2017 Mosel trip

[Rynglieder]

Fellow GSX Owners,

This year I have switched to a GTR1400 for my trips abroad and I've done a write-up for that bike's forum. I was going to post a link to it on here as although it is not a GSX there may still be some interest. Unfortunately you can't access much on the GTR forum without joining up, so with your permission I'll repeat it on here over the coming days as I build it up.

Pete

The GTR has just been for its first week on foreign tarmac, I'll post up a trip report over the next week or so in instalments as I find time.

If you don't want to bother reading this stuff and pictures are more your thing they are already on my Flickr photostream, so if you don't like spoilers save them till last....

https://www.flickr.com/photos/rynglieder/albums/72157681652634454

The planning

For a combination of reasons we could not do the usual two week trip over the last week of May and the first week of June this year, our "big" tour was to be deferred until August but it did mean that I had a week spare to squeeze in an extra one week trip which was a bit of a bonus. My good lady consented to this without much resistance; Do you know, after thirty-five years I'm still quite fond of her really.....

At Carole's suggestion we decided to return to the Mosel valley again, a place that we had had a good week in 2012 and I had had a couple of enjoyable long weekends with some friends previous to that. As I hadn't had the luxury of six moths advance planning that I usually have, our preferred overnight stop in each direction (the Hotel Bauregard in Namur, Belgium) was not available, so our outward trip was to be broken in the Ardennes and the return trip at another hotel north of Namur. The apartment that we had previously rented in the Mosel town of Bernkastel-Kues was also booked up but the owners were able to offer us a bigger (and inevitably slightly more expensive) apartment on the floors above.

One of the first things I miss from the GSX1400 that we had used for our trips previously was the stowage space under the seat, this was great for all those items you have to carry but hope never to use; warning triangle, alcohol testers, spare bulbs etc – these would all have to go into the GTR's luggage, although to be fair it swallowed them up reasonably well without being at the expense of something else.

On previous journeys abroad I had been stung for "non sterling transaction fees" on both my debit and credit cards – not mega-bucks but it all adds up over the total of your spending - so this year I had arranged a FairFX pre-paid MasterCard in a Euros denomination and pre-loaded this with our spending money. The exchange rate when you load it up looked reasonable and there are no further charges on top each time you use it (except at cash machines) and I reckon that it probably netted an extra £20-25 of beer money.

We were also accompanied by my Garmin Zumo 390 (which is a device that I hate with a passion as will no doubt become clear), although I pre-loaded it with routes generated at my computer I also took the precaution of taking paper maps based previous experiences with the malevolent little gadget.
 

[Rynglieder]

Day 1 Stourbridge [GB] > Falaen (405 miles)

We left home just before 07:00 to give us a good contingency for checking in at the Folkestone tunnel terminus at 11:36. Although Britain had just experienced one of its rare weeks of summer the forecast had suggested that we would be departing under a band of thundery rain. In fact, it was around Oxford that we finally crossed it and I had my first experience of riding the GTR on a motorway in a typical British summer. This was the first bike I had owned with a proper fairing and I had hoped if not expected that I would get a bit more protection than the GSX offered. I have to say it was fine, I came out of the other side of it with just wet sleeves and Carole didn't seem to have fared too badly either.

I was having to watch my speed though; the wind blast on the GSX starts to remind you how fast you are going but you don't get any hints on the GTR. I had to keep backing off as the bike is all too easy to "cruise" at speed on. Our journey down the M40, anti-clockwise around the M25 and down the M20 was totally uneventful and we arrived at the terminal in good time even allowing for a couple of stops and fuelling the bike. The other side of the storm we had crossed found us back in warm weather and completely dried out.

Despite making the effort to arrive on time, the tunnel operations were again running an hour behind schedule. This seems to happen to me quite frequently using this route. My other option is often the Dover - Dunkirk ferry which although it takes one and a half hours longer to cross has never been delayed in my experience. Take into account that it also puts me half an hour up the road in France there would have been no net loss of time, would have been cheaper and I could have at least got something to eat and had a couple of cigarettes on deck rather than stewing in the tunnel queue. Perhaps back to the ferry next year I think.....

