A lap of Germany

We didn't take in the rocket site nor the submarine.

We arrived in Lubeck city center (stayed in a B&B hotel near the bus station, not far - 10 minutes walk - from the 'Old Town') around 11 AM. Got changed, wandered into town, sorted out the life and well being of a distressed young lad who had got lost, had lunch and then took one of the river busses that takes in all the sites.

I'd be interested to see your routes and hear how your Italian jaunt goes. I have ridden to the Dolomites several times and Corsica once. Other than the Italian lakes (twice) and Ancona (once) I haven't done much else. I have been collecting up lots of ideas for Italy and its two islands, but haven't yet sat down to put any plans together.

I plan on doing a trip report on the German jaunt. The circular route around Germany (Lubeck to Hamburg) I ripped out from the Louis.de site. From memory, it came as a track which I then traced over / amended to suit our needs. I remember spotting a couple of places on their track where they had obviously gone wrong and doubled back to correct their errors. The day's ride around Rugland island, I think I got from another website, possibly the Kurvenkoenig site? Again, it probably came as a track, which I then adopted / adapted for my own purposes.

Both the lap of Germany from Louis.de and the lap of Rugland (from wherever it came from) proved to be excellent; both making good use of sensible but cleverly done ways to get from A to E via all the letters inbetween. I would recommend them to anyone.
 
As you say, some of these routes that are picked up from variouse sources are indeed very good, i used a couple from Adac when we were in the Harz region, both were excelent, there are bound to be those who will say its taking the fun out of making your own way, but i am of the opinion that local knowledge is king, and if you can find a route that is part way there to the way you are going, then why not use it.
Look forward to the RR and hopefully pictures.:beerjug::beerjug:
 
The ADAC routes are very good, for sure.

I see absolutely nothing wrong in trying / using third party routes that have been well thought out and are well presented. Yes, you sometimes have to do some work (and use a bit of imagination) to alter some of the routes to get them into a shape or format that suits your own purposes but that is a part of the fun.

There are some great websites out there, found as easily as just Googling something as simple as 'Great motorcycling roads in Switzerlsnd' or something similar; it is usually less words to type than the posts that appear on this site asking for the same. It is how I tripped over the Kurvenkoenig site, for example. It's all in German (I don't speak one word) but safe in the knowledge that you probably can't break it I spent 10 minutes guessing that in order to access some of the routes and the full files, you have to join their forum which is free. So I did and all their lots of very good PDF and GPX files became available for me to use.

Similarly, lots of hotels share their routes, sometimes in great detail but sometimes just a very basic map, which you then have to use your own (or Google's) maps to work out quite where the suggestion takes you. Once you have paid your service provider, the Internet is free, so you might as well use it, I always think.
 
If you fancy Peenemunde , they have massive lockers to store all your bike kit , but if I go back again I would stay locally so as not to be loaded down with bike gear .
The museum takes up a morning then it would be worth while doing a bit of hiking around the local woods and have a look at the rest of the site ,same with Prora and the Maritime memorial and U995 at laboe both of which were a pain with bike kit on


A decent enough average speed and mpg, did you get to visit peenemunde, its a place i would like to go.

we are off to visit Pompei and Herculaneum, and Rome, we will be going via corsica sardinia and sicily, and then riding back up through the dolomites and austria all being well.
 
I'd like to do some more exploring of the Baltic coast and indeed much more of the former East Germany than this trip allowed. Neil W flagged up the site earlier, so it's on my list.
 
Le Cheval Rouge, Ste Menehould, there's a good boulangerie just over the road from the hotel if you don't fancy the horse meat burger, my missus wouldn't let me try one :rolleyes:

Enjoy the ride :thumb
 
LAP OF GERMANY

I'm looking at a version of this route for 2017, don't have much more than 10 days and planning on the Newcastle Ijmuiden crossing, plan to cut out the southern half of the loop as I'm sure in previous years I've ridden most if not all the roads on that stretch, Wapping I'd appreciate some feedback on the roads you covered from Lubeck onwards please, also at most we could afford perhaps 1 day off the bikes so where would be your recommendation ?
Thanks, route looks like this
2017.JPG
 
