Riding in the rain is every rider's nightmare but we think we have come up with a solution to this problem. Are you intrigued?

We were not quite finished with the Moselle River when we left Cochem as we still had an hour of riding before we got to Koblenz. After that however it was pretty much freeway all day. It was also really cold - had everything on that we could fit under our jackets - with wind chill from riding it was only 2 degrees for most of the day.

When we arrived at our Stuttgart hotel we discovered that we should have been sent a code to gain entry - no code! We contacted the manager and then the booking agent and after waiting 90 minutes we still did not have the double room we had booked. Move on to Plan B! Another hotel about 7km away was booked online and we were soon warm and cosy in our new room. As rain was forecast for the following day (here comes the solution to the problem) we decided to stay an extra night, have a day off the bike and explore Stuttgart.

A sleep-in for Kerrie and a great buffet breakfast set us up for the day. We caught a local bus and then a train in to the city - very easy! Most of the day was spent wandering around the Konigstrasse (pedestrian area) moving in and out of shops to keep warm and dry. Back at our hotel we decided to have a Greggy Dinner as we didn't want to go out in the miserable weather again. For those new to our blogs, a Greggy Dinner is whatever we feel like from the supermarket, eaten in our room. Tonight is soup, noodles, bread rolls, chips, chocolate biscuits, lollies and a beer if we feel like it. The weather tomorrow is supposed to be dry but very cold as we head further south.

It was dry, and very cold - only 5 degrees when we left our hotel but with the wind chill factor it soon dropped to the familiar 2 degrees. We were headed to Baden-Baden so that we could ride the famous B500. For those of you not up with famous motorcycle roads of the World the B500 is an iconic motorcycle road through the heart of the magnificant Black Forest of Southern Germany. By the time we got there it was even colder and we soon discovered why. There was evidence beside the road of very recent snow falls - I mean like the last half hour recent. By the time we got to Mummelsee, 1043m above sea level, it was 1 degree Celsius and snowing. After a few photos we decided that the only way to deal with snow in the middle of the day was to get back on the bike and keep riding, being careful not to encounter black ice on the road.

Safely down the mountain we continued on to our apartment accommodation for the night in Waldshut-Tiengen, just near the Swiss border. Our apartment was quite luxurious and the best thing was the washing maching and dryer at our disposal, although Greg thought the cable TV with YouTube was even better.

With clean clothes and a good nights sleep under our belt we headed off next morning with the temperature being a balmy 5 degrees! Our ride today took us through small towns in Switzerland, staying off the motorways to avoid paying the vignette fee of 35 Euro - too much we felt for a half day of use! Oddly enough we didn't see any mountains in Switzerland but by the time we crossed in to Austria and then Germany again we were surrounded by high snow capped peaks and more snow along the edge of the road. Our destination for this day was Fussen - usually a bikers' paradise. Not many bikes today, guess they were all at home keeping warm. After a wander around town and dinner it was back to our cosy room in the Croatica Motel - a good omen we thought as we head closer to Croatia.

*Blog of the Day 2