We spent our time in the increasing heat in the terminal car park with a group of thirteen scooter club members who were heading for Italy; an ambitious trip even on a large modern bike, but some of these machines were up to fifty years old. I watched as they removed engine covers and swapped plugs and HT leads and remembered the days when I had bikes that I could work on myself up to a point, I have only the vaguest notion of where to start looking for the plugs on the GTR, I know they are all under those plastic petticoats somewhere, but I leave it all to the professionals these days. Eventually we were boarded and shared the carriage with the same scooter boys and one other bike until we finally got through into France.

Usually I plan for a maximum of around 200 miles a day when touring, I would rather spend some time visiting the places I am going through rather than just blasting past on a motorway. The first and last days of a trip are always an exception though and I like to get as deep into Europe as I can.
Lille was passed on toll-free motorways and we were soon through into Belgium. Tournai, Mons and Charleroi were skirted round and by late afternoon we were turning south for a short run into the Ardennes. There were frequent stops for drinks as the heat and humidity were still increasing and despite our earlier encounter with the thunderstorm we were now wet from the inside rather than the outside. The Zumo was starting to show the first signs of trouble, flashing up messages that it had lost its external power connection and threatening it was going to kill is self if I did not do something about it within fifteen seconds.

Successions of small roads eventually lead us through increasingly attractive countryside to our overnight destination, the Hotel Cobut near Falaen. The area is largely wooded hills and river valleys and although I had no prior knowledge of it, seemed to be popular with the local Belgian bikers out for a Saturday evening run. After our delayed crossing and the addition of an hour for CET it was about 18:30 when we arrived. The first and most urgent job was to have a shower and get out of the clothes that we had been in all day. Those linings to the trousers and jackets had seemed like a good idea when we set out that morning.

It seemed too hot and too late to bother with an evening meal but we did down a couple of beers before going a short walk around the village which had a rather unusual tourist attraction of some sort of cycling contraptions that ran up and down a disused railway line. The day ended in bed listening to the sound of another thunderstorm closing in, we were not at all sure what the next day was going to bring.
 

[Rynglieder]

Day 2 Falaen > Bernkastel-Kues [D] (170 miles)

This is when it gets a bit more interesting for me, the motorways are behind us and there are some proper roads running through the landscape to look forward to. Getting back onto the GTR I reflected on how comfortable it had been yesterday. The GSX is a pretty comfortable bike but I did used to feel it slightly in my back over such a distance. There was no grumbling from my back with the GTR although my wrists were feeling a little tired. I'll experiment with some risers at some time in the future but I think it is that the GTR bars are more "turned in" toward the tank whereas my other bikes seem straighter.

After a short distance on some minor roads we arrived in Dinant and I was now back on my regular route. From there we push out East until we pick up the N4 and follow this down past Mache-en-le-Ferme and exit for Bastogne. The N4 is a fast trunk road and treated by many as a motorway although it has a number of commercial premises and the odd house fronting it. There are also numerous side roads without slip lanes and although you can make good progress down it you have to keep your wits about you and assume that anything you see is out to kill you.

The Luxembourg border is just a hop away from Bastogne and just beyond it lies a large shopping complex that pulls the Belgians over the border to buy at Luxembourg's lower prices. I picked up my fixes of Nicotine for the week and we bought a few bits from the supermarket for lunch. I had planned a stop for just a few more miles down the road and with the temperature again at +30 degrees we were looking forward to a bit of a break.

We turned off the N15 for Ecsh-sur-Sure, entered the village through a short tunnel, exited it through another tunnel below the castle and followed the road as it wound up to the dam and reservoir beyond. We took our break at a car park with a view of the reservoir below and I made a mental note to try to spend a day or so around here in the future.

We rejoined the N15 where we had left it and had an enjoyable run down to Ettlebruk. This has to be one of my favourite roads in Europe; fast, interesting and curvy without being dangerous or challenging whilst being two-up and fully loaded. The N15 deposited us in Ettlebruk at which point our journey took us down the valley of the river Sure as the N19 and then N10. For the last few miles the river becomes the border between Luxembourg and Germany and although we could have crossed at many points we followed the Luxembourg bank right down to where the Sure flows into the Mosel.

