Vilamos Vall d'Aran 19/06/2016

Today it was a motorbike day. I'm in a group called www.mototurisme.cat which organizes a monthly motorbike trip. This month the router started near Ponts and ended in a restaurant close to Vielha, Vall d'Aran.

We usually are around 40-50 motorbike but this time we were only around 20-25. The main reason was that Vielha is far away from Barcelona. People who came back home straight after the trip did around 700 km. I didn't have to go back to Barcelona because I stayed at El Pont de Suert to stay with my grandparent for a day.

The route was amazing, specially the Bonaigua pass (Port de la Bonaigua). It was quite cold, near 1ºC. We stopped at the top of the pass and did a group photo and headed to Vilamos, a small nice town where we visited a typical Aran house and we saw the outside of a church.

After the visit we went to the Restaurant where we ate. The group disbanded after eating and everybody went back home. I headed to El Pont the Suert, it's a short trip, circa 30 min.

Congost De Mont-Rebei 10/08/2015

New motorbike and hiking trip. This one is a bit special as it's shorter than usual but at the end we are able to take a path in the lake. The path is, however, narrow, rocky and with lots of ups and downs.

We start the trip in El pont the Suert, as the last, one and we head to Pont de Montanyana following the N-230. After reaching the later we must cross a bridge and follow some "paved" roads. The N-230 is amazing to ride with the motorcycle, full of turns, great asphalt and not many cars. You may find some trucks but they are easy to take over.

After arriving to the Congost de Mont-Rebei's parking they ask us to pay 4 euros for each car and 4 euros for every two motorbike. It's not going to happen as we park the motorbikes some meters away of the parking and walk this lasts meters.

From that point the hiking starts. It takes around 1 hour and 20 minutes to get to the swimming place. As usual the GPS decided no to take the track of the path. Because we wanted to take a bath at the end of the walk the hiking started at 3.30pm, one of the worst hours, the sun was killing us.

The views of the mountains were spectacular. And some parts of the hiking paths looked like they were taken from films. At the end of the hiking we took the well gained bath and after a couple hours headed back to the parking.

In the way back we decided to take a look into a deep cave. To get there some easey climbing was needed nothing super dangerous as there where lots of place to put the hands. The cave was huge but we only got the light from the mobile flash so we didn't go much deep inside it. I want to go there again with some decent light and explore it.

Views from the cave.

After finishing the hiking back to the parking we had to re-do the initial motorbike trip. This time we couldn't have as much fun because it was getting darker (it was already 9 p.m) and some animals could jump into the road.

Alsace North Part 2 07/07/2015

After vistiting the castle I headed to the Ouvrage Schoenenbourg. In the middle of the journey I found a tank in the side of the road and decided to stop to take a foto. It resulted that it was the Ouvrage du Four à Chaux. As it looked quite nice I decided to get inside.

The entrance was 7 € with a guide in French/German. I was pretty amazed the amount of information I could understand from the French explanations and really happy that I could even understand more from the German one. The guide gave plenty of information of the life-style inside the bunkers, contruction details and he even moved a turret.

Inside the Bunker the temperature was around 13 degrees so all the motorbike equipment was handy. Other tourist had to borrow clothes from the information office. They lend them for free, nice detail. The inside from the tunnel were a bit creppy. Large corridors, lots of doors going to extrange places and the omnipresent rails for the amunition transportation.

The visit took 2 hours and 30 minutes. Quite long mainly because of the explanations that were really detailed and needed to be done two times, one for each language. We entered using one human entrance and leaved using the door for the amunition transportation.

Soldiers entrance

Amunition entrance

After the trip I headed straight to Karlsruhe, I had to get there before 5.45 to do german classes. The trip back to Karlsruhe was also really good, nice curvy roads in good conditions. However it was hot as hell, around 40-42ºC, new experiences while riding my motorbike.

Alsace North Part 1 07/07/2015

Big trip today! I woke up early in the morning prepared some walking clothes, put all the motorcycle equipment on and started my trip to north Alsace. In the morning the temperature was perfect for riding.

The road once I got inside France was amazing, nicely mantained full of turns and a crazy 90 km/h speed limit. Sincerely I don't think lots of those turns can be taken at that speed without killing yourself. I took it easy and drove at my pace. After an hour of riding I got to the the Fleckenstein parking lot. My motorbike is clearly not prepared for riding on dirt which made the last kilometer extremely fun.

