bigchris
Registered user
Have just made it back to the UK after 3 weeks on the continent with my wife, and thought it wise to 'tell our story' Jeremy Kyle stylee for all other budding enthusiasts. Neither my wife nor I had been on the continent before.
We had kicked off preparations with getting both bikes (1200 & 650 GS) serviced and ready to go. Minor alterations included new screens, luggage, throttle rockers, autocom + radios and gps.
We were intending on camping most of the time, only real exceptions were the hospitality of new-made friends, relations, and 1 b&b booked for the ferry crossing into France. We had stayed at the Maison Dieu guesthouse, in downtown Dover. Its a 'compact and bijou' guesthouse, but the owners are very friendly, and incredibly keen to ensure a good stay. Recommended to me, and am recommending to you.Website
Next morning we're up and at em (thank you Swedish harley riders for blocking our bikes in...) ready for the off. Make it to the ferry port in good time...
While waiting in line, another couple on 1150 Adv & 650GS arrive. We compare notes and stories and are ushered onto the boat. Quickly we hit it off, and our roadtrip ensues. Turns out this couple are members on here (Come on David, say hello!
) and we're invited to stay with them in Frankfurt for a couple of days. Not wanting to seem prude, of course we had to just say yes 
, needing to keep up international relations and all that 
So there we are, rolling off the ferry in Calais, on leg 1 of our epic journey. (Its at this point I should remark, that if I knew how far Frankfurt was, i'd probably had said no!). Did I also mention that it gets DARK on the continent?
Finally, after about 9 hours of riding, through France, Belgium and Holland, we make it to David and Holli's home in Frankfurt - guided in by the shining pink beacon that is the T-Mobile communications tower. Seen Men in Black? Then you need to see this...
We spent a couple of days in Frankfurt, making most of the hospitality (or resting sore arses...depending how you look at it
) and did some tourist stuff. Frankfurt is a cracking place to go! Nice rivers, very very friendly locals, great food and beer, and it has a very "yodel-lei-hee-ho" atmsophere to it!
Not wanting to outstay our welcome, we'd followed recommendations to head south into Pforzheim, via approx 100 miles of twisties. OMG, proper recommended (note to self: Get route plugged into Garmin!)! The road is like a roller coaster. Twisty, undulating, nice tarmac, few other vehicles, and rest stops!
We stopped in a little village called Titisee, right in the heart of the Black Forest. Its on a lake, and for approx 20 euros a day, we stopped on a lovely campsite at the far end (opposite to the village) of the lake. Perfection, although it got bloody cold! For space purposes we decided to not take roll mats to sleep on. BAD IDEA! Find space for them, somewhere...anywhere. Just take them! I woke up at silly'o'clock freezing my nuts off (in a 4 season sleeping bag...) to find that my screen had frozen!
Still, Titisee is such a nice place, that we actually hung around for a few days. Want to see proper hand made cuckoo clocks? This is the place.
From then on, we headed further south, following the German border to lake Constance (or Bodensee as the locals refer to it), into Bregenz, Austria. It was one of the more hotter days (I recall about 33 degrees) and both bikes had issues with clutches over heating in the rush hour traffic. Not fun, but just meant having more pitstops. We had a few problems finding a campsite that was open this time of year, and so we headed to Rohrspitz quite near to the Swiss border and stayed there. Even this wasnt recommended - unless you're in a mobile home. (The ground was too hard to effectively pitch tents, and the staff didnt accommodate us too well).
(Can you see the alps in the background?)
So swiftly following on from Austria, we headed into Rorschach Switzerland, only to realise that we're low on fuel and that they didnt take euros. So we quickly upped sticks, legged it from the cafe (we paid in euros and did a runner) and headed for Dijon.
During this time, my bike developed a fault with the starter motor, in that the pin wouldnt retract when the engine got going and so would make an awful racket. It was a bit hit and miss, and managed to get it to retract enough to keep me in the game. Because of this we stopped some 60miles short of Dijon, in a small village called Pont les Moullins near to Baume le Madame. Here we made friends with some Swiss campsite owners who let us pretty much take over the camping area! A quick phone call to Rainbow BMW (cheers Steve!) on how to fix the starter, and I was off like a ferret in a tunnel...
Turns out, it just needed a clean! Spraying some thinned chainlube onto it sorted it out. Fixed in 20 minutes. (And still going!) While here, I did some basic maintenance on both the bikes - topping up oils, lubing etc...
