Deleted account 210609001
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A very modest ride report...and no photos.
With plans for a trip to the Swiss Alps and Italian Lakes blown out of the water by work, a long weekend was all a couple of friends and I could manage. But where to go? Memories of the Mosel in Germany and roads in the surrounding area from passing through years ago led us to give it another go. So off we headed - Richard on his Ducati ST4S and me on my K1200GT for two nights, Anthony on his R1200RT for just the one night. A fourth guy had to pull out when the horn fell off his new Multistrada, requiring a new frame!
Finding a hotel in the area wasn't easy as it seemed to be a popular holiday weekend - something to do with Ascension Day perhaps - and all the hotels recommended by people on here were full. (Either that or previous tossers' behaviour has warned German hoteliers off Brit bikers.) But we eventually found a hotel in Klotten, a couple of miles downstream from Cochem, the tourist trap with the fairy tale castle overlooking the river.
A direct route from Channel Tunnel to Klotten should take around five hours. We spent about three hours on the motorway through Belgium, turning off just beyond Liege, then another five hours on much nicer roads. This took us across the Hautes Fagnes (translates as High Fens), the highest point in Belgium and an exposed swampy moor. Stray off the road at your peril - it really is wet and boggy out there.
From Baraque Michel (a tower built solely to hit the 700m point) we headed south east via Bullingen and Stadtkyll to the town of Daun. I particularly recall the road from Daun to Alf (on the Mosel) via bad Bertrich as being outstanding, so was looking forward to this last bit. It was OK, but a bit fiddlier than I remembered it. Also, it had two tunnels along it that I didn't recall from before...
From Alf, it was a quick 30 minutes up the Mosel road to Klotten. The Mosel road could be wonderful - racetrack smooth and some long long corners that beg to be accelerated round - you could start them at, say, 90 mph and finish them at 140... But there are lots of villages, lots of speed limits and lots of cars and bikes that stick to the limits religiously. Even so, the round is fun, the scenery is great and you can marvel at the size of the barges chugging along the river.
The place is real magnet for Dutch and Belgian bikers. But strangely not too many German bikes and we saw no other British bikes at all. I really don't know why - the roads all around are great. Cochem was packed as we rode through, bikes on every available bit of road and pavement. I was glad we didn't manage to find a hotel there - all too much.
3km up the road, we were the only bikes in Klotten, a small town with a couple of hotels, a handful of restaurants and bars and a pleasant feel to it. The hotel was fine - comfy rooms, garage for the bikes, enormous breakfast buffet and a decent evening meal on Sunday.
Saturday night, though, and we headed for a livelier looking place. Weather was plenty warm enough to eat outside, the local Bitburger beer was delicious (and after three glasses I was pretty much drunk). It is asparagus season, so everything came with spargel. Cue smelly wee. There were groups of German guys watching Bayern Munich play Chelsea - I guess we were outnumbered 10:1 but if it all got nasty I reckoned that made it about even. As it was, we were back in the hotel for extra time.
Sunday saw us accompany Anthony back towards Liege on different roads to the previous day, with lunch in Eupen, then back to hotel on yet another route. A complete variety of roads from wide open sweepers to some almost Alpine ascents and descents. Hardly any traffic, no sign of any police, and all in the middle of lovely hilly scenery. And the weather was a perfect 25 degrees all day, bright and sunny.
Monday saw us head for home, this time via Luxembourg. In the morning the choice of roads along the Mosel became apparent - you can either follow the river around each big meander, or take the smaller roads that cut across the meander via the hills. Each short cut is like a miniature pass, ten minutes up, ten minutes down. And because the main road offers a much easier alternative, nearly all the traffic goes that way. Breaking away from the Mosel into Luxembourg, where there was a strange mist, then lunch at La Roche-en-Ardennes in Belgium. A nice little town with a selection of restaurants and surrounded by great roads - well worth another visit.
Dual carriageway and motorway all the way from there, managing to avoid the little bit of drizzle that was around, and back at Coquelles for 8pm. (And no queues either!)
Anyway, I'd seriously recommend it as a venue for a short break. I reckon you could easily fill a week without getting bored. (There is a reason why we don't see German restaurants everywhere, though - the food is hardly inspiring and all the restaurants serve all the same dishes. That might get a bit tedious after a while...)
Hotel: Mosel-Weinhotel Hubertus
(In the unlikely event of anyone wanting the exact route, just PM me...)
