Routes - Day 2 - Bad Ems to Plzeň - Tinkering!

Tinkering yet again.  Maybe I have too much time on my hands.  

Now that I have moved the end of Day 1 hotel to Hotel Stadt Coblenz I have started too look at Day 2.

My first routes have two parts based on a stop in Würzburg hat would have been about lunchtime. But to get off the motorways a little a enjoy some "green roads", I picked up a Michelin National map of Germany. It's the 2021 edition so should be pretty much up to date.  It's map number 718 if anyone wants to buy one. Well worth the £5.50 it cost.

I saw on the Michelin maps that they show scenic routes e.g. scenic roads marked with a green strip alongside! 

I had forgotten all about that since I became a digital map user and stuck to Google! With a paper map there is so much extra to see but you can't zoom in!  

What I also hadn't noticed is that MyRouteApp also has the option of Michelin as well as Google and other mapping systems!

With the two I have made a change to Day 2.  Removed Würzburg, and replaced that stop over with a couple of scenic rides. Slower than the A3 autobahn but better for me!

The first will take me back from Fachbach/Bad Ems to the Rhine south of Koblenz and then down the eastern bank almost as far as Wiesbaden, then onto the A3 and the A6 to the border and Plzeň.

The first part will be very scenic and I have done it before, but in the opposite direction, going south to north. I have once again added another stop near the Käthe Wohlfahrt shop in Rothenburg ob der Tauber for a gift or trinket for Mrs D.

The days mileage is about 360 with a lot of it on the motorways and about 6 hours on the road before we factor in stops for fuel and food!

Should be in Rothenburg ob der Tauber in time to get some lunch and then it is all motorway to Plzeň and the hotel.

Routes - Day 1 Parts 2 & 3 - Bad Münstereifel to Bad Ems

I have a new route from Simmerath and the Bikers Ranch, that I will call my lunch stop, to the overnight hotel stop.

I had thought that maybe I would avoid Bad Münstereifel in case it's no longer open to visitors after the floods and the damage caused in the summer of 2021.  In the end I thought that it would do no harm to go and see and if open maybe grab a coffee and take some photos.  

The mediaeval centre looks to have avoided the destruction that many other places suffered during WW2. It looks as though the terrible flooding did what the armies and bombs couldn't do seventy plus years ago.

The other reason for the changes (all across the trip)  are because choosing different hotels and therefore the planned routes. As more hotels come online for next May, I check the distances and the costs and then make a change if there is a better option. There often is and I make a change!

It is so much easier with booking.com being all done online and no need like the old days to phone or even write a letter to where you want to stay and wait for a reply!

Anyway. The change. Kobern-Gondorf on the Moselle has gone and has been replaced with Fachbach near Bad Ems on the Lahn. It's not much further on and it looks like more interesting roads are in the area as you come down off the mountains to river level.

Hotel Stadt Coblenz in Fachbach/Bad Ems is the new end of Day 1 hotel.  I made the change purely as it is a little further east, offer included breakfast (see the photos!) and has onsite parking. 

Many of the options simply don't have parking onsite or even nearby. Okay for a car but not for a bike.  As usual it has free cancellation and no pre-payment.

I don't mind paying for breakfast at the hotel, or stopping at a nearby McDonalds, but finding those at a reasonable price, I will be a pensioner after all, with breakfast and parking onsite is quite rare these days.

Hotel Stadt Coblenz

It doesn't look as though MyRouteApp has a "merge routes" function. Otherwise I could merge Part 2 and Part 3 into one route! So I will have to stuck with them.  There are too many waypoints to manually change.

Part 2 is only about 30 miles and Part 3 less than a 100 even with the changes.

Routes - Day 1 - Eurotunnel to Kobern-Gondorf - Plan B

Parts 2 and 3 could become just one. It's all dependent on Bad Munstereiffel being able to accept visitors.

After the floods in the summer the town was badly damaged and it needed to be repaired.

I have plenty of time to make a decision. In the meantime I have copied Part 2 and made Part 2B omitting Bad Munstereifel but keeping stops at the two Biker-Treff cafés.  It doesn't save much on the way of mileage, about 5 miles, but means not messing about going into the city if it is closed due to the flooding disaster.

I have no idea why there is restaurant waypoint picked out for the Cockpit at the Nürburgring.  It is there with all POI's turned off.  Maybe as it is a short detour and it is near the Nordschleife it might be worth a slight detour to see if there is any track action.

Routes - Day 5 Part 1 - Vernířovice to Schloss Colditz (B)

As I have been on the tour at Colditz before I am not in any hurry to get from the rally in Vernířovice to the castle, so since the original post for Day 5 was posted, I am looking at alternative places to stop enroute.

Firstly I saw a post on the "Visit Czech Republic"  Facebook page for some troglodyte houses to the north of Prague. These are in a small town of Lhotka near Mělník - https://www.muzeum-melnik.cz/rock-dwelling-lhotka-near-melnik/

I had a look on Google maps and then on My RouteApp to see where it is situated and whether it would form a reasonable stop on the way to Colditz. In Czech the site can be found as Skalní Byty Kokořínsko.

I added it to the Day 5 route in MyRouteApp.  It has extended the day a little but as the route planner doesn't account for stopped time (although I can add that later!) it looks like the day's riding will be around six hours and 282 miles.

From there is it plain sailing up the E55 to the German border and towards Dresden.  There are bound to be a few photo opportunities on the way!

Such as the lookout tower at Kostelní Hlavno, just a few metres off the route for the day.

Rozhledna Doubravka XIV?

I am always looking for places to "stop off" on the way when I am going anywhere.  And I saw this on the "Visit Czech Republic" website - Rozhledna Doubravka XIV.

Rozhledna Doubravka XIV

"This three-legged lookout tower was built in 2018 by Professor Ing. Martin Rajniš and his colleagues from Hut Architecture. The structure is made of acacia wood and has 98 steps ascending to the top.

👀 Prague and its surrounding area, stretching far into the distance, can be viewed from the summit. It's a wonderful place to come to, if you want to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city and immerse yourself in nature." - Quoted from Visit Czech Republic web and FB page.

On Google maps it doesn't look too far off the route I have chosen (or rather MyRouteApp has chosen!)  from my hotel stop in Plzeň. Although the area nearby doesn't look all that marvellous when it comes to leaving a motorcycle and luggage unattended!  It does look to be only about 200 yards from a main road and a petrol station.

On this leg of the trip I have already built in a stop with my former student and now friend Rosta in Hradec Králové and even a little detour into Poland and Boboszów to "bag" Poland on the trip!

As the time approaches I'll look for other titbits to check out on the route across Germany and the Czech Republic and of course, on the way home.