Newsletter 04 - August 1998

So after a good meal and a few beers in a local restaurant, I had a very welcome
and comfortable nights sleep. Before bed I booked in, by phone, with the
appropriate authority of course. (OiC Domestic).
Next morning after a leisurely breakfast I started off on phase two of the journey
to Switzerland. I had prepared a number of routes to take, eventually settling on
A26 (motorway) to St-Dizier, then a mixture of roads before crossing into
Germany, where I was able to take the hood down for a short, but concentrated,
unrestricted, blast down the A5 (motorway). The unrestricted blast was one of the
unofficial reasons for this journey, big numbers seen on the speedo? No, max of
only 110 seen, and I tried three times. I turned off the A5 back into France at
Junction 65 then on to Basel/Mulhouse for another ‘Formule 1’ hotel.
Basel/Mulhouse is the location of the Swiss airport for Basel, but is, in France.
For those French speakers among you, the name Bâle is possibly a more familiar
name.
The first time I went to Switzerland, in 1967, (say ‘That was before I was born’
and get wacked with my walking stick) the different spelling in the two languages
caused me problems. The town on the road signs was the right direction, right
distance and on the right road, but was the name was wrong. About 50 miles
from Basel, Ruedi met me, to escorted me the last bit of the journey, and
explained that the difference was caused by the two languages.
I booked in at the hotel, emptied the car of ‘gear’. Then went into Basel, which is
only about 8K (5 miles) from the hotel.
This set up of hotel in Basel/Mulhouse, France and visit a friend in Switzerland,
was chosen as it has the advantage of the hotel being nice and cheap, and close to
Switzerland, which isn’t cheap. Also it brought me into Switzerland from France,
thus avoiding the problem I had last time I went to Switzerland (by motorbike): -
On that occasion, I arrived at the border with Germany on the A5, the Swiss
customs wanted me to buy one of the motorway stickers which are necessary if
you intend to use their… motorways, I didn’t, I was only going to Basel and
wouldn’t be touring in Switzerland. But this customs post is actually on the
motorway, so to continue I needed the sticker. I declined, so was escorted a short
way down the motorway, crossing the central reservation and onto the exit from
Switzerland
side of the motorway. The German customs officers
wanted to know why I had been ‘thrown’ out of
Switzerland. Once I had explained, they gave
me directions into Basel via a different
route and, away I went.
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I arrived in Switzerland at about 11, I had
to find my way to Ruedi’s ‘new’ flat. The