Day 27 - Col de Bussang
Wednesday 19th July 2017
We plan to ride more than 200 miles today. Fortunately the skies have cleared and the day is warming up rapidly. We have decided to head over into France. Usually we just get on the autobahn and ride through Germany to Luxembourg. It is the fastest route.
I've tried lots of non-motorway routes across Europe to the English Channel but all these routes prove tedious as the mountain views are left behind and busy urban roads are full of slow moving traffic. It's different heading south, full of anticipation, but as the holiday draws to a close my thoughts turn to home and really I just want to get there.
There is no easy way to ride past Bodensee aka Lake Constance. We avoid Bregenz, always a bottleneck, but the traffic catches up with us at Friedrichhafen where the first zeppelins were built and tested. It is a slow drag along the northern shores of the lake.
We stop for coffee in the ancient town of Meersburg. Jake and I stayed here once and visited the old castle. Built in 630 it is the oldest inhabited castle in Germany and well worth a visit.
This time though Mick and I just stop for coffee. We ignore the No Entry signs and ride through the old main street to the harbour where we find a cafe on the harbour wall.
After Meersburg the going is even slower as road works and diversions confuse the satnav and lead us off into the wilderness. Finally around Tittensee we leave the main roads for a lovely run on tiny back roads across the southern end of the Black Forest. It is absolutely beautiful here and all thoughts of sweating through heavy traffic with aching clutch hand are forgotten.
Finally we cross the Rhine at Mulheim and enter France. Our destination for the night is the Motohotel Col de Bussang, an old coaching inn at the summit of a low pass that I read about on one of the internet bike touring sites.
It is a good find. Owned and run for touring bikers by a Dutch couple. The rooms are basic and meals are from a set menu at a set time, seated at a table with your name on it. But there is a variety of good beers and it is well populated by bikers from various countries around Europe.
There is undercover bike parking behind the hotel, next to the entrance to the old tunnel which fell into disuse after a new pass road was built.
We have an enjoyable evening chatting to a couple from Leeds who are touring on his-and-hers Harleys. Turns out we have attended a lot of the same MAG rallies in the UK.
While enjoying a beer out in the garden we are rewarded by a sight of a young chamois down from the mountain for a snack on the hotel lawn. We are told it is a frequent visitor, but very wary as there is an open hunting season on these mountains.
We plan to ride more than 200 miles today. Fortunately the skies have cleared and the day is warming up rapidly. We have decided to head over into France. Usually we just get on the autobahn and ride through Germany to Luxembourg. It is the fastest route.
 |
| Coffee on the shore of the Bodensee at Meersburg |
I've tried lots of non-motorway routes across Europe to the English Channel but all these routes prove tedious as the mountain views are left behind and busy urban roads are full of slow moving traffic. It's different heading south, full of anticipation, but as the holiday draws to a close my thoughts turn to home and really I just want to get there.
There is no easy way to ride past Bodensee aka Lake Constance. We avoid Bregenz, always a bottleneck, but the traffic catches up with us at Friedrichhafen where the first zeppelins were built and tested. It is a slow drag along the northern shores of the lake.
We stop for coffee in the ancient town of Meersburg. Jake and I stayed here once and visited the old castle. Built in 630 it is the oldest inhabited castle in Germany and well worth a visit.
This time though Mick and I just stop for coffee. We ignore the No Entry signs and ride through the old main street to the harbour where we find a cafe on the harbour wall.
 |
| Onto the back roads |
After Meersburg the going is even slower as road works and diversions confuse the satnav and lead us off into the wilderness. Finally around Tittensee we leave the main roads for a lovely run on tiny back roads across the southern end of the Black Forest. It is absolutely beautiful here and all thoughts of sweating through heavy traffic with aching clutch hand are forgotten.
 |
| Southern Schwarzwald |
It is a good find. Owned and run for touring bikers by a Dutch couple. The rooms are basic and meals are from a set menu at a set time, seated at a table with your name on it. But there is a variety of good beers and it is well populated by bikers from various countries around Europe.There is undercover bike parking behind the hotel, next to the entrance to the old tunnel which fell into disuse after a new pass road was built.
We have an enjoyable evening chatting to a couple from Leeds who are touring on his-and-hers Harleys. Turns out we have attended a lot of the same MAG rallies in the UK.
 |
| Wicker bike in the bar |
While enjoying a beer out in the garden we are rewarded by a sight of a young chamois down from the mountain for a snack on the hotel lawn. We are told it is a frequent visitor, but very wary as there is an open hunting season on these mountains.
 |
| Bikes parked up near the disused tunnel entrance |
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| Visiting chamois on the lawn |
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