Thursday 29th June 2017 – Home to Hull.

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We left home at just after 17:00 this afternoon and had a very damp but uneventful ride to the docks at Hull. Once inside the dock area we queued for around 30 minutes for passport control partly because they were selecting some vehicles for random security checks. Once at the booth the process worked pretty well and we were given our cabin keys along with our boarding passes so we had to do no more than find our cabin once on board.  We had made the decision to eat earlier in the day so took a pack up with us and ate that in our cabin before going to one of the bars for a drink before retiring.

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Friday 30th June 2017 Rotterdam to Warstein, Germany.

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We were off of the boat by 09:00 this morning and spent a few hours travelling the motorways of The Netherlands as there really isn’t a sensible alternative route across to the German border.  Once we were able to we left the motorway system behind and made our way across the smaller roads only getting ourselves mislaid twice !!   Part way through our journey we spotted a café sign and decided to stop for lunch, unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on your view) they only served coffee and cake so we each had the most enormous slab of Rhubarb crumble cake which was really, really good if very bad for the waistline.  As this was our first night we had pre-booked a hotel (we often book both the first and last night’s so that we’re in striking distance of the docks) in Warstein and it just happens that it’s attached to the Warsteiner Brewery.  We had a little difficulty finding it as our SatNav took us to the production site rather than the visitors centre/hotel but we found it eventually.  Once checked in we decided it would be rude not to sample the local brew so had a swift one before heading for the shower.

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The hotel’s restaurant is in the main bar and we were greeted by a sizeable group of very merry youngsters (they’ve obviously been here for a while) who were very amiable if a little noisy.  We later had a very pleasant meal of some sort of roulade (rolled beef stuffed with vegetables), noodles and red cabbage – very Germanic and very pleasant.  As the visitors centre is now closed and the hotel is in parkland there is not much to do so after a short walk we returned to the bar for coffee (honest).  It’s been dry if a bit breezy all the way today which is something of a bonus as it was supposed to be quite wet, the forecast is for sunshine and showers tomorrow so fingers crossed.

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Saturday 1st July 2017 – Warstein to Alsfeld, Germany.

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It’s been a thoroughly miserable day weather wise.  We woke to heavy rain and by the time we’d had breakfast it had eased off a little but not much and it’s been raining on and off all day, sometimes heavily, it’s also been pretty cold.

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We decided, despite the weather, to stick to plan ‘A’ which was to take our time and dodge back and forward around the pretty roads and through the forests before heading a bit further south and east.  We had no particular destination in mind but thought we might be ready to stop by the time we reached the town of Dillenburg.  As it was we stopped for lunch shortly before arriving there and as it was only around 13:00 we decided to re-route and rode a bit further (getting slightly mislaid along the way) stopping at a very pretty little old town called Alsfeld.

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The first hotel we stopped at was fully booked but they pointed us towards another which had a double room and a garage for the bike, the only slight snag was that they were hosting a wedding which meant the restaurant was not open to us but, as they say, you can’t have it all.

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Once we’d checked in we left our waterproofs on and went for a walk into the town and very pretty it is too with lots of very old buildings many of which are leaning at very odd angles.  We were on the look-out for somewhere to eat this evening and found that some of the restaurants were fully booked, probably because it’s Saturday evening.  Some very helpful customers at one of the restaurants recommended somewhere for us and we called in on the way back to our hotel for a much needed shower. It turned out the restaurant was actually in the first hotel we’d tried to get in to.

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After a quick shower it was back in to town for a very nice (if rather large) set meal and a few drinks before returning to what seems, so far, to be a very quiet wedding.

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Sunday 2nd July 2017 – Alsfeld to Rothenburg ob der Tauber, Germany.

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It’s been a much better day weather wise and we’ve ridden some nice gently sweeping roads through some very pretty countryside. We did have one slight issue when we came across a ‘road closed’ sign which left us in the middle of nowhere with no diversions signposted. It took us quite a way off route but we eventually got back to where we needed to be.

