Page 9 - Shining On Winter 2022

Hauenstein, with a couple of stops for natural breaks and fuel. This all went without incident - until the
last fuel stop, some 300 yards from the hotel. Mike had fuelled up and then politely moved his bike
forward to allow the car behind to fuel up.
Unfortunately Mike hadn’t put his kickstand
down fully and dropped the bike! It took four
of us to pick the fully laden bike back up but
thankfully there was minimal damage. What
was more concerning though was Mike had
pulled his back trying to save it, which we
hoped wasn’t too serious, as he’d had
problems with his back before the tour.
However, we had all arrived safely and the
German Ulysses weekend could begin!

Hauenstein is a municipality in the
Südwestpfalz district, in
Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is
situated in the Palatinate forest,
approximately 20 km east of Pirmasens, and
20 km west of Landau,
and is home to the German shoe museum.
That warm sunny evening, we were treated
to an opening speech by Hans Hermann,
the Ulysses Club President. He made us
very welcome and explained how the
weekend was going to work out. There were
to be two routes each day, one long route
and one shorter route, heading South or
North. I decided to do the longer Northern
tour (156 miles) through the Palatinate Forest to Wolfstein on the Saturday, and the shorter Southern
tour (106 miles), through the Dahner Felsenland into northern Alsace, and to the Château du Haut-Barr,
on the Sunday. Both days we were to be at the starting point for 09:15 for a prompt 09:30 start.

After we had all put our names down for the various groups (each day there would be several groups
with 6 to 8 bikes in each group, heading out at different times according to which route they would take),
we sat down for dinner. Each night there was a set course with three options for each course. I managed
to enrol the help of Mike Batchelor to decipher the menu for me, and thankfully he was patient enough to
go over each course several times to allow me to have an informed choice. Being a little finicky with my
food, I have to say each evening the menu was balanced and the food excellent. Put it this way, I didn’t
starve and even enjoyed being out of my comfort zone, mainly due to the chef’s excellent cooking. With
the evening coming to a close, and after a few pints and enjoyable company, it was time to retire to my
clean, comfortable and spacious room, with a balcony overlooking the main road through Hauenstein.
Life was good!

Saturday

To my surprise it rained during the night, but by the time we had breakfast the sun was out and it
promised to be another hot day. Our group leader today was Kristoff and joining us from the GB

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