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.

Eurotunnel or Ferry?

This is always the dilemma when you live near the "ports". Eurotunnel's "Le Shuttle" train to Calais or the ferry with P&O or DFDS.

I usually do a fare check and then decided that as I live about 5 miles from Eurotunnel and 15 from Dover, I choose Eurotunnel.

So with over 250 days until departure it may be a little early to look for fares. But. There's no harm in taking a look. 😊

The plan to leave UK around 0820 on the 25th May and returning 1820 on the 31st.

So today's prices:

• Eurotunnel - £90 return for a bike and rider.
• P&O - £88.50 return bike and rider
• DFDS - not as forward thinking and bookings can only be made up to Christmas!

At the moment it looks as though Eurotunnel wins. As long as the service is running on time and there are no delays the crossing is half the time of the ferry and for less than the price of a coffee more expensive.

There will always be the argument that on the ferry you can find a chair somewhere and have a rest after along ride, or somewhere to eat. On the Shuttle you can't.

As a regular user of the Shuttle (until Covid!!!!) I can be quite critical of their handling on the day of motorcycles and motorcyclists, but at both ends there are shops and restaurants if you want to eat and drink, if you want to. 

Maybe I need to get a drinks holder for Vera so I can carry my coffee with me to the waiting queue before departure? I think this deserves another 😉

Routes - Day 6 Part 2 - Mittelbau-Dora to DJH Hagen

Whilst I am in the area I thought about checking out some other sights.  

I had, with my brother Neill, a trip planned for the beginning of August 2021 on the path of the Dambusters with visits to the three main dams, Möhne, Eder and Sorpe.  Incorporating some of the crash sites and memorials to the aircrews of the downed Lancasters. That got scrapped due to Covid when Germany closed the borders to us from the UK.

All three dams are not that far off the A44 run between Dora and Hagen. So I have added a loop to visit all three.

It will be a long old day and plenty of sights to visit, but what else am I  going to do?

Routes - Day 7 - DJH Hagen to Home

Just a simple get up, have breakfast, pack up and go. A straight run to Eurotunnel and home.

MyRouteApp reckons on four and half hours, but we all know that Antwerp is a bottleneck and it can take up to an hour to thread through the traffic and the tunnels to get through it.  

Maybe I'll look to see if there is a way around Antwerp but not via Brussels as that too is a motorists' nightmare too.

So I reckon with fuel stops and lunch it will be more like six and a half. Plus of course that all important chocolate and beer shopping on Belgium!