During our previous trips our next stop would have been Trier, this city is always worth a visit with its historic centre and some substantial Roman remains. However the heat was unrelenting and I was not minded to do the tourist thing in the city wearing full bike gear, so this time we passed by on the west bank of the river and took a brief stop in Igel instead for another cold drink and a quick look at the stone pillar of 250AD. My chances of a decent photo of it were thwarted by someone having parked a camper van in front of it, but that's how it goes I suppose.



From there is should have been an easy to navigate run along the riverbank to our ultimate destination of Bernkastel-Kues but before long we reached the dreaded Umleitung (diversion) signs as the road ahead was closed and unfortunately I couldn't make any sense of the diversion route. The Zumo was pretty useless, as with many SatNav units when you break away from the programmed route it just wants to take you back to the blockage. After a few abortive attempts of my own and the Zumo more and more frequently losing power I have to confess that in the heat and my frustration I gave it a bit of a slap.

This did not improve our situation. The Zumo did a half cartwheel on its mounting bracket and spent the rest of the afternoon flat on its face on my tank. I then did what I should have done in the first place and parked up, pulled a lukewarm bottle of something from the top-box and spread out a paper map. It seemed that as we did not know exactly where along the river the road was blocked my best bet would be to pick up the Autobahn, head north for a couple of junctions and the cut back to the river valley.

From my previous motorway mileage on the bike I was already becoming accustomed to riding in a still bubble of air at 80mph, but when the need arose for an overtake I discovered for the first time to my delight the warp engine (or whatever it is the GTR has from 5000rpm) that suddenly puts you at 110mph without any effort whatsoever. I "cruised" at this speed for a few miles because it was an Autobahn and I could. In fact this cheered me up so much that it was a bit of a disappointment when our exit came along but we took the slip road and descended into Bernkastel at a more appropriate speed.

We made our way up to the Old Quarter of Kues, an area not so frequented by most tourists compared to the prettier Bernkastel on the opposite bank, but nevertheless has many 17th and 18th century wine grower's houses. There we announced ourselves to the landlord of the accommodation we had booked in Winegarten Straße and started the process of unloading the bike and settling in.

Again our priority on arriving was getting a shower and putting some civilian clothing on. It was still hot outside but now there was some heavy cloud building but we took our chances and decided to walk down the hill and cross the river for a beer in Bernkastel. I think it was just as we reached the river that the quick downpour came but after sheltering for just a few minutes it was all over and we continued our walk and had our drink as planned.

A bit too hot again and the messing around with the diversion had been annoying but all in all the day had been a good day and we looked forward to another week to come.
 

[seth]

great part of the world for bikes .
good write up
glad you had a good safe trip

[Dusty ST]

Great write up, thanks for sharing!
I was planning something similar for later this year, but ended up trimming this bit due to not getting the time, so maybe next year...

I also plan my routes and load them to a Garmin 390, which has always worked really well.
Where there's a diversion or road closed I use 'skip waypoint' which takes you to the next point on the planned route rather than back to one missed in the detour. I set the 390 up with skip waypoint to be a button on the main map screen, which is handy as it saves rummaging through screens and menus.

[Andre]

Very nice report. I am looking forward to the coming days to read more!

[Hooli]

Looks good, I need to sort another tour. It's been too long since I rode on the wrong side of the road.

[Andre]

I think that I would find it intimidating to ride on the "wrong side" of the road. And once getting used to it, I would have to revert again when coming home. How do you guys deal with this?

[seth]

we find it more natural riding on the right over in Europe especially roundabouts.
not really a problem once we come back to riding on the left again.

[Rynglieder]

Day 3 – A run round the Eifel (125 miles)

It seemed the gentlemanly thing to let my good lady have a lie in as it was the first day in our proper holiday accommodation. I got up at my usual early-ish and slunk downstairs to see if I could sort out the mounting bracket for the petulant Zumo. It has been a good few years since I went looking for a tool kit on a bike. Tool kits I feel, are like lifeboats on a ferry; it's good to know they are there but you hope never to have to look for one. The other reason I haven't gone in search of a bike tool kit for years is to the best of my memory all the tools are made out of cheese. Having extracted it from below the seat I was pleasantly surprised to find that there was a spanner of the right size to tighten up the pivot bolts on the bracket. I was less pleased to find that the bolt and nut on one side was missing completely, but at least I had enough tension now to remount the Nav unit without it tipping forward.

