14 Day 5 Haslach to Haslach

Well the lads waylaid Al last night and introduced him to wheat beer even after he said ‘No I’ve had enough…. Okay I’ll try one….’  Anyway it was past midnight before he turned in and of course was snoring like a trooper; why he felt the need to keep CNN news on ALL NIGHT is beyond me. Certainly I was jaded when the alarm went off this morning even if Al was fine – not fair!

The weather is better, but it had rained a lot over night, I guess there’s a reason why there are so many rivers around here in the Black Forest…  speaking of which, where’s my gateaux?

We set off in light rain but it stopped soon afterwards, but Al’s complaining, wishing the roads were either wet or dry, not both.  It seems it makes it harder to work out where the grip is.  The team work well but one is showing cause for concern.  Al says he just doesn’t want to follow him and witness what might happen.  The lad is friendly and seems to know a lot about everything.  Al said that the lad even has a box to put it all in too, but I can’t work out what he means.

We stopped in a lay-by so high I though my ears would pop, the hills below us were covered in grape vines and the smell of grape juice from one place we passed was almost overpowering.

This video shows the panorama finishing with, in order, Paul, Alan, Richard the 1st, Adam, Richard the 2nd and Me!    video clip

When we'd set off this morning Al tried to hand his key in, muttering something about how he can lose any keys he’s responsible for, but he had to keep them. The receptionist would not accept them and the only thing they could agree on was that Al ‘nicht sprechen deutsch’!  We found out later when we came back why he had to keep the key.  This hotel shuts on Wednesdays…. Oh sure, you can get to your room, if you can get in, but there is no reception, bar, food or staff.  It is their day off!  I might have expected this in France, but not Germany!

Anyway it was a cracking day, 200  miles of twisting, climbing and dropping roads – hard work I hear but fun too.