2015 trour to Budapest

[O.C.]

I'm thoroughly enjoying this write up,     

[Rynglieder]

Thursday 04/06/15 Goslar [D] > Medelon [D] 159 planned miles.


After breakfast the bike was loaded up again and we set off from Goslar in bright sunshine. We headed back southwards into the mountains as planned passing through Clausfeld-Zellerfeld again and on to the Sösetalsperre (reservoir) for our first stop as planned into the Zumo.

<2946>Sösetalsperre

Leaving Harz behind us it was then on through secondary roads to the city of Kassel where after a bit of stop-start traffic we broke out into the countryside again. I'm not 100% sure that we were going the way I intended; there seemed to be periods when we were circling again,  but no matter it was another "proper" day on the bike.

There are days on any long trip that don't really figure in your plans except that they are an essential stop between point A and point B to break down the mileage. This year's journey required a stop between the Harz and Eifel National Parks. When looking into the area between (The Sauerland) and picking a hotel in the village of Medelon I had realised that we would pass near the Edersee so that was to be our second waypoint of the day. As the afternoon wore on and the heat continued to build we neared our stop and noticed increasing numbers of other bikers out enjoying the roads.

We were not the first Britons to visit the Eder dam, RAF 617 squadron were certainly there a few years before us as it was one of their targets in the fabled "Dambusters" raids. I was not sure what to expect, perhaps thinking it would be some remote reservoir like the Elan valley or some of those in the Pennines, but the place was absolutely rammed with tourists – more like Lake Windermere on a Bank Holiday. It was impossible to find a parking space even for a bike near the dam so we climbed the hill above the reservoir to the village of Wladeck and spent a short while taking in the view from the castle.

<2958>Edersee from Waldeck Castle

After a while we ventured down to the dam again and chanced on a place to park up as two other bikes were pulling out. We walked across the dam, picked up a couple of cold drinks from the village of Edersee,  mingled with the tourist hoards for a while and watched the large pleasure boats come and go.

<2969> Eder dam
<2036> Eder dam (This photo inserted to prove that I went on this trip as well as my bike)

When the time came to move on we fired up the Zumo again, merged into the heavy traffic around the lake shore and spent a good while staring at the rear end of an old green VW transporter camper van as we crawled away. Eventually the SatNav directed us away from the lake road, up into the hills and through a few small villages. Again the feeling was growing that we were moving somewhat indirectly and you can imagine my delight when after 15 minutes or so we found ourselves on a road with the same green camper van coming toward us from the opposite direction. I wonder if he knew how lost he was?

Trusting (!) in Zumo, we pushed on for the remaining 36 miles, sometimes with our shadow to the left, sometimes to the right but always through a superb landscape and on traffic free roads. The one thing that we had not achieved since breakfast was finding anything to eat. The roads that the Zumo had selected for us were all very rural and had not offered any sort of shop or imbiss bar so we arrived at the Landhotel Muller in Medelon with empty bellies. After checking in (another really nice room with a small balcony) and getting changed out of the bike gear a quick walk around the village confirmed there was nothing on offer, I was also short on the folding stuff, so the only option was eating at the hotel's restaurant and tacking it onto our room charge.

Now, I don't do restaurants. I know there are some people who delight in eating out, but neither Carole nor I are one of them; plain food is all that is required.  A quick enquiry lead to us being given an a la carte menu with options from 30 Euros or 40 Euros; the sort of money I would expect to pay for a second-hand Nissan.  A bit of negotiation was going to be required, more so on the content of our meal than the price. I did my best to covey that we would just like two medium rump steaks with chips and absolutely nothing else. Eine Groß bier und eine kleine bier arrived as ordered and was shortly and inevitably followed by a basket of bread and two square white plates with a little bit of uncooked ham topped by some green stuff and some white dressing. We took the comment that it came with to be "It's on the house" and dutifully picked at it the best we could. The meal that followed up did properly hit the mark though, a couple of really good sized steaks and more than enough Pommes Frites, all washed down with a second beer for me and a coffee for Carole. (To be honest when we picked up the bill the following morning it was not badly priced at all, I'd certainly do it again).