As one might encourage a kitten out of a tall tree with a saucer of cream, I enticed Carole from bed with the promise of a coffee and croissant down by the river in town and thus started a week long tradition; the bike was parked up under the bridge on the river-front car park and we climbed the steps to what became our breakfast café for the duration.

Prior to setting off on the trip I had planned three days out into the Zumo, never expecting that we would get five continuous decent days. As we had done a fair few miles over the last two days just to get here I decided to pick the shortest of my planned routes so that we and the bike had a bit of a break.

It was unbearably hot again and I had decided to ditch the bike trousers in favour of a pair of jeans. I fully accept there are risks to this but the alternative was to become the sort of bloke who gets so hot, frustrated and distracted that he lands a punch on a piece of navigation equipment. There, I had done my risk assessment and jeans were the way to go.

The route I had planned in to the Zumo had to be more or less immediately abandoned as the road along the western bank of the Mosel was again closed, this time due to the ongoing construction of a seriously large autobahn viaduct carrying a new section of road across the river. No big deal as there is also a road along the eastern bank along this stretch so we just made our way up that and crossed back over further north. After climbing the side of the valley and up into the Eifel massif we were on to excellent biking roads winding through forested hills and devoid of any real traffic. Anyone who has visited the Nurburgring will know this area.

First of the two planned destinations was the Puvermaar, an almost circular water-filled former volcanic crater. There was ample parking on the approach road, I had a vague idea of taking a walk around part of the lake so we stuffed our jackets and helmets in the now empty cases so that we were dressed a bit more like average tourists. In the direction we had come in from the lake shore seemed to be blocked off by a camping site so we struck out in the opposite direction. No joy here either though, this way was only accessible through some sort of "resort" with sun lounger and boat hire facilities. Although it seemed to have a café which was what we were looking for, there was a 4 Euro admission charge which was a premium not worth paying on my coffee. All a bit of a disappointment really, so we took a couple of snaps and trudged back to the bike.

Next up was Eltz Castle; we'd been there before but it was about 20 years ago and so due another visit. The Zumo had not been much bother that morning but I sort of knew my luck wouldn't last. As I was enjoying the next phase of my ride through the Eifel I noticed an absolute forest of waypoint flags appear on the screen. I know I hadn't put them there, I'd never have had the patience. As we rode on the screen switched between "approaching" and "ready to navigate" for about five minutes, you simply couldn't see the map. Fortunately I knew roughly where I was heading and signs for the castle soon came into view.

The car park for Burg Etlz is a one kilometre walk from the castle its self, so again we stuffed our gear onto the bike and started our walk, fortunately through shaded woodland.  When it hove into view I was not at all surprised to see the scaffold. I'm fairly sure that some scaffolding contractor has hacked into my Booking.com account and then travels around Europe a couple of weeks ahead of me cladding all of the major tourist sites with as much tube and fitting as he can get his hands on. We did the guided tour of the castle again and after consuming a cold drink and a plate of chips each at the café we did the slog back up hill to the bike.

From Eltz we made the short run back down to the Mosel valley again emerging at Moselkern, several more miles north than when we had left it. But this was it.....

.....The Moment. The reason I had come back here.  Take a look at Google maps of the course of the Mosel between Trier and Koblenz. The GTR cruising at 70-80mph southwards along the river, sometimes slightly banked over for several minutes at a time as we rode the loops and bends. Hard down through the gears as you approach each village, left  / right / left through the chicane, catch the smiley face on the electronic speed monitor board, through the chicane on the exit of the village and the throttle wound back round to 80 again for a few kilometres to the next village. It's rides like these you don't ever want to end; no traffic on the road, no unexpected or dangerous bends to make you feel that you are going to get caught out and a multitude of places to pull up, have a smoke and a drink out of the bottle and just watch the evening sun picking out the castles, vineyards and reflecting off the river.

Not surprisingly we came back up on Bernkastel pretty quickly, but still too late to think about changing and walking back into town so that night I procured a couple of cold cans from the fridge in a petrol station and we finished the day off with a beer on our balcony.

