I woke up for the third time and as it was now 6am, I thought it was a reasonable time to get up. To my relief, the rain had stopped, although the tent was still very wet on the outside. I took the opportunity to wipe down the tent so it could dry better whilst I had breakfast and packed things away. Once all packed up and sat nav set, I rode on with a smile on my face, looking forward to the days ride.
It was only two minutes into the ride and Mr. Garmin was getting on my nerves. I stopped and re-set the route and it now took me in the opposite direction. I went with it, but after 30 minutes I started to get concerned as I was sure this was not the route I had planned, as I should be on a much smaller road heading to the border and into Germany. I stopped again to have a stern talk with the sat nav and then I realised my error. I had selected day 2 route, where as actually it was day 3. I think the mistake I made was that last night I titled the blog post as day 1, where actually it was day 2, (have now amended the blog title). So, once I had reset the sat nav to use the day three route and apologised to Mr. Garmin for the earlier profanities, I headed back to my first way point, which was now about 40 minutes away. I rode on laughing at my mistake, then I thought about yesterday’s tune and thought it was quite apt now.
Border crossings in mainland Europe are a seemless part of travel, but I do like to stop for a photo!
After a long while in the saddle, I was getting hungry and wanted to stretch my legs. However, there was not many suitable places and when I did see a ‘P’ sign, I had a car sitting way too close to consider pulling in. In their driver training over here, and most of Europe, I don’t think they are taught anything about safe following distances. Even when on the dual carriage way, they pull back in after overtaking, immediately in front of the vehicle they just over took. Then three seconds later they have caught up with the next vehicle and do the same again. Well, you can probably imagine, this starts me off ranting at their incompetence of basic driving skills! Mile after mile, I still hadn’t stopped, even missed some opportunities in the towns. Generally, if I went past somewhere I thought I might get food I won’t stop and turn around unless I have space and the right traffic conditions immediately after I see it. However, there was one small town where I stopped at some traffic lights and noticed a place just up ahead that had some chairs and tables outside. As I pulled away from the lights there was for once, no one behind me, so I pulled in and to my luck, heaven wast just across the road. It looked like a French Patisserie and even had comfy chairs inside!
Once inside, I said hello and asked if I could take a seat. The lady behind the counter quickly called over a younger lady that could speak English. So, I ordered a cheese and tomato pizzary thing, with a doughnut and black coffee. I sat down and waited for the cheese and tomato thing to be warmed up and started to type up some notes of the day so far. I actually sat there far longer than I would normally do when on my own and enjoyed just looking through the window at my bike parked opposite.
Back on the road, feeling like I could ride lots more miles, it was not long before I rode past a McDonalds, but I was satisfied with what I had, especially as the McDonalds doughnuts are no where near as nice as what I just had.
The route was good, with tree lined roads and excellent tarmac surfaces. I saw several Harley Davidson motorcycles and thought, yes, these roads are great for a Harley, even with there limited travel suspension,. Where as the roads inack home, need an adventure or dirt bike., with longer travel suspension in order to cope with the numerous defects that the UK roads have.
But, all that enjoyment stopped as I joined the A7 to take me over the bridge and around Hamburg. It was full of ongoing roadworks and narrow lanes meaning most of the time it was too tight to filter. In fact, as I saw no other motorcycles filtering, I wasn’t even sure if it was allowed, so patiently sat in line and followed all the cars and the trucks with the crawling speeds and stop and go process. This went on for ages and just when I thought we had cleared the road works, we went into a tunnel with one lane closed. This felt claustrophobic and was really trying my patience. I had a strong urge to just go in the coned off empty land and accelerate past the other traffic, but then I imagined getting pulled over and taken off to the nik, meaning I would possibly miss my ferry to Iceland, so remained in line directing my profanities at the German road works!
Once I had cleared all that, the hotel was not far away and what a nice room I had. A good shower and a comfy bed would help take the stresses of the last few miles away.
Now, when certain photos are missed, I will always find an opportunity to turn around and go back for that special shot. Here is one example…
What a beauty heh?
This old Opel had a wooden roof.
Now I know some of you are looking at these photos and wondering why on earth I would turn back for that, but I also know some share my passion for old rusty vehicles.
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