travel

French twisties

Labaroche, Alsace, France
Saturday, August 11, 2012

Completely refreshed I joined the crowd for breakfast in the lovely sunshine. There was much discussion about which routes to take as there are so many fabulous roads in this area. Gernot (in the sidecar), me and Bernt made up the "slow" group going north and the others headed off for a "fast" ride south.

It was such a delight to just follow again and not look at a map all day. Bernt knew the roads well and we passed through many lovely villages and fantastic twisty mountain roads.

This may actually be my last chance to ride the European twisties as I'm heading back to England after this weekend. We stopped off at a German War cemetery and then a while later at Struthof - a concentration camp. It was quite eerie as it still had quite a lot of the structures still in place including the gallows.

A bit further on we stopped for lunch in the middle of the forest beside a stream - so cliche. We then heard that one of the "fast" group had come off on a hairpin and had broken his ankle. We were over 100kms away so there was nothing we could do to help so we just continued on our ride. I think we did every single twisty and mountain pass in the entire region as it was past 6pm before we got back to the lodge.

We had a BBQ for dinner and then the beer started flowing. Much laughter and jocularity but I'm at a distinct disadvantage with the language barrier and really should have paid more attention to my German teacher in highschool.

Another very long tiring (but exhilarating) day and an amazing way to finish off my 3 months in Europe. I am immensely impressed with the German Ulysses club and in particular Wally and Gernot for their amazing hospitality.

Beemer Beemer Beemer Beemer Aprilia
Beemer Beemer Beemer Beemer Aprilia
Breakfast
Breakfast
Two of the boys
Two of the boys
Comments:
ROFL! They look just like the Ulysses logo! From Pete, on Aug 13, 2012 at 07:21AM
Town gates
Town gates
Nice church
Nice church
German cemetery
German cemetery
German cemetery
German cemetery
Struthof concentration camp
Struthof concentration camp
Henry and the memorial
Henry and the memorial
Entrance
Entrance
Memorial
Memorial
Memorial
Memorial
The gallows
The gallows
The gas chamber diguised as a farmhouse
The gas chamber diguised as a farmhouse
Hairpins
Hairpins
Lunch
Lunch
Gernot
Gernot
Previous Entry Next Entry