The all over the place (shortened) trip...2005

This year I wasn't able to holiday until the balmy month of August. So I booked the ferry, and packed the GS for over two weeks of riding in sunny alpine and central europe . No especial plan, other than what turned out to be a slightly overambitious one. I declared a huge list of countries to visit to my insurer and complained bitterly when I was denied Bosnia

Departure was from sunny Dover in the south east, a good 200 miles of motorway from Bristol over in the west. Destination was Dunkirk. Readers may like to know the return crossing was with the simple but excellent Norfolk Line and cost the grand sum of £58 (with no surcharges for changes in departure time and returns). Quite inexpensive.

Picturesque Dover



I left Bristol early as a rain front was going to pass over and I didn't want a dirty bike for two weeks of sundrenched riding on the continent..haha!

I decided as the ride over to Dover was fairly long to just ride a couple of hours on the other side, so after the somewhat uninteresting and windy Pas de Calais stopped of in the town of Mons in Belgium. Mons had a good municiple campsite, in other words in the centre of town, so I was able to pitch camp and wander around what turned out to be the stag and hen party town of the entire nothern continent or so it seemed. Strange. Anyway, I started to celebrate the trip with some of this..a highlight of Belgium:

Belgian beers are great!



I awoke in Mons to find the weather front had caught up with me and it was somewhat wet. C'est la vie. So I packed up the tent and rode south. The border area between the somewhat uninteresting countryside of Belgium (sorry Belgie's and Germany turned out to be rather nice. But is was an elevated heath and I was cold and wet after only half a day's ride. But the trip was getting more interesting.

Forest and heath, border of Belgium and Germany



So the plan now was to head down to Koblenz in Germany, run down the Rhine and through the Blackforest to the German Alps, starting the trip proper near the Bodensee (lake Constance to you and me)...start forgiving the spellings locals, I'll come back and correct them when I have my atlas.

Passing the famous Nurbergring (hmmm....shall I go round in the wet with a loaded GS...oh, a race is on..what a relief ) I headed south. So it was still raining very hard at Koblenz and so perhaps the Rhine wasn't looking it's best. But I found a nice campsite in a vineyard up above the Rhine and the sun came out for an evening walk in the forests above the river.

Hazy evening in the Rhineland


The Rhine is a major shipping river, this barge was one of the smaller ones. I guess it connects to the Danube...unsure...and therefore allows you to move goods all over central europe.

Rhine traffic


It was a picturesque area, but I think I would get bored on one of those Rhine riverboat cruises. But I did find out that the German guys keep all the good wine for themselves and ship us the sweet crap . Anyhow.....the rain restarted, my mobile phone was soaked and not working and I wished I had a four season geodesic dome tent instead of my Black's cheapie. Yes, the rain had caught up with me again. The following morning I unpitched camp in the rain, got back into my wet riding kit, and dropped the bike in the gravel leaving the campsite..a good start. You'll know the feelings ..wet, cold, bad night, dropped bike. So I picked it up and had a big cry into my helmet as I headed on through Germany. It'll be sunny in the Blackforest...

The Blackforest was somewhere I has always wanted to visit. As a child I was always fascinated by confused ideas of trees, bears, cuckoo-clocks and cake with cherries in it and cream on top. Fortunately for the tourist there's a rather nice twisty-turny road well signposted that you can take out of Baden-Baden (I think...) ..the Schwartzwaldstrasse, running almost due south. It was pretty but guess what... yes, it was raining, so the riding was not quite as enjoyable as it might have been and the views limited. But in any case a pic of a GS in some woods

Blackforest



After a rather lengthy day, I neared Lake Constance, the Bodensee. This is a rather touristy spot, but having had two wet nights under canvas (or nylon) I thought at elast I would find a warm hotel. Well after a huge traffic jam due to an accident oitside the town of Landau, I found a decent hotel over the Austrian border (the border ducks in and out around there) and unpacked all my gear to dry. I guess a few hotels had tents laid out to dry that eve. So time for a walk on the lake shore and some pics of Landau under an angry sky.

