Been watching the “Worlds Greatest motorcycle rides” on the travel channel on sky and was taken by the one that does the Castle route in Germany, I was planning a ride to Scotland but decided that in October (kids half term) the weather might be a unfavorable.
So after watching a repeat of the programme I thought I could easily do the route and set out planning it.
Friday Oct 26th
Caught Ferry to plan, bumped into a work colleague and chatted about rough crossings then felt iffy because I had quite a rough trip from uk a week before and it was fairly rough.
However as the boat turned round the NE Minquiers buoy soon after and (Wind NE direction) the boat stabilized and was really quite well behaved. Iffy feeling soon vanished!!
After disembarking the ferry, rode the bike to Caen in the dark. Was quite apprehensive about it but it went quite well. Passed Dol D’Bretagne all floodlit and in the distance saw Mont St Michel floodlit too both looked superb!
Half way between Avranches and Caen the GPS decided to drag me off the duel carriageway on some wild goose chase in the dark around some very painfully twisty D roads and tracks. (In daylight they would have been fun). But at 11.00pm and wanting to get to the hotel asap I wasn’t impressed, but followed the route like a lamb to the slaughter or lemmings to the cliff, as you do!!!
The GPS detour eventually brought me back to the dual carriage way but not before I nearly hit a wild boar or some farmers escaped pig, it was fat and as black as the ace of spades!!
The pig not the farmer
Arrived at about 11:30 and after checking in at the Premiere Classe (nothing premiere about it at all!) I went next door to the bar restaurant luckily they were still serving so had a couple of pints listening to the live band who were actually quite good.
27th
Woke up during the night to heavy wind and rain, put the heavy wind to the tree right out side the room making it sound worse. Got up at 7 am and the wind was strong the tree wasn’t lying!! It really was windy, and heavy showers too while I got ready. I tried to put a cover on the bike the night before but as it was so windy I felt it wouldn’t stay on or worse still drag the bike over so left it off. (the bike lives in the garage at home so being out in the rain was a shock to the system) I tried to start it and although the ignition was on when I pressed the start button there was nothing. I turned everything off then on again ( ah ye olde reboot!!) and still nothing, third time lucky and it fired right up but I was really reluctant to turn it off again unfortunately I had to, to fit the panniers, you need to use the key. Anyhow it started again once all the luggage was fitted. Still unsure of the fault maybe water in the starter switch??
As I came out of Caen the first 20 - 30 miles I considered myself lucky that I had avoided the worst of the rain it was black skies to the south and behind me and Black skies to the North but they would pass behind me too, there was a really strong gale force crosswind to contend with as I entered the flat plains of fields after Caen and had to lean the bike into the wind to keep control..
However by the time I got near Le Harve it had started to pour down and I was wondering where the first leak in my waterproofs would transpire.
To be truthful my waterproofs held up magnificently they didn’t leak at all, although that cant be said of my left boot for some reason it leaked like a sieve.
I headed off towards Paris I was so concerned with keeping the bike steady that I didn’t notice the temperature drop and it had plummeted!! It had been really heavy rain, then I thought what looked like light hail, turned out to be sleet then snow!! I couldn’t believe it I was doing 70 - 80 and it started snowing and getting quite heavy.
Heavy enough and cold enough to start sticking on the road. The verges had already turned white and the trees were starting to as well, I slowed to 60 and my feet and hands were numb even with the heated grips.
As I looked at my speedo there is a temperature alarm giving out 0.5 degrees Celsius, with 20k’s to the next service station I tried to slow down but the traffic was having none of it. Didn’t know what was worse slow down and risk getting knocked off by a car or stay fast and slip over in the sludge. By the time the service station appeared my visor had sludged up! I tried to wipe it with my glove but that made visibility even worse and the inside was steaming up too. Speedo giving out 0.0 degrees Celsius.
I pulled in and filled up with fuel, doing this kept my mind busy stopping me from panicking.
As I walked inside I noticed how deep the sludge was getting,
I got a coffee wondering what I was going to do. If it carried on i would be marooned.
My adventure would be scuppered before I even got half way.
I quickly checked my GPS to find the nearest town, Rouen, but was still far enough away not to make it in that blizzard. I spent about 20 min looking around the service station killing time as you do. Then had another coffee. While I was having that, a miracle happened I noticed the snow had stopped I went out side the sludge had turned to water and the sky was clearing. Result!!
I quickly got my gear ready sank the remaining dregs of coffee and jumped on the bike and left.
The standing water on the motorway was awful but the further I got down the road the drier it became and amazingly the temperature gradually rose and within 20 - 30 min down the road it was nudging 2 degrees getting to the balmy heights of 7 degrees by the afternoon.
That was the worst of the weather, as I skirted the northern suburbs of Paris I could clearly see the city and the Eiffel tower closer than I had expected, well I hadn’t expected to see the Eiffel tower at all so it was a bonus. As the afternoon progressed the sun came out and it went to clear blue skies, a complete turn around in conditions although it stayed cold and windy.