Louis.de's circular route is designed to make it possible to lap the outside of Germany in x number of days (ten I think, with breaks somewhere) but they start in Stralsund and finish in Hamburg, so the Hamburg to Stralsund stretch is missing. We took 21 nights, starting and finishing at home in London, via Calais in both directions. We took 21 nights because we could, not because we had to. That meant we could have time off in several places: Arnhem, half a day, Lubeck one day, Rugen island (if you count riding around the island as a day off the route). Berlin two days, Dresden one day, Mittenwald two days. We also came back without rushing, taking three days to do what you could do in two or even one. In short, we had a holiday. If you take away the 7.5 days we took off the bike, that reduces it to 13.5 days. Subtract that we did the Lubeck to Stralsund link, leaves 12.5 days, then subtract that we came and returned via Calais (and I assume Louise.de took some period of time to get to Stralsund and / or back from Hamburg, the times are not so very much different. That being said, we did not go right back to Hamburg; I wish now that we did. Either way, the Louis.de route is sensible.

Any very long route, especially one designed to complete a circle in a comparatively small number of days, will have compromises in it. But, to answer your question I hope, there was no single stretch of road that spoilt the whole trip. If I was forced to reluctantly pick one, it was the Monday morning (pre-lunch) ride south from Stralsund towards Berlin. It is very busy on a weekday, but I guess might well be empty(ish) on a weekend. The reason? It is, other than the motorway or very small roads, the only main road south, close to the the Polish border. I guess it was two to three hours. You can make progress down it but with two other bikes with me, inevitably we got slowed up. If nothing else you get to practice your overtaking skills.

Overall the Louise.de route was good though. Sometimes it took some odd turns, jinking about the countryside for no immediately obvious reason. After a while I realised it was linking cleverly some great roads up. It was so good that I wrote to the owners of Louise to thank them for their efforts.

The route from Lubeck to Stralsund and around Rugen island I lifted from other websites and sources.

If I was to have one day off? I guess it would have to be Berlin. We had two days off, seeing a lot but missing out a lot, too. On the first day we walked everywhere, following the suggested walking route in the Michelin Green Guide to Germany. The second day we spent all day in the zoo and aquarium. All excellent.

Failing that, Dresden. We stayed on the outskirts of the city, taking the excellent tram in to the central railway station. From there, it's just a short walk into the 'Old town'. Again, we used the Michelin Green to Germany. It has just enough information to be interesting but not so much that you swim in the stuff.

PS A lot of the roads taken are not on the maps. The most useful (and cheapest) maps I found before I left were these. I had picked up a set in Germany several years before, which were fine. I spent a happy hour or two in Stanfords checking the alternatives out. This cheapest mapset, really was the best for me. That being said, maps and the style of maps are very personal things, so have a look what suits you best.

http://www.stanfords.co.uk/Germany-ADAC-Road-Map-Set_9783826460463

I spent a happy hour or so highlighting the routes on the maps. Time well spent as it's sometimes easy to get disoriented as to quite where you are, how far you've come and how far you have got to go. Recommended, for sure.
 
We did the Northern part of that route in june , except we ran back from Berlin via Magdeburg and Wolfsburg .
I would say if you want a day off the bike and haven't been to Berln before it is worthwhile just for the history in the city centre area

I'm looking at a version of this route for 2017, don't have much more than 10 days and planning on the Newcastle Ijmuiden crossing, plan to cut out the southern half of the loop as I'm sure in previous years I've ridden most if not all the roads on that stretch, Wapping I'd appreciate some feedback on the roads you covered from Lubeck onwards please, also at most we could afford perhaps 1 day off the bikes so where would be your recommendation ?
Thanks, route looks like this
View attachment 327536
 
We did the Northern part of that route in june , except we ran back from Berlin via Magdeburg and Wolfsburg .
I would say if you want a day off the bike and haven't been to Berln before it is worthwhile just for the history in the city centre area
Thanks Neil, you mentioned a nice run down from Straslund to Berlin, any more detail please, couldnt find Ravenbruck (probably a spelling issue).
 
We came off Ruegen and went down to Peenemunde, we stopped a night at Anklam and then went from their via Breest,Burow, Altentreptow taking the minor roads towards Neubrandenburg. we then went via Tollensesee, Neustrelitz towards Fuerstenberg/Havel, Ravensbrueck is just outside the village , we then continued south via Stolpsee and the Naturpark Uckermaerkische Seen towards Loewenberger , Oranienburg and into Berlin.

The roads and lake areas south of Fuerstenburg/Havel contained some brilliant but not fast roads with some really interesting olde worlde buildings and villages.

Don't get too tied up with sticking to planned routes , we just decided where we were heading towards at the end of the day and had a hoot getting there ( and getting lost on the way)
 


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