Everywhere Virtually

The next day after a delicious continental breakfast, a tour of the Rolls Royce collection and a few moments to take some photos of the gardens, moat and chateau we were off.

Breakfast on the balcony	Tranquility embodied
The Chateau in the morning	Walter & myself ready for the off

We headed for Maastricht in the Netherlands and then turned south towards France, Luxembourg and ultimately Germany. Riding through the Ardennes was a pleasure beyond measure. Smooth, flowing twisties under deep blue skies and warm spring sunshine. We decided to swing by the Spa Francochamps Formula 1 circuit and managed to catch a practice session in progress.

Watching the practice laps at Spa	Filling up in Luxembourg

we kept off the beaten track where possible. The sat nav’s both started acting a bit weird around Saarland which was a re-run of last year. As we rode across into France Walters bike conked out on him. This was to be a recurring theme. Walter soon deduced he had fuse problems but that was it. Beyond that neither of us knew. Maybe a short circuit somewhere but it was not immediately obvious where the problem lay.

Heading South East across Europe	The first of many fuse problems for Walter

We took a fantastic route some of which was a happy accident and the rest was part of the plan. Traffic cops hiding behind trees were a surprisingly common sight! Walter cautioned me about my speed. I was doing 50mph on the open road which was not excessive but still those small towns do crop up pretty regularly and the speed is most definitely 50kmh.

No problems with the 800. Many people stopped to ask if we were OK though.	Landau, France

We took a lot of video on this day just to get the practice in, but not many photos. By nightfall we had made it to Baden Baden and from there we went in search of a campsite. What we found instead were snow covered mountain villages and dark freezing forests with campsites that were still frigid. Not everyone was sharing our love of the extreme it would appear and we had tried at least 4 hotels before we struck lucky. Despite this being the 21st century and both Walter and myself being middle aged, respectable chaps on expensive BMW motorbikes it was still not enough to convince some Baden-Württemberg patrons that we were not Hells angels bent on trashing the hotel and throwing TV’s out the window.

In the end we found room at the inn in Enzoklosterle and despite the late hour managed to get beer and a light meal. They were initially frosty towards us but when they saw that we weren’t going to eat their kittens and pillage the towns folk they were quite charming. We had a few beers, some sauerkraut and then retired to our quarters for the evening.

Walter in an anonymous German forest	Sauerkraut supper is surprisingly delicious