After a few coffee stops along the way got to Metz about 3.30 English time, I thought I could push on to the German border but was split between staying or going, my mind was made up when i came across an Ibis Hotel so stopped to see if there was a room. There wasn’t /0\ but there was in the Ibis central gare \0/ so they reserved me a room and I headed over to it to get some well earned rest.
Metz has s a really nice town centre, especially the square with its original buildings.
Went out for a few beers and a meal was back by 10
28th
Got up early and left the hotel by 8am and headed for the German border, got there quite quickly and was surprised there were no border guards at the crossing driving straight through.
When through what I believe to be the Ardennes forest it must be fairly elevated because the trees were all covered in snow as was the banks and verge. The road was clear but my temp gauge was giving -2 Celsius, which was a concern.
However it wasn’t long before I realised there was something wrong with the GPS all the map detail was missing for Germany I thought that it wasn’t reading the data from the SD card. Turns out I hadn’t copied all the German maps across and quite a vast chunk of Germany was missing.
As I got past the Ardennes and dropped down into Germany I stopped at a service station for a coffee and a play with the GPS to see if I could fix it, I couldn’t. /0\
I tried to wing the route by following the purple squiggly (route) line on the unit I had loaded. But it didn’t really work the GPS was constantly recalculating. Spent nearly an hour trying to find Heidelberg from Heinemann. The loss of map detail totally ruined my tour I had about 7 towns planned to visit during the day and only managed to find 3 totally gutted.
I later loaded the maps from my laptop it took 20 min but that was in the hotel at the end of the day.
Staying in Rothenberg tonight very quaint town but a bit of a tourist trap full of very old medieval buildings, unfortunately there are no bars to sit and have a drink and watch the world go by so it isn’t really my cup of tea. Hotel is quite old and dated but cheap so hey ho!!
There was a market on where all the German folk were gathered.
There was a great atmosphere though reminded me of skiing. Had some Gluwien with rum never had it before and it was great warmed the cockle’s of my cockle’s There were bumper cars and many market stalls, away from that though the town was fairly flat of any buzz.
7.30pm I should go out and try and find a nice restaurant but they seem few and far between so will probably eat in tonight.
7.45 looked in at the hotel restaurant and it was empty so went out in the end, found a restaurant in the walled town it was also empty apart from two German couples.
The Waitress eventually got talking to them and would not stop. I could tell the couples were getting really bored of her incessant talking but she kept on going I mean nonstop for about half an hour.
In the end I couldn’t take any more paid up and sank my drink and left before my ears started to bleed.
29th
What a day left Rothenberg in Germany this morning thick with Snow and fog and -6.5 Celcius
on my temp sensor on the bike, brutally cold !! luckily i have heated grips, unfortunately only brought light gloves.
Couldn’t head towards France or Munich because of forecast snow so headed to Switzerland didn't get above 0 the whole way.
Had one scary moment leaving a tunnel somewhere en route, the only place where there appeared to be ice on the road for about 250 meters. It had a textured surface so the wheels didn’t slip went straight ahead was doing about 50 so didn’t touch the brakes or adjust the throttle. Bum clenching moment!!
Strange how the roads stay clear in Germany and Switzerland not sure what they are treated with but all the roads were free of snow and ice, everything else covered in snow!!!
I don’t recall seeing another biker all the way to Switzerland.
Prior to arriving in Switzerland I went into quite a long tunnel probably 10 Kilometers?? Not too sure how long, but was in it for some time. Anyway the temperature change was unbelievable it went from -2 outside the tunnel to +23 in a very short space of time all the Perspex and mirrors fogged up instantly and I can only put it down to this temp change, but I now have stress fracture cracks in my screen!!
Gutted that will be expensive.
Switzerland was much the same as Germany although a little warmer +2 went to Zurich tried to find a hotel. 170 Euros a night in some crappy area I don’t think so!!! Didn’t like Zurich so left and carried on through to France where i am now in Besancon.
On the outskirts staying in a Campanile not bad although a touch pricey. Had to economize so skipped the offered dinner and went to McDonalds then a local bar.
30th
Left Besancon early and the GPS immediately screwed up, I made certain I had the latest maps loaded on the damned thing before I left Jersey but it insisted on trying to send me down a road that didn’t exist!!
Not a great start then I had to spend the next half an hour of it bitching about recalculating.
I also forgot to turn off the toll roads so even though I loaded a D roads route it still insisted on trying to send me down a Peage, but ha! I was ready and did an unbelievable u turn doing the v’s to the bloody GPS unit.
I then had a great 20 - 30 mile twisty re route to find my original route to Paris, once I turned the toll roads off.
Some stunning scenery in France when you get away from those blasted Peage roads. If you ever have the time take the D roads, there is never anyone around on those country roads and they are absolutely priceless on a bike, it’s as if the people who built them were bikers.
However I later ended up on massive open plains with endless straight roads and huge blue skies not really what I wanted but not unpleasant none the less!! Still quite cold.
Getting close to Paris the skies turned black and the roads got busy and then getting into Paris the roads got mental! Got to the hotel before the rain started it didn’t pour but it was forecast!!
