Thought I wouldn't do much more blogging, until getting back home and the summary to come. Hard to keep my fingers away from the pad though, whem I' m on the road.
After Andalucia I stayed a few more days with my parents, doing a full service of the bike and some planning for the future to come. Basically there were two options, leave the bike and fly back home (picking it up in spring) or drive and stay at hotels (as the campsites are closed now). Both ok, but neither really appealing. Then I came to think about the german auto-zug. Turns out they don't run them from Narbonne in southern France anymore, but they still run from Lörrach on the swiss-german border. So what I'm doing now is driving highways to southern Germany to board a train for Hamburg. Saves about three days of highway driving and at least one hotel night.
Up until now it has been a pretty eventless drive, doing highways through Spain and France. Quite boring, but make a lot of distance pretty easily.
When I hit Annecy-France and found myself in a crowded, very laid back hostel having it's own Woodstock bar in the backyard. Landlady put me in a dorm with three other guys, adding that "they are pretty unsorted and I've asked them to clean up the room". She did not exaggerate.
It was also the day the cows came back to town, from summer pasture up in the mountains. Of course this is to be celebrated with a big party in town! And cows, do what cows usually do, regardless whether they're on pasture or in town. Mind your step!
I do appreciate that, unlike swedish "fairs", this one
only have genuine craftsmen and local live music. So much more fun to attend!
As I had to park on the street in Annecy, someone had been into my small textile bags in the morning. Must be rather stupid if they think I store valuables in those when parked like that! Well, second hand chain grease and spares didn't seem to attract. Everything was still there and I think it might have been drunk youths getting back from the friday party, rather than real thiefs. This was the only incident n the whole trip, so will not complain.
Got to Lörrach in good order and well ahead of departure. A lot of waiting before the train took off. Worth noticing is that bikes are always stored on the lower floor of the trains and the headroom is quite limited to say the least. Had to lower the visor of the helmet, not to hit the ceiling when loading...
We were four bikers sharing a compartment to Hamburg. In the morning all four of us stuck our heads out of the window and agreed it was a wonderful day. Not a cloud to been seen. Then we collectively noticed that there were frost on the ground to. I crossed the border to Sweden at 16:20 and was back at home again just before six in the evening. Last 600 kilometers from Hamburg were
cold!
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| Full service |
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| Getting into the alps |
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| Happy pumpkin mongers in Annecy |
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| He had his own mini-saw mill, selling planks for 50 cents a piece |
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| Cheese monger, with very good cheese. A pity I couldn't store and transport any! |
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| One of the objects of celebration |
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| Making hearts and other figures in stone slates |
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| Saucisson en masse |
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| The local bread guy. One of them. |
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| The local, mobile, destilling plant. Beautifully crafted in 1934. |
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| Local and very good harmonica band. Notice the length of the harmonica used by the rythm guy in the middle! |
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| The home guard was also represented of course |
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| Backyard and bar of my hippie-hostel |
