We set off from the hotel to ride on the B500 to Baden Baden as it it one of the most popular biking roads through the forest; what made it even better for Colin was that we were the only vehicle on our side of the road which was great!

As we started off we were surprised at the alpine look to the villages and small towns we passed through. We travelled right through the centre of the pine forest with the trees on both sides towering above us giving both shade and dappled light as we rode through the shafts of sunlight. We knew that we had started on the right road when we saw the billboards at the side of the road. Periodically along the route we saw the same poster which showed a bike on its side twisted and broken and In the foreground a red heart twisted and burnt with the words "Just married" written across it! Very cheery!

Once we left the forest road we began to see very different buildings and farms. More typical of picture postcard German country houses.
At one point we rode for perhaps 10 miles or more of vineyards on both sides of the road.

Our hotel is a converted foresters house in the middle of a game reserve. We saw wild boar and deer whilst walking through the beech forest. At one point I thought we would need the locator on my phone to find our way out but through observations and dead reckoning we managed to find our way back! We have decided that the forest is a haven for tree creepers as we have never seen so many in one place before! Even when we were eating they were all around us.

As we finished off our meal of wild boar; a British couple came and sat behind us; the woman prattled on so much about all sorts of things including having packed so many clothes she couldn't find her navy M&S bra in any suitcase!! She should be so lucky as to have spare bras!! It made me very glad that we had avoided being surrounded by British people on our journey.

Colin has decided that whatever holiday we go on from now on we should be able to manage with just our pannier bags and in theory he is right there is something to be said for having limited choice but it is BORING and the daily washing of our clothes is tedious!

(Okay - the wild boar and red deer were in enclosures!)