From Mark (Orkney):

I enjoyed the Friday tour round the Black Forest with Smitty. As the only non-German in the group I offered to switch to a different group if it would make things easier for Smitty - so he wouldn't have to translate everything for one ignorant biker! He was absolutely charming and said they'd be happy to have "an Englishman" with them - as my Hein Gericke clothes, gloves and boots, Schuberth helmet, and MRA screen are all German (not to mention my wife, whose mother is German) I said I'd be privileged to go with them - and I was. A fantastic, friendly group of people I look forward to meeting again in the future.

From UK

Day one,
Saturday, met up with Des and Pat at Leicester Forest East services on the M1, headed south towards the Channel Tunnel. 

Had a stop for refreshments at South Mimms, fuelled up and headed for the train. We arrived about an hour early and thought we were in for a long wait,
by the time we had entered the rest area they were calling us to the train, now that's what I call service. Loaded up on an almost empty train and headed for France, no wet windows
were observed so the tunnel doesn't leak, before you know it (well about 25 minutes later) we entered the sunlight of France.

Quick stop for fuel and a cigarette for me and we were on our way heading to Ypres (Ieper).  Arrived in Ypres and then tried to find the hotel which was cunningly disguised so we couldn't see it from the road, parked our bikes in the secure area at the back ( when I say secure I mean really secure, one Dobermann with a nasty bark !!).

We decided to meet in the bar for a quick drink then something to eat, unfortunately we missed the playing of the last post at the Menin gate. Then we had a walk round this fabulous place, a very sobering and thought provoking place.

Day two,
Sunday, we were up bright and early for breakfast, a quick walk and a chat with an old English gentleman who had lived there for 50 years then it was time to release the bikes from the jaws of the Doberman and head off.

A nice leisurely ride heading towards Antwerp, Eindhoven and eventually Schwalmtal as we were meeting up with Helmut.  My GPS and Des's GPS were showing different routes so we opted to follow mine which took us a very lovely scenic route through who knows where, but eventually we ended up at Helmut's house, the noise of 2 throbbing Deauvilles awoke him from his slumber and he greeted us at the gate as only Helmut can.

We put the bikes away and retired into Helmut's house where we met Annemarie and the Children.
That evening Helmut and Annemarie took us to Cologne to have a look round, what a fantastic place with the biggest Cathedral
         
I have ever seen in my life,
we stopped for some liquid refreshment before heading back home.

The plan next day was to ride the bikes around the Eifel area so Des and Pat retired to the guesthouse for the evening.

Day three,
Monday, the weather was threatening to rain, so the decision was made to go by car in the Eifel.

We set off and headed out stopping at Niedeggen
        
for a look around, then we headed to Monschau

and had our lunch there. 
What fantastic roads and views, the weather had held off so we could have gone on the bikes after all, still there is always next time.
We eventually returned home to be greeted by the most wonderful pancakes I have ever tasted, made by Annemarie, lots of liquid refreshment was taken and some DMD planning made.

Day four,
Tuesday, again the weather was a bit overcast, but this day we had plans to go to Aachen

with Annemarie in the car to visit the University she used to work at, they were holding an open day and it was a really fascinating visit for me to see all the heavy engineering and precision equipment the students had to work on.  We had demonstrations and a walk round which was really interesting.

A stop for Coffee and cakes in one of the oldest cafes in Aachen which had really lovely features

and we sneaked a peek upstairs into the areas where nobody was allowed to go.

A wander round the shops followed, trying to find a nice stamp for the DMD dinner evening and a look around

the town, ending up with a meal at a Greek restaurant, because this is a University town the prices were unbelievably good and the food was excellent.
Before we left Aachen we drove to the very top of the town to look down on this beautiful place.

We wanted to take a quick look at the Hein Gericke shop, but this was no longer there, fortunately there was a Louis shop which we had a look in. Annemarie liked this because next door was a horse riding shop which she had a look in.