With plans for a trip to the Swiss Alps and Italian Lakes blown out of the water by work, a long weekend was all a couple of friends and I could manage. But where to go? Memories of the Mosel in Germany and roads in the surrounding area from passing through years ago led us to give it another go. So off we headed - Richard on his Ducati ST4S and me on my K1200GT for two nights, Anthony on his R1200RT for just the one night. A fourth guy had to pull out when the horn fell off his new Multistrada, requiring a new frame!
Finding a hotel in the area wasn't easy as it seemed to be a popular holiday weekend - something to do with Ascension Day perhaps - and all the hotels recommended by people on here were full. (Either that or previous tossers' behaviour has warned German hoteliers off Brit bikers.) But we eventually found a hotel in Klotten, a couple of miles downstream from Cochem, the tourist trap with the fairy tale castle overlooking the river.
A direct route from Channel Tunnel to Klotten should take around five hours. We spent about three hours on the motorway through Belgium, turning off just beyond Liege, then another five hours on much nicer roads. This took us across the Hautes Fagnes (translates as High Fens), the highest point in Belgium and an exposed swampy moor. Stray off the road at your peril - it really is wet and boggy out there.
From Baraque Michel (a tower built solely to hit the 700m point) we headed south east via Bullingen and Stadtkyll to the town of Daun. I particularly recall the road from Daun to Alf (on the Mosel) via bad Bertrich as being outstanding, so was looking forward to this last bit. It was OK, but a bit fiddlier than I remembered it. Also, it had two tunnels along it that I didn't recall from before...
From Alf, it was a quick 30 minutes up the Mosel road to Klotten. The Mosel road could be wonderful - racetrack smooth and some long long corners that beg to be accelerated round - you could start them at, say, 90 mph and finish them at 140... But there are lots of villages, lots of speed limits and lots of cars and bikes that stick to the limits religiously. Even so, the round is fun, the scenery is great and you can marvel at the size of the barges chugging along the river.
The place is real magnet for Dutch and Belgian bikers. But strangely not too many German bikes and we saw no other British bikes at all. I really don't know why - the roads all around are great. Cochem was packed as we rode through, bikes on every available bit of road and pavement. I was glad we didn't manage to find a hotel there - all too much.
3km up the road, we were the only bikes in Klotten, a small town with a couple of hotels, a handful of restaurants and bars and a pleasant feel to it. The hotel was fine - comfy rooms, garage for the bikes, enormous breakfast buffet and a decent evening meal on Sunday.
Saturday night, though, and we headed for a livelier looking place. Weather was plenty warm enough to eat outside, the local Bitburger beer was delicious (and after three glasses I was pretty much drunk). It is asparagus season, so everything came with spargel. Cue smelly wee. There were groups of German guys watching Bayern Munich play Chelsea - I guess we were outnumbered 10:1 but if it all got nasty I reckoned that made it about even. As it was, we were back in the hotel for extra time.
Sunday saw us accompany Anthony back towards Liege on different roads to the previous day, with lunch in Eupen, then back to hotel on yet another route. A complete variety of roads from wide open sweepers to some almost Alpine ascents and descents. Hardly any traffic, no sign of any police, and all in the middle of lovely hilly scenery. And the weather was a perfect 25 degrees all day, bright and sunny.
Monday saw us head for home, this time via Luxembourg. In the morning the choice of roads along the Mosel became apparent - you can either follow the river around each big meander, or take the smaller roads that cut across the meander via the hills. Each short cut is like a miniature pass, ten minutes up, ten minutes down. And because the main road offers a much easier alternative, nearly all the traffic goes that way. Breaking away from the Mosel into Luxembourg, where there was a strange mist, then lunch at La Roche-en-Ardennes in Belgium. A nice little town with a selection of restaurants and surrounded by great roads - well worth another visit.
Dual carriageway and motorway all the way from there, managing to avoid the little bit of drizzle that was around, and back at Coquelles for 8pm. (And no queues either!)
Anyway, I'd seriously recommend it as a venue for a short break. I reckon you could easily fill a week without getting bored. (There is a reason why we don't see German restaurants everywhere, though - the food is hardly inspiring and all the restaurants serve all the same dishes. That might get a bit tedious after a while...)
Hotel: Mosel-Weinhotel Hubertus
(In the unlikely event of anyone wanting the exact route, just PM me...)
