Day 12 (Patrick) Homeward bound

The eagle-eyed reader will note that I have left out Sunday and Monday.  This is because I want to catch up with myself and so send today's blog today. I intend to do Sunday and Monday next so sorry if you were hoping for a break!

Today the Boyz break up and we get up relatively early to do a last scenic road together. This is the Obersalzburg ring above Berchtesgarden which Tillmann has recommended and it looks good on the map. After one 'wrong' turning where we find ourselves at the top of a mountain (the Kehlstein), we find our selves at the infamous Eagle's Nest but we do not dain to give it our presence and instead find the toll road which goes up and up until it runs along what appears to be a fairly narrow ridge with Germany on one side and Austria on the other.  I say appears as in fact we are in cloud and so are unable to appreciate the views but we do appreciate the atmosphere and the mountains which come and go around us.  The toll road used to be used as a race track and I expect was built after the first WW.

Irrespective of Hitler's brooding presence, the Berchtesgarden area is a national park with some truly awe inspiring mountains and would be a beat place to revisit.  It is the end of the German Alpenstrasse and I thoroughly recommend the trip from Landau to here. It is a great biking road so please leave your motorhome at home!

At the junction to St. Johann inTirol, J&C take this road to go over the Alps and onto the Dolomites and Jony's blog will tell you what happened to them.  I am sorry not to be joining them but should be thinking of going home and going south (and into Austria) is not the way.  I feel that I have had enough of the mountains for a while and so get on the Autobahn for Munich.

It is strange to be travelling so fast in a straight line and German Autobahn's are not for the faint of heart.  Everyone, including large lorries, go like the clappers and you need to keep a sharp lookout in the wing mirrors for Porches and the like doing well over 100 mph in the fast lane.

I get round Munich somehow navigating through roadworks and rain and then carry on the Auobahn to Stuttgart and I have a short break and study the map.  The bike was very tricky to get started this morning and keeps stalling at low revs at stops and so it is rather worrying and I have to keep the revs up which is aggravating; however, it restarting at petrol fill ups and so I keep my fingers crossed and decide to have a little pressure after the efficient but I pleasurable motorway riding.  I head into the northern part of the Black Forrest and despite some run have a series of great roads as there is hardly anyone about. (J&C for your info, I came in via Nagold which is SW of Stuttgart and road due'ish east, including by mistake a white road which had just been newly gravelled and so interesting, the north along the 462, otherwise known as the Schwarzenbach Strasse, and then yellow road up onto the 500 and north into Baden Baden).

I find the youth hostel at Baden Baden easily which is a pleasure compared to our arrival there a week ago.  I have chosen this because a) I know where it is, b) I am hoping that the user-friendly Uwe will be on duty (he is), c) I can park the bike in a garage and so hope to keep it dry and d) and possibly most importantly it is at the top of a hill  which should help if the bike proves difficult to start tomorrow as I suspect.

I am sharing a room with an unknown person but whom I suspect is a teacher with the group of school children who are noisily all about.  The teacher, if that is what he is, must be young as a large bag of toffees are strategically placed by his bed; unless, of course, he has confiscated them - a delightfully old fashioned idea, Goodbye Mr. Chips and all that - I suspect confiscation has gone the way of prep and 'lines'.  Whether teacher or not, I expect a frosty reception when I return as no doubt he thought he had the (4 bunk) room to himself, but this is not the way of the youth hostel!

I am having a dunkle (dark) beer as I write this in the bierregarden at the bottom of the hill.

And so to supper....