We returned to the car and for some reason the security system had a problem because all the windows wound down and the key got stuck in the lock, a phone call to Helmut revealed he didn't know what was wrong either, so we all had a go at fixing it.  After about 15 minutes Des managed to work it out and to everyones relief we got going again.
As this was the day before DMD we had to head towards Düren to pick up Annemaries mother, who was going to babysit the children while we were all away, what a fantastic person she is, an amateur photographer with some of the most stunning pictures I have ever seen.

Day five,
Wednesday, we all got packed up and rode off into the distance heading for Mönchengladbach to meet with Wolfgang and Ute Ferdi, then onwards to meet with Ferdi from Kerpen.  This was it DMD was now underway with the first convoy of 5 bikes ( 4 Deauvilles and a BMW) heading for Riegel, a fabulous site to behold.
We stopped for several breaks, one of which was by a fabulous viaduct (A61 Mosel bridge) with some stunning views.
Eventually we arrived in the Riegel/Endingen/Malterdingen area and everyone dropped of at their respective accommodations. 
I went to the campsite and put up my tent,

with some help from the Dutch guys already there on their FJR1300, A very welcome cup of coffee was offerred by the lady there ( apologies for not remembering your name).
Once the tent was up I headed back to the Brauhaus at Riegel for a very welcome meal, then it was back to the tent for a well earned sleep.

Day six,
Thursday, I got up early and decided to walk from the campsite into Riegel, mainly to see how long it would take me to stagger back again after a night of heavy drinking.  Only 20 minutes, which was a result.  The rest started to turn up at around 10 O'clock and so DMD begins with the setting up of the info desk, laying out the banners, blowing up balloons etc etc, soon we had our first arrivals and it was official DMD had started.

Day seven,
Friday, I went on the tour of the Elsace today which was marvellous , the weather was excellent,



the views and roads were good, the people were good, it was all good.

We ended up at Endingen that evening for the meeting with the Mayor

and the guided tours

around this fascinating old town.

Back to Riegel then for another session at the info desk and to wind down from the events of the day.  Soon we had a hen party of young ladies singing and dancing

and generally entertaining us and I believe the auction for the Schnaps raised 75 euros for their party fund.

Day eight,
Saturday, today I decided to go on the Black forest tour, and again words cannot describe the outstanding beauty of everything we saw, the photos don't really do it justice, you have to be here in person to see it for yourselves.
At the end of the tour we headed for Burkheim to get all the bikes together ready for the parade (Korso), after the briefing by the police we set off, 198 bikes ( I think) all in convoy stretching out for over 2km heading towards Riegel.  The looks on the faces of the people as we rolled by was astonishing, lots of waving and tooting of horns until we got to Riegel.
Time for a quick shower and change of clothes before we attempted getting the train to Endingen to attend the Dinner.
What can I say, fantastic food, fantastic beer, fantastic company, the night, indeed the whole of DMD was a success.
The only downside was having to leave the party early as we all had a long trip to take next day.

Day nine,
Sunday, packed up the tent, loaded up the bike and headed to Riegel to meet up with Des and Pat again.  We then headed off homeward bound, towards Strasbourg, Nancy, Metz etc, via Luxembourg so I could buy some tobacco.
We had decided to make a stop in Lille overnight so that it would be not such a long trip home, I had an offer from Serge to stay at his house which was really kind, so we headed in that direction except we turned of the peage too soon and ended up at a Formule1 hotel in Roncq. 
So my apologies to Serge.
A hearty meal was had and off to our respective beds for a good nights sleep.  Des awoke in the night with a nose bleed, so we all kidded Pat that she had beaten him in the night.
An early morning start and we headed for the tunnel, again we were lucky and managed to get an earlier train and with the change in time zones we actually got back to the UK before we had left.
We stopped at Thurrock for a quick cigarette break and then again at Toddington for fuel.  This is where we said our goodbyes as shortly afterwards we would be splitting off to our homes.
I eventually ended up getting home around 6 o'clock and checked my odometer which was reading 1856 miles(3000km) more than before.

That's it, can't wait until next time, my personal thanks to everyone

Cheers ...