Tomorrow should be good as well.
 

[Andre]

Thank you for this latest installment. The Eltz castle has been visited by me many times. It is always a pleasure. Sorry about the scaffolding. They seem to work their way around continuously. Glad they do keep the old treasures in good repair. Fortunately it is always just a small section.

The part of the Eifel (north) where I can get quickest to, is marked by heavy traffic on the weekends. No fun at all. Loads of bikers from the Netherlands who enjoy the modest fines here (when compared to their country) and the rest from the most heavily populated state of NRW. On the weekends I avoid the Eifel as I would the plaque. During the week it is nice riding though.

[Rynglieder]

Day 4 – Exploring the Saar Valley (160 miles)

It was going to be another hot day so it was on with the jeans again and then the run down into Bernkastel and plonking myself onto our usual bench with our Latte and croissant, shared with some seemingly grateful small birds.

We set out south along the river, once again bypassing Trier and onward to Konz where the Saar river meets the Mosel and then meandered at a leisurely pace along the smaller river to Saarburg. Although we had been there before I had decided it was worth another look and we parked up by the river below the castle. It was whilst walking through toward the touristy centre that I came across a shop that looked a good prospect for a replacement bolt and nut for the satnav bracket. As I visit Germany fairly regularly I have made an effort to learn the odd phrase, but that's about it. Of course, over the years you pick things up from signs and the like, but I was fairly sure that "bitte nicht füttere das wasservögel" was not going to be much use to me buying ironmongery in here. Nevertheless a size was guessed and a replacement was picked from a convenient display.

Back on the bike again we picked up a few provisions from a supermarket on the edge of town and continued to Serrig where we left the riverside road and climbed the hillside to a point I had waymarked after seeing it on Google maps during my planning; Schöne Aussicht (roughly translated I think as "beautiful view" ). It pretty much lived up to its name and also provided us with a picnic table for our break and a good view of one of the loops in the Saar.

We descended by the same route as we came up and continued our run southwards alongside the Saar to my next planned stop at Mettlach. We casually abandoned the bike just outside the town's park and wandered in to view the Alter Turm (Old Tower) for no other reason than I like a bit of a monument. Also in the park was a fifty foot high man-bird-thing looking like it was trying to shift some boxes. Now, I don't know much about art, but look at the picture on Flickr and tell me that was not worth getting off the bike for! We strolled deeper into the park and resisted the temptation to füttere das wasservögel before mounting up on the bike again.

Next up and just a short ride away was the day's ultimate destination. I'd seen pictures of the Saarschlife and wanted one of my own for the album but I was rather confused during the planning stage over what I was heading for; Cloef Atrium is nothing more than a visitor centre and car park without a view. The Saarschlife Assichtspunkt is a viewpoint on the hillside with a reasonable view of the river and is free to access except for the charge on the pay and display car park. If you want to visit, the proper place to head for is Baumwipfelpfad Aussichtsturm. Starting at the Cloef Atrium, ten Euros gets you through the turnstile and onto a timber walkway which gradually rises through the treetops until you reach the 42m high viewing tower –something like a multi-storey car park for pedestrians but actually designed with wheelchair users in mind. The view from the top is pretty spectacular although the operators of the attraction suggest you exit rapidly in the event of a thunderstorm.

As time had run away again we opted for a quicker and more direct route back to Bernkastel. For me The Saar is not quite as good a riding experience as the Mosel, but we had had a good day and seen a few sights on the way.
 

[Dusty ST]

I think that I would find it intimidating to ride on the "wrong side" of the road. And once getting used to it, I would have to revert again when coming home. How do you guys deal with this?

Practice with Grand Theft Auto 
Most of the time, for me, riding on the other side isn't a problem.
The bits I sometimes have problems with is turning left off a busy road on to a quiet road on your own, also riding around large supermarket car parks, usually looking for the exit.

[Andre]

@seth Interesting about the "more natural".

@Dusty ST Great tip! No car parks in GTA? 

