BeamishTripleBlack
Registered user
After being let down by a couple of mates for a planned trip to the Black Forrest I took up Fluffmeister (Tony) on his kind offer and accompanied him to the Harz Mountains (right on the old East/West German border).
I wont bore you with the ride to hull nor the ferry crossing as they were pretty uneventful so I will begin with the ride from Rotterdam to Bad Lauterberg.
As usual for my bike trips the weather was appauling, heavy rain all the way (about 360 miles) but apart from the usual slog through Nederland once in Germany we hit the a roads and took in a couple of the dams previously visited by our boys in their lancasters (Mohna and Edersee Dams). A great place to stop and take in the sights.
After about 7 hours blasting through the German countryside we arrived at the Pension Rosenek in Bad Lauterberg and I have to say it is perfectly set up for bikers, in fact it couldnt get better. The owner is pretty KTM crazy but the set up with a 15+ bike lockable garage is perfect.
See the link below for info.
http://www.harzbiker.co.uk/
Once in Bad Lauterberg whichever route you decide to follow will take you through some of the best roads in europe, the surfaces are generally billiard smooth and one particular road (the Kyfhauser) has 38 bends one after another climbing up to an old Monument (link below to a video)
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?v=10150842067782396
If you decide to go off the beaten path there are hundreds of fire trails through acres of forrest that you can explore. According to Greg (the owner of Rosenek) the police are extremely lenient especially in what used to be East Germany as they are trying to attract tourism and bikers are a big source of income. Tony (Fluffmeister) is nearly a local in Germany so his routes took in most of the good bad and ugly including a trip to an old Russian airbase on the old border.
All in all a cracking destination and although the Harz Mountains are not by any means Alp style breathtaking, the roads are spectacular and the lack of traffic and the freedom to explore makes this area a must visit for any biker. The old East German towns are fantastic (Quidlingberg for example) very Prague esque.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1280&bih=843&wrapid=tlif133950232893610&q=quedlinburg&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x47a5a2d492193369:0x4236659f8058c70,Quedlinburg,+Germany&gl=uk&ei=_y7XT-q_D4uN0wXwwtmQBA&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=2&ved=0CBgQ8gEwAQ
I have many more pictures but will keep it to a minimum as requested. I would like to thank Tony for being a brilliant host and travel companion. Hope to do something similar very soon.
I wont bore you with the ride to hull nor the ferry crossing as they were pretty uneventful so I will begin with the ride from Rotterdam to Bad Lauterberg.
As usual for my bike trips the weather was appauling, heavy rain all the way (about 360 miles) but apart from the usual slog through Nederland once in Germany we hit the a roads and took in a couple of the dams previously visited by our boys in their lancasters (Mohna and Edersee Dams). A great place to stop and take in the sights.
After about 7 hours blasting through the German countryside we arrived at the Pension Rosenek in Bad Lauterberg and I have to say it is perfectly set up for bikers, in fact it couldnt get better. The owner is pretty KTM crazy but the set up with a 15+ bike lockable garage is perfect.
See the link below for info.
http://www.harzbiker.co.uk/
Once in Bad Lauterberg whichever route you decide to follow will take you through some of the best roads in europe, the surfaces are generally billiard smooth and one particular road (the Kyfhauser) has 38 bends one after another climbing up to an old Monument (link below to a video)
http://www.facebook.com/#!/photo.php?v=10150842067782396
If you decide to go off the beaten path there are hundreds of fire trails through acres of forrest that you can explore. According to Greg (the owner of Rosenek) the police are extremely lenient especially in what used to be East Germany as they are trying to attract tourism and bikers are a big source of income. Tony (Fluffmeister) is nearly a local in Germany so his routes took in most of the good bad and ugly including a trip to an old Russian airbase on the old border.
All in all a cracking destination and although the Harz Mountains are not by any means Alp style breathtaking, the roads are spectacular and the lack of traffic and the freedom to explore makes this area a must visit for any biker. The old East German towns are fantastic (Quidlingberg for example) very Prague esque.
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?hl=en&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.,cf.osb&biw=1280&bih=843&wrapid=tlif133950232893610&q=quedlinburg&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hq=&hnear=0x47a5a2d492193369:0x4236659f8058c70,Quedlinburg,+Germany&gl=uk&ei=_y7XT-q_D4uN0wXwwtmQBA&sa=X&oi=geocode_result&ct=title&resnum=2&ved=0CBgQ8gEwAQ
I have many more pictures but will keep it to a minimum as requested. I would like to thank Tony for being a brilliant host and travel companion. Hope to do something similar very soon.
), this was my third time in the Harz mountains. It is a great location for a long weekend away. If you go back then Stolberg is worth a visit, it is a very picturesque medieval village with Castle overlooking it, plenty of place to eat lunch etc. I also went to Mittelbau-Dora, which was a an underground factory that built the V1 and V2 rockets using slave labour from an adjoining Concentration Camp. It is located near Nordhausen, they do have audio guides in English that cover the most of the area, but the really interesting bit was getting the guided tour of the tunnels, this was only conducted in German.
