From Kanerkinden I rode to Dortmund in Germany, 6 hours on the autobahn, the last 1.5 hours in pouring rain. Low sided on a slow right hand bend just before I arrived at my destination, one slightly damaged pannier (later, fixed with a hammer), no bruises, a couple of guys stopped and helped me pick the bike up, carried on, wet weather and oily city streets the bane of all motorcyclists.

Dortmund – The Green City, population 600,000 a part of the Ruhr urban area with a population of 5.1 million. Almost completely destroyed during the WW II it was rebuilt with nearly half the municipal territory consisting of waterways, woodland, agriculture and green spaces with beautiful parks such as Westfalenpark.

Eisenach – A large town in what used to be East Germany, birth place of Johann Sebastian Bach and also where Martin Luther translated the bible into German. Surrounded by forests, a good place to go hiking.

Erfurt – Situated at the geographical centre of Germany, a historic place with a beautiful intact old town, quite a rare sight in Germany.

Dusseldorf – located on the banks of the river Rhine is an  international business and financial centre, busy airport with lots of cheap flights out of here.

Hamburg – Second largest city in Germany with a population of over 5 million and another one of these places that makes you wonder what country you are in. I arrived when there was a Turkish demonstration going on and the police had all their vehicles circling the city in convoys with lights flashing and sirens blaring continuously, very disturbing.