Carrying on from on idea in the opening post, this from the 4/2020 edition of Alpentourer magazine, to make a great trip that would take you from the Hanseatic town of Lubeck, to Stralsund and then southwards past Berlin.
I have done something pretty similar, stopping for two nights in Lubeck, to see the town. Then riding across, taking in Rugen island by stopping for two nights in Stralsund, then going down to Berlin itself.
Is it full of mountain views and hairpins? No, it isn’t. But so what; it’s different than yet another jaunt around the mountains or just ‘doing’ the Black Forest yet again. Not least, everyone knows, “That bloody B500 is shite, mate”.
PS You’ll soon be able to download the north coast route for free from the excellent Alpentourer website.
https://www.alpentourer.eu/tag/gps-daten/
Whilst you are there, surf around in the site to see what other ideas they have got. It’s free and they can’t touch you for it. Want to get the magazine and other similar excellent German touring publications? Easy, just take a subscription to Readly. Yes, they are ‘in foreign’ but pictures are pictures and maps are maps. It’s also pretty easy to guess (or Google translate) some of what the author bod must be on about. Does that look like the name of a hotel the article has suggested? Well, if it does, then it probably is. Put the name and maybe that of the town into Google and it will find it for you. Does it look like the sort of hotel you’d like? Is it in a town that suits your itinerary? Great. No, but you like the look of the town.... do another quick search via Booking.com or TripAdvisor or just plain good old Google. You’ll find one to suit you, I promise. Worried that the owner won’t be ‘biker friendly’, whatever that means? Don’t. Worried that your awesome will be pinched or molested? Don’t. Does it look like the hotel is in the rough end of Manchester? Yes... then don’t stay there ( it really is that easy) or take a decent lock and double up on the butter in the fridge. Above all, enjoy YOUR holiday.
How do I download the Alpentourer routes, mate? Easy, you do what I did and (if like me you don’t speak one of German beyond bits of a menu, counting to 12, saying hello, goodbye and thank you, ordering a beer and asking a hotelier for a bed)
guess, safe in the knowledge you really can’t break it. Failing that, some idiot has created a guide, with pictures:
https://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/506345-How-to-download-routes-from-Alpentourer-magazine
The same idiot (with nothing better to do than wasting his time here and by not getting out on his bike) has done a guide (with pictures) on how to download the Tourenfahrer routes:
https://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/506348-How-to-get-routes-from-Tourenfahrer-magazine
The latter will cost you a couple of euro (less than one beer) for a gps route. But if you want to swerve that rip-off, you can always zoom in on the free map they provide and create it yourself in BaseCamp / whatever software you fancy or just highlight it on an old fashioned map or write the directions on the back of an old envelope. In short, whatever takes your fancy.
