Objective - Berlin!

Long story, short summary: last week I met up with an old flame down in Málaga, forty-four years after she went home to Berlin following a summer spent studying in Oxford as part of her degree in medicine. She and a companion had ridden all the way there on their 250 R27 250cc BMW's and as we said "Tschüss" I promised to go visit the following year. Well, life doesn't work out quite like that so ... reunited at last we found that our friendship was just as vibrant - if not as sexy, which was handy as I also met her current beau! - as it was then and I now fancy taking in the long promised return trip as part of my planned Big Trip to eastern Europe.

So, or rather, Zo, assuming that my paramour will guide me around Berlin - really wish I'd been there with her before the Wall came down! - any ideas for getting there through Poland, possibly from Lviv in the Ukriane, more likely the Czech Republic, and also the onward journey my home in the Pyrenees. I'd like to avoid cities and built-up areas in general (but my Mrs Simon - who knowsa ll about this - has fond memories of living in Koblenz when she was little to may like to take that in) so am thinking about crossing into France down in the Alsace but I'm tempted too by the Ardennes region through Luxembourg and Belgium but I have no knowledge of experience whatsoever in there areas.

My bike is a BMW 650 X-Country - so the Autobahns would be a PITA, literally! -an I usually camp and live very minimally, so any hints about traveling around Germany in general would also be handy. I'm retired so nit in a big hurry and thinking about getting to Germany by July, this year of more likely next; I'm not in too much of a hurry to me my love again but I think if I left it another forty-four years she would think I didn't care for her as much as I do!

Cheers

Simon

Hi Simon, that is a feckin’ long way.

I did a lap of Germany, basically riding around its outer edges, a couple of years ago, starting near enough in Hamburg, up along the German coast to the Polish border. Then down to Berlin, down to the Czech border, across to Garmische and then up the border with France and Belgium. We mostly used small to medium sized country roads, entirely suitable for the bike you are on. We did pick-up bits of autobahn to get past big cities, especially in the Ruhr / Rhine area or where it was sensible to do so. Similarly, there was sometimes no real alternative to using a major dual carriageway unless we cut miles inwards.... we could have done of course but we didn’t have unlimited time. It’s always a compromise.

Question 1. How long have you (very roughly) got between entering Germany at the Czech Republic to arrive at Berlin?

Question 2. How long have you (very roughly) got available to ride from Berlin back to the Pyrenees?

With those to bits we can sort you out, I’m sure. It’s only fair as you’ve given lots of help to bods here with Spain.

My first tip would be, cheat..... I do. Go to the Kurviger site and pump your rough destinations in. This will give you a pretty good, pretty rough idea: https://kurv.gr/CYa5B It is a great tool as it’s easy to muck it about. Here is the same trip but amended to go from Berlin to Pau, via the Baltic coast: https://kurv.gr/P7cgd

As to riding in Germany? Excellent. Some will say it is flat and dull. OK, so find the small roads. Riding through France and Belgium, where you’ll probably be coming back through? Excellent again. Jealous, me? Not a bit.

I did a trip to Berlin and wrote it up. Have a look in the trip reports section. Military interest? (I did the Mohne dam and Colditz as part of the trip.) Make use of German yoof hostels. They are very good.

Wapping said:

Hi Simon, that is a feckin’ long way.

I did a lap of Germany, basically riding around its outer edges, a couple of years ago, starting near enough in Hamburg, up along the German coast to the Polish border. Then down to Berlin, down to the Czech border, across to Garmische and then up the border with France and Belgium. We modtly used small to medium sized country roads, entirely suitable for the bike you are on.

Question 1. How long have you got between entering Germany at the Czech Republic to arrive at Berlin?

Question 2. How long have you got available to ride from Berlin back to the Pyrenees?

With those to bits we can sort you out, I’m sure. It’s only fair as you’ve given lots of help to bods here with Spain.

My first tip would be, cheat..... I do. Go to the Kurviger site and pump your rough destinations in. This will give you a pretty good rough idea.

Click to expand...

Thanks for all this Wapping. Yes, i know it's a feckin' long way buy WTF, I think I'll give it two months or so, hence planning for 2021 as I have a lot of small trips planning for this year, farkling both my bike and myself after a few years with hardly any riding at all ...

Posh Pete said:

I did a trip to Berlin and wrote it up. Have a look in the trip reports section. Military interest? (I did the Mohne dam and Colditz as part of the trip.) Make use of German yoof hostels. They are very good.

Click to expand...

Thanks Pete, I'll check this out. I've no interest at all in matters military but I guess I should visit a concentration camp as a kind of moral obligation ...

Yoof hostels sound great as I hadn't though of that and I am on a budget, is there a membership scheme?

Cheers

Simon

I am a big lover of seeing what the internet throws up, not least as there are some really good German magazines and touring sites, crammed with really good ideas. Here are some pictures of ideas I have used and / or saved:





Or if you wanted something different:



This, is a good site, which will bring you to: https://www.motorradstrassen.de/touren/motorradstrasse-deutschland

They have split Germany (a vey big country, as you know) into four areas, north, south, east and west, giving them the title ‘ Motorradstraße Deutschland’ or MSD for short. In essence, a really good suggestion on how to ride about in Germany. I can recommend it. This is an example of just the ‘North route’:

https://www.motorradstrassen.de/component/cck/?task=download&file=pdf&id=71



Just how good is that? Found by just tapping about in a website (I don’t speak German) safe in the knowledge it won’t break. The little red barrier lines across the route simply break it up into chunks. The great thing is that from there you can really cheat. Scroll dow and you’ll find that each of the red barred sections is listed separately:



Click on one and it will open up in the excellent Kurviger app...



