I like these jaunts in the former East Germany.....

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.... that the German motorcycle magazines throw up.

This one, at 345 km, takes you through Chemnitz to Leipzig.

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The article itself can be found here:

https://www.tourenfahrer.de/tour-datenbank/tour/marodes-modernes-teil-2-lost-in-sachsen-996/detail/

Along with a very good map, the GPX file (it’s only two euro) and links to other sites about the area.

As an aside and to show where a bit of chance surfing can take you.... I Googled up Chemnitz, which via a link in article took me to another article, which brought me to:

https://www.erih.net
 
it's much tidier now, but your right it's an ace place to explore....
 
little bit to the left of the map shown it the Thuringer Naturepark well worth driving through or just visiting, all trees and bigs hills valleys and lakes and picturesque and so on, if you have taken the trouble to drive that far accross germany be silly not to visit
 
Thanks for that :thumb2

It sure is. A Google of something as simple as ‘thüringer wald motorrad fahren’ throws up lots of ideas and videos. Thus us not a bad one for an amateur video and it has subtitles in English... *

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/GMUkuoQx71E" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe>

https://www.tourenfahrer.de/tour-datenbank/tour/auf-dem-weg-der-blauen-steine-34/detail/

https://www.tourenfahrer.de/tour-datenbank/tour/zeitreise-von-chemnitz-nach-eisenach-125/detail/

https://www.tourenfahrer.de/tour-datenbank/tour/thueringer-seen-18/detail/

https://www.tourenfahrer.de/tour-datenbank/

http://www.bikeninfranken.de/motorradtour_thueringer_wald_1.html

https://www.louis.de/fuer-die-motorradreise/tourentipps/deutschland/rhoen-spessart-thueringer-wald


Fill yer boots, as they say. It’ll make a change from going to the Alps (again).


* I’m not usually a big fan of amateur videos but this guy is OK. I like the way he and his mates make sensible use of a motorhome and trailer to remove chunks of the journey and then as a base.
 
I was down there 18 months ago at a wedding in Hof so did a bit of riding in the area, it is really fantastic scenery, but as said before it is not outer mongolia but it is easy to get caught out, almost every shop shuts on Saturday at 1200, almost all the local petrol stations not open in the evenings or sundays or saturday afternoons, oh and often half day Wednesdays as well it really is like going back 40 or 50 years in the way things are done, cash machines are about but a lot less frequent that in the old west Germany and certainly way less than here. None of this is an issue but you just need to remember and plan some stuff in advance.
 
I used to live in Dresden and used to love exploring those roads - generally very light traffic compared to the West.
 
Spent some time in that area when we stayed in the Harz Region, and then we moved onto colditz and then onto the Theresienstadt Ghetto in Czechia, going around the outskirts of Chemnitz on the way, a very nice area of Germany to spend some time in.
 
A nice jaunt (450 km) in the forest area, lifted from Alpentourer magazine’s ‘Eastern Germany’ Special.

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Free GPS download here:

https://www.alpentourer.eu/alpentou...rguides/ostdeutschland-motorrad-reisefuehrer/

You’ll maybe notice that parts of the route coincide with the German ‘Tree lined’ route and the German ‘Half-timbered house’ route, talked about in other posts. I noticed that a part of the map mentioned ‘Klassikerstrasse Thuringen’ I had no idea what that was, so I Googled it:

http://www.klassikerstrasse.de/

I guess it’s some sort of route to join up the ‘classic’ regional towns. https://translate.google.co.uk/tran...wiki/Klassikerstra%C3%9Fe&prev=search&pto=aue

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A bit more digging tells me that the area was the cradle, if you like, of German culture in the 1800’s. 130 years later, that culture was to be obliterated or perverted.
 
I go to the Czech Republic quite a bit. Of interest to some may be the huge excavating machine museum that you pass on the motorway not too for from Leipzig. they were used to excavate the lignite for the power stations in that area.
 
I came across some of that on my lap of Germany. We went through a virtual wasteland of something between Dresden and Passau.


If nothing else, it shows what a huge and diverse country Germany is. Excellent for touring around in.
 
We stayed in Hof a few years back on a jaunt. In advance we had eyed up a night at Brauhaus that when we arrived had long since closed down. The place was almost deserted and it was quite striking. We did after some effort find a bar that was open and had a good evening with a few friendly locals. We were told that much of the younger folk had moved away to the west. It seemed a very different Germany to what I'd experienced previously in the west of the country.
 
to be honest I was actually in Fichtelberg, which is a small village south of Hof but so small its not on every map, just easier to say hof and its on the map and people can see it and get the general area.
 
I was struck by the number of people in their 50’s and 60’s in the former East Germany who saw nothing good about unification at all. To them, everything before was organised and ‘reliable’, working to some sort of (to me at least) horrible unseen Socialist clockwork. They didn’t seem at all interested that their son or daughter was now a nurse in Canada or working in Cologne or just travelling Australia, being free to go anywhere they liked. To them it was now all much harder, which I guess the free economy is when you are not at all ready for it.
 
in suhl you'll find the secret Wieger StG-940 museum, the factory was hidden in the back of a washing machine assembly plant, from which the sold colse to 400,000 rifles world wide for hard currency... it's a great little story of spies, stolen plans, random arms dealers and cash under the counter...
 
I always recommend a visit to the bike museum at Augustusburg for those visiting that part of Eastern Germany. Last time I was in the town we were drinking in a bar with beer mats marked up for a brewery in Karl Marx Stadt which showed their age a bit :beerjug:
 
I was struck by the number of people in their 50’s and 60’s in the former East Germany who saw nothing good about unification at all. To them, everything before was organised and ‘reliable’, working to some sort of (to me at least) horrible unseen Socialist clockwork. They didn’t seem at all interested that their son or daughter was now a nurse in Canada or working in Cologne or just travelling Australia, being free to go anywhere they liked. To them it was now all much harder, which I guess the free economy is when you are not at all ready for it.

My cousin is married to a German girl and has a house in Leipzig, he says the same, for a large number of people life was for them worse in practical sense after unification. Even today in some parts the electrical system and telephone system is different and incompatible with each other.
For lots of rural people they had farms plenty to eat, they could get whatever petrol etc needed for farm equipment, they were from an era where they had never been exposed to going on holiday or even very far from where you were born, a very pre war kind of existence, all of a sudden they had to arrange to sell what they grew rather than state arranging it, they had to deal with a raft of regulation etc that they never had to before the whole thing was just an upheaval they didn't want, now most of them have retired and just go on to anyone who will listen how it was "better" etc etc
I suppose it all depends on how big the world is you live in?

I had a friend at school, his grandmother was born on walney Island just off Barrow-in-furness and lived in what was known as vickers town (as built by vickers shipyard) she went into Barrow once a month for shopping and in her 80years had never been further than Ulverston which was 15 miles and there only twice, didn't own a tv but listened to the radio, owned no books but always used the library at least twice a week, she was a happy soul who lived in a very small world.
I imagine that for a lot in the old East Germany there existence was very similar and all unification brought was difficulty and challenges that they didnt want.
 
Biggest shock to me travelling around the former East Germany was that everything was in technicolour ,in my mind I half expected it to be in black and white
 
I suppose it all depends on how big the world is you live in?

Yep.. very interesting comments there Bowser. I visited Colditz in December (it was freezing). I was the only person there, stayed the night in the hostel and got a guided tour from a really lovely older lady. She still drove her Trabant. It worked, and she was happy and needed nothing more. From talking to her she seemed a very contented person and I got the impression very happy with a simple life.
 


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