. After a short rest, we wander back out on the streets looking
for a good place to eat. Hmm, it begins to sound familiar - ride, ride,
ride, rest, eat ... This town is very picturesque with it's narrow cobblestone
streets and ornate old buildings standing at somewhat askew attention. Since
my camera seems to have died the death, Dave graciously lets me borrow his
while we are out and about. |
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After strolling
around a bit, this place looks worthy of our culinary efforts. It proves
to be quite good and fills the bill and our stomachs nicely. I get a very
nice pork chop with salad and chips (fries to the US folks). |
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But no meal is complete
without dessert and it just so happens that there is an ice cream parlor
on our way back to the hotel. |
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So we decide that
we will do our part to support the local economy, Once again Dave gets something
with fruit in it in the interest of being healthy (I still don't buy it).
I order chocolate ice cream and plenty of it, since it seems to be in short
supply over here. I figure if I'm gonna die, it might as well be with a
big smile on my face! |
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Needless to say
after a meal and dessert like that, we slowly waddle back up the steps to
our rooms for the evening. I fuss with my camera a little bit more and decide
that it is indeed dead. As I dive off to sleep, I determine that I'll get
up early in the morning and see if I can find a local camera shop first
thing. |
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Totals For The Day -
Countries - 2 (France, Germany)
Miles - 314
Passes - 0
Hairpins - 2
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