Sunday - Reims to Home

Today was always going to be a big ride home and over 400 miles. Steve decided to get up early and take a direct route via the A26 Motorway for Calais and get an earlier crossing. We said our farewells in the bar last-night as I decided to stick with the planned route (the red one in the map above). This took us up out west of Reims then up through French countryside to join the Motorway 30 miles of  Calais. I thought I may regret the longer ride later but since most of my riding in the UK will be Motorway why not stay off the slab for as long as possible and enjoy the French countryside.

After a lazy breakfast, I left the hotel at 9 am. Quite a few of the others had already left by this time so a nice gentle Sunday morning ride out of the City, a short stretch of  A4 Motorway first and exit to head toward Soissons, then a fine ride picking my way through sleepy villages. I came across the WW1 Oise-Aisne American Cemetry stopped to take a look around, over 6000 US Soldiers lost their lives fighting in Marne-Aisne region put my phone on charge and rode on. 

One of the small villages was holding some kind of event, there were cars and congestion everywhere with people walking down the road. Couldn't quite make out what but the traffic congestion held me up for quite a while. Possible Church gathering or something. Further on, about 20 miles I came across Steve Freeman and Cliff sat at a small cafe, I turned the bike around and parked up for a while to enjoy a coffee and chat with them. Nice location, sat in the sun. Just the right temperature. Who wants to sit on the Motorway I thought.

From this point on I stayed behind Cliff and Steve for a steady run on to Calais with a brief stop at Albert in the Somme to get a photo of the famous Basilica of Notre Dame des Brebieres. 

I had read quite a bit in the past about the battle at Albert and how the golden statue of the virgin Mary was hit by a shell but left hanging there. The myth was that whoever made the statue fall to the ground would lose the war.  The statue became iconic to thousands of troops who passed by to see it slumped on it's side. The Basilica was completely destroyed and rebuilt after the war.

Myself and Steve said farewell to Cliff at the Tunnel Terminal - we had been offered a slightly earlier crossing Cliff decided to take it, I preferred to take a rest and check out some Duty Free for Helen and grab a quick bite. In the end we got a slightly earlier crossing, said our farewells before tackling the nightmare of the M20, M26 and M25 south and the blustery headwind. I opted to ride the M40 home as far as Warwick / Stratford and then via Henley in Arden, Redditch and Bromsgrove to simply get off the drone of the Motorway. Arrived home at 7 pm to late Sunday Lunch and glass of Cider.  

Excellent tour, amazing roads and scenery and great company - 2519 miles in 9 days. Probably the toughest yet averaging 279 miles a day many of which were on twisty Alpine roads. My new GS was superb, and I discovered the different ride modes are much better than I first thought e.g. the Dynamic converts the bike completely improves the throttle response and handling on the mountains, Road mode is great for every day comfort riding and the Rain mode is really useful in the wet as it does calm the bikes power down. One feature I really found useful was the hill assist - holding the bike and all of its weight hands and feet free in traffic jams and road works - even to stop and take a photo. The TFT connectivity worked flawlessly and so did the Navigator 6. Myself and Steve could and did use the intercom to aid our navigation and chat as we rode along as long as we were in line of sight - the VOX connect option worked really well too. Can't wait for the next one - whenever that may be 😉

Please  come back later for more photos and Go-Pro footage when I get around to uploading.

Saturday - Obernai to Reims

A later start today, probably away by 8:45 heading to our last night in Reims before we all split on Sunday and head home.

Today we started with a ride in the superb Vosges Mountains again heading toward Saales as the road started to gather twisties as we wound up and down these hills and passes. I passed a few Alsace vineyards as well as row upon row of hops growing in the fields along the way .

What a great morning ride with the sun flickering through the trees as I took off ahead of Steve to enjoy these superb roads.

Later, we saw Sean and Gerry ahead so I decided to pick up pace and ride with the them for a while . They weren't hanging about, good to follow Gerry on his RS and keep up.

The Vosges have plenty to offer bikers, smooth fast flowing bends with great scenery.

