2024 Motorcycle tour to the Sauerland (c.1700 miles)

[Eric GSX1400K3]

Not yet, according to Chris's map, this April will see a trip from Portugal to eastern Ukraine, up around Northern Finland to Norway, then down through Sweden, Poland, Austria, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina before heading home...

[KiwiCol]

Not yet, according to Chris's map, this April will see a trip from Portugal to eastern Ukraine, up around Northern Finland to Norway, then down through Sweden, Poland, Austria, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina before heading home...

Fecken brilliant!!  But stay "home" will ya

[Rynglieder]

That superimposed map is a real statement 

It must be convenient not to have to deal with different languages, currencies etc.

At the same time, I do enjoy soaking up the differences in culture and architecture - I suppose that's why I do it really.

[Rynglieder]

Day 7 Wilhelmsthal loop (c. 165 miles)



I gave myself a bit of a talking-to over breakfast, somewhat regretting that I had not done the miles the previous day that I had originally planned. It was time to get with the programme.

Today's run would be to the northwest, heading for a castle and park land to the west of the city of Kassel. Once again, I was on a light bike (but only in as much as the family cat is "lighter" just before you feed it) and although I was setting out on an overcast morning, the forecast promised a brighter afternoon.

Sure enough, I had a very enjoyable run though the Sauerland, sometimes on damp roads but the skies occasionally become clearer. In time my ride bought me to the small hamlet of Goldhausen where I parked up the bike and set off on foot in search of the ruins of Eisenberg Castle. To my good fortune I had only gone about 50 metres up the hill when I chanced upon a wooden chalet style café, presumably located there to lure in hikers. The chance of a coffee and a small cigar on their veranda was too good to pass up. Once re-energised with caffeine and nicotine I carried on though the woodland up the hill. The hiking trail signs gave no indication of the castle so I just followed my nose until I grasped that I was going nowhere. A quick back-track to the last junction of the path only offered a direction to the Gorg-Viktor Turm, so I turned that way in hope rather than expectation. It turned out that the Georg-Viktor Turm was an observation tower set right next to the remains of the castle and as it was freely accessible to the public, I took the opportunity to climb the several flights of stairs up to the top. On the right day the views would have been quite far-reaching, but today what was mostly observable was the inside of a cloud. There was a good view of the footprint of he castle below though, so mission accomplished, it was time for the downhill walk to the bike.



Mounted up and back on the road again I rode onward, the roads became a bit more "urban" as I skirted around Korbach and traffic levels had ramped up a bit, but at least the tarmac was now mostly dry and there was the odd patch of blue sky to cheer things up. It was not long at all before I reached Bad Arolsen where there was a quick photo-op for the GTR in front of the ornate and colourful Rococo style former Imperial Prince's residence.



The next stage of the excursion was through flatter, more agricultural land interspersed with the odd town or village. At Calden my route south to the next destination was blocked by a road closure, so I made a point of completely ignoring the Zumo and focussed my attention on the Umlitung signs so as to follow the approved diversion route. It all worked out as it should and I found myself rolling up to Schloß Wilhemsthal from the south. The bike was tucked away in a corner of the large free car park and the helmet and gloves deposited in the vacant panniers.

The castle itself was closed to visitors except by pre-booked tours, but the gardens were free to roam. It was a perfectly agreeable walk and although some of the ornamental lakes were closed off for refurbishment work, I managed to use up an hour and a half. As I walked back to the bike, I couldn't help thinking that the estate had been a lot smaller than I was expecting and I would have to interrogate Google Maps when I returned home.*



Back into the hills and flowing roads of the Sauerland I passed through Waldeck and indulged myself in a little ride along the banks of the Eder reservoir and a quick smoke before resuming my journey by a bit of an oblique and confusing route that the Zumo has conjured up for me.

The remainder of the day did not throw up any significant stops, there was a brief break to rest my butt at the side of the Eder River near Harzhausen, and another 5 minutes further along the route. At this time of year low sun can be a nuisance and I think next year I will try to plan for May-August, but otherwise it was just me any my bike on uncongested roads - just how the day should be.