And so to bed, all in all another really good day. The Suerland was only to be somewhere I was passing through but turned out to be a bit of a revelation, not too far into the continent and somewhere that could be considered for a long weekend in the future, definitely worth another look.

[PRD]

Looks great. Another enjoyable read.

[O.C.]

Again, a superb write up, I was reminded of my many years working for VAG (UK) the importer for Volkswagen and Audi cars , and the several visits that , I and others, made to the manufacturing/ foundry plant that exists in Kassel

Kassel is indeed a beautiful part of the world with spectacular forests

[Rynglieder]

Again, a superb write up, I was reminded of my many years working for VAG (UK) the importer for Volkswagen and Audi cars , and the several visits that , I and others, made to the manufacturing/ foundry plant that exists in Kassel

Kassel is indeed a beautiful part of the world with spectacular forests

Agreed, Germany is probably my favourite country and has been visited quite a few times now. Alpine mountains, forests river valleys, historic towns and cities, it seems to have everyting. Despite the way many Britons (particularly Englishmen) go on, I think the Germans are so much more like us in thier culture - certainly more so than the French or Italians - I always feel comfortable over there.

[Rynglieder]

Friday 05/06/15 Medelon [D] >– Rurberg  [D] 162 planned miles

After breakfast the bill was paid up and a few photos taken of Medelon before heading out into the countryside again. By my recollection and reckoning, we should have been on rural roads for about an hour that day before picking up the start (or end, depending on how you look at it) of the A4 Autobahn and using this to take us around Köln and across the Rhein.

<2980> Medelon

We had a great hour riding through the Saurland countryside in warm sunshine, followed by a second enjoyable hour. After this the unease set in again – how many times should you see a sign for Olpe, always pointing in different directions? Eventually we started to pick up signs for the A45 Autobahn but Zumo was not interested in these and to be fair I was fairly sure it was not the motorway we wanted. I can only liken this experience to overdoing a drinking session; the first few beers are great, the next few are easing you into a really good time and then come the ones that you are having to force down to be "sociable", knowing you are going to regret it later or on the following morning.

<2981> Somewhere in the Sauerland

Signs for the A4 Autobahn started to come into view but still Zumo lead us through lanes and tiny villages. Carole was shuffling round behind me now and I knew I had to stop. When I pulled into the first available gateway I thought she might explode, but I go there first; "Three bloody hours and all we have covered off today's distance is 50 @!***X !miles". Now I will be the first to admit I am not the fastest of riders, especially two up with luggage, we had also taken whatever breaks I fancied and picked up fuel along the way. But, these roads were lanes and just a continuous series of bends at that – no opportunity to make any serious progress even if you were actually sure you were going in the right direction.

I had a cigarette, calmed down and had a think. "I'm going back to that last village and following the signs for the A4" I said. I knew it would take me to Köln, I was not sure from there, but I reckoned I knew the geography of that part of Germany well enough to sort myself out. I left the Zumo unit switched on in the hope that it may assist with lane guidance, but from there on the signs were my guide. Now we started to cover some distance; a Köln approached I picked up signs for Aachen – that would do nicely. Zumo protested, obviously feeling that my holiday would be nothing without a visit to Bonn, but I was back in control.

After crossing the Rhein, I continued out toward Aachen as was now the plan. A large section of the Autobahn had obviously recently been reconstructed and realigned. Zumo was sulking; it put my motorcycle icon onto a railway line and petulantly informed me I was heading south-west. OK the motorway had been realigned, but this was supposed to be 2015 mapping!! I left at the exit for Duren knowing that after crossing the town tonight's destination should be just a few more miles to the south and fell back into Zumo's clutches. It responded by sending me though stop-start traffic through the northern inner city area and then through the town centre its self. I had realised too late that if I had stayed in the signed lane I could have cut a lot of that out with a bypass.