Myself and Steve met Steve Freeman and Cliff for a coffee in Neufchateau and a little later met Les, Ian , Cristina and Alan for lunch though the level of service didn't suit Steve who decided to not hang around for his meal so cleared off to find somewhere else to eat instead. At Bar Le Duc we split, with Steve wishing to cut the ride short by using the Motorway for the last part leaving me alone to do my own thing following the planned route riding toward Vouziers.

I did enjoy the ride through the rolling French countryside, great swooping straights and bends through farmland reaching out for miles as and miles. 

I realised I was riding along the Voie Sacree. This was the original supply lines for the 1916 battle  at Verdun. Part of the route has been so numbered D1916 as a permanent reminder of the part it played. There are several of the milestones along the route to commemorate the role played in the Battle of Verdun.

The others e.g. Les, Ian, Alan and Cristina passed me by as I took photographs etc. 

Vouziers 15th Century Church 

Made it to the hotel by 5:30 where I saw Les and Alan in the bar who presented me with my and Steve's Ham and Cheese baguette we didn't stick around for earlier - brilliant (I did settle my debt with Ian later)  😂. 

Now to get ready for our farewell meal hosted by Steve who started with some great speeches and little anecdotes about each of us.

Great company, hope to tour with again. Gerry, Sean, Steve F, myself, Les, Cliff, Al, Cristina, Ian, Steve G, Kevin and David.

Friday - Davos to Obernai

Today we started to track back north. The official route should have included a run through Lichtenstein but the weather forecast for that part of Switzerland and into Germany was.quite heavy rain. Kevin suggested we take the Motorway North West around Zurich via Motorway and rejoin the route on to the B500 Black Forest.

This is what we did, as it turns out while at a coffee stop and refuel the rain started to come down heavy. I changed in to my rain gear at the services , and I'm glad I did as it came down heavy for a good few miles. I was following Steve, as he had the detour route loaded in his Garmin, and Steve insisted on singing to me over the intercom. How wonderful. Just south of Zurich just as we finished at a coffee stop it started to rain harder. It was here we learned from the newspaper the sad news that Burt Reynolds:'ist tot'. The shock of which caused me to drop my coffee cup, and Steve to start laughing uncontrollably at the sight of this pristine Swiss motorway services quickly resemble that of a services on the M6.

RIP: Burt Reynolds (AKA 'Bandit')

At the services we put on our waterproof over gear, to protect us from more coffee spillage the first time this tour, and removed them a short time later when any fear of rain or hilarity had subsided. Glad we did though as we would have been soaked !

We crossed the Lower Rhine at Kaisersthul so now across the border into Germany.

We stopped at the first waypoint of the official route one the B500 at the Brewery. Couldn't resist this wonderful Pork knuckle in gravy with excellent crackling to set us up for the famous bikers road we would ride after. Quite a bit of traffic but once around it we had some fun, a mix of cloudy and sunny as we pressed riding into the he headwind on through Titisee and on to Triberg.

While riding through one of the small towns myself and Steve separated as he stopped for a drink behind and I didn't get the message. So I continued along the route passing some amazing scenery including this castle on the hill.

Some time later I received a phone call from Steve while riding asking me if I'd crossed the Rhine on the ferry. He said he was just boarding the ferry now. I said I hadn't and couldn't tell how far away I was from it, but as it turned out I was only 2 KM away, Steve's GPS had taken him via a motorway so he'd leap-frogged me. I arrived to watch his ferry depart and waved at him to see me and wait on the other side to no avail, as he sailed over oblivious. I then waited for the ferry to return and crossed later. Really enjoyed taking a break as the 5 minute crossing took me and local GS rider across the upper Rhine. It turned out later not everyone had used the ferry crossing as was expected on the route.

Three 'Boxers' on the ferry !

After the crossing now I wasn't far away from our night stay in Obernai. Really pretty town in the Alsace region.

All parked up outside our wonderful Hotel d la Cour Alsace.



Later, off out to sample some of the local delights we came across a very good restaurant. Good to be out of Swiss prices too at last. Beers etc half the price. Superb days riding, and good weather, food and company.

Tomorrow we track further North back through the Vosges again to Reims