'Is it going to rain tomorrow, Dad?'...Landau


But this was the gateway to the German alps...so tomorrow the trip really begins (again).

Nice... so many plans for the future... such a long wait... hopefully it will be me, Jax and PJ though...

Oh and fix that Forest and heath, border of Belgium and Germany pic.

Very nice Rich, that pic of the Rhine was awesome - bike's not bad too .


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I think I want a GS now... whats the mpg on that like..

Originally Posted by Grinch

I think I want a GS now... whats the mpg on that like..

More pics tomorrow or later if Im bored at home

No idea of MPG. Very variable. Genteel riding gets over 200miles to a tank. Cant remember how many litres in the tank

Riding like a loon maybe 180

Riding fully loaded at 125mph....guzzle guzzle sh*t it says 20 miles to empty and next petrol 30kms.....the usual. Ill tell you what tho on the autobahn flat out loaded you could virtually see the guage dropping. I also think a couple of accidental fills with 98 did for the consumption big time...is that typical? I got confused as in southern Austria/Slovenia suddenly standard unleaded was 90 or 91, so I needed the 95 which they seemed to call super, and then on the way home super became 98...if you get my drift

Looks like great fun.... not quite eating goat testes in Mongolia, but an adventure none the less.

Having missed the boat on missing the traffic I shall continue...

As well as the waymarked road through the Blackforest, there's a nicely routed out road that runs allong the German Alps, ducking in and out of Austria http://www.deutsche-alpenstrasse.de/ After a bright start....you should be able to guess by now. The scenary was still beautiful in the wet. The low (relatively) lying clouds added a certain something and it was funny knowing those peaks loomed above and you just couldn't see them.

The German Alps (probably)



and more


Goal for the first night was to ride this road as far as Garmisch-Partenkirchen. Not that far but as Jelster pointed out you don't do so many miles on these roads. I had hoped for a real scenic day and a bit of exploring off the beaten track as its a less than half-day run really. But as it was very very wet, by lunch I had had enough and was soaked. My hands were really suffering from wet gloves (Goretex Alpinestars ) and being boiled with grips on full. That day I was riding with Compede's on the ball of one hand where the wet had caused a blister to form. I actually thought all the skin on my hands was going to peel. Happy days!

The odd gem tho even in the rain. This lake Plansee was on a most beautiful twisty back road. I really wanted to camp here but needed a dry bed for the night.

Plansee


So just short of Garmisch at Oberammergau I decided to stop for the rest of the day at a pension and dry out. I found a lovely pension, and decided to get a sausage lunch and some Bavarian beer and do some tourism. This is the village of woodcarvers where they have the passion play every 10 years.

Oberammergau



Its full of some pretty and some tourtisy carver's shops


And pretty little houses, some painted with fairy-tale scenes. They arn't that old actually, but very very pretty.

Little Red Riding Hood


So after a good nights sleep and a good dry out there was some sight seeing to be done. Next day the plan was to get to the end of the alpine road and stop at Berchtesgaden, a favourite holiday spot of a certain dictator....well he had the pick of places and should know Its a little finger of land jutting into Austria and close to Salzburg. It wasn't too bad a day weather wise with some lovely sun early on. I decided on another pension though as they were cheap and warm (and I spotted a cloud in the sky) and took an early eve ride into Salzburg. Which I didnt like....a bit like Bath but less interesting
Anyhow, on route it was time to see some Bavarian countryside, alps and castles. First stop was a view from a distance of the famous castle of Mad King Jonboy II. I think the view on all the jigsaws must be from up the hill. The weather was good so I didn,t want to waste happy riding time looking around.

Neuschwanstein (I think)

Originally Posted by Cronos

Looks like great fun.... not quite eating goat testes in Mongolia, but an adventure none the less.

They had better weather

Originally Posted by Dr Rich

Neuschwanstein (I think)

It is indeed Schloss Neuschwanstein, one of mad King Ludwig II's fairytale castles.

Originally Posted by Dr Rich

...the famous castle of Mad King Jonboy II

Maybe I'm wrong!

So you did all that by yourself? I got bored after a couple days on my own.