*It turned out that my original intention was not to visit Schloß Wilhelmsthal, but the Löwenburg castle in Bergpark Wilhelmshöhe, 6 miles to the south. Not sure how that got knotted up in the planning stage.

[Rynglieder]

Map of Australia superimposed over most of Europe.
Gives a fair indication of the distances we travel and we're still in one country on one continent.
You guys get to travel so many different countries and cultures with lots of history everywhere.

I think I'm starting to understand Australia now:

1] Darwin is impossible to motorcycle around October-March due to snow and ice.
2] Brisbane is a war zone due to a Russian invasion
3] Melbourne is largely Islamic
4] Adelaide is the seat of ancient philosophy
5] Perth is full of working-class people from England on cheap package holidays

Is that about it?

[Eric GSX1400K3]

Yep,sums up the Perth northern suburbs perfectly.  Not sure about Adelaide being the seat of ancient wisdom though, that's a bit of a stretch.  Like saying Birmingham is the architectural inspiration for Barcelona...

[Rynglieder]

Day 8 Bad Fredeberg > Rursee (c.140 miles)



After a final breakfast at the Parkhotel Schmallenburg the bike was reloaded with all my worldly possessions for the start of the return trip home. My four nights at this hotel had been ideal, a good room, decent breakfast and good value as well. I was marginally miffed when I went to check out though as my room had already been charged to the card that I had used for a deposit; my intention had been to use my prepaid currency card, so I'd be going home to an unintended bill next month. On the plus side I'd have a surplus of €400 toward next year's trip.

There was not a lot of distance to cover today, but I'd allowed for a bit of Autobahn riding to give me time to take in a couple of attractions. The start was of course the usual mixture of Sauerland countryside, villages and small towns mostly on empty roads. Occasionally I would catch up with a bit of traffic and then find myself dropping off the back of it as I slowed down for the built-up areas and they didn't and then go through the cycle of pulling back up to them again. In these circumstances it's a difficult call to overtake knowing that within a couple of kilometres they may well be tailgating you through the next 50kph zone. Still, I'm not riding in any sort of competition, so I'm happy to ride to the limits where I can, and be patient when I can't.

Just under an hour's ride from the previous night's hotel I hooked up with the [45] autobahn for a first short stint in the direction of Dortmund including a brief top at the first rest area for a smoke. I left the motorway near Meinerzhagen and did a bit more enjoyable cross-country riding until I reached Marinheide. My breakfast tea had now worn off, so I parked up the GTR at the roadside and walked on into the town centre where I found "Schmidt's Backstübchen" where euros were exchanged for a coffee.

Back on the road, there were a few more miles of the good stuff before I joined the A4 Autobahn, at first I was able to wind up the bike as much as I wanted without worrying about speed limits, but things slowed to a near halt on the approach to Köln. The motorway eventually spat me out on the east bank of the Rhein where I picked my way to the streets beneath the Köln Triangle. There didn't seem to be any proper motorcycle parking available so it was tucked in somewhere I wasn't entirely comfortable with. Köln Triangle is a 100m high office building opposite the cathedral and for a few euros I took the lift up to the observation deck at the top. There were certainly some far-reaching views over the city although the high glass balustrade around the edge makes getting a decent photo difficult due to the reflections.



Once I'd had my fill of it, I got back on the bike, crossed the Rhein and threaded my way out of the city. The next stage of the ride was through some rather uninspiring suburban areas with more traffic to contend with than I'd been used to. The landscape did open up here and there tough and before long I found myself squeezing onto the end of the motorcycle bay in Brühl.

I perambulated myself a bit around the gardens and terraces and pools of the rather magnificent palace and did the best I could with the camera. Once again I had been confounded by the scaffolder having arrived before me, but it was worth the stop none the less.



The bike was extracted and hauled out of town for the last session of the day. At first there was a mundane bit of dual carriageway and a few straight trunk roads, but the journey just kept better as I began the return into the Eifel region. You know it's going to be good when you see so many other bikes around.

