Eifel… long weekend

[Wapping]

The hotel is fine for a couple of nights and cheaper than Vianden, simply as it is less touristy.

The owners are friendly, the food good.

If though there was a group of you, that wanted an easy choice of where to eat each night, then the village doesn’t offer any choices. In short, it’s quiet.

A friend of mine stayed at the very popular Petry in Vianden a couple of weeks ago and was disappointed that it definitely wasn’t as good as when he‘s last stayed several times. One of the problems is that the restaurant cannot now decide if it’s a pizza take-away joint or a sit down restaurant. The service for hotel residential guests (who naturally enough don’t order take-away pizza) suffers as the take-away demand is occupying too much time.

 

[wessie]

I was supposed to be in Vianden over the May Day Bank Holiday but plans changed to Normandy. We had booked the Hotel Victor Hugo which has a small garage for bikes. Cheaper than the Petry, with several nearby eateries on relatively level ground to suit my older companions, who would not cope with staying up the hill!

 

[richardbd]

A great extended weekend away, with super arrangements by grantmac.

Or it was until my lower right leg went ‘Pop’ at Eindhoven in a petrol station. I have either ruptured my Achilles Tendon or ripped my calf muscle, dropping the 1600 on its side in the process, as I yelled and then hobbled in pain. Advised not to remove my boot, so I slept in it on the ferry. Will limp off, ride back to London and go to A&E at the Royal London to see what the news is, as I am meant to go to Stockholm on Wednesday and Le Mans, next week. Hey-ho, that’s life.

Trip report to follow.

What a nightmare! I did my calf a few years back, lifting a laden GS onto its centre stand. I went down like I’d been shot - and to this day I’m sure I heard the bang as it snapped. Definitely saw stars…

Good luck with the people in white coats…

 

[Wapping]

A trip report….

Day one, Friday

Over the past couple of years or so, I have met up with grantmac from the UKGSer forum, starting from when I think I sold him a four button BMW mount and a GPS device. Whilst he lives in Holland, he comes to London on business reasonably often, so we meet up for a curry perhaps once a quarter or so. During our curried fuelled chats we’d hatched out the idea of me joining him for a jaunt to the Eifel region over the bank holiday weekend. By way of a change I’d use the ferry across to the Hook of Holland, not least as we could then rendezvous not far from the ferry port exit and ride down together to our hotel, some 250 miles away. I hadn’t used the Harwich to Holland ferry for about 40 years, so it was a good opportunity to try it again. I wasn’t disappointed.

Leaving the ferry on the Friday morning, you enter quite a busy and complex set of pretty major roads. Whilst people knock GPS devices, trying to navigate into a small suburb of Rotterdam / Charlois without one might have been, shall we say, ‘interesting’. Navigation aside, we duly met up, had a coffee and set off towards Eindhoven, our first agreed stop en-route to the Eifel. Rotterdam to Eindhoven is basically motorway all the way. Of course you can take non-motorway roads but progress will be slow through the Dutch towns with their rigorously imposed speed limits. Better to bite the bullet and go the quickest way. The coffee stop at Eindhoven was at a very popular hotel / restaurant, busy with Dutch, Belgian and German bods, all enjoying the great holiday weekend weather. Having stopped there, I can agree that it’s a good choice grantmac made, with lots of easy parking.

Location: Fletcher Jagershorst in Leende / Eindhoven https://www.hoteljagershorst.nl/en/



From the coffee stop it was then again southwards on some motorway until a little south of Weert, then better ‘biking’ roads, roughly south-south-east to a fuel and lunch stop at the McDonald’s / Shell station at Aldenhoven, slightly north west of Aachen in Germany. From there, it was then very good roads all the way to our hotel in Körperich, Germany, just across the border from Vianden in Luxembourg. It’s a full day‘s ride from the ferry to Körperic, assuming you leave Rotterdam at around 10:00 AM. All in all, a ‘good route’ and a sensible balance between motorways to get you to the German border with Holland, before enjoying the great roads in Germany into the Eifel.

Location: https://im-goldenen-grund.de/en/

More to follow……

 

[Arsey]

here are some pics of the weekend.View attachment 265373

That’s a beautiful pavement

 

[Wapping]

That’s a beautiful pavement

…. And as it’s not in the UK, it’s not covered by the squalid remains of chewing gum and fag ends.

 

[Wapping]

Notes on the hotel.

As in the posts above, it is a family run hotel, in a quiet village. If you want or would like, techno beats and more restaurants than you can shake a stick at, forget it.

The car park, to the rear of the building is halfway up a very steep slope, with a sharp left turn entry. grantmac had tipped me off about this, kindly. Take a bit of care if there is a gaggle of you. Why? The parking area (which itself slopes a bit) is not large. If (as it was on Friday evening) it’s full of cars, the lead bike will probably stop, working out where (if anywhere) to park. The next bike in the queue will probably be forced to stop too, at right angles to the steep slope. That is OK if they are ready for it…. But….. the entrance to the parking area has a typical deep and wide open gutter, taking rain water down the hill. If the second bike has to stop suddenly, they may well find themselves with nowhere to put their foot down….. and the all but inevitable will happen. In short, don’t (in the enthusiasm of the first beer) steam up the hill in a rush. Take a bit of care. I was happy enough to leave the big 1600 at the bottom on public display on nights two and three, though I do use a lock, irrespective of how ‘safe’ a location might be.

