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Day 8 Rangerdorf [A] > Bled [SLO] (c.118 miles)


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After getting myself from under the duvet and the bike from under its canopy I set about what was to be one of the shortest rides of this trip. Only 190km ahead of me and it could have been less, except that I had planned a circuitous route that would take me over a mountain pass rather than just confine me to urbanized valleys.
My Innovv camera appears to have missed the first half an hour from the hotel. It does this sometimes and I don't know why, but nothing much is lost of what I remember being an unremarkable ride east along the [106] to Obervellach, where the camera seems to have roused itself after fuelling up for the day ahead.

Spittal an der Drau threw in some town centre riding to break up the progress along the valley floors, at least today the arterial roads seemed mostly to be bypassing the villages, so the ride was mostly at the national speed limits as far as traffic would allow and opportunities to pass slower vehicles did come along. Under blue skies speckled with the odd dark shower cloud, I followed the [100] down to my next great metropolis of the day, Villach.

Once again, with hindsight, I may as well have done this on the A10 autobahn which runs parallel and got the same scenery but quicker. Holding onto the lesser trunk roads does give more opportunities to pull up for a smoke, or coax a coffee from Herr Vendingmachine though and you do perhaps feel that the local culture is maybe being absorbed by osmosis.

At Villach I followed my intended route for a side trip to the Faaker See, a modest sized lake just to the south east of the city. The road out was perfectly rideable although unexciting and upon arrival at the roadside next to the lake I remained somewhat underwhelmed. It's pleasant enough, but not the most attractive alpine lake I have seen and it probably won't go down in any future plan, but at least there was the opportunity for a short stroll and a cold drink.

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From Lake Faak I picked up the [85] for a more enjoyable ride though the Carinthia region, still mostly on flat roads with mountains either side in the middle distance hinting at a better afternoon to come. Just beyond the village of Strau the moment arrived to join the [91] where the Loiblpass would take me over the mountains and into Slovenia.

I really enjoyed this one – a continuous series of bends climbing ever upwards with the mountainsides now properly closed in to form wooded or rocky gorges. A recent shower had dampened the roads, but not the spirits. All too soon I seemed to reach the summit where another sleepy border post awaited, I naturally slowed down but although a couple of police vehicles were loitering, my arival attracted no interest and I rolled on, through a 1.5km tunnel and into Slovenia.

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At the bottom end of the pass lay the town of Bistrica and I reckoned I was due another coffee. Years of riding around Europe has enabled me to pick up enough of the basics to get me by, but Solvenian is a complete mystery. Fortunately, everyone seems to have settled on English as a second language with which to communicate with their neighbouring countries, so I had no difficulty whatsoever in procuring my afternoon latte.

I can't help feeling the Zumo stitched me up in leaving Bristica, I was shown out of town on a series of badly surfaced narrow roads clinging to the hillsides leading though one tiny cluster of houses to another. Eventually I was dumped back into the environs of civilization at Lesce. I would be staying there for the night, but it would be too early to check-in and so I forged on to Bled, which was my objective for the day.

A nice sunny day at an absolute tourist magnet and traffic congestion was a nightmare as soon as I reached the edge of Bled. I crawled along with everyone else, taking about 15 minutes to do a mile before the lake edged into view. The pavements and path around the lake were just as crowded with those pedestrians who had been lucky enough to escape their cars. To add to my frustration, the car park I had planned for was closed off due to some event and I had to ride further on before finding an enterprising cycle store that would permit parking on their land for a few euros.

Once the bike was tucked in and my jacket secured to it, I set off for my walk in search of a viewpoint of the famous church on its island in the lake. Like every other day on this trip, it didn't matter if the sun was out, it was overcast, or it was raining, it was always HOT. I was glad I'd been able to ditch the jacket and had the good fortune that most of my walk was in the shade of trees. I'm glad I visited and got the box-ticking snap of the famous lake and mountains, but I would advise anyone wanting to visit to do so out of season if they can.

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Thankfully, getting out of Bled was marginally less tiresome than getting into it and I was back in Lecse and pulling up at the Hotel Krek Superior before 5pm. The hotel was set on a retail park so once I was showered and changed, I had a number of fast-food joints at my disposal and a couple of bars to chose from before shutting myself down for the day in my nice big modern room.

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Quite a good day, the Loiblpass being the highlight as a biker and the vista across Lake Bled as a tourist. Less than 24 hours to my seventh country.

Day 7 Spitzingsee [D] > Rangersdorf [A] (c. 170 miles).

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The view from my breakfast table confirmed the portentous weather app, it was going to be a wet start. Despite this, once I was clear of the car park I chose to have a little trundle alongside the lake to take a snap of the bike before hauling it round and setting off back down the nice twisty road to Schillersee, where I fuelled up and chucked a few more snacks in the case.

