As Rasher and GW observe, it is very much horses for courses. I guess I come from the old school (at least from the late 60’s to mid-70’s preparatory and public schools system) when personal computers, mobile phones, the Internet and GPS devices were something totally unknown or reserved for Star Trek. We had it drummed into us how to read Ordnance Survey maps for Common Entrance exams and Geography O-level. There was no escape from it, nor did we have the luxury of dropping O-level subjects we didn’t happen to like. In a sense, I grew up with maps and still love them, but I have also grown to love my Garmins, using them not as a ‘Take me from A to B, down twisty roads, I don’t care where, just do it’ devices (where I have zero input) but as fantastic electronic maps with a magenta line, which I have created myself, displayed on it. To me, that is no different to me highlighting a route on a paper map or writing it out by hand, it maybe just takes a little longer to do it. There again, writing out a route plan by hand or creating it in Excel is not quick either, if you do it fully. Similarly, I have no problem in borrowing routes from other sources and / or saving them against some possible future. I am not sure why this sometimes annoys some people, as it is no different (to my mind at least) than buying a guide book. Not least, I like to share here ideas I have picked up from magazines that involve something more than just riding the B500 top to bottom and saying: “I have done the Black Forest’. To me at least, it is now more interesting to see the bit of Germany that sits just above the huge Black Forest region. For example, there is a suggested route in the latest Tourenfahrer magazine that has an article on a tour that takes in the moonlike ‘other world’ sites and sounds of Germany’s coal mining region. Something that you’d not normally think of, perhaps? Similarly, there was another article on a tour of just the confluences of the Ruhr and Rhine rivers. Lots of people ‘Do the dams’ but don’t see the places the tidal waves of water hit. In short, it’s nice to look and think outside of the box sometimes. I have no problem with getting help from wherever I can find it on that score.
When it comes to helping people plan their holidays, it is a mixed blessing, made harder as I / we are are not them. The most common mistake is bods no really realising that all countries (even Luxembourg) are actually quite large, whist France, Germany, Spain, Austria, Italy and even the UK and Ireland are huge in comparison to the size of one bod on their motorcycle. Paper maps, if they can be read, can address this problem. Better still, some hands-on knowledge that, for example, Calais to Dijon is 350 miles direct down a motorway and to Nice is 800 miles, again you go straight down the motorway. Can you do it in a day on N and D roads? Yes if you want to or must; most people don’t want to really. The other mistake is to assume that countries have to be full of ‘Must do, great roads’ that go in every and which direction. They are not, any more than the UK is. Just because it is France, they do not suddenly appear in all directions simply by crossing a few miles of water. Even then, it comes down to what one might expect of a road. I quite like the country roads of NE France, others hate them, though I am never quite sure if they have ever spent just two days riding some. Similarly, the Baltic coast of Germany, that makes Lincolnshire look hilly. Great roads and towns to see, in my opinion at least, simply because they are very different to the ‘safe’ Black Forest, the Ardennes, the Pyrenees and the Austrian Alps. In other words, they are great because they are NOT somewhere else. I would never have ‘discovered’ the Baltic coast years ago without looking at some dog eared magazine I found or from an article in the Travel section of a newspaper. It took me years though to jump on my bike to go to see the region, which was my loss. I created the additional regional sub-sections simply in the hope of generating some additional interest. It seems they work. Most extraordinary of all, the UK and Ireland never had a sub-section at all but for sure people do go there. Indeed, they ride all the way from the Alps in order to do so.
What though is the most depressing are the posts that start, “Me and six mates....” which then go on to all but demand (the word ‘Please’ rarely appears, as Micky will attest) a two week holiday be created for them, often at very short notice, for which the information then has to be dragged out of them, like pulling teeth. Six adults between them, should have enough imagination to work out what they want to do and, best of all, then share it with others on the forum. I have often thought about creating a special sub-section entitled ‘Me and six mates....’ to put them all in which, if nothing else, would boil the piss of some, whilst amusing some others.
Anyway, enjoy planning your trips everyone, no matter how you do (or don’t) do it. Who knows, one day we may even be able to ride or drive some again.