Day 3. Metz to Baden Baden. (Patrick)

A terrible night!  Extremely hot and close and so none of us have slept well. I wake with a sore head and stagger outside to try and freshen up. I am offered drugs by nice man outside the hostel but only ibroprofen will do. Holding my head and moaning gently, I go into the cathedral past 2 elderly beggars who refrain from pressing me too hard as I appear to be slightly mad and in a worse looking state than themselves. The cathedral is impressively big.

Back at the hostel we are informed that we have missed breakfast by 10 minutes and shove off. Breakfast by 8 am on a Sunday in a youth hostel?  The whole of Metz takes Sunday morning very slowly but we find one bakery open. 

We depart Metz and have some pleasant riding through open countryside to Bitchie, a place I spotted on the map and just had to go to. It also happens to be at the start of a good-looking road. Bitchie has an impressive old citadel, currently French but which appears to be capable of use both ways. The area to the east of Bitchie is curious as we cannot tell if we are in France or Germany - many villages have what appear to be German names but obviously French post offices and maries.  Later we ride into Germany over the old bridge over the Moselle which still has railway tracks down the middle of the road to catch unwary motorcyclists and for the quick movement of armaments should the occasion arise. 

Before Germany, however, we have the good-looking road. Well it is a good road slightly marred by the fact that it is drizzling and that it. Is a Sunday and most of the bikers in the district are also 'doing' the road mostly in groups of 20. I go slowly and am constantly be passed by flashier and more capable riders. Towards the end of the road we emerge from the forest and a huge plain is laid out below us, the Moselle valley, and the Black Forrest hills are in the distance. At the end of the road Charlie has the misfortune to find a patch of gravel and the bike goes over trapping Charlie under it. No explosions so all ok. 

Day 3 continued:

It has been raining since before we go over the Moselle bridge and gets worse as we head in to Baden Baden. Arriving anywhere while it is raining and you cannot find where you are going is never good. It is not made better by aggressive driving by the inhabitants who appear fractious and I start to thing that the place is so bad they named it twice. After quite a considerable time we find the youth hostel at the top of a hill and things improve.  Uwe, who is manning the desk, is very nice and helpful, the room is good and shower is hot and extremely powerful!  We walk downhill to the nearest pub or is it stubel and have a refreshing Weiss bier with motorcycle racing on the tv, then pizza and home again.