Another about-turn and I took the [307] on a south-easterly heading for my date with the Austrian border. Now this IS a good road to ride, the rain had knocked off and I was just left with a bit of dampness on the tarmac. There were ever shifting views of the cloud hanging around the pine forest clad peaks, the day was starting well. Just beyond Bayrischzell I came across a baffling road sign which indicated that I was OK to proceed in my current direction, but motorcycles were prohibited from travelling northwards. I've no idea what that could be about. Beyond the village of Tatzelwurm I turned in the direction of Oberaudorf, the road loses some of its width and smoothness, but remains pleasurable even if the throttle has to be treated with a bit more respect. Once I had reached the environs of Oberaudorf I rejoined main arterial roads for an easy but steady jaunt past the redundant border post and into Austria.

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Upon entering my fifth country on this trip at the town of Kufstein, I felt justified in popping the lid off a celebratory coffee at a handy Spar store before getting on with the next bit, which I knew from experience was going to be a bit of a come-down (literally) from the last hour and a half I had spent in the German mountains. Austria is a country of towns and cities set in river valleys, roads and urbanisation therefore track along these, and like my experience in Belgium and northern France the road network seems to be a series of straight roads with either towns or roundabouts every mile or so and it is difficult to get any rapid progress at legal speed limits. As I followed the [171] in the direction of Innsbruck, I did regret not hopping on the motorway for this section - neither option makes for a good motorcycle ride, but the motorway would have bought the attractive bits closer a little more swiftly.

Switching to the [169], the road ran through a less built-up valley, although there were high traffic volumes to keep progress in check. Finally, the slip off at Zell am Ziller manifested itself and I could start on the first proper mountain pass of this trip. The Gerlos Pass is a 69km toll road linking Zell am Ziller and Mittersil, I've done it in the car a couple of times and once (back in 2016) on the GSX1400 so I knew what to expect, it was just a question as to whether there would be any views given the cloud that was wrapped around the mountain tops.

It is a beautiful road, a few hairpins, a lot of gentle curves, interesting, but not too challenging – something that can be savoured without thinking about summiting because you really need to get off the bike. After a good ride, still climbing beyond the town of Gerlos lay the toll booths where I extracted €9 for the priviage of getting this far and down the other side. To be fair, the price charged is for a "day ticket", so once you have handed over the hard-earned, it is possible to spend the whole day practicing your moves if you are so inclined. I pulled up at the parking area just beyond the tollhouse to check my wallet was properly secure, clean the video camera lens of road spray and then took a photo of the bike.

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https://www.gerlosstrasse.at/en

The road then started to descend though the expected switchbacks and although I was totally content in riding, I could not resist another early stop to photograph the Krimml waterfall (Europe's highest) gushing down the mountain on the opposite side of the valley. Onward, through light rain I arrived in Mittersil where another coffee was procured from a Spar vending machine. I like a vending machine; you don't have to attempt to communicate with it in German.

From Mittersill I began to ride eastwards in the direction of Zell am See, along another valley floor with its string of small towns keeping speed in check. The on and off light rain was not problematical, but I did hope the low cloud was not going to spoil my view of the next mountain pass. Before too long I reached the turn southward for the [107] Großglockner Hochalpenstraße.

Initially, this road runs along another valley floor, but with fewer villages and a constant stream of motorcyclists assures of a decent biking road ahead. As it happens, I also knew this road from my return trip from Budapest on the GSX so there would be no disappointment. My previous run over (south to north) had been delayed as it was closed to motorcycles until they had cleared the snow – that was not going to be a problem today, it was way too warm.

By the time I reached the toll booth for this one, there were promising hints of blue sky and after handing over a hefty €35 for the pleasures ahead, went off in pursuit of the sunny bits. The official website will describe this road much more eloquently than I ever could. Suffice to say that many motorcyclists would have ridden it twice in the time I took to do it once; Not only am I naturally cautious as a rider, but there are just too many places to stop and soak up the landscape. For me, it's not a time trial or test of skill, I just wanted to enjoy it at leisure and there were several stops to fish out the camera.

Eventually I punched up and out of the clouds and reached the summit of the main road. At this point I had the option of taking the branch road to the Edelweißespitz, an even higher viewing area. I hesitated for a moment; it would be nice to attain the peak, but frankly the cobbled hairpins looked a bit daunting and the damp sheen from earlier rain on the surface added to my uneasiness.  I decided to get brave and give it a go. The problem is that the GTR is too heavy and I'm probably too light (last advice from the doctor: "Your BMI is good, but if anything, you could do with putting a bit of weight on"). I didn't particularly enjoy this bit of the run, but I did manage to get our mismatched combination to the top, very, very slowly. I'm glad I did it, the views were excellent and as a bonus there was a restaurant up there where I could get my nose in the trough.

