Just stopped to take jumper and waterproof over trousers off (which I’d put of to combat the cold wind).
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I was getting to blasé, getting cold as we get deeper and higher into alps, and weather looks more ominous.
Tek care dude
Really pleased you are back on the road. Safe and trouble free ride home 
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Good luck with your ride home.
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Safely escaped from Switzerland, motorway all the way. Half in heavy rain, so got rather damp. In Germany now contemplating risking the weather by heading to B500. Mostly blue skies and fluffy clouds down here but there seems to be a fair few rain clouds about, so waterproofs going back on.
Just stopped at a Lidl to get a couple of beers and some crisps in addlebags for tonight.
Relying on Google maps via earpiece for directions is immensely frustrating!
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Wot no paper maps?
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I thought you said it was going to rain… looks stunning, no more than you deserve after all your bad luck. Hope your luck holds for the rest of your trip👍
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[
ODYSSEY Definition & Meaning
(often lowercase) a long series of wanderings or adventures, especially when filled with notable experiences, hardships, etc.
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That was Switzerland, didn’t stop to get phone all damp taking pictures! Once I got north of the alps around the border with Germany it turned to sunny intervals. Though a third the way up the Black Forest, around 4pm, it came over all dark clouds and started to rain, not wanting to get all wet again I decided to get out phone and book in nearest hotel.
Turns out rain is only coming in lumps with sunny intervals inbetween so probably would have heen fine getting another hour or two under belt. I’ve only 205 miles today, felt like more, guess that was the rain, strong headwind, motorway roadworks and contraflows, and a 17km tunnel that was like the blast from and open oven and traffic going slow one lane each way (think southbound tunnel was shut and they were sharing with us heading north).
Still OK with mileage today, similar dor next two days and forecast seems to be dry with sunny bits.
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Good luck for the coming days 
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Gotthart? I did that once… neverending…
Hotel restaurant more to my liking today.
Had currywurst because I thought I can’t not on this trip. Was very nice.
Followed by something more appealing to the little one.
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Glued to this thread.
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Yes, that runnel, I just checked. Posted speed limit is 80km/h but due to amount of traffic we weren’t going more than 50 and on several occasions slowed to a stop. Rather stressful being stationary in suffocating heat 10km from rhe exit.
Just before entering the tunnel I was wishing I had my heated socks because the cold was getting to my toes. (Fortunately I had my winter gloves with me and heated grips so fingers were OK.)
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Well BM, a bit late in on this one but l’m proper chuffed you’re back under way. Enjoy the rest of the trip
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Lovely weather in Belgium, enjoy your ride today!
After a hearty breakfast at hotel I set off at 9, hopeful of a pleasant day’s riding. I knew the start in the Black Forest mountains would be grey and cold, and so it was, with slightly damp roads. But after 10 minutes I dropped below most of the clouds.
Once down at ground level, so to speak, there was no sign of the promised sun and it persisted on being grey a very very cold. After confusing satnav instructions got me going wrong way on a dual carriageway, not for the last time, I felt like I was battling my way north into a strong arctic wind.
Come 11am I pulled into a layby to rest for 15 minutes and warm up. During this time it started to get a little brighter and by the time I neared the French border things were looking up.
The weather stayed nice whilst I navigated around the many urban areas north of Strasbourg only to turn grey and horrible once more when I got to the open country roads. 
By the time I got to near Bitche around 1pm I stopped just outside a small village to warm up again and eat the rather nice and well filled half baguette sandwich I’d bought at an earlier petrol stop.
Once more I set off into the cold, and sometime later after riding down a single track road I noticed the speed limit ony satnav turn to 100 which confused me until I realised that must have crossed back into Germany. (I guess I forgot to mention, but my drowned satnav now boots up but doesn’t have workimg touchscreen. This shows me a map view of where I am and it’s erroneous ideas of speed limits.)
After another hour of so of riding I found myself feeling a bit queasy, but I think it was as much the cold and my tensenous affecting my stomach as the food. By this time I also came to the conclusion that doing a ‘scenic’ avoid motorways route wasn’t really benefiting me because of the weather and I may as well hit the autobahn to get the miles over with.
With navigation reprogrammed according I soon found myself merging onto the A1 behind a campervan doing 60mph and I was happy to follow along behind, keeping enough distance to be safe to but not too much that overtaking traffic would think to cut infront of me. When I lost this ‘protection’ half hour later I decided to speed up a bit to get miles done quicker. By now the weather was turning better, with the promised bits of blue skies, but this was literally cold comfort from the bitter air blasting into me.
On seeing a sign at 4 ish for a services with cafe I decided I needed to take stock of my situation. So in a warm cafe with hot cup of coffee in hand I set about booking some accommodation for the night. I found a self catering apartment going for a good pice not far from the Belgian border so booked that and set off for another hour or so of autobahn.
When it came time to turn off the motorway I was beginning to feel relief that I would soon be able to stop moving except that the navigation instructions in my ear and roadworks confused me enough that I found myself back on the autobahn going back the way I came. F@#k!
10km later when navigation said to come off and rejoin to go back I didn’t rejoin so it was forced to come up with a rather nice relaxing ride through German countryside 
When I got to my digs I was very surprised by it’s size, facilities and pleasant location in a tiny village. All the rooms and facilities that you would want from a home and nice view from the patio.
Now it was 6pm but I couldn’t stop yet as I needed to find something to eat for tonight and morning, and to get fuel as it’s warning light was on.
So, back on bike to head to a town 10km away for supplies until finally I could sit in conservatory with a beer whilst oven heated up for cooking the frozen pizza.
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Great photos and narrative. I could almost feel the cold. The closing views look much more comfortable.
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