31st
Paris is a beautiful city I decided to give the bike a day off and see the sights, not that I haven’t been here before. In fact I will probably go to all the sights I have already done before but hey ho unless you know somewhere new you usually end up doing the same places.
Been checking the forecast and the winds are picking up over the weekend so the ferry back to Jersey may get cancelled so I am looking at dashing back tomorrow to avoid getting stuck here any longer.
1st Nov
Woke up to torrential rain against the hotel window, decided I was heading for St Malo as soon as possible. Went early for breakfast and the restaurant was closed the lady on reception informed me that today was a national holiday and breakfast would be later. Wasn’t feeling hungry so skipped breakfast and packed the bike and left.
Sure enough Paris was extremely quiet because of the holiday and the rain had eased but the cobbled roundabouts looked really slippery, I gingerly went around them hoping not to lose the front wheel.
As I neared the city limits I could feel the wind was really up getting blasted by some strong gusts and the sky looked bad with really angry black clouds sweeping in.
I managed to dodge the heavy rain showers and sped down mainly dual carriage ways away from the city. I turned the toll roads avoidance off wanting to get to St Malo quicker. Although I had set a D road route the GPS seemed to ignore a large majority of it as I stayed on dual carriage ways for about 80% of the time. Not exactly my cup of tea, it’s fairly boring as you get buffeted by the turbulence of the cars and trucks in front of you but if you want to get somewhere quickly there really isn’t much choice.
About 1/3rd way into the ride another angry black cloud was rapidly approaching and I wasn’t going to avoid it. Being quite new to biking I wasn’t sure about what to do in a torrential down pour.
Went it started it wasn’t too bad then it really hammered down and it was difficult to see, I decide to slow down and follow a car at a safe distance it then started to hail fairly heavily. Which stopped as quick as it started. But it carried on raining hard I was thinking do I stop and shelter till it eases but I also thought it could rain hard for hours so I persevered. I could feel the cold water around my groin and arse through my waterproofs it was so cold it felt like my waterproofs had leaked luckily they hadn’t \0/ but the water magnified the wind chill and I felt really cold.
That was the last of the rain during the ride but the strong wind remained and as I got closer to St Malo it felt that I wasn’t ever going to get there, it couldn’t come quick enough.
I also had to endure a force 7 ferry crossing and en-route there was an announcement asking for a motorcycle rider with reg No….. my heart sank believing my bike had been damaged as I didn’t see another bike waiting to board but thankfully it wasn’t mine another bike had gone over!!
All in all its been a pretty disastrous trip I had images of me riding Alpine passes in Austria and Switzerland and visiting quaint medieval towns in Germany not running from freezing weather conditions I am so gutted I had been really looking forward to it but I suppose you have to take the good with the bad.
So after watching a repeat of the programme I thought I could easily do the route and set out planning it.
Friday Oct 26th
Caught Ferry to plan, bumped into a work colleague and chatted about rough crossings then felt iffy because I had quite a rough trip from uk a week before and it was fairly rough.
However as the boat turned round the NE Minquiers buoy soon after and (Wind NE direction) the boat stabilized and was really quite well behaved. Iffy feeling soon vanished!!
After disembarking the ferry, rode the bike to Caen in the dark. Was quite apprehensive about it but it went quite well. Passed Dol D’Bretagne all floodlit and in the distance saw Mont St Michel floodlit too both looked superb!
Half way between Avranches and Caen the GPS decided to drag me off the duel carriageway on some wild goose chase in the dark around some very painfully twisty D roads and tracks. (In daylight they would have been fun). But at 11.00pm and wanting to get to the hotel asap I wasn’t impressed, but followed the route like a lamb to the slaughter or lemmings to the cliff, as you do!!!
The GPS detour eventually brought me back to the dual carriage way but not before I nearly hit a wild boar or some farmers escaped pig, it was fat and as black as the ace of spades!!
The pig not the farmer
Arrived at about 11:30 and after checking in at the Premiere Classe (nothing premiere about it at all!) I went next door to the bar restaurant luckily they were still serving so had a couple of pints listening to the live band who were actually quite good.
27th
Woke up during the night to heavy wind and rain, put the heavy wind to the tree right out side the room making it sound worse. Got up at 7 am and the wind was strong the tree wasn’t lying!! It really was windy, and heavy showers too while I got ready. I tried to put a cover on the bike the night before but as it was so windy I felt it wouldn’t stay on or worse still drag the bike over so left it off. (the bike lives in the garage at home so being out in the rain was a shock to the system) I tried to start it and although the ignition was on when I pressed the start button there was nothing. I turned everything off then on again ( ah ye olde reboot!!) and still nothing, third time lucky and it fired right up but I was really reluctant to turn it off again unfortunately I had to, to fit the panniers, you need to use the key. Anyhow it started again once all the luggage was fitted. Still unsure of the fault maybe water in the starter switch??
As I came out of Caen the first 20 - 30 miles I considered myself lucky that I had avoided the worst of the rain it was black skies to the south and behind me and Black skies to the North but they would pass behind me too, there was a really strong gale force crosswind to contend with as I entered the flat plains of fields after Caen and had to lean the bike into the wind to keep control..