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After cautiously edging my way back down the cobbles I re-joined the main road in heavy fog and gradually wound my way downward and southward with numerous stops for the photo-ops whenever the cloud broke. At one point I was treated to a magnificent rainbow spanning between mountains. Well into my descent on the [107], I came across another branch road that had escaped me in the planning stage. I took a punt and followed it for a while, once again climbing a nicely surfaced road clinging to the mountainside. I eventually reached a parking area with a view over an alpine lake which once again drew the camera out. It was now 17:40 though and I wasn't sure where the road was going to end up and as I wanted to be at my next hotel in time to order a meal I decided to spin the GTR around. Looking back retrospectively, if I had stayed with the road for another 5-10 minutes it seems I would have arrived at the Kaiser-Franz-Josefs-Höhe, another observation deck which judging by the Google Street View image is another biker's gathering place. Maybe next time.

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https://www.grossglockner.at/en

There are still a few nice bends to entertain you even past the southern toll barriers, but you always have to expect the unexpected. At Heiligenblut I was almost wiped out by a black Volkswagen hatchback which failed (intentionally or otherwise) to give way where a side-road joined the hairpin I was winding around. He then followed this by later overtaking the car in front of us with a blind bend ahead. Always assume they are out to get you...

Beyond Heiligenblut, the road straightens out and allows a comfortable ride through a smattering of villages to Winklern, where the Zumo took me onto the [106] and the short final run to the Hotel Mölltalerhof near Rangersdorf. At first, there didn't seem to be room on the car park, but then I noticed they had a little covered area for motorcycles with just enough space to squeeze the bulk of the GTR between a couple of other bikes.

Checked-in, changed and down to the bar I got myself schnitzeled up with a beer to wash it down followed by another to have with my last cigar.  It had been a really good day, OK, the roads through the Austrian valleys were not in any way special, but they are a means to an end. The German section and the two Austrian mountain toll roads were just what I had wanted.

Tomorrow, my sixth country in eight days.

It's not a proper trip if you don't have to use your gills at least once. 

Quite right, I had no expectation of 18 dry days 

Day 6 Klumbach [D] > Spitzigsee [D] (c.220 miles)

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Having looked at the weather forecast over breakfast, I knew the little bit of blue sky above me as I rolled off the Taste Hotel car park in Klumbach was not going to be with me for the whole day. By my own standards, I had a longish ride ahead of me today and as rain was forecast, I decided to ditch two of my planned potential visits. The new plan was get onto the Autobahn and make a decision on the fly about a possible stop-off in Neuburg an der Donau.

I reached the [A9] within about 15 minutes and settled in to some fully focused riding. I cleared Nurenburg, still in sunshine and with a fuel stop and coffee stop to keep me attentive. Although the shower clouds were starting to brew, it still looked as if it would be favourable for a detour to Neuburg an der Donau.

It was looking particularly dark in the direction of travel and sure enough after exiting the motorway my approach was greeted by a very sharp shower, but this had cleared by the time I pulled into my spot on the car park by the River Donau (or Danube if you are more familiar with its downstream name).

As I started my walk, I was initially drawn up the hill toward the castle where I found an appealing old town square which was worthy of pulling the camera out for but not much life, or any prospect of my next coffee. I found that and the cash machine I needed in the more modern part of the town back down the hill sandwiched between the river and castle.

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After wriggling my way out of town, a series of open, but busy roads lead me back to the [A9] which I joined in the direction of Munich. There is little to say about my next couple of hours on the bike; Autobahn, rain, congestion, rain, filtering, rain, cigarette break, rain, congestion just about covers it. None of this run was particularly quick and the [99] around Munch was decidedly turgid. This was not really a shock; I've been round here about ten times in the car or on the bike and the memory of a 37km queue one dark February evening is still securely deposited in the memory bank.

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At least, as I broke off on the [A8] in the direction of Salzburg it started to ease up a bit and the first sight of Alpine peaks on the horizon hinted that I was getting somewhere. At about 16:00 I escaped the motorway and began a more interesting ride through southern Bavaria toward the Alpine foot-hills, there were now a few bright spells as a bonus. It didn't take long to reach the lakeside town of Schillersee where I took the opportunity to dismount for a short while and contemplate the lake, cigarette in hand.

I was looking forward to the next part of the run, albeit it was not far. I'd done it a few times in the car on winter breaks, but the curvy climb ahead really deserved a bike. Just beyond Schillersee a right- turn off the [307] leads up a minor dead-end road to Spitzingsee, a group of hotels and tourist facilities huddled around a small Alpine lake, seemingly waiting for the winter when the skiers arrive and the tills start ringing. The road up is actually very good and well surfaced, but you have to zoom in quite a bit on Google Maps to find it, as it is not really a highway of any significance unless you happen to have the longing to go to Spitzingsee.

It is not a long ride up there, but enjoyable, with odd glimpses through the fir trees down to the Bavarian Plain as I wound my way up, through a short tunnel near the summit and just a couple of hundred metres on to the Hotel Grundle Alm where the bike was pitched up and the panniers decanted for my night's stay. The receptionist handed me my key and said I had a "lake view room".  The description was a bit of a stretch, if you give the photo a severe zooming, you can just see it between the tree in the middle and the white building on the left. Still. I wasn't too dis-chuffed, there was a balcony where I could watch the clouds ribbon across the mountains and a bar downstairs with seating under the overhanging eves where I could finish the day off with my beer out of the rain.