[Rynglieder]

Day 5 Hunsrück, Nahe Valley and the Middle Rhein (165 miles)

Before we had pressed the button to raise the electric shutter between the bedroom and balcony we knew it was going to be another hot day. Carole suggested that we should do the third of the three routes I had pre-planned; not so much to "get it out of the way", but to be sure that I had done the things I most wanted in case the weather turned against us. So, the day was going to take us across the Hunsrük hills, east of the Mosel with a few planned stops before following the Rhein north and then finishing the "triangle" with a run down the Mosel.

As I was up early again I dealt with the replacement bolt and after our usual riverside breakfast we left the valley through the tunnel that leads under Berg Landshut, the castle that sits above our adopted home town. Emerging from the tunnel we climbed the hillside in a series of challenging curves and hairpins which I took at a bit of a pedestrian pace, the GTR feels a bit heavy for me on this sort of road.

Up on top of the Hunsrük plateau we covered some miles at a reasonable pace eventually reaching Idar-Oberstien. I considered stopping there but we had visited it on the last trip and I wanted to break some new ground so we passed by and took a break in a lay-by a few miles further on. This seemed to upset the Zumo which demanded that I should go back the way I had come for twelve miles and then make a U-turn. The Germans had helpfully provided road signs though and I decided to follow these and my own instincts rather than the satnav.

Eventually we found ourselves in the Nahe valley. I can't recall what had prompted me to pick this out as a destination, it was probably someone else's photos on Flickr, but we were not disappointed. The road ran along the valley with tall rocky outcrops at either side until we reached Bad Münster where we made our way through the town and down to the riverside. We tucked the bike away in a corner and piled our gear into the cases so that we could explore for a while.

It really was a beautiful place. On the opposite bank of the river was one of the towering crags with some sort of fort or castle perched on it. We could just make out the figures of other people standing on a viewing point on one of the other peaks, it was obviously a popular destination for hikers approaching from the forest behind. On our side of the river was a large black and white half-timbered building now in use as a café with a matching pumping tower and a water wheel. We took a walk along the river and back through the public gardens and up to a huge timber construction about two storeys high and over 30 metres long which in our ignorance we took to be some sort of water feature, as water was cascading down the face of some sort of vegetation into a trough below. After a leisurely coffee under one of the parasols at the café we took our leave of the town.

It was on the way out of town that we saw more of these large timber cascades and realised that they were not just ornamental but must be performing some sort of function – growing something perhaps? I made my mind up to look into it when we got home.

(In fact I mentioned this to a colleague when we were looking through my photos back home, he did a quick search on the net and found they were a sort of air purifying system. Salt water is run down the black spikes and as the brine evaporates it gives off purified air in the surrounding park. "Ah," I said, "so two English bikers covered in dead flies should probably not have been having a fag in front of it?")

From Bad Münster we rode the short distance to Bad Kreuznach to track down some lunch and take a look at the historic bridge in the old town. I chilled at the side of the river after we had eaten whilst Carole made a few calls home to check that the kids were still alive (although I reckon she just wanted to make sure they were watering the garden).

Leaving the Nahe valley we travelled eastwards on major roads to reach the Rhein near Bingen. As usual the day was running away from us so we carried on northwards up the Rhein, not stopping as often I would have liked. Although we had travelled up here in the past it was the first time we had done so in full sun and it did look pretty spectacular, I was regretting giving up on fitting my video camera to the bike for this trip.

Just after passing the Loreley an opportunity came to pull the bike up at the side of the river at Sankt Gorhausen. The camera finally came out to take a couple of pictures and after grabbing a drink at the kiosk next to where we had pulled up we continued along the river. The middle Rhein is a nice enough journey to take on a bike; perhaps more castles per mile than the Mosel but somewhat spoiled by heavily used railway lines running along both banks. The GTR just ate it up and we reached Boppard where there was another falling out with the Zumo (I knew very well I had to climb the hill at the back of the town, not go back the way I had come).

Crossing the narrow triangle of land just before the Mosel and Rhein meet bought us along the L207 with its tight curves as you climb out of Boppard and further curves and hairpins as you eventually descend on the Mosel above Löf. One such hairpin provided a bit of a view point where we had a further break and pulled out the camera again. Finishing the downhill run bought us back onto the main road at the side of the river and I had the genuine pleasure of a repeat of the run we had done on Monday night back down to Bernkastel.

The three planned trips had been "used up" but there were plenty of other opportunities for tomorrow.