Ride Out With Tigger To Schluchsee

Basically I wanted to get up out of the fog we have here in Bad Zurzach and go and have a look at some knives which can be found at a specialist shop in Schluchsee.
The shop has some fantastic knives, but they come with their price too!

This one here, is a custom made knife - limited to 100 pieces. Price €199.00



Well, believe it or not, but I was able to just look at them and not buy any!
Which I found to be very good for me...

From Schluchsee, I rode NW up along the lake of Schluchsee and then turned left to go past Aha and Äule before riding over the pass that brings you over to Menzenschwand. The sunshine was lovely over on the South West facing side of the hill - lovely and warm. Good enough to make a photo or two :-)





Then down to Sankt Blasien where it was rather icy! From there I twisted my way back down into the fog and mist back to Bad Zurzach.



The column of steam is from the cooling tower at the Leibstadt Nuclear Power Plant. Those there big hills in the background are the Alps I'll have you know.



A few nearer hill tops sticking up out of the fog with the Alps far away in the distance - it looked wonderful.





Looking down in direction of Waldshut-Tiengen! Actually down there is Indlekofen - Yup, somewhere just down there in that there thick foggy soup!

Afternoon With The Tigger - Wutachschlucht & Touratech

So with the weather being so nice, I decided to take myself out for a ride up in the Black Forest and onto Touratech to look at the crash bars for the Tiger 800XC.

The ride started with me wanting to collect my Garmin GPS ...
... which was still fitted in the Patrol ...
... which was currently at the Nissan garage ...
... in Tiegen ...
... where he was having a large service done!

So I had to leave the office early (NOT a problem ;-) to ride out to Tiegen to get my GPS before the garage closed for lunch. Upon fitting the Garmin into the Tigger, I powered up ...
...!
...?
Battery flat!
Bugger ...
No power cable!!
Bugger, Bugger ...
Only Google Maps on my Mobile phone!!!
Bugger, Bugger, Bugger ...

Oh well - so, it was going to be a ride with lots of little stops to find out where I wasn't!?
:-)
So from the Nissan garage it's a lovely ride up the Witznau Schlucht into the Black Forest.




These pictures are taken just up stream from Witznau on the L157, in the Schlucht.
It's a fantastic road to ride - provided there isn't a lot of on-coming traffic!!!

I cut across some field roads to bring me to Bonndorf im Schwarzwald and then onto the Wutachmühle just north of Ewattingen...



... before turning right (East) towards Blumberg,
and onto the Gasthof-Pension Scheffellinde at Achdorf near Blumberg for lunch.



With recommendation from Hans, I took menu #2 with salad and an alcohol free beer
(I was riding my bike!)


It was fantastic!


Just what a growing man needs!!!

From there it was a bit of cross country roads and onto Touratech at Niedereschach.





Well I didn't get to see their Tiger all fitted out with their gear, as it was having some work done on it. But this is what it would have looked like...
Actually, I had gone to see their tank protection crash bar! But NO!
Anyway - I did get myself a power cable for the Garmin, so I had power to find my way home - and a RAM handlebar mount, for something I yet have to think of ;-)

While at Touratech I met a Spaniard who wanted to know the way to a bicycle shop somewhere just outside of Villingen. He had been to Touratech to "buy some boy toys" for him - now he needed to go to a bicycle shop to "get some girl toys" things for his wife?!?
I think what he meant was that he had bought some motorbike things for him (boy toys), and now he needed to get some bicycle things (girl toys) for his wife!?
All this in a mixture of English, Spanish, Italian and German... :-D

Well rather than give him directions that would have been something along the lines of:
"First left, second right - onto roundabout, third exit - second right - forth left - traffic lights left - forth right..."
I just entered the address into my GPS and took him there!
That's what life's all about - meeting people and helping people!

.... you know, when I think about the day I can remember certain things, such as the Wutachmuhle - restaurant - car at traffic lights - dead animal on road - etc. BUT the fact is, I can remember EVERYBODY I had a conversation with! Where they were from - where they were going - what they had done - what they recommended...

I remember hearing or reading somewhere, that what 'makes' a road-trip isn't where you go,
but the people you meet!
So true.


On the way back I crossed Hans's car parked off to the side of the raod - so I took my time to walk down to the Wutach to try and find him doing some fly fishing.




The Wutachschlucht really is a special place. Very beautiful and full of nature.




From there it was time to head off back home....



Fantastic day!

T2B: Day Two - Schluchsee (D) to Neukirchen (A)

Up and off by 08:30... Cloudy and cold!!!

First stop - Rothaus Brauerei.

Then it was down to the Rheinfalls...

... you may have noticed - there's not just Joe with me! That's right - Joe and I collected 3 other members to ride in the 'slow group' :-)

I'm glad it was the slow group as one of the member was caught doing 127 km/h in an 80 zone and had his license taken off him!
He we were waiting for the others to come by...

From there it was on to Liechtenstein for lunch and then a looooong slog to Neukirchen, Austria.

We finally got to the hotel rather late - 20:00 hrs and proceeded to go straight to lunch and beer!

I slept well...

On My Way To Freiburg To Meet Joe

Looking over to Titisee, Schwarzwald.

Blummin cold too! Hand to stop to put some under-gloves on...

Ride Out - Mother's Day

Well we wanted to go up to the Schluchsee and sail around, but everything was closed.
So we drove back to St.Blasien and had a coffee and lunch.