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Tomorrow would be the start of my Alpine voyage.

Day 5 Around the Franconian Jura (Fränkische Schweiz) c. 90 miles).

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As promised, Gerd, my companion for the day rolled up at precisely 09:30 as arranged and caught me on the car park finishing off a cigarette. I explained my phone charger problem and sure enough, he knew exactly where to go, so we rode off for the local electrical superstore. Unfortunately, we were too early for their 10:00 opening so we agreed to bat it to the back of the schedule and push on with our road trip.

Today I would be following the tail light of a BMW GS1200 instead of the Zumo, something I had mixed feelings about. During messaging he had asked me if there was anywhere in particular, I wanted to visit, but I had told him I was happy for him to plough the furrow as long as we avoided lanes with grass growing up the middle and city centres. If he could throw in a bit of history, architecture or landscape that would be perfect.

I got pretty much what I had bidden. First stop was back in Thurnau, which I had stumbled aimlessly into the previous afternoon, but this time I was led around to the rear of the castle where a different viewpoint presented itself, with the fortress now being a backdrop to a small lake. Out came the camera again, same subject different perspective.

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We moved on under largely blue skies with a scattering of affable cloud, briefly picking up a short length of autobahn to avoid the ubiquitous road closure which he was already aware of. My pursuit of the Beemer bought me into Königstein where we pulled up under one of the crags that this National Park encompasses.

We continued, sometimes in open countrysides and at other times descending to gentle cliff lined gorges before arriving in Sanspareil. I experienced a moment of disquiet as we turned on to a gravel track, but it was only for a couple of hundred metres to enable me to get a shot of our bikes with Burg Zwernitz as a backdrop. Back down the track and we re-parked our machines and prepared for a short walk through the woodland at the bottom of the castle, picking our way through rocks sculped by the elements before arriving at the ruined remains of a small outdoor theatre that once entertained the castle's guests. The landscape, history and architecture boxes seemed to all have been decisively ticked in one stroke.

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We continued to weave our way through the National Park for 45 minutes or so on a series of agreeable roads before briefly pulling up in Tüchersfeld where an impressive rock spire presented itself to my Pentax. Another gorge formed between sheer cliffs bought us to Pottenstein where someone had bagged one of the summits to build his small castle and give us tourists something to look at. After capturing that, we moved in to the village centre where there was time to sit outside a small café with a coffee.

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Twenty minutes of glorious landscape later, Gerd took a short detour up a hill where a lay-by served a belvedere with views toward Burg Rabenstein and the surrounding countryside. It was the briefest of stop-offs, one of the more significant outlooks was an ugly looking storm squatting on the far horizon and I had a suspicion that it was the way we were heading.

Sure enough, a short while later we were throwing up spray from our tyres, but the roads were well surfaced and the bends were not too severe, so there was very little effect on our progress. Fortunately, my clothing was keeping the weather out, but my leader pulled us into a car park by the small St Rupertkapple where we sheltered in the chapel porch for a while as the worst of the rain passed.

Next up on my mystery tour was "Schlosspark Fantasie", a small stately home seat in public parkland where on most days, my personal guide informed me, I would be able to see the fountains at work. Today was not the day however and the fountain basins were full of Hi-Viz maintenance bods, not water.

We rolled around the city of Bayreuth on damp, but drying roads until we reached the Ermitage on the eastern side of the conurbation where we spent and hour on foot around the parkland with its cascades and ornamental buildings, taking shelter when necessary as the thunder started to rumble around us and doing what I could with the camera in the poor light.

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I imagine our return route to Klumbach was, chosen for its directness, not quite as attractive as the roads of earlier in the day, but a perfectly acceptable ride none the less. Upon arrival in town, I followed Gerd up through some narrow streets that led to a viewpoint overlooking the roofscape and castle where he coaxed my camera from me and took a snap of me with my bike. I'm not of the Selfie Generation, so it's the one and only picture as undisputable evidence of me making this trip.

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We dropped back down into town and wound our way back to Media Mart where I managed to pick up the necessary charger (at three times the price I would have paid in the UK) before I was guided back to the hotel car park to say our farewells. After getting changed and checking my weather app I decided to take an evening walk to find a meal and a beer, I didn't want to put the wet bike jacket back on. Inevitably, the gods seized their opportunity for some fun and as soon as I had finished eating it pi$$ed it down resulting in a one mile walk back in a very wet sweater. My beer was deleted from the programme.

