What I had been looking forward to most was taking one of the little canal boat tours.

I didn’t have much time in Bruges as I had to reach Frankfurt, Germany the same day in order to start work at PIXOMONDO the following morning. So I left Bruges after having a Belgium Waffle which to my surprise was very sugary.

Next up was Brussles. Brussles was not hugely impressive in terms of its architecture especially not after having seen Bruges but of course there was one important sight I couldn’t miss. The Atomium – which was a lot more shiny and bigger than I had expected.

I left Brussles and got onto the motorway heading for the Netherlands. It started to rain and I didn’t have any waterproof clothing – or at least so I thought. Passing through the Netherlands the shower turned into the strongest rainstorm I had experienced in years. Not quite ideal motorcycling weather. Just before crossing into Germany I finally got the chance to get off the motorway, pour out my boots and wrap plastic bags around my gloves which were completely drenched as well. My boots were waterproof but I had tucked my pants into them so the water was conveniently flowing into them. At a gas station I waited ten minutes for the rain to ease off but it didn’t. In retrospect I probably should have taken out my waterproof overpants I had placed very accessible in my luggage but I had forgotten I had brought them with me..

Back on the bike it got darker and I was glad I was wearing my four reflective tapes around my ankles in addition to my reflective vest. Visibility was no more than 50 meters not least due to the rain being vaporized by the cars creating a thick fog. It actually looked pretty neat with the rear lights illuminating the air and I enjoyed the challenging conditions. The only thing I was a bit worried about was aquaplaning. But luckily the German roads are built well so there were no dips and puddles and the cars in front of me were pushing the water off the lane so I felt it was safe enough to continue.

I was glad when the rain finally stopped though because unbeknownst to me I had just entered one of the famous no speed limit sections of the Autobahn. Cars shot past me at what must have been well over the general Autobahn speed limit of 130 km/h. I had never taken my bike to the limit in terms of speed but now was the time. With the rain gone I merged onto the “fast lane” and accelerated from 100km/h to 166km/h. At over 160km/h the bike started getting a bit unstable so I didn’t want to go beyond that. After all the bike was also fully loaded. Especially the panniers tend to make motorcycles wobble at higher speeds. I was surprised to notice that 140 -150 didn’t feel particularly fast. 160 did. But while I was going 160 I was still going “slow” and cars behind me were catching up fast. So I merged to my right and noticed how people were passing me at probably well over 200km/h. People were driving very disciplined though. I loved how everybody kept an exceptionally long distance to the car ahead of them. The only thing that was bothering me a little was the fact that people didn’t seem to take into account that at these higher speeds when merging to a different lane you have to wait a little bit longer to merge back onto your lane in front of the car next to you. I found people were merging with very little distance at these speeds. Still driving in Germany was a pleasure.

I reached my hostel in Frankfurt at midnight and after some much needed sleep I began my new work at PIXOMONDO the following day.