I left Droitwich at 06:00 yesterday and blasted South to Dover, managing to catch to 10:55 crossing to Calais.
For a bike with over 100,000 miles on the clock it's doing remarkably well. The girl in the background was riding pillion on her way home to Italy on a 1200GS Adventure - those bikes, especially when fitted with all the expandable luggage, are awesome! There was also a Polish guy on a push-bike who asked me if I knew how to get to Spain without too many hills - I advised him to avoid the Pyrenees but that was about it! He told me he cycled from town to town, and country to country, sleeping and working where he could, and that Poland was a great place to visit - good omens, I like :-)
The blast over to Monschau was, thankfully, uneventful. Apart from the last town where I started driving up a closed-off road - I really must [re-]learn some German :-(
When I arrived at the hotel there was a sign from the owner giving just a telephone number for hotel guests. I phoned and he said, "One second," or something similar. So I hung up and waited for him to come downstairs to let me in. Then he phoned back and explained that there was no-one in the hotel and that I could find a key hidden behind a plant-pot. About five sweaty minutes later (it was very hot) I found my key, and my room, and unloaded the bike. This was followed by another difficult German conversation with an old lady who lived across the street from the hotel. She kept saying "Motorrad" and "Gestolen", and I eventually grasped that she was trying to tell me my bike would be stolen if I left it there. To verify the meaning of "Gestolen" I said the word and mimicked stealing her handbag which didn't go down to well, but we both got the point. Luckily the hotel key also opened the garage so I stuffed the bike in, safe and sound.
The hotel was very nice and after a quick shower I wandered into town - down the very steep valley - and found a bar. As if rubbing it in that my German is bad (or, Mein Deustch ist Kerput, as I keep saying), I ordered what sounded like salad with 2 small pigs. I figured that there'd be salad and something pig-like in there, so I was disappointed when the waitress brought me a meat-free salad. Due to extreme hunger pangs I eat the lot - including the tomatoes which I generally hate. Figuring I'd ordered the wrong item I decided to finish my beer and head home. Then the waitress came back with the main course. Duh! I think it was, zwei kleine SchweinSchnitzel (two small pig-shreds according to Google Translate) but whatever it was it was yummy.
The walk back took about an hour since I walked back up the wrong side of the valley. Still, it probably burnt off the pig-calories.
Then sleep.
:-)
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