There hadn't been that many miles covered during the day, but I had been guided to loads of places that piqued my interest and the roads that we had ridden were exceptional in the main. It's always slightly troubling setting out with someone you haven't ridden with before and one worries about them being too fast, or too slow etc. It had worked out perfectly; in truth I found I was slowing for the towns and villages much more than absolutely everyone else in Germany, but once I had passed the struck-out village name and back into the national speed limit, a quick twist of the throttle and I was in convoy once more.

Tomorrow held the prospect of a very different ride.

Nuremberg is just south of where you are 

Oh, it always gets sorted out in the end. I haven't failed to return home so far 

Day 4 Aschaffenburg [D] > Klumbach [D] (c.155 miles)

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Today's run was scheduled to be relatively short. Klumbach may not seem an obvious choice for my next destination, bearing in mind most of this year's trip was concentrated on the Alps to the south, however there was a reason for heading further west though Germany. As you know I regularly use Flickr for photo sharing, inspiration for future trips and just the pleasure of the quality photography that can sometimes be found. One user regularly posts pictures of his bike posed in beautiful scenery of northern Bavaria. I'd expressed my admiration many times and he suggested that if I was ever passing nearby, he would take me for a day's ride around his patch. This time I'd taken him up on his offer, so I would be staying for two nights in Klumbach.

The day started with a couple of hours of good riding mostly on open roads through countryside with the odd small town or village distributed along the route. By 10:00 I reached the city of Würzburg, picked my way through the streets and settled into a street parking spot at the rear of the Würzburg Rezidenz, a colossal 18c. palace. My parking place enabled me to approach it through the surrounding gardens before taking a full walk around the exterior with the camera.

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At around noon, I let the Zumo attempt to take me out of town, but within minutes I found the depressingly familiar sight of barriers across the road. I tried a few back streets and stumbled into their twin. Once again it was a case of just working though those roads that I could, and hoping to break out at least on the right side of town. It wasn't too bad in terms of time or distance just the irritation of humping a heavy bike round in U-turns. I was soon out of the city though.

After an initial bit of dual carriageway dreariness, the roads settled back to a comparable pattern of those ridden during the morning and apart from being too hot under dull, humid skies, I was perfectly content.
After a short while I arrived in Volkach, and trundled up into the Altstadt (old town) and found another place in the street to leave the bike. A walk into the market place rewarded me with a coffee and a few shots for the album.

By about 12:45 I was back on the road again. On reaching the attractive town of Schlüsselfeld a wrong turning set me back a couple of minutes, but was easily recovered. More agreeable cantering followed, a few spots of rain made a half-hearted attempt to clean the bugs off the windshield, but quickly gave up.

Next up, at about 14:00 was the historic city of Bamberg where yet another insolent set of barriers barred my intended road in.  Once again, there was no obvious diversion provided and I was forced downhill on cobbled streets between tightly packed ancient buildings, finally arriving by the canals that thread through the town as I had hoped. My intention was to pay to park the bike up in one of the city's underground car parks unless any motorcycle bays turned up. None were forthcoming though and there were queues for the underground car park but I was eventually lucky enough to find an unguarded area of cobbles to plant my flag.

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There followed an hour or so as a pedestrian around the old town quarter. It really deserved more time, but at least I bagged the much-photographed Rathaus and some of the attractive buildings and canal side as well as securing another coffee before progressing onward.

The ride out was through the now routine mix of roads through the northern Bavarian countryside. Another set of barriers were lurking in Scheßlitz, but at least this time there was a clearly signed diversionary route, so no real harm done there, but I had barely got through the town when I was scuppered again. Now, the Würgauer Berg had not come to my attention in the planning phase, but it is presumably a hill of some significance and most definitely closed to motorcycles during weekends. I guess it must be an attractive road to ride, but the local authorities are tied of pulling people out of hedges when it is time-and-a-half or double-time pay. I threw a right turn as encouraged by my personalised diversion and set about the alternative. Frustratingly this simply led to another set of signs standing like a nightclub bouncer and saying "not tonight lads". Back the way I came for a mile or so, a left turn and a series of badly surfaced lanes and tiny communities before finally reaching some wider and smoother tarmac.

Back in the clutches of the Zumo, I let it carry me forward until the next road closure. At least tis one was a little less prejudiced, simply prohibiting all traffic going forward, so once again I select a right turn and random and waited to see what would happen. What turned up after a few minutes was Thurnau and as I dropped into the little old town, I had one of those moments where something unexpected and striking jumps into view that you just have to stop. I pulled over below an imposing castle linked by a timber bridge over the roadway to an ancient chapel. I suppose if the lord of the manor has enough money to construct a castle, he wouldn't want to be having to go to church in the company of the local peasants. After a swig or two from the bottle and a cigarette, I got on with it.

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Beyond Thurnau lay a "dog-bone" junction of two islands either side of the [70] Autobahn. I'd lost confidence in the Zumo for the moment and with multiple diversions, was now fairly clueless as to my position in relation to where I wanted to be – like an aging hippy I felt the need for a sanctuary to Find Myself. I doubled back to a service station just off one of the islands bought another drink and considered my course.