Eventually out of Duren we were entering the Eifel National Park area and descending on winding roads to the village of Rurberg on the Rursee reservoir. There was no problem finding the Hotel Paulshoff, no map or SatNav was necessary as I had used it once before for an overnight stay on the way to the Alps.

<2985> Hotel Paulshof

The bike was parked up below an overhanging balcony at the front of the hotel and we were soon checked in and changed again. Despite the couple of hours we had lost during the morning, there was still plenty of the day left but still a bit of a shortage of beer vouchers in my wallet, this situation required my most immediate attention. "I know" I said to the other half," I'll consult Zumo, it has cash machines in its Points Of Interest menu". Sure enough it found one for me one kilometre away. I explained to Carole that half of the distance was along the lake shore and then we were to go up the hill. The mention of walking up a hill on such a hot day met with a bit of an Old Fashioned look, but we struck out anyway. We had only walked about a minute from the hotel when I came across a sign pointing to a cash machine 100m in the opposite direction. Bloody Zumo – I suspect that cash machines are there as POIs only if the owners pay Garmin for them to be there.

Armed with Euros, we had a wander round some of the Rursee shore. Rurburg is just a small village on this large reservoir but serves the tourist well. It was still hot and sunny and a couple on a bike we were extremely over-dressed in comparison with the hundreds around us sunbathing and boating. That night we dined on chicken nuggets and chips (more at my culinary level) from one of the takeaways and then found a little kiosk with a garden, selling bottles of Bitburger Pils at an attractive price.

<2986> Rursee

When I had had my fill, I returned to the hotel to settle down, only to be awoken by one of the huge thunderstorms that I always seem to encounter when in this region. Eventually of course it passed and we were rewarded with a decent night's sleep

[PRD]

Lovely. I agree Germany is a good place to go.

[O.C.]

I was fortunate to visit numerous parts Germany (at company expense) many times during my employment with VAG (UK) over a period of 15 years..... it is indeed a lovely country that never failed to please   

[Rynglieder]

Saturday 06/06/15 Rurberg [D] > Ghent 166 Planned miles

We set of from the Rursee in dry weather again, the bike seemed to have been sheltered from last night's thunderstorm and the first job of the day was fuelling up as we had arrived on vapour. The plan that was set into the Zumo for today was a "nostalgia trip", I wanted to revisit the part of the Eifel that I have stayed in a couple of times when attending the Belgian Grand Prix at Spa; I also wanted to see what Francochamps looked like without 150,000 F1 fans walking through it. Zumo took us there exactly as I had planned and it was not too long before I had pulled up in Francochamps in search of my first post-breakfast coffee. The first thing I found out about Francochamps when it has not got 150,000 F1 fans in it is that the cafes do not bother opening up. Having drawn a blank in the centre of the village I decided to head down to the service station that I knew was by the circuit entrance in search of my caffeine.

I remounted the bike and turned on the ignition but instead of the usual whine and sweep of the needles, I just got a little "sneeze" from it and a flashing FI light. I tried again – still nothing. Five or six tries failed to get the proper response. I reached for the cigarette packet in the hope that the old girl just needed another 5 minutes to its break.  Returning to the problem, it took another 5 or 6 goes before the bike was in the mood to have the starter pressed. I decided to run down the hill to the garage as planned where I could look over it on level ground. I'm not sure what I was looking for – perhaps the side stand cut-out, but there was nothing obviously wrong. Again, the ignition sequence failed several times before finally allowing me to fire up the bike. Now feeling somewhat concerned, I decided to abandon the cross country run that was planned and head for the motorway network reasoning that if there were going to be problems it would be easier to be located and rescued from a motorway service area.

The remainder of the days riding to the city of Ghent was therefore done on the motorway, we made a couple of stops but the bike behaved perfectly and the problem of the morning never recurred. Even now I don't have a clue what it was all about, perhaps we had had a bit of dodgy fuel that morning or perhaps the previous night's storm had caused some dampness somewhere.