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Apart from the pretty countryside this area is full of very old towns and we’ve spent part of the day travelling along the Romantische Strasse (Romantic Highway).  As we knew it was likely to be busy here we used the internet at our last hotel and booked ahead choosing a hotel in the centre of the old town which has covered parking for the bike. When we arrived in Rothenburg we used our SatNav to try to find the hotel but it kept trying to take us down pedestrianized parts of town. Eventually we gave up riding around the tiny, narrow streets and I jumped off and went to find the hotel on foot.  It turned out that we were within a few yards of it but just couldn’t get there on the bike.  Once I’d found the hotel the owner offered to get on his bike ( a 6 cylinder BMW) and go to show Graham where the garage was, I then walked around to meet them.

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Once we were settled in it was time for a walk around the town (which was heaving with tourists of all shapes, sizes and nationalities) and a glass of the local brew before heading back for a much needed shower.  Later we had dinner in our hotel (very nice) followed by another walk around the town which was, by now, much quieter. Our last stop for the night was in the back bar of a really nice old hotel where we sampled two of the local Schnapps with our coffee, it’s a tough life but someone has to do it!

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Monday 3rd July 2017 – Rothenburg to Mindelheim, Germany.

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When preparing for this trip I did what I usually do and packed myself just one pair of sandals working on the basis that if it wasn’t warm/dry enough for sandals I’d wear my waterproof ankle boots.  Now, in theory that sounds great BUT my waterproof boots decided that they weren’t having any of it and started to fall apart on day one.  By day two they were getting worse and by today they proved that they really, really weren’t going to last the trip (see photos) so we looked up the location of a Decathlon store (somewhere we were pretty certain we could replace them without spending a fortune).  We found that there was a store in Essingen, near Aalen which was not too far off our route so we decided to head for that first thing this morning.

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All was going well until we came across the now infamous ‘road closed’ signs.  This time there was a marked ‘Umleitung/diversion which was great except that it took us more than 27 miles out of our way and then dropped us off in a small town where there was a big fair/market and all the traffic that went with it.  By the time we’d found the Decathlon store (and found a pair of boots) and then got back on to our planned route it was coming up for 15:00 so we started looking for somewhere to stay.  The town of Krumbach looked like it might be a possibility until we actually reached there !  Unfortunately it turned out to be a bit of a ----hole and the hotels which were supposed to be in the town centre couldn’t be reached because of, guess what, roadworks!!

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By now it was getting quite warm and we were getting tired but we decided the only sensible thing to do was to carry on further and, after a failed attempt at one guest house eventually resorted to using my ‘phone to search for “hotels near me”.  As a result we’re in a hotel on the edge of a quite nice small town, we’ve had a few beers now and will soon be heading down for something to eat and maybe a few more beers (it feels like we deserve it today).

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Monday 4th July 2017 – Mindelheim to Bad Wiessee, Germany.

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We did have a few more beers last night (well, wine actually) and a very nice meal too although I think one meal would have easily fed us both.  Once we’d eaten we took a walk into the old town and had an ice cream and coffee nightcap before strolling back.

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We already have an apartment booked for 5 nights from Wednesday and as we were already getting quite close we decided to take a trip along some of the prettier roads and to dodge into Austria to ride across the Fern Pass.  Unfortunately it seems that they have ‘improved’ the road since we were here last (admittedly it was 11 years ago) and there was far more traffic than we had expected so we did see the great scenery but from the middle of a queue of traffic which wasn’t quite what we’d expected.

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Having had a bit of an issue with finding accommodation last night we had decided to book ahead.  We use Booking.com and found what looked to be quite a nice hotel at a reasonable price with views of Lake Tannersee and drove mostly back roads to get here even finding a small, privately owned toll road en-route.   The last part of our ride wasn’t quite as successful as we made the mistake of following our SatNav rather than relying on our instincts and we ended up doing quite a few more miles than necessary. Once here we arrived to find that the on-line photographs of the hotel were, shall we say, generous, it’s okay but only okay and not cheap.

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After we’d settled in we took a short walk into the town to identify somewhere to eat later (the hotel doesn’t have a restaurant or bar either), had a quick beer and a walk along the lake shore.  It’s now time for a shower before going to our chosen restaurant to eat.

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Wednesday 5th July 2017 – Bad Wiessee to Grainau.

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It’s been really hot and sunny today as we’ve trundled around the countryside taking in the views. As usual we took a very circuitous route stopping at various points along the way for drinks and then later for lunch. 

