Bluesky Tour - Episode 4 - Midwest Germany

(Continued from Episode 3)

I'm wearing the few warm clothes I have with me as the day begins with a super cloudy and far from warm weather and I have to ride several hundreds of kms North. I've heard about the heatwaves in the Netherlands while I was packing for my trip and decided to pack light. Not the best decision but not the end of the world either. The collapse of the climate though does feel like the end of the world but that's another story.

First stop at a nearby fuel station or I should better say fuel boutique cause that's what German filling stations feel like:

Why?

Many reasons, especially when you come from a fuel challenged country like Greece.

a) They're more reasonably priced

b) They have all fuel types possible. As my good Italian friend Andrea said "it's like a fuel sommelier". And it's true! How many octanes you want? How much ethanol? Normal Diesel or Super? A dozen of nozzles on every single dock of the station.

c) Last but not least, the fucking quality of the fucking fuel. "Miraculously" I have achieved my all time lowest fuel consumptions in Germany. FYI, I'm talking about low 3s l/100km. On a loaded 650 bike that will be 20 years old in the near future. Beat that! And of course, hats off to the Japs for making the best bikes ever.

Weather's still cloudy and boring as well as the autobahn where a couple of hours later I stop to check what is what - not to refill as my consumption is the aforementioned which give me a range of 600+kms. FYI, prices on the autobahn is on another level - see and compare the previous ones:

The loaded circus waiting to roll its wheels again:

By the way, this Autobahn station here at Dettingen has also this funny looking playground:

Sleepy, cloudy, boring, but gotta move on:

At this point let me share the ride I managed to capture till my camera died (again but that's another time consuming story of what to buy next):

Fortunately the weather opens up a little later at my next stop:

Still cold for my (Mediterranean) summer standards but as long as it's at least partially sunny I don't care. Better than a heatwave by far anyway.

3 hours later one more short stop to put some water in my system and take some liquid out:

I prefer simple parking lots without facilities like this one here at Dorsheim:

The reason is that they attract the least people. So your way to the toilet is this:

If you want to poo or you're a girl it's not as easy of course. Although in the former case many drivers didn't seem to find this a deal breaker as you can tell from the mess they left behind:

I arrive at my AirBnB SW of Bonn, my second time here as I loved my previous one 2 years ago. Curious how it was, read about it clicking any of the 3 pins of this map (each has a link). Great location, top host, best bathroom I ever had on AirBnB, best water I've ever drank plus a soda machine, what more can you ask for? However, weather kinda sucks and even more in 2 days that I would normally be leaving this place behind so I contact my friends South of Eindhoven (my final destination but not the last one) to tell them if I can come tomorrow instead. Despite their hectic schedule they agree and I am more than happy to skip a rainy 200ish kms ride.

Time to take a long bath now to erase some kms from my body, see you on Episode 5!