Parking and peacefulness aside, it’s a nice hotel for a couple of nights, simply as a hub to enjoy that part of the Eifel. It does get booked-up (it was full on Friday night) so I’d advise checking with the owner, especially if there is a gaggle of you, all wanting single rooms. That being said, the Eifel and of course the Luxembourg Ardennes has lots of hotels to chose from.

There is no fuel in the village but Vianden is only about 10 minutes ride away, where there are two fuel stations.

 

[Wapping]

Day two, Saturday

grantmac had pre-prepared a suggested circular route of roughly 170 miles, out to Cochem on the Moselle, all on great roads. The weather, as it was for the whole trip was fantastic, peaking at 28 C in the valleys by mid-afternoon. With two of you, it’s difficult to stop too often to take picture, so we simply took it in turns to lead segments of the route each. This worked well, the pair of us being reasonably well matched riding wise.

Neither of us are keen on bike-to-bike chitchat over a radio link all day. What did though work well was pairing our two helmets together in ‘Rider / Pillion’ mode. This, unlike Sena’s Mesh system is not permanently open, so you have to make a conscious effort to push the button to talk. It doesn’t have miles of range but is clear to hear, useful just for a tiny bit of chat if someone has something interesting or important enough to share.

Oddly perhaps, a lot of the cafes seemed to be shut on the Saturday or, at least, not plainly open as we rode along. We did though find a good coffee stop in Manderschied, popular with German bods on motorcycles.





Location: https://trattoriavulcano.de/kontakt/

It would make a good lunch stop, too.

We did pause at a view point on the 259 road above Cochem which, on a good day, I’d suggest others might like to try. This was near enough halfway around our circular day out route.





For our lunch stop, grantmac had suggested a curry wurst at the less busy Reiler Hof hotel in Reil. This is on the quieter western bank of the river. Besides making a good lunch stop, it would probably make a good hotel for an overnight stop, too.





As we were on the west bank of the river, grantmac suggested a stop at the nearby large locks, where we were lucky enough to see two large vessels (a tourist boat and a container barge) pass through together.

 

[Wapping]

Continued…..

Location:



From there it was roughy 80 miles back to the hotel, all the way on great roads, with the prospect of more tomorrow.

 

[Blue]

Stopped at Reiler Hof hotel in Reil. a couple of times for lunch always reasonably good food.

 

[Wapping]

Day three, Sunday

The weather gods were really shining on us again. It was already 18 C when we set off on another circular route grantmac had created, of a similar 160 miles but this time taking a more northerly direction, before circling east to loop back. Again, the roads were great and we each shared the lead role, made easy we were both running the same GPX file.

Picking up fuel in Vianden, our first stop was at a somewhat bizarre location, or at least bizarre as (unlike most of Germany) it almost trumpets their former Nazi links. It’s the eponymous, Burghaus & Villa Kronenburg.

The hotel and very small village is on the site of an old castle, which became some sort of Nazi approved ‘Art school’ in the mid-1930’s, fitting in too with their perverted ideas on mysticism and what ‘art’ was to be.



Setting that aside, it has good views.








Me and my ‘Little black book’…… Himmler would approve, no doubt




It’scworthwhile taking a short walk up to the ruins of the castle, just to see what there is to see from the very top



Location: http://villa-kronenburg.de/

We had no pre-plans on where to stop for lunch and time was ticking on, but we maybe lucked-out with a stop at Himmerod, run by a single old lady who maybe took pity on us. My note in my ‘Little black book’ tells me that the busy town of Daun, might be good for a lunch stop. There was certainly a lot of motorbikes parked up at assorted burger type restaurants on the main road through.



It is at the gateway to a large abbey, which might well be worth a look, if that’s your thing.

Location:



We then passed by the giant American airforce base at Spangdahlen, where I know from past experience they get very snotty about you stopping to take a picture of the aeroplane mounted on display. Strange people, Americans. The flags outside the base were all flying at half-mast, why we had no idea.

Then on to the hotel, via Vianden for fuel, ahead of departure back home on Monday.

Another great day out.

 

[Arsey]

Sorry to hear of your woes.
Would riding a Wing DCT for the summer , wearing a plaster boot invalidate your insurance ?

 

[Wapping]

Day four, Monday

This day to started bright and sunny. For the route back to Eindhoven and for me to then go back to the Hook of Holland for my return crossing tgat evening, grantmac had kindly created a scenic route which ran parallel to the one taken coming down but to the west of it. This took us (again on good roads) to Simmerath, after which the route back almost inevitably tracked with the route taken down.

