Germany Part 2 – Great Roads, Great Biking, Great Mates

The second half of our holiday started with a drizzly to start to the morning so we just headed into the town to explore locally with the idea if it got worse we wouldn’t have far to get back or if it dried up we could go for a ride. In Triberg itself, are Triberg Falls which is one of the highest waterfalls in Germany with a descent of 163m and is a landmark in the Black Forest region. We decided to park at the top and walk down. Now, it was very pretty, I can’t deny that but the further we walked down I just kept thinking to myself we’ve got to walk back up to the top!

We eventually reached the bottom (yes the bottom! Oooh ‘eck the walk back up was going to take some doing) and got ourselves a well earned coffee and cake (I reasoned to myself that I definitely needed cake as I needed the energy boost to get back up the hill :-) ) 









We had a wonder round Triberg which is famous for it’s cuckoo clocks and then started the ascent back up the waterfall! OMG it was such a loooong way up. By the time we were half way up I had lost my love for how pretty it all was and by the time we got to the top I never wanted to see another waterfall again!!!

After recovering for a while and catching our breath, the drizzle had dried up so we hopped back on the bikes and headed off. We got to a ‘T’ junction and was not sure which way to go as we were not heading anywhere in particular so plumped for turning right. Good decision. 


Another fantastic winding road which lead down to Haslach which is a really picturesque village with many old historic buildings. Having wondered round the buildings and village for a while we found a restaurant and sat outside in the sun to have a late lunch. I love this biking lark.

The following morning was raining so we headed to a Rodelbahn toboggan run in Gutach to see if it was as good as it looked in the pics. If you’re a kid or a non motorbike person who isn’t used to getting their adrenaline kicks from riding a bike then it was good but for me, personally, I would have liked it to have been a lot longer and a lot faster but then I have always been a bit of an adrenaline junkie. Worth checking out though if you’re ever in the area.


The rain was getting heavier by lunchtime so we decided to head back to the apartment and walk (yes, I know!) into the town following a footpath down the mountain. We found a pub, had a long leisurely lunch (that walk had made us build up an appetite) and had a beer or two and watched some football that was on the TV. Very late afternoon we headed back stopping at the supermarket on the way for supplies. It was definitely a lot further going back, I am sure of it.

The following day the sun was shining so we were up, dressed and ready to head off by nine as we wanted to make up for lost riding time the day before. We decided to head for Meersburg which was some 115km away. We followed the B500 which we’d read before we came was ‘the road’ to check out if we were this way. It was good, don’t get me wrong, long fast sweeping bends, great road surface, not many cars etc. but I’ve got to say, some of the other roads we’d stumbled across earlier in the week were just as good, if not better. Still, it would have been rude not to have checked it out :-)

In Meersburg we found this pub which had a Harley Davidson engine as beer pumps and sat in a prominent position on the bar so you could see it up close. I thought it was really cool but then I like old engine or garage parts turned into something like that, for example, the coffee table in my lounge is a Rover V8 engine that I blew up racing many years ago and one of my lamps is an old blow torch.

On the way back we got back onto my now favourite road, the B33, and went into Elzach for an ice cream/coffee stop. I figured I needed to come here quite a few more times in order to give a full and informed review of the ice cream menu – I could see a change of career coming on, official ice cream tester – mmmmm, I could definitely handle that :-)

I couldn’t believe it, today was our last day before heading back to France. The week had flown by, I was not ready to go back home yet. The guys asked where I would like to go on the last day and I said I really wanted to ride up the B33 and eat lots of ice cream. So we did. I better point out here that this road is some 30/35km long and I think we went up and down it three times (with an ice cream stop or two in between) before heading back to the apartment the really, really long way round.

After packing and tidying up, we lit the fire pit and fired up the BBQ for our last evening. I was really going to miss this, such a relaxed chilled way to spend the evening after riding all day. Great mates, great roads, great holiday.

We set off early next morning and headed for Courtisols which was where our overnight stay was in France. The sat nav took us through Strasbourg. OMG how can five, reasonably intelligent, adults get so totally and utterly lost in one place. We ended up going through the middle of town three times. 

We pulled over, counted to ten, and had a look at the map (when I say we, I mean the guys did, I don’t have a sat nav, I just follow. I have complete and utter faith that at least one of them will get me to where I need to be – and they do).

We headed back out of the town, John was in front, followed by Stephen, me, Giles and Graham. Well, John went left on the motorway and Stephen went right (we later found out Stephen’s sat nav was telling him right onto the motorway). I’m like, what the heck!!! Which way do I go???? I went right, as did the other guys and we stopped at the next petrol station and waited for John to find us. He eventually did after several phone calls. We carried back on. I am never, ever going to Strasbourg again. That was too stressful!

We made it to Courtisols in one group and were definitely in need of a beer after that ride. Showers, chill and dinner.

We went for a walk around Cortisols to find somewhere for dinner. There was one place open, a pizzeria. Now hindsight is a wonderful thing. If you’re in a pizzeria, assume the pizzas are their speciality and go for pizza. We however, went for spaghetti bolognese. Bad choice. 

It was literally mince and onion on a bed of pasta. No sauce, no seasoning, no other veggies. Just mince and onion. As there was nowhere else to eat and we were hungry we ate it. Lesson learnt.

Another early start after a great breakfast heading towards the tunnel. We were making good time until Graham (up front) came off the motorway a junction too early and could we get back on? No. There were roadworks which meant we couldn’t get back on. In the end we ended up going on a detour eventually getting back onto the motorway. We made it to the tunnel but had just missed our train. We got on the next one though so it wasn’t too bad.

A fabulous holiday. I would never have said Germany was a holiday destination but it was a really interesting and scenic place to visit and the roads for biking were fantastic. Definitely on my ‘got to go back to’ list.

Until next time ………….

BK

Thank you for reading my post, I hope you enjoyed it. If you would like to subscribe by email, please enter your email on the right.

If you would like to share my blog that would be great - thank you.