Thank heavens for a really good night's sleep! Some heavy rain in the early hours but clearing as we have an extremely good breakfast (included in our €20-odd B&B). I ask Uwe about the weather, he looks a little vague and says no more rain. Unfortunately, meteorology is not his thing as it starts to rain after a few hours but we have an excellent introduction to the E500 and Black Forrest before it starts.
In fact it is while we are looking at a not very impressive waterfall (it is August after all) that it chucks it down and we take shelter for a while. It clears sufficiently for us to get back up the hill to a restaurant an the top so a ski lift where we all have different soups even though I was expecting a burger!
The rain clears while we are eating and so we have some good riding but slightly worrisome due to the wet road. We arrive at Titisee where the lake is famous and ruined by massive overdevelopment for the tourists. Note: according to Jony we are travellers, not tourists, but the map says our motorcycle road is a tourist route, not a traveller's way!
I manage to get separated from J&C but make my own way back to the youth hostel just before a very windy storm arrives. J&C have stopped and been travellers,posing as tourists, by Lake Titisee. The Neustadt youth hostel is not up to Baden Baden standards but does have its own swimming pool (yet to be investigated). I feel that the architect was more used to designing prisons, certainly our room has the feeling of a cell, the double trap (and unisex) toilet is not ideal, but the double (and unisex) shower opens up a field of possibilities that remain undiscovered! The prison effect is heighten when during the night I need to visit the double trap toilet and when I open our cell door the very brightly lit corridor flashes onto Jony sleeping as he is in the upper bunk by the door. He gallantly says over breakfast that he was not woken up by this.
J&C return and we walk down into Neustadt which is dead and depressing. Nothing is open except 3 pizza places but we finally find the local hotel/restaurant and get a reasonable meal but again what we get is not what we expect.
Day 4 (Jony)
Alles gut: breakfast feast
Day four dawns grey and overcast. We eventually arrived at the Baden Baden Jungenherbergen in the rain yesterday. To be honest, the weather has been less than perfect for the past couple of days. Wet roads have put a bit of a damper on things from the biker's POV, quite apart from having to ride defensively, it means putting on a all sorts of fancy overgear which makes one look even more like a michelin-man.
However, there's always food! We have descended today after a much -improved night's sleep to find a veritable continental feast awaiting us. Patrick has limited experience of hostels and is seriously impressed! We all have limited experience of how the Germans do things so a big breakfast spread, with many different teas, breads, jams, meats etc creates a great impression - and it's all served with a 'but of course, don't you always have five types of bread for breakfast'-attitude!
Bit of a mixed day's riding with further wet stuff dampening our best efforts to show off our cornering skills on what is generally considered to be one of europe's top biking roads - the A500, which runs pretty much north to south through the Black Forest and which we happily followed to our next hostel close to the very scenic lake Titisee.
Alles nicht so gut: where to stay?
Deciding which cake to have, which perfect bit of tarmac to follow, which of the many beers on offer to try each day...life on the road can be tough. Toughest of all, however, has been finding somewhere to lay our heads at the end of the day, especially when those heads are wet and tired. Patrick does a brilliant job of navigating from town to town using good old fashioned maps but the process of getting to a particular address can be really wearing when it involves repeatedly getting off the bike to find someone to ask, failing to understand the directions, getting lost in back streets and going round in circles. That's my contribution.
Step up Charlie! Although it can be unpredictable, hard to charge and impossible to read through two layers of wet protective plastic, Charlie's satnav has been invaluable on the last couple of miles through deserted back streets up which hostels are often situated.
Big sighs of relief and much back patting follow our damp and slightly anxious arrival at the large, empty Jungenherberger (and, no Jony, 'hostel?' is not the right word) that are open to jungen and not-so-jungen alike and where breakfast is a big deal. As I write, the heavy overnight mist looks like it might be lifting to reveal a blue sky. Hurrah! I'll go and rouse the sleepers. The A500 awaits!
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