After a marathon sleep I woke at 9am. After a few goodbyes and a cup of coffee I set off for Colmar. Again the original plan was to stay away from the highways and stick to the rural scenic route. Unfortunately the route that I went was maddeningly slow and industrial. There was only me and slow, tight arsed Dutchmen who did not want to pay the toll roads. Change of plan, get to Colmar and settle in. So - the way toll roads work is this. You get on at a boom gate that raises when you take the ticket from the booth. When you leave the toll road you pay the fee into another booth and the gate raises allowing you to go on your merry way. A good plan as long as you don't lose your ticket. Which I did. It is not as hard as it sounds when on a motorcycle and trying to handle stuff in your pockets with gloves on and being buffeted by winds of over 140 Kms an hour. Luckily for me I realized I did not have the ticket when I stopped for a coffee, so was spared the indignity of being screamed at by an angry Frenchman as I hold traffic up for 10 mins. That actually happened before in Nice. This guy behind me was screaming at me to go forward because the machine would not take my ticket. I did and then he swiped his card. Up went the barrier and he tried to follow me through. I hit the brakes just after I got through, he had to stop, down came the barrier on top of his shiny Audi and I sped off. Anyway, I stopped at the gate and explained that I had lost my ticket and told the lady where I entered and she sorted me with the correct price. Off I went. I pulled into Colmar and got a room right on saint Martins square. After a shower I went for a walk of the old part of town and had some fairly un-memorable veal. This town is very old in its oldest part. the houses are dating from the early 1500s from what i could see. there is a small creek that flows through the center of town and a few monuments and fountains sit prominently on cobbled streets. There are countless restaurants and bars fronting the open spaces all guaranteeing the authentic Alsace dining experience. Unfortunately I chose poorly. Better luck next time. Tomorrow I will try to push through to Bochum. Weather pending.