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Today’s lunch was a bit of an experience too, I’d been told that we really should try one of the local dishes i.e. Weisse Wurst (white sausage) so when we saw it on the menu we ordered it, or should I say them?  The waitress arrived with our order carrying two very large pottery dishes each containing three large sausages floating in hot water, each of these pots was accompanied by an over-sized pretzel.  The sausages tasted okay (I’m not sure I’d bother again though) but being faced with just so many was a bit daunting, needless to say we didn’t finish them.

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It was a little further on that we started to notice a strange noise coming from the front of the bike and, lo and behold, we have a split in one part of the front mud guard, probably from all the bumps and cobbles (it’s a similar problem to one we’ve encountered before when riding over cobbles).  It’s now held together with Duck tape which we’re hoping will hold until we get home.

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This afternoon we arrived at the holiday apartment which is to be our home for the next 5 nights.  The apartment itself is very nice and has everything we could need the only snag is that it’s quite a way from anywhere, there’s certainly no chance of us walking anywhere to eat which is a pity.

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After riding out to buy enough groceries for breakfast, drinks etc. we had a quick shower and then rode out again to the nearest restaurant where we made another small mistake in ordering their menu of the day which turned out to be three very generous courses, oh well, we’ll just have to try to be careful tomorrow.

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Thursday 6th July 2017 – Grainau, Germany.

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It’s been a different sort of day today.  We had arranged to meet Pete Crowe, Pete Belfield and Steve Crossley (who are staying in an apartment in Garmisch) and to take a train and chair lift trip up to the Zugspitz, the highest point in Germany.

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We had originally agreed to meet on the train which the others were going to catch from Garmisch at 10:15 with us boarding at Grainau at 10:30.  This entailed Graham and I walking a kilometre or so through the woods to the Zupspitz station so we left ourselves lots of time and it was just as well that we did as just as we arrived at the station Pete Crowe rang to say that they were on an earlier train and it was just about to pull in to our station.  As it happened their train terminated at Grainau anyway so we all jumped on the same train for the ride to the cable car.  It’s quite a steep track and an interesting journey. Next was a fairly short but steep cable car ride and a number of stairs/lifts to the top of the mountain where we were very lucky with the views as the skies were completely clear.  We spent some time wandering around taking in the sights and had some lunch in one of the cafes at the top before making our way back down.

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When Graham and I checked in to our apartment yesterday we were both given a visitor’s ‘Grainau Card’ which provides us with free bus and train journeys in the local area so we decided to make use of it and to stay on the train to Garmisch with the others.  By the time we arrived in the town it had started to rain (they had forecast possible thunderstorms) so we made for a hotel bar close to the station, one which the others had used yesterday and where there was a very amiable barmaid who hailed, originally, from Yorkshire.  We sat under the canopy watching the rain and having a drink and then decided to make our way inside where it was little cooler to have something to eat (it reached 28c today).  Too much food and drink later Graham and I decided we ought not to chance the last bus back so caught the earlier one (20:15) which dropped us off a 15 minute walk from the apartment.

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All in all it’s been a very good day but we’re both now feeling very hot and tired and my feet have swollen with the heat so it’s now feet up time.

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Friday 7th July 2017 – BMW days Garmsich.

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Today has been different sort of day again.  We had booked to stay here for 5 days so that we could go along to the ‘BMW days’ event which takes place here every year, we had been told it was worth a visit and open to anyone not just those riding BMW’s.

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We arrived at the site at around 10:00 this morning a met up with both the Pete’s and Steve and spent a few hours wandering around the various trade stands that were there. It was particularly hot and muggy which meant that it was just too hot to stay inside some of the marquees so after joining the others for a spot of lunch (during which we took shelter from a short, sharp shower) we decided to make our way back to our apartment via a local supermarket. 

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We had a number of choices for what to do this evening, ride back in to the event for the entertainment, ride out to get something to eat elsewhere, get a bus back in to town eat early and get a bus back or stay at the apartment and cook something to have with a bottle of wine with and it was the last choice we went with.  That way we hopefully won’t eat quite so much and we can both have a relaxing drink.

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Saturday 8th July 2017 – Garmisch, Germany.

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We had a bit of a disturbed night last night with thunder, lightning and absolutely torrential rain waking us more than once and that was followed by a set of church bells kicking off at 06:00 this morning (but it’s Saturday?).