<2944> Another service area

We arrived in Ghent in the early afternoon. The last time I had been to the city was during a school trip as a 14 year old. I had a recollection of it being Bruges's bigger, less pretty sister but now as a fifty-something year old I was more open to the idea of bigger, less pretty sisters so I decided to make another visit. Our hotel for the night was the Cour St Georges in the city centre. The hotel lacked a car park of any sort but I managed to smuggle the bike into the cycle racks that were overlooked by our room window. I have to say this was not the greatest or cheapest hotel we had stayed in during this holiday but the staff were lovely and it was bang in the middle of the city centre so it was OK for us.

<2995> Parked!


The whole of the afternoon and evening was spent wandering the streets and canal sides, my estimation of the city went up enormously and the Pentax camera was well exercised. The last day of our trip had also been blessed with warm sunny weather but as the light faded and the city's buildings began to light up I could not help feeling disappointed that it was almost all over for another year.

<3010> Ghent

[PRD]

Another great write up. Ghent looks nice not been there but have been to Bruges.

[O.C.]

Another great write up. Ghent looks nice not been there but have been to Bruges.

+1  Likewise

[Rynglieder]

Sunday 07/06/15 Ghent – Stourbridge [GB] 338 planned miles.

Although the room was a bit shabby and the circulation areas were a bit cramped the hotel did offer us the chance to have breakfast in the sunshine in a little courtyard at the rear which was a bit of a change.

The bike was loaded up for the last time and Zumo was switched on again. Unfortunately it had not woken up in a good mood. Overnight and without human intervention it had changed my motorcycle icon into a car and with a bit of an offhand expression on its screen told us to set off the wrong way down the one-way street we were parked in. I was not falling for that though and set off in the direction that the government of Ghent felt was right and proper.  After going on for a couple of hundred metres Zumo had another think and highlighted a new route. This was blocked after a short while by a temporary road closure so I had to take an alternative road at the junction when I reached it in the hope that I would get a recalculation from the SatNav. After it had preformed this I realised that it had simply planned to circle us around to the closed road again so I gave up on it and once more resorted to the age old method of looking at the sun's position and heading south where I knew I would cross the E40 at some point.

<3097> Zumo Strikes Back


It was not a particularly long journey to the DFDS terminal at Dunkirque, a calm crossing of the channel followed and a couple of hours later we had disembarked at Dover.  As is often the case with our return sailing there were a larger than usual number of continental bikes on board with us, presumably heading for the TT.

<3099> Secured for sailing

The 200 mile motorway run home is never the highlight of the trip, all you have to look forward to is getting home and reinforcing the hall floor below the letter box with some steel sheet to take the impact of the Visa statement when it arrives. As usual I entertained myself on the ride back by riding in the left hand lane of the motorway as much as possible and using various methods to wake up car drivers sitting in the middle lane; I know you probably shouldn't, but it amuses me on a long journey. By mid evening we were back at home, the cat came straight out to see us, the kids to a while longer.

Retrospective.
It was great – really great and I have got photos of all the places I wanted to visit to prove it. Apart from one small unexplained blip, the GSX1400 was faultless again. The Zumo was a ******* nightmare and my biggest regret was buying it instead of some hard luggage of some sort.

I don't think I would venture out without paper maps again. I suspect that some of my troubles with the Zumo were down to inexperience, it would have been better to have been using it and learning how it behaves for a few months before taking on a journey like this. Equally though, there were a lot of instances when the thing was just plain wrong.  At some point of the coming weeks I will try and download its "tracks" to my computer and see if I can work out what it was up to.

In 16 days we hardly got damp, if anything there were a few days when it was uncomfortably hot. It was still not the "perfect" bike trip though; it could have done with a few more luggage free play-days. Still, there is always next year to plan for and several of hours of video to edit over the winter.

Thanks for taking the journey with me.

Pete.

[PRD]

Thank you so much for sharing your journey with us. I really enjoyed it.

[GLA55Y]

I also enjoyed it. Great to read and share that journey with you both. I've done a few trips abroad with the bike but never got around to writing it up. I must do that on our next European trip.

[O.C.]

Great write up and pictures, thanks for sharing