At the village of Heimbach I turned into a side-road and began to climb what I was expecting to be a nice twisty hillside run toward my hotel for the night. Unfortunately, after a couple of hundred metres I came across some road signage that lest me mostly confused but finally coming to the conclusion that the road must be closed*.  I U-turned the bike and set about finding an alternative way round.



Trusting to my sense of direction rather than the Zumo I made my way to Gemünd where I stopped for a quick paper map check and confirmed I could proceed. At this point the Innovv camera decided to have a break and didn't connect for the final run into Rursee, a small hamlet at the southern end of the Obersee, one of many large reservoirs created from the Rur river and makes the area something of a tourist magnet.

I found the Hotel Am Obersee without any difficulty, berthed the bike and checked in. I was told that the bar and restaurant was about to close, so I snagged a quick beer before getting showered and changed. When I was finally in some lighter clothing I set about a walk in the village in search of an evening meal, but drew a blank. The lesson here is to find where the food is located before imbibing your beer - it wasn't worth the risk of getting back on the bike and riding to Rurburg to widen the search and I really couldn't be bothered to get the bike gear back on anyway. Fortunately, I keep a stash of extremely unhealthy snacks in the top box as a contingency against such events.



It was therefore another early night with a bit of music from the phone and a session with my paperback.
The day had contained elements of motorway and city riding, but there were some nice runs as well, not a bad day all told.

*Having got home, reviewed the video and thought about it a little longer, I may have been OK to carry on. The "vehicles prohibited" sign probably related to the cycle lane – the road may have been converted to a one-way street in favour of the direction I was travelling. See what you think from the video capture...

[Andre]

*Having got home, reviewed the video and thought about it a little longer, I may have been OK to carry on. The "vehicles prohibited" sign probably related to the cycle lane – the road may have been converted to a one-way street in favour of the direction I was travelling. See what you think from the video capture...

As I have ridden there a hundred times, I can tell you that you are right with this assessment. If you had gone on, you would have ridden one of my favorite sections in the Eifel. The hillside of the road is relatively unstable. First they put in a traffic light but changed to one way to allow timely arrival of fire and rescue vehicles. By the time the light switched from red to green, you could have finished a smoke. 

[Rynglieder]

*Having got home, reviewed the video and thought about it a little longer, I may have been OK to carry on. The "vehicles prohibited" sign probably related to the cycle lane – the road may have been converted to a one-way street in favour of the direction I was travelling. See what you think from the video capture...

As I have ridden there a hundred times, I can tell you that you are right with this assessment. If you had gone on, you would have ridden one of my favorite sections in the Eifel. The hillside of the road is relatively unstable. First they put in a traffic light but changed to one way to allow timely arrival of fire and rescue vehicles. By the time the light switched from red to green, you could have finished a smoke. 

Thanks Andre, I have unfinished business in that area so when I'm back I'll pull the visor down and get on with it 

[Rynglieder]

Day 9 Rursee [D] > Kortrjk (c. 200 miles)



In my call home to my other half the previous evening I'd expressed a bit of regret that I hadn't added an extra day to the trip. As it was my final day on the continent was going to involve a lot of motorway work if I was going to fit in the two visits I wanted to do. An extra day would have allowed some nicer rural roads, but the die had been cast and I had to get on with it.

After an acceptable breakfast I hauled the GTR off the little car park at the Hotel am Obersee. It all started well enough with a run through the German Eifel under blue skies and in less than half an hour I'd busted through the border into Belgium. Some running through the same range of hills but now known as the Ardennes brought me into Eupen and after a bit of urban riding though the city centre I was coughed out onto the motorway network. I use every one of the permitted kph of the speed limit, but constantly watch my mirrors, it seems that a lot of Belgians regard speed limits as optional and can come up behind very quickly. It's safe enough as long as you have your wits about you...

