Day 4 - From the Black Forest to the Vosge

Wednesday 10 July 2019

Morning comes with a cloudless sky and the promise of a hot day ahead. Our first mission is to ride the famous B500 road which runs north-south from Baden-Baden to Freudenstadt. It follows the high ridge along the western edge of the forest in long sweeping curves. Excellent surfacing and bike-friendly cambers mean it can be ridden at high speed. However recently there has been a crack down on illegal speeders and the road is heavily policed at times.

Still it’s a great road to ride and this morning there is little traffic about. We only see two police cars during our ride.


High up on the B500

After Freudenstadt we turn off the main road and Loop down from the heights through glorious little villages and steep valleys on our way down to the border with France. 
We cross the Rhine at Mulhouse and then ride across a hot, dusty plain on small roads with the Vosges Mountains rearing up in the distance.

We found the Moto-Hotel Col de Bussang a couple of years ago on an earlier tour. It is an excellent place for sharing experiences with other bike travellers and today is no exception. There are German, Danish, Dutch and French bikers in residence tonight but I think we are the only English.


Moto-Hotel Col de Bussang

Dutch owner Mark and his wife have the place up for sale as they plan to retire to their holiday home in Fuertaventura so hopefully a new like-minded host will take over and keep the hotel running as a handy pit stop for bikers.


Enjoying a welcome beer on arrival

 There is a set dinner in the evenings. Today it is a ham salad followed by lasagne and finished with ice cream.

Behind the hotel is an old tunnel entrance. The road used to go through it until the hotel and tunnel were bombed during WWII. The hotel was completely rebuilt in 1965 and the road now goes over the top of the nearby summit.


Bike parking. The old tunnel entrance is on the left.


Dinner at Col de Bussang. The local wine is excellent.
PREVIOUS POST                                   NEXT POST

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 29 - Back to the High Chapparal

Image
Sunday 4 August 2019 Back to the High Chapparal in Heiderscheidergrund for our penultimate night. I thought Sunday night would be quiet after the weekend but far from it, the place is heaving. Our route was part motorway and part Bundesstraße, finished off with a lovely ride through the rolling hills of Luxembourg. Mick gets stuck in to the ribs at High Chapparal We camped next to a lovely couple and their young daughter who were riding a pair of old bikes. Maarten and Nina live in Venlo, but he hails from Düsseldorf and she is from Denmark. Maarten on his old Beemer Maarten’s bike is a 1965 BMW R50/2, a two cylinder 500cc that manages 26bhp and is fitted with a Stein S350 sidecar built in 1951. It also has a rear one-wheel trailer. Mick tries Maarten’s beemer for size Nina has a1943 Danish Nimbus C Sport. It’s a four cylinder 750cc engine and open valves. Output is 22bhp We give Maarten one of the blog stickers and he promised to drop a co...
Read more

Day 14 - It was supposed to be an easy day

Image
Saturday 20 July 2019 The plan for today is to ride just 68 miles. Up the SS42 through Edolo then onto a favoured camp site in Temù at the foot of the mighty Passo Gavia.  Yesterday would have been an extremely long ride if we had not cut out the Switzerland leg. So in anticipation of weary bones I figured today should be an easy one. And that is how it began. But I thought I would add a side trip up and over Passo Vivione. Just a 20 mile detour and we’ve got all day haven’t we? The road up to Schilpario is lovely. It winds up a narrow-sided gorge where old tunnels have been replaced by new. The old tunnel entrance and the new But the road up to the summit, at 1,827m is rutted with broken edges and so narrow that two cars could not possibly pass. The hairpins are as tight as you find anywhere in the Alps. Coffee at the summit of Passo del Vivione To say that Mick is seriously unhappy is to understate his feelings once we finally achieve the top. I m...
Read more

Day 1 - To Hull and Beyond

Image
Sunday 7 July 2019 We are all set to go at 2:30pm. In fact I’ve been ready since 10 this morning, champing at the bit and worrying about what I have forgotten to pack. No long haul down to the channel ports this time, just a short one-hour trip over to the P&O ferry terminal in Kingston Upon Hull for this evenings boat over to Zeebrugge in Belgium. Obligatory "Gentlemen start your engines" photo It is an easy ride over to Hull and we are at the check in early. The border force need to reach their targets so we are all directed into the search shed.  On board the ferry Naturally we are all clean and after a cursory check in a pannier here and a top box there we are allowed to proceed to the ship.       PREVIOUS POST                                      NEXT POST
Read more