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As we were not planning on returning to the BMW event today we spent the first few hours of this morning working out a route home and booking some accommodation for Monday night.

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By late morning we’d done what we needed to do so made the walk to the bus stop and caught the bus in to Garmisch.  It’s a pleasant town with lots of cafes and restaurants so we spent much of the day just wandering around taking regular breaks, including an hour or so sat in a very pleasant park, and people watching.

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We had originally planned on catching the 20:20 bus back but as we’d started to run out of places to visit we decided we’d eat early and maybe catch the 19:20.  As we approached the bus stop we saw the earlier bus leaving ahead of schedule so we knew that we had to be at the stop early just in case and chose a restaurant very close by.

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Whilst sat outside the restaurant I overheard another British couple who were sitting behind me mentioning that they would be getting the same bus so I let them know that the previous one had been early.  Having got in to conversation with them we had proof, if it were needed, that it’s a very small world; it turns out that Graham went to the same senior school at the guy (Gordon) and that his wife (Jackie) had worked for Ford and that she and Graham had a number of colleagues in common.

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By the time we left the bus in Grainau it was bucketing with rain (it had started whilst we were eating) but luckily we had some small brollies with us so it was really only our feet that got wet.

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Sunday 9th July 2017 – Grainau & Garmisch, Germany.

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We weren’t woken by thunderstorms last night just by the outside security light which was being set off periodically by the wind which had picked up considerably over the evening. Oh yes, we also had the church bells at 06:00 (well, it is Sunday) closely followed by two cannon shots (?) and what sounded like a military marching band (??)– we couldn’t have had a lie in if we’d wanted to!!

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Part of this morning was spent trying to re-pack the bags so that we don’t need to lug so much stuff up to hotel rooms on the way back.  The rest of the morning was spent lazing around and after a light lunch we set off for a last evening meal in town with our friends as we’ll all be heading off towards home tomorrow.

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Our intention had been to catch the 15:30 bus from Grainau but when we arrived at the bus stop there was sign over the timetable which appeared to say something about changes to the buses today.  We stopped a local who was parking his car and although we speak no German and he spoke no English we managed to communicate enough to work out that the buses had been suspended between 11:00 and 16:00 today because there is a festival on in town, which meant our next bus was an hour and 10 minutes away. It’s a pity we didn’t know about the festival before because a) we could have gone along and b) we could have caught a train instead.  As it was we were left with a few choices: go back to apartment and come back again in an hour (too far for Graham to walk), go back to the apartment and then take the bike out (it was looking like rain and it meant Graham couldn’t have a drink), give up with the idea of going in to town and walk in to Grainau for food (that would have been a long walk and we couldn’t guarantee what would be available), go back to the apartment and ring for a pizza to be delivered (would we be able to make ourselves understood?) or lastly sit it out and hope the 16:25 bus arrived.

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We chose to wait it out and sat on the bench at the bus stop and a short while later it started to rain and rain hard, then the thunder came closely followed by the lightening.  In all we sat in a very small bus shelter for over an hour watching a rather noisy storm pass over and getting very slightly wet in the process.  It was still raining by the time the bus arrived and by the time we reached town.  Luckily it wasn’t too far to where we’d arranged to meet the others once we were off of the bus.

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For the next few hours we shared good company, good conversation and good food before catching our bus back.  Once off of the bus a 15 minute walk saw us back at the apartment where we’re just settling in with a cup of coffee before bed.

 

 

Monday 10th July 2017 – Graknau to Mainhardt, Germany.

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We left fairly early this morning hoping to beat the weather as more rain and storms were forecast for the area from late morning.  It was overcast and quite cool when we left and stayed that way until we started heading a bit further north when the clouds thinned and we enjoyed a little sunshine. 

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We found a roadside Imbiss (snack bar) and ate our lunch sat outside in the sunshine.  As we left I put the camera around my neck and we started off but having travelled less than 200 metres and seen the colour of the sky ahead we stopped and put the camera away and it was good job we did.  Within a few minutes the heavens had opened and the rain was bouncing off of the road, there was lots of standing water too.  The rest of the afternoon was spent dodging in and out of rain, some of it heavy.

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We’re now holed up in a guesthouse which is supposed to have a very good restaurant so we plan on making use of it later once we’ve showered and sorted ourselves out.