Due to the Forbidden Hill I was well south of where I should have been and it seemed the simplest thing would be to hop on the Autobahn for a couple of junctions and get to my hotel as quickly as possible. It was still overcast and humid and a shower and a clean shirt were the two things I wanted most in the world in that instant. Having made my mind up it was a fairly easy run in. Klumbach was a bigger town than I was expecting, it was probably just my imagination but I seemed to have to spiral into the centre to get to my lodgings.

The Taste Hotel was a decent enough modern establishment, the best hotel of the trip so far which was a bit of a bonus as it was one of only two places that I would be spending two nights on this trip. With the coveted shower and change of clothes out of the way I took the opportunity to take everything except the essentials off the bike, it would be nice to be out on a lighter bike the following day.

I messaged my acquaintance to confirm I was in town as per schedule and available for the next day if he was still free. He was kind enough to drive over to my hotel in his car, buy dinner and a beer for us and give me a lightning tour of the town. It had been a change from my usual snack-bar type diet, having Gone Native and indulged in a plateful of rinderbraten.

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After being dropped back to my room I went to message home and found that I must have left my phone charger and power adapter at the previous night's hotel. Something to sort out tomorrow...

Day 3 Munshausen [L] > Aschaffenburg [D] (probably c.250 miles, but who knows?)

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After breakfast and shoe-horning the bags back into the cases, a quick check on the Zumo confirmed its intention to stick about 100 miles of secret riding on my trip if I dared to follow what was in its little digital brain. Once more I was left to select the first way point and trust that it was going to take me on a pleasant route there.

The ride started out with a quick fuel stop in Marbourg but no sooner than I had ridden 50 metres off the forecourt I was confronted with a road closure; at this point I was blissfully ignorant that it was to be the theme of the day. I did a U-turn and headed off in the opposite to my intended direction. Through a series of minor roads that I didn't have any agency in selecting (but were nevertheless just the sort of roads I would have chosen) I made my way to the border with Germany at Dasbourg Pont.

Now hoping that the satnav would get me back on track I followed it to the village of Preischeid, where once again I was confronted with barriers across the road inviting me to go away. Another U-turn and run back to the [410] followed, I was now on a detour of the detour.

Frustrating though it was, any selection of roads in the German Eifel region will throw up a satisfying ride and it was early in the day, there was plenty of time to recover my schedule. The next two hours were exactly as this trip should be, winding though the countryside with gentle curves and changes of elevation, just right for the GTR.

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Just after noon I descended into my beloved Mosel Valley, parked the bike up under the river bridge and extracted a coffee from my usual café. The camera stayed in the top-case, I've probably got enough photos of this area already, but it didn't stop me taking 15 minutes round the old town and wishing I was staying longer.
A tunnel from the riverside road took me up though a series of tight curves into the Hunsruck massif which sits between the Mosel and Rhein rivers, once more I was on known territory with good riding to look forward to. Sure enough, at 14:25 I reached the town of Langenlonsheim, just beyond which lay the historical Felseneremitage which I had intended to visit. Once again, I was confronted with a row of barriers sternly blockading my onward route. I pulled up and perused the map on my phone, but there didn't seem an obvious way round. I could perhaps have walked it in about 20 minutes, but it was too hot and humid to contemplate in the bike gear, so the fixture was scratched.

I pressed on, "my" selected route had become a mere fantasy, and all I could do was select my next waypoint and hope for the best. The Zumo directed me out on the [420] and within a few miles I began to get a bad feeling, destinations ahead were crossed through on the signposts but I progressed in the hope that I was not supposed to reach them. I can only assume that the little box of tricks' intention was to take me over the Rhein on one of the little vehicle ferries, perhaps the "Rheinfähre Landskrone" at Nierstein, but inevitably I ran out of [420] before I ever got there.  I selected a road at random in the hope that I would find a diversionary route or anything that might be a helpful recalculation, but after a few minutes of aimless riding through small villages I pulled up, had a smoke and reluctantly changed the Zumo's settings to allow it to use the Autobahns and find the quickest way to my hotel for the night.

After just a few minutes of back-tracking I joined the [63] autobahn and settled to my cruising speed of about 130kph with a careful eye on the mirrors as (invariably black or gey) German saloons flew past at about 200kph. Looking back through my video as I write this, I have to say the route I was directed on makes no sense whatsoever. I was switched to the [60] near Mainz, followed by a touch of [67], a helping of [3] around Frankfurt airport, ejected onto the [5] to go south for quite some distance and finally expelled at Darmstadt North. During this motorway escapade another fill-up was required for the bike. A tank full usually lasts me a day, but I reckon I had exceeded my intended milage by about 50. Other than watching my fellow road users there was not much to entertain me, but I was curious about what appeared to be a catenary system in place over lane 1 of the A5 Autobahn – are electric trucks with pantographs coming?