A quick slingshot around Liège on the motorway brought me to my exit and a short ride to the Chateau of Jehay where I found a pitch on the free car park and set about exploring. I'd have been happy around the grounds and gardens, but the lady on the entrance desk seemed that excited to have a visitor I felt a sense of obligation to wander round the museum with its "cabinets of curiosities" as she had suggested and trying to work out what the hell I was looking at where there were no labels in English. Back in the sunshine I did my tour of the grounds and bagged the photos I wanted and finished my visit with a seat on some garden furniture in the courtyard with an alcohol-free Jupiler from the kiosk and a cigar from the tin. These moments really make the trip.





At least when I was done it was not straight back on the motorway, I rode a little way further south and picked up the Meuse Valley and followed the river westward to Huy. Not the best motorcycling road, but at least better than the motorway. I followed the river through Huy, past its large church and below its hilltop citadel. I was half tempted to make a stop to get some photos, but it so happened I been there in the car less than three months previously during a bit of a trip for our wedding anniversary, so feeling that I was on a bit of a tight schedule I sailed on.

The followed another 20 mile blue sky ride along the south side of the river, sometimes with cliffs to the side, other times more open, but typically of densely populated Belgium, a constant ribbon of villages along the route meaning that the bike was rarely opened up. I picked my way through the centre of Namur, always a bit of a favourite of mine, but again declined to stop as I had given it a visit during my return from last year's run around the Black Forest on the bike.
From Namur I picked up the River Sambre and began to follow its valley, this was at least a bit of new territory for me. At Floreffe I caved into the bikes increasing demands for refuelling, something I didn't seem to have done much of on this trip – the GTR seemed to be averaging around 50mpg and with the shorter runs I do these days a tank full was comfortably lasting a day with a bit left over. Riding conditions continued in the same manner, a few quick stretches broken up by built-up areas and a lot of dual-carriageway.

Samberville was skirted around and I eventually made my way forward to the R3 Charleroi orbital motorway at which point the Zumo (which had largely been well-behaved during this trip) decided to set me a geography test. It urged me to take a phantom exit, a glace over the Armco barrier at the embankments under construction and a nice new roadstone bed suggested that there may be a road there in 2-3 years time, but today was not the day. Not for the first time in my life I was left with the choice of taking the next available exit and winging it.

It worked out OK, I made my way back into the Sambre valley, crossed the river at Landelies and crossed it twice more plus a canal on a series of little single-track bridges before arriving outside the Abbey of Alune. A handful of Euros was handed over to the lady at the cash desk for an entrance ticket (and to my surprise) a little printed guide in English. This is a monster of a ruin and I really enjoyed investigating those parts that were open, the condition of the masonry in some areas has resulted in them being closed off and slowly reclaimed by nature. Most British abbey ruins are frozen in time around 1536 when Henry VIII dissolved the monasteries in order to stick two fingers up to the pope (and the money from the lead roofs no doubt came in handy for buying cannon balls to fire at the French), but Alune fell into disuse much later, so as well as a medieval core it has architectural features that I would never find in a UK abbey or priory.





Not only did I enjoy the visit to the abbey, but I found this little backwater village and the countryside laced with the river and canal an enchanting little place and I think it has to go down for a first night stop on some future trip into Europe.

I'd lingered for about an hour and a half and really needed to press on, so reluctantly moved on in the certain knowledge of motorway tedium to come.  Back around Charleroi, out to the west on the E42 and through sporadic congestion my ride swept me past Mons and Tournai and finally delivered me into Kortrijk's southern suburbs, just a few blocks from the Full House Hotel, my B&B for the night. There was no car park, so the bike was disc-locked on the street whilst I collected the envelope containing my key from the unattended reception counter. My single room was a bit compact, but just big enough to have a shower and get changed.

With the aid of Google Maps on my phone I made it on foot over the railway line and into Kortrijk's centre where a Fritterie and a couple of beers were located before the walk back to my room. 

It could have benefited from some more rural riding, but it hadn't been a bad day on the whole. Tonight was the last hotel bed, tomorrow there would be a ferry to catch.