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We’ve now returned from the restaurant and, yes, it was very good, the only slight issue we had was with the menu of ‘regional specialities’ which was somewhat beyond our language skills.  I’m still now sure exactly what I had but it was very nice none the less.

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Tuesday 11th July 2017 – Mainhardt to Landscmecht, Germany.

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It’s fair to say that neither of us slept well last night.  The hotel room we had was stupidly hot so before we went to bed we opened all the windows as wide as we possibly could including the Velux skylight.  That was fine except the heavens opened at around midnight, I know it was midnight because the church bells chimed as they did every fifteen minutes throughout the night !!!  As it was raining so hard I got up to check that the rain wasn’t getting in (it wasn’t) but we were then both kept awake by the nearby security light which kept switching on and off; what with that and the wretched church clock, sleep was in short supply. The torrential rain also woke us more than once during the night.

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The breakfast room/restaurant for our hotel was in a different building to our room but it was dry when we walked across for breakfast.  It was only whilst we were eating that the heavens opened again.  Fortunately by the time we left it had cleared again and we had a completely dry journey (it started raining again just after we arrived at our hotel).

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The initial part of journey went completely according to plan and we managed to find all of the smaller roads across that we had intended. However, as we neared the town of Worms the dreaded road works reared their head again and we were sent off on another diversion. As we knew we would have to jump on the motorway at some point west of Worms we decided to use the SatNav to take us straight there and that sort of worked although I’m sure she sent us a rather circuitous route, it may have been a mile or two shorter but it certainly didn’t seem to be the most direct route.  The time we spent on the Motorway was pretty uncomfortable as it was only two lane and the inside lane was chocka-block with trucks so everything else was in the overtaking lane and we were, at times, being pushed along a bit faster than was comfortable, for me at least.

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Once off of the motorway we rode up the west side of the Rhine and found a Weinhotel with vacancies and a nice looking restaurant (it has a wine shop but I can’t quite fully understand the significance of it being a wine hotel).  Our room is a bit on the small side but has everything you could need and a nice view of the river too which is a bonus.  It also serves a very nice coffee (or beer in Graham’s case) and cake.

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Now all we need to do is get ourselves cleaned up and then work out where we’re going tomorrow before we go and eat.

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Wednesday 12th July 2017 – Landscmecht to Simmerath, Germany.

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It’s been cold, wet and windy all day today which is a pity as we’ve been on some nice roads.  We decided to make our way west across from the Rhine to the Moselle where we planned on having lunch at Cochem, a town we’ve stayed in a few times. The route across turned out to be on some quite twiddly roads through a forest and it would have been nice if it hadn’t been quite so wet.  We reached Cochem rather early for lunch so just had coffee and cake before setting off for the hotel we’d booked on-line which is close to the border with the Netherlands (so we could be sure of our positioning for the run to the ferry tomorrow).

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We made a bit of mistake on leaving Cochem as we decided to rely on our SatNav again and true to form (recent form at least) she tried to take us on a very strange route which went in a huge arc and then back to where we needed to be.  Needless to say we ignored her and found our own way across arriving mid-afternoon at what should have been a nice hotel (notice I say should).

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When we checked in we were initially given the keys to a ground floor room in a separate building.  It was quite a big room with two windows one of which had no curtain, no blind and clear glass which would have meant streaking to and from the bathroom.  When we queried this with the miserable toad on the front desk his comment was “what’s the problem, no one can see in and no one’s complained before?”.  I pointed out to him that there was in fact a window in the building opposite which overlooked that window and he again said that no one else had ever complained. After a bit of discussion he said he would see what he could do and almost threw the key to a different room our way, it’s nice to see people happy in their work!!  The alternative room is smaller but better in that we can close the curtains.

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As we had arrived too late for lunch we had to make do with more coffee and cake served, this time, by a much more cheerful young lady.  Let’s hope she’s working in the restaurant tonight.

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Friday 14th July 2017 – Hull Ferry terminal to home.

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As predicted the boat docked early this morning but we then all had to wait whilst some numpty who had apparently paid extra to be first off of the ship held us all up by not bothering to come down to the car deck when called. The traffic around Hull was pretty busy as expected but we had an uneventful if rather breezy ride home arriving at around 09:15.

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