Castle walk

Once in the parking lot I put most of the motorbike equipment in the topcase and prepared myself with comfortable clothes. However I still had some weight in the backpack. In the information point the sold me the tickets to get inside the Fleckenstein castle (7€). 

The plan for the day was to visit the Fleckenstein castle however I found there was a hiking trip to visit 3 other castles and decided to give it a try. In a first moment I though to see the 2 closer ones but I really enjoyed the hiking and visited all of them. I didn't have much time because I had german classes at 5.45 pm and I also wanted to visit some WW2 bunkers so the hiking was alternated with small runs. Thays why today,day after the trip, my legs are pretty sore.

Fleckenstein

The first castle to visit was the Fleckenstein. This amazing castle dated back from the XII century. It was probably build by the Hohenstaufen but the Fleckenstein were the ones in charge of it. The castle was constantly improved during the years and it was finaly destroyed in 1680 under Louis XIV reign.

Map of the Fleckenstein castle:

1. Gate Building
2. Guard's residence
3. Gutter for rain water
4. Barbican with moat and drawbridge
5. Today,castle museum
6. Wellhouse and chamber
7. Spiral staircase
8. Lookout cloff with spiral stone stairs
9. Main quartes
10. Two stone steps on the inner side of the cliff
11. Flanking tower

Loewenstein

Loewenstein was the second castle in the walking trip. This castle was totally destroyed and not much of it was left. The views from the Fleckenstein castle were amazing. I forgot to take a photo of the information panel and I'm not able to find information of this castle.

Map of the Loewenstein castle:

1. Moat
2. Corridor through the north cliff
3. Wel or cistern
4. Entrance to the north cliff
5. Staircase
6. Wooden/stone steps to the south cliff
7. Cistern
8. Bridge

Hohenbourg

The Hohenbourg castle was originaly built in the 13th century. In 1482 the castle became property of the Lords von Sickingen. The build new fortifications for the castle. Nevertheless, much of it was destroyed in 1523 ans it was only rebuilt several decades later.

The origna castel was build around the main rock, agains which the large protective wall was erected. The barbican erected by Franz von Sickingen dates back from 1504. In the most recent part of the castle one can see the remmants of a round tower that had a spiral staircase.

This castle was in much better condition than the Loewenstein and large pieces of structure remained there. The stairs were really step but the views from the top were worth going through them.

Map of the Hohenbourg castle:

1. Rock chamber
2. Stone stairs at the upper castle
3. Round defensive tower
4. Renaissance portal
5. Two rock chambers with wells or cisterns
6. Residences
7. Defensive wall
8. Spiral staircase tower
9. Out buildings

Wegelnburg

It's the highest castle from all the previously visited. Wegelnburg was build as a fortification of the German Empire at the end of the 12th century. The castle is names after "B. de Woeglenburc", a vassal of the emperor, whose name appears for the first time in 1247. 

The castle was conquered and destroyed by the citizens of Strasbourg and the emperor's custodian. The castle was restored by the German Empire in 1330 and 1417. In 1680 the french general Montclar burned down and razed Wegelnburg castle.

Map of the Hohenbourg castle:

1. Gate house
2. Former gate tower
3. Well shaft
4. Former defensive wall 
5. Stone steps to the upper castle
6. Large rock chamber of the middle castle
7. Open rock chamber of the upper castle
8. Large rock chamber of the upper castle

Heidelberg 11/04/2015

Today I made a visit to Heilderberg to visit the ruins old the Heildelberg Schloss (castle).

This time I did the journey with my motorbike. It took around an hour of straight autobahn. I was able to park really close to the castle. Just before I parked I found a really curious traffic signal warning for the presence of frogs. I had never seen one of those so it deseverd a photo.

As soon as I started walking I had really nice views from the city. In the picture you can see an overview of the old-city. The big church is called Heiliggeistkirche (church of the Holy Spirit) and the bridge is called Älte Brücke (old bridge).

The entrance in the schloss costs 6€. You can see most of it from the outside but I think it's worth to get inside to take a look.  From the outside the towers are impressive. Some of them are in good condition and others are partly destroyed. Once you get inside it looks like a town-center. 

The original castle dates back from the 12th century. It was later expanded, destroyed and reconstructed several times. That's why we can see different types of buildings. 

Inside the castle there is the main square from which you can see al the buildings. Some of them look pretty well preserved and others are nearly ruins. The style of this buildings looks really different from the ones of the towers.