From there you can export it (I find exporting it as a track works best) into say BaseCamp to use or muck about with. As easy as A,B,C; a near enough perfect answer to, “Tell me great roads”, delivered into your lap.



Other good sites are listed here: https://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/416452-Germany-calling Some of the links might have died but an imaginative Google search will maybe turn them up again.

My tip is to tap around in Google, you really cannot break it and it’s free. Take ideas from wherever you can find them, I do. OK, they are often in ‘foreign’ but a map is a map, a picture is a picture and a GPS download is a GPS download, whatever the language. Work out what the German / French for ‘motorbike’, ‘day’ and ‘hours’ is and you’ve got it 9/10’s cracked. Save sites or copy bits you want to keep; it’s really easy and even fun once you get going.

Posh Pete said:

I did a trip to Berlin and wrote it up. Have a look in the trip reports section. Military interest? (I did the Mohne dam and Colditz as part of the trip.) Make use of German yoof hostels. They are very good.

Click to expand...

Thanks for that tip, myself and my wife are planning a trip to Berlin, then Colditz, Great Escape camp in the Summer. Will be a help. No Youth Hostels though, decent hotels only for my tore half.

Another tip.

I am a big lover of Michelin maps. However, when I did my lap of Germany I stole lots of ideas from sites like Kurvenkoenig and Louise. To use these properly I often had to zoom in on their suggestion (or download a GPS file) or summon up Google maps to see where the roads went. I wanted to take a paper map too but often the roads were not shown on the Michelin maps. These maps were cheap and invaluable:

http://www.stanfords.co.uk/Germany-ADAC-Road-Map-Set_9783826460548

I highlighted each of the roads with a magic marker and loaded the lot into BaseCamp and from there into my GPS. It was, I have to say it, not a job that took five minutes but it was worth the effort, trust me. 21 days of trouble free riding, sometimes down small roads, without a care in the world. I don’t think I could have done it by writing out the instructions by hand, old school.

Simon_100 said:

Thanks Pete, I'll check this out. I've no interest at all in matters military but I guess I should visit a concentration camp as a kind of moral obligation ...

Yoof hostels sound great as I hadn't though of that and I am on a budget, is there a membership scheme?

Cheers

Simon

Click to expand...

Join any national assoc and you get reciprocal rights. The German YhA site is www.jugendherberge.de The great advantage is the number and quality spread across the country and bookability online ahead of your stay. They all have bars and mostly English speaking staff although an attempt at.German is always appreciated of course.

https://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/425239-The-1933-1945-Tour?highlight=Wroclaw

Simon_100 said:

Thanks for all this Wapping. Yes, i know it's a feckin' long way buy WTF, I think I'll give it two months or so, hence planning for 2021 as I have a lot of small trips planning for this year, farkling both my bike and myself after a few years with hardly any riding at all ...

Click to expand...

Great then we should be able to help you create something really good. We took 21 days London to London, via Calais, to ride the lap of Germany, simply as we didn’t rush and took days off. I’d concentrate on Germany first and maybe consider coming back through the Baltic states, as per the suggestion. Once you re-enter Germany or come to its border to leave it is near enough Belgium and France to get to the Pyrenees. Unless you drop back down through Germany to exit at the bottom, out through the Alps, into say Provence and then westwards. A kind fellow did a post on this French idea.....

Get there as quick as you can and have a few days shagging each other then take the good routes back.
Best not to ask why I know this is always the best course

That’ll be by aeroplane then.

By happy chance, the route thrown up by Kurviger isn’t bad. It takes you through Koblenz (as I asked it to) and then on through the Ardennes, across to the Morvan and onwards to Pau. I chose Pau only as a place near the Pyrenees, useless if you need to be somewhere else.

https://kurv.gr/ZdRRA

Whilst we are at it, here is the link to the Baltic route I posted above #6. Scroll down to find PDF’s, GPS routes etc etc.

https://m.louis.de/fuer-die-motorradreise/tourentipps/nordeuropa/baltikum

And to the U-shaped loop of Germany:

https://m.louis.de/fuer-die-motorradreise/tourentipps/zentraleuropa/deutschland

And last but not least, the top of the U-shape to complete the circle.

I can highly recommend at least the last two, as I have not ridden the first.

Thanks everyone, lots of food for thought! First thing will be to join the Spanish Youth Hostel association and start to use them here and in France this year for both biking and walking tours - oh the joys of being a retired old git ...

Some very good looking route ideas Wapping, the section of the first one from Berlin down to Munich looks interesting if I approach Berlin from Poland and then onwards into France more or less due west.

Cheers

Simon

Good stuff.

You really could do much worse than riding chunks of the Motorradstraße Deutschland (MSD) as it is what the Germans designed it to be; a sensible way to see a large country on a motorbike.

Let us know when you’ve decided on where to exit Germany on your return, please. We can work on the French side of the route.

Wapping said:

Good stuff.

You really could do much worse than riding chunks of the Motorradstraße Deutschland (MSD) as it is what the Germans designed it to be; a sensible way to see a large country on a motorbike.

Let us know when you’ve decided on where to exit Germany on your return, please. We can work on the French side of the route.

Click to expand...

Will do! Meanwhile exiting France will be simple, i'll go more or less straight home from Vielha in the Val d'Aran ...