Day 2 - Zebrugge to Oberbruch (near Baden-Baden in Black Forest)

The general consensus today was to head south through France. I asked the lass at info desk on ferry what she'd do in my shoes - ride down through France or Germany? She said she actually wouldn't be daft enough to go anywhere this week on a bike, but given the choice she'd have to take France. Jon is pinging regular forecasts over which pretty much said the same.

Weather actually looked good outside but it was only half past four or something ridiculous when they woke us with the morning campers ding dong.

This mornings breakfast was just as awesome as last nights tea. I love the P&O buffet, although they've got rid of rollmop herring at breakfast so points docked for that.

P&O have finally got their act together with strapping bikes down too. They give you ratchet straps now. Previously, all bikers had to fight over little off-cuts of blue rope. I'd foolishly brought my own ratchet strap and was constantly remindeded by my co pilot how many more shoes she could have fitted in the space if I hadn't bothered.

Set off on motorway past Brussels and the weather picked up. By Luxembourg it was 26 degrees and crystal clear ahead.

Got chatting to a Brit couple when we stopped for fuel. They were heading down to Florence and like us just chasing the sun to start with. 3 weeks cruising in a rather nice white 3 series convertible. A convertible with a private reg too, so they instantly failed two out of three man rules (the third, to those uninitiated with life's man rules, being no Facebook). Three sound rules for all men to live their life by. To be fair, the woman was driving so they were prob just nice 'burds wheels'.

Anyway, I offered them a fiver to carry all my luggage and my pillion for me. I didn't really care where they took my pillion, but I'd have liked my luggage dumping at a nice campsite. Strangely, they accepted.

We checked in with some friends, the Tigers, who were camping further down in France and they were having rain. By the time we reached Metz we both happily agreed to keep heading on through the Black Forest.  We kept on motorway and péage until we could take no more then peeled off onto some lovely scenic twisties for the last hour. I'll double-check this when the maps are to hand but I think we came off at Sarre-Union and went east on the D912 and D29. Nice roads. A bit of a chew on near Sarre-Union but it all flows nicely once you're on the right road.

Ended the day crossing over the Rhine into Germany on the Rheinmünster ferry and stopping at Adam Campingplatz just over the water. It's the same one I stopped at last time I was here and still quite faultless. The nice lass on reception only charged us for one tent so €18 all in.

We had a proper filthy tea. Fried up some merguez sausage and stuffed them into bread buns with big slices of brie. This was all washed down with wine bottle sized German beers that were in the supermarket chiller for €2 a pop. The lables looked a bit home brew but they were excellent. We picked up a small selection. The unfiltered wheat beer defo nailed the dark one (dunkel).

Went for a swim in the lake. Actually, I got ankle deep but it was bloody freezing so turned straight back round. Spent the night sat by lake supping cold beer watching other idiots swimming.

Not a bad run today. That's four countries and two ferries in one day. Tomorrow we wake up in the beautiful Black Forest near one of the best biking roads Europe has to offer. We're hoping to ride through the Black Forest and meet up with the Tigers down in France. Steve has the bbq primed and some wildebeest ready. Catherine's hoping to eat lots more cheese, after a month or two of avoiding all dairy. Obviously I'll post pics if she has any funny reactions.

352 miles