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Next up was a bizarre tour of Darmstadt's commercial suburbs, finally leaving the town on the [26]. That is, up to the point where I reached Dieburg. Another town, another set of barriers – at least there was a decent diversionary route signposted for this one and after a few 30kph back-streets I was back on course with not much more than a mile or so added.

The final run into Ashaffenburg was easy enough even if a little lacklustre, and I was delivered over the River Main bridge straight to the Hotel Wilder Mann where I docked the GTR in the car park entrance way as there was no space available. I offered to the receptionist to move it if necessary, but she said it was fine and I was just left to hope that other users would take care when entering the car park.

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Due to my motorway milage I had arrived in town with plenty of time to explore. It's unusual for me, but the camera hadn't had much of a workout so I took a few shots before settling down in an Imbis bar with a beer and pizza.

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It has been an excellent morning and early afternoon, but a bit of a disappointing last hour or so to my ride. On balance though, a good day, frustrations but no disasters. On review, I simply can't understand why once I had arrived on the [3] Autobahn past Frankfurt airport, I was not just directed to stay with it until I reached Aschaffenburg, I don't know where Darmstadt would need to figure in the equation at all. Note to self; if diverted, spend more time with a proper map.

Looks like a cracking route, if you discount the Belgian bit.  Interested to see "Rangersdorf" on the map.  I stayed there a few years back after riding the Hochalpenstrasse at Grosglockner.  I wander if it'll be the same hotel?...

I stayed at the Hotel Mölltalerhof. I will get to it eventually but I'm doing this write-up at the same time as reviewing and editing my video and it's taking quite a bit of time - probably twice as long as actually riding it 

Day 2, Seclin [F] > Maunhausen [L] c.200 miles

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After a rather sparse breakfast befitting of the hotel, I made my way out before 08:30, straight into more heat. Another annoyance was that the despicable Zumo had stitched me up again. Planning all of the routes on Garmin Basecamp and cross-checking them against Google Maps had shown a consistent distance of travel but somehow in transferring them to the Zumo, the route seemed to have grown by 100 miles or more. I had to resort to picking out the waypoints one at a time and live without the overall distance to travel.

The route for the morning's run toward the Belgian border didn't hold much promise even at the planning stage. The Hauts-de-France region is generally uninteresting and served up a series of short straight roads broken up by roundabouts and non-descript villages. Not actually unpleasant, but nowhere to wind the bike up or lean it over.

After an hour of progress at (officially) never more 50 or 80kph, I made my way into Condé-sur-l'Escaut, the first planned stop of the day. There was no specific attraction for me here, but Google maps had suggested a café next to a lake and it seemed a good place to seek out for a coffee break. As it goes, I was too early for the café but took the opportunity to take a short walk around the woodland and lake shore and then into town to seek out a cold drink. Surprisingly for such a small town there were trams to dodge. Maybe I'll look into why such a place is entitled to an expensive light rail system if I can be bothered.

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I was soon into Belgium on roads that were broadly the same, but at least there was now the odd exciting road junction or set of traffic lights, the locals probably come out on an evening to watch them change. I don't want to be too unkind about Belgium, I'm really quite fond of it, but to really enjoy it on a motorcycle you do need to keep well south of the E42 motorway.

Eventually I broke away from the main roads and meandered through a series of rural byways to the small town of Thuin on the River Sambre. My carefully researched plan to hit the car-park at the side of the river was foiled by the presence of a local market and I was left to pitch up in a backstreet above the town. Still, at least I got my coffee, a cold drink for the top case, a look at the river and a snap of the medieval belfry. There was a bit more that could have been explored here, but as ever I was conscious of time so it will get added to the list for a revisit.

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There was a mixed bag of roads that led me to Givet, a nice variety and now up to 90kph on rural roads, I've commented before that the extra 10kph seems to make such a difference to headway, especially when you can stretch it just a little in open countryside. That said, Givet lies in a wedge of France that rudely pokes into Belgium, so I had to watch the speedo again as I approached. I stopped for a smoke at the side of the River Meuse and took a repeat photo of the Fort of Charlemont on the opposite hill, but once again I didn't linger as I had spent an afternoon up there on my 2023 trip.

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Continuing westwards, up the hill and out of the valley I broke back into Belgium within a matter of minutes.  I was now in the Ardennes area, one of my favourite places to be let loose with my bike. A land of hills, forests and curvy roads made up for the toil of actually arriving there. Just before 4 o'clock I rolled into a parking space in La Roche-en-Ardenne and spent the best part of an hour off the bike roving the streets of the busy little town below its castle, on the banks of the Ourthe.

