A little spin and resurrection of my belief in rebirth

---

Ever since I drove my motorbike around the Alps of Austria, Slovenia and Italy I wanted to go again, splendid views, breathtaking mountains and lots of curves.

The French Middeteranian Alps was to be my goal this time.

i do like to drive my bike whenever possible but when you have done a gazillion km around where you live there's not much new to be seen.

A window of opportunity opened and as I travel light I packed my bag bought new rain gear got a ferry ticket to Kiel in Germany.

So if I like riding so much why didn't I ride all the way?

Because it's flat and straight which equals boring, a bit like the Pampa in Argentina.

I hit the motorway from Kiel down to Hamburg once there I left the motorway and rogrammed my GPS to saty away from the four laned boredom.

I was going to go and see a friend in Germany on the way down and my first stop was to be in Warstein where they make a very nice beer namely the Warsteiner.

Warstein was full of people due to a hot air baloon festival, Montgolfiade they called it.

Vacant rooms were a pipe dream so no piss up on Warsteiner :-(

Checked out what Messrs garmin had to say, 108 km more and I would be in my friends house.

Programmed the device and of I went, sorry no pics from this as I don't like to stop but it was very enjoyable to drive on virgin territory and Germany is a pretty country albeit a bit crowded.

You can't drive mor than 50 km without seeing some house or other, often a lot less.

When your behind has had it and there's no way you can find any comfort on the saddle I honestly believed that my buttocks had been reborn.

Reborn as the meat that Djingis Khan's merry men put under the saddles to tenderise it as they rode around conquering whatver they could find.

I spent a while standing up when I arrived even though I was invited to sit down.

The first beer went down quickly.

It was nice to meeet up again but time was short and my friends had to work, not me haha.

So I went south through endless quaint German villages, maybe quaint is not the word you associate with Germany but you should very clean lots of flowers and little farms and houses.

I would like to have stopped in quite a few but then I would never have arived to the Alps.

South I went. down to the Black forest and the Black forest high road, curves in Germany yes yes!

The day's stop took place i Freudenstadt a nice german town with a very big town square and cold beer.

The gasthaus where I stayed served the best breakfast ever, the Hun certainly know a bit about breakfast and also the lodging is very good on the wallet.

Next morning I was away at 9 am on my way to see Col de la Schlucht in the Vosges mountains in France.

Once up in the Vosges the sun was gone in exchange for a magnificent downpour, very happy with my new rain gear.

It's ok to travel when it rains but it's no pleasure, having to take the diminished friction into consideration.

Eventually it stopped and I had my first French sandwich for lunch.

The first of many.

Having consulted my map Pontarlier seemed as good a place as anyone else to spend the night.

This part of France certainly is a bit dreary and looks to be a region with a bit of poverty, very different from tidy Germany.

Pontarler was ok but a bit low on lodgings and after a long day in the saddle I decided that anything would do and it did , barely. What a dump.

Dinner was ok so my bed beckoned.

If any one bothers to read this more will follow with more pics than words ;-)

---