Here we met Ann, a true pikey - born and bred in Essex, moved to Norfolk, sold up, bought a camper van and lived the dream. A very kind lady, who helped us in many ways, and offered a friendly face to talk to. Thanks Ann for the instant tea. Still drinking it
We spent a few days here, and then made the decision to make a run for it. The next leg was a 700+ mile slog to Carcassonne. Dont do it! If I thought it was going to be that tough, i'd have broken it up! Managed to break the pain barrier so many times, that i've done some damage to my coccyx and that sitting in general is painful at best. Also avoid the autoroutes in france. They charge you the same as a car, and it costs! Mostly we paid was 2*32 euros!
Anyhow, we make it to Carcasonne, and stopped with rellies in a little village called Quillan, and then onto an even smaller village called La Serpent. From here we explored Andorra, the Pyrenees (Thuir), and then went onto Pau, Bayonne, Biarritz, and finally Bilbao to take the ferry home. Lindz was sick 7 times due to the bad storms in the Bay of Biscay.
(Page 812 of the touratech 2007 catalogue folks...) 
Oh and for the wino's - the biggest cask in the world:
1.2 million litres of your favourite plonk is stored in there. This can be found in Thuir, at the Byrrh winery.
We made it back yesterday around 3pm, washed the bikes and they've come up spanking again. Need a new front tyre (expected) but otherwise no problems.
I'd definately do this again.
Key points:-
Have an open mind, be flexible and make friends
Dont get too hung up on where you're going to go
Do inform your bank you're going on holiday so that they dont cancel your cards (like they did to me)
Do take spares for your bike, a tool kit AND know how to use it.
Take your documents + spares. The french are slap-happy with spot checks and will fine you for not having documents. They have no french equivalent for 'a producer'.
Take lots of money - fuel is as expensive in mainland europe as it is in UK. Only exceptions were Andorra (60p per litre) and Austria (about 90p per litre).
Take a firstaid kit. You'll need it. Both of us experienced blisters on our hands, as well as the usual athletes foot.
Take layerable clothing. We found it hard to cope with sub-freezing conditions AND 30+ degree heat. Best method is to layer up.
Take 'wayfarer' camping food as it tastes better....
or Take army 24hr ration packs as that tastes even better!
Take plenty of bottles to hold water. Most of our plastic bottles cracked in our panniers which caused a few problems later on as we were drinking so much and water was in limited supply.
So, looking for advice, hints or tips? Ask away!
I'll be posting up the better routes we did asap.
PS, Everyone needs to go visit David and Holli for their overwhelming hospitality, trust and friendship.
We had kicked off preparations with getting both bikes (1200 & 650 GS) serviced and ready to go. Minor alterations included new screens, luggage, throttle rockers, autocom + radios and gps.
We were intending on camping most of the time, only real exceptions were the hospitality of new-made friends, relations, and 1 b&b booked for the ferry crossing into France. We had stayed at the Maison Dieu guesthouse, in downtown Dover. Its a 'compact and bijou' guesthouse, but the owners are very friendly, and incredibly keen to ensure a good stay. Recommended to me, and am recommending to you.Website
Next morning we're up and at em (thank you Swedish harley riders for blocking our bikes in...) ready for the off. Make it to the ferry port in good time...
While waiting in line, another couple on 1150 Adv & 650GS arrive. We compare notes and stories and are ushered onto the boat. Quickly we hit it off, and our roadtrip ensues. Turns out this couple are members on here (Come on David, say hello!
) and we're invited to stay with them in Frankfurt for a couple of days. Not wanting to seem prude, of course we had to just say yes , needing to keep up international relations and all that So there we are, rolling off the ferry in Calais, on leg 1 of our epic journey. (Its at this point I should remark, that if I knew how far Frankfurt was, i'd probably had said no!). Did I also mention that it gets DARK on the continent?
Finally, after about 9 hours of riding, through France, Belgium and Holland, we make it to David and Holli's home in Frankfurt - guided in by the shining pink beacon that is the T-Mobile communications tower. Seen Men in Black? Then you need to see this...
We spent a couple of days in Frankfurt, making most of the hospitality (or resting sore arses...depending how you look at it
) and did some tourist stuff. Frankfurt is a cracking place to go! Nice rivers, very very friendly locals, great food and beer, and it has a very "yodel-lei-hee-ho" atmsophere to it!
Not wanting to outstay our welcome, we'd followed recommendations to head south into Pforzheim, via approx 100 miles of twisties. OMG, proper recommended (note to self: Get route plugged into Garmin!)! The road is like a roller coaster. Twisty, undulating, nice tarmac, few other vehicles, and rest stops!
We stopped in a little village called Titisee, right in the heart of the Black Forest. Its on a lake, and for approx 20 euros a day, we stopped on a lovely campsite at the far end (opposite to the village) of the lake. Perfection, although it got bloody cold! For space purposes we decided to not take roll mats to sleep on. BAD IDEA! Find space for them, somewhere...anywhere. Just take them! I woke up at silly'o'clock freezing my nuts off (in a 4 season sleeping bag...) to find that my screen had frozen!
Still, Titisee is such a nice place, that we actually hung around for a few days. Want to see proper hand made cuckoo clocks? This is the place.
From then on, we headed further south, following the German border to lake Constance (or Bodensee as the locals refer to it), into Bregenz, Austria. It was one of the more hotter days (I recall about 33 degrees) and both bikes had issues with clutches over heating in the rush hour traffic. Not fun, but just meant having more pitstops. We had a few problems finding a campsite that was open this time of year, and so we headed to Rohrspitz quite near to the Swiss border and stayed there. Even this wasnt recommended - unless you're in a mobile home. (The ground was too hard to effectively pitch tents, and the staff didnt accommodate us too well).
So swiftly following on from Austria, we headed into Rorschach Switzerland, only to realise that we're low on fuel and that they didnt take euros. So we quickly upped sticks, legged it from the cafe (we paid in euros and did a runner) and headed for Dijon.
During this time, my bike developed a fault with the starter motor, in that the pin wouldnt retract when the engine got going and so would make an awful racket. It was a bit hit and miss, and managed to get it to retract enough to keep me in the game. Because of this we stopped some 60miles short of Dijon, in a small village called Pont les Moullins near to Baume le Madame. Here we made friends with some Swiss campsite owners who let us pretty much take over the camping area! A quick phone call to Rainbow BMW (cheers Steve!) on how to fix the starter, and I was off like a ferret in a tunnel...
Turns out, it just needed a clean! Spraying some thinned chainlube onto it sorted it out. Fixed in 20 minutes. (And still going!) While here, I did some basic maintenance on both the bikes - topping up oils, lubing etc...
Here we met Ann, a true pikey - born and bred in Essex, moved to Norfolk, sold up, bought a camper van and lived the dream. A very kind lady, who helped us in many ways, and offered a friendly face to talk to. Thanks Ann for the instant tea. Still drinking it
We spent a few days here, and then made the decision to make a run for it. The next leg was a 700+ mile slog to Carcassonne. Dont do it! If I thought it was going to be that tough, i'd have broken it up! Managed to break the pain barrier so many times, that i've done some damage to my coccyx and that sitting in general is painful at best. Also avoid the autoroutes in france. They charge you the same as a car, and it costs! Mostly we paid was 2*32 euros!
Anyhow, we make it to Carcasonne, and stopped with rellies in a little village called Quillan, and then onto an even smaller village called La Serpent. From here we explored Andorra, the Pyrenees (Thuir), and then went onto Pau, Bayonne, Biarritz, and finally Bilbao to take the ferry home. Lindz was sick 7 times due to the bad storms in the Bay of Biscay.
Oh and for the wino's - the biggest cask in the world:
1.2 million litres of your favourite plonk is stored in there. This can be found in Thuir, at the Byrrh winery.
We made it back yesterday around 3pm, washed the bikes and they've come up spanking again. Need a new front tyre (expected) but otherwise no problems.
I'd definately do this again.
Key points:-
Have an open mind, be flexible and make friends
Dont get too hung up on where you're going to go
Do inform your bank you're going on holiday so that they dont cancel your cards (like they did to me)
Do take spares for your bike, a tool kit AND know how to use it.
Take your documents + spares. The french are slap-happy with spot checks and will fine you for not having documents. They have no french equivalent for 'a producer'.
Take lots of money - fuel is as expensive in mainland europe as it is in UK. Only exceptions were Andorra (60p per litre) and Austria (about 90p per litre).
Take a firstaid kit. You'll need it. Both of us experienced blisters on our hands, as well as the usual athletes foot.
Take layerable clothing. We found it hard to cope with sub-freezing conditions AND 30+ degree heat. Best method is to layer up.
Take 'wayfarer' camping food as it tastes better....
or Take army 24hr ration packs as that tastes even better!
Take plenty of bottles to hold water. Most of our plastic bottles cracked in our panniers which caused a few problems later on as we were drinking so much and water was in limited supply.
So, looking for advice, hints or tips? Ask away!
I'll be posting up the better routes we did asap.
PS, Everyone needs to go visit David and Holli for their overwhelming hospitality, trust and friendship.
Excellent write up and likely to be the first of many trips, well done 
Has Lindz forgiven you yet??