Along the way we passed by the remains of the huge ‘West Wall’ built by the Germans in a futile attempt to halt the Allied advance from Belgium. There is a walk yiu can take along parts of it, which might be something for another day perhaps?













Passing through a small German town, we stopped for a drink of water. By chance there was a war memorial, which evidenced that the Germans lost many more soldiers (roughly double) in the second war than the first.





We parted company at Eindhoven, grantmac to go home and me planning on heading up the coast to kill some time before the sailing. Ripping my Achilles Tendon put paid to that cunning plan. But hey, I made it to the ferry, where I met two (more elderly) Swedish gentlemen heading for the TT, who were happily chatty.



….. and home….. now in plaster from my knee to my toes. The prognosis is maybe four to six months before I am back on the dance floor. Bye-bye summer….



Summary

I am very much obliged to grantmac for age suggestion and for doing all the creation of the routes. From personal experience, I know these things don’t just happen. Much appreciate.

It is, as we know (or for those that don’t) a great part of Germany, easily accessible in a day from either Calais or the Hook of Holland.

The area is huge, so it is not crowded. We saw no British registered bikes or cars at all.

Everything is helped by the weather and we were truly lucky in that regard.

Everyone we met was friendly, no question about it.

Give it a go…… but avoid injuring yourself, please.

Richard

 

[Wapping]

Sorry to hear of your woes.
Would riding a Wing DCT for the summer , wearing a plaster boot invalidate your insurance ?

Thanks.

Sadly, I’ll now have to cancel my extended test on the ‘Wing, booked for a couple of weeks’ time.

Riding the 1600 with a busted Achilles was OK, once I was on the bike, as the right leg doesn’t do too much. The only problem was stopping, as putting my right foot down (or worse the bottom of the boot catching on the ground coming to a halt) was not so clever, unless I could get it completely flat on the floor and facing forward, then it was perfectly painless. This often brought my inner calf into conflict with the footrest.

There was a bad crash on the Highway on Monday morning, with a tailback through the Limehouse Link tunnel. I was forced to stop in the tunnel; I put my right foot down on something very slippery. I yelped, the F word echoed around and the bike very nearly went over, but by some miracle I held it up, purely by luck., nothing more. it hurt like buggery but fear of tumbling in the tunnel gave me unknown super human powers…… better known as being bloody lucky.

I can’t drive a manual car, as I can’t now bend my ankle, because if the cast. It’s my right foot, but I am not sure that driving an automatic car left footed is the best idea I have ever had. Ironically, if it wasn’t for the stopping / foot down bit, I could ride a conventional but lighter motorbike, pretty much normally, as proved when I rode the heavy 1600 onto and off the ferry, then back home.

 

[LOLGEOFF]

Great trip, reminds me of a school trip we had in the 60s but in a coach.

Bad news about the leg. I did mine last year but the reverse, it was giving me gyp before it went pop but totally painless after. Is your cast a full one or just the front? Have you got to do the injections in your stomach to stop clotting? That stings if you squirt it in too quickly. With any luck the cast will come off soon and they'll issue you with a storm trooper boot, easily removed for driving purposes but beware the lack of power in your toes when depressing the brake pedal, it certainly heightens your senses when you are pushing hard down on the brake but you're not slowing down. You can also waive goodbye to your shapely calf muscle, it's surprising how quickly muscle atrophy sets in due to lack of use.

Get well soon.

 

[Wapping]

Great trip, reminds me of a school trip we had in the 60s but in a coach.

Bad news about the leg. I did mine last year but the reverse, it was giving me gyp before it went pop but totally painless after. Is your cast a full one or just the front? Have you got to do the injections in your stomach to stop clotting? That stings if you squirt it in too quickly. With any luck the cast will come off soon and they'll issue you with a storm trooper boot, easily removed for driving purposes but beware the lack of power in your toes when depressing the brake pedal, it certainly heightens your senses when you are pushing hard down on the brake but you're not slowing down. You can also waive goodbye to your shapely calf muscle, it's surprising how quickly muscle atrophy sets in due to lack of use.

Get well soon.

Thank you.

Yup, cast on the front and tummy injections.

 

[Wapping]

I have created a tidied-up file of the routes we used, along with an alternative using Calais as opposed to the Hook.

I’ll share them here but the new forum is responding badly to links / embeds from MyRoute. The site admin team are are aware of the problem and are working on a fix.

Richard

 

[Wapping]

Here’s a link to the routes that grantmac created for our trip. To these, I have added an alternative possible route via Calais, too. Obviously, nobody is obliged to follow the routes exactly or stop at the same places. Play around, to suit yourself. You can’t break it.

Link to routes

Click / tap on each of the little icons and the route(s) will appear. You can then download them.

PS My apologies that it‘s a link but the embed feature is playing up badly and screwing the new forum. The forum admin team are on the case, to see if it can be resolved.

Richard

 

[fs996]

Nice little trip report, thanks Wappers. Hope you make a speedy recovery!

 

[Wapping]

Thank you.