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The final ride on minor roads into the Grand Dutchy of Luxembourg was just as rewarding and at about 17:45 I arrived at the small hamlet of Munshausen, just south of Clervaux and sought out my hotel. This was a much nicer affair than last night; a curious complex of buildings of which the reception was the local tourist information office, catering facilities were in a restaurant building and the bedrooms were in a separate block wrapped around a courtyard a couple of hundred metres down the hill. Although there were three other bikes on the car park, I got the impression that the business was focused on equestrian aficionados, given the surrounding fields of horses and stable-like outbuildings. There was also a handful of goats, one of which was constantly sneezing as I sat with my cigarette on a nearby picnic bench. Life must be hell if you are a goat with hay fever.

I squeezed a couple of beers from the bar before bed, satisfied with my afternoon ride and with the familiar Eifel and Hunsruck mountains to look forward to the next day.

There's just too much info on here for me to let go.
Funnily enough, I started doing yoga because I was at my wits end. That has helped massively, which is why I'm able to get on the bike.
Well almost.
Today front tyre done, oil change, final drive oil change (this was painful because the plug where you put oil in had seized).
Tomorrow rear tyre, and if possible, MOT.

Thanks again for your efforts. In appreciation, I tried to go though the "Donate" process yesterday but got a Paypal message saying donations were not currently being accepted. If you can sort it out, or drop me a PM I'll do something. (Don't worry you will not have missed much, I'm a retired man with a dwindling pension pot these days).

Glad you're getting the bike sorted out. I had no problem with my shaft oil last month, but somehow the main oil filer had rounded off and I ended up calling in my brother-in-law who had a chain wrench. Getting to the air filer was also an entertaining afternoon...

Pete.

Well, I made it there and back and of course there were the odd few tough moments where I just wanted to see a hotel receptionist handing me a key, but it was on the whole enjoyable.

Day 1, Home [GB] > Lille-Seclin [F] c.300 miles

As ever, the run down to the English Chanel was an exercise in fighting motorway tedium, interspersed with coffee and cigarette breaks around every 60 miles. I'd decided to take the Chanel Tunnel outbound this year having used ferries for the last four trips – I'd given up on the tunnel as being more expensive and not much quicker but thought I'd give it another chance.

Sure enough, when I rolled into the Folkestone terminal with time to spare, I was confronted at the check-in kiosk with a message saying that services were running approximately 30 minutes late. After kicking around the car park for an hour I finally got the call to the boarding queue. As opposed to the ferries, bikes are last on and last off which felt as if it was dragging the process out even longer. Of course, once finally let loose on the open roads of France I was busting for another smoke, so my progress was further self-impeded. Having got that out of the way, there was a 25-mile ride northward to where I would connect with the A25 for Lille – more or less at the point where I would have disembarked from the Dover-Dunkirk ferry if I had stuck with tradition. I rode most of the way to Lille in uncomfortable heat mentally adding up all the lost time (some admittedly self-inflicted), and the extra cost and concluding that the tunnel is no great shakes.

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If things had gone to plan, I should have brushed the edge of Lille on motorways before joining the A1 where I would exit for Seclin, a suburb to the south. Luck was not on my side though and the A25/A1 link was closed for construction works resulting in some major tailbacks. As you know, I'm not a fan of filtering, especially on the GTR which has something of a fat arse, but I gave it a bit of a go and I have to say that my fellow motorway inmates behaved with good grace and left a decent lane for bikes to progress. I exited into the city centre along with hundreds of other frustrated Frenchmen until I could find somewhere safe to pull over and coax a new route out of the Zumo "avoiding motorways" – if I'd let it just recalculate, I'd have been back at the end of the queue.

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It led me to the Hôtel Première Classe Lille Seclin without any real drama. It was as I had fully expected most definitely a budget hotel, with rooms stacked like rabbit hutches. A man can survive there for a night, but wouldn't take his family for a fortnight.

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After check-in, a shower and a change of clothes I sought out the nearby McDonalds and a bar before bed.
Day one done and dusted, it should get better from here.

Gents, sorry to hear of your health issues I hope that you can work through them and continue to enjoy your bikes.

Asif, thank you for your efforts in tidying up here - I too thought the site was dying a slow death, but I really hope a web-based service can continue. I realise that most people communicate these days with "soshul meeja" but a web site is so much easier to navigate and search.

It would be great if all members could contribute more regularly, even if it is only to report that they have dusted their bike 

Welcome along Owen.

Don't be shy and share a picture of your steed when you can.

Pete.

I hope you didn't get too frustrated about the 80kmh limits on their main roads, and worse the endless 30kmh limits in every town and village. It takes forever to get anywhere in France these days unless you use the Autoroute/Peage.
Look forward to your writeups if you haven't bailed from here like I did.

Hi George, I had a feeling that this place had been abandoned so I wasn't sure about posting a write-up, but it looks like someone has had a tidy-up (thank you), so I'll set about posting something.

It will probably be an even slower process than usual as I'll probably do it at the same time as reviewing and editing my video which takes time.

You are right about the speed limits, they can stifle the joy somewhat as you will see when I start posting.

For anyone who just wants to cut to the photos, about half of the trip is now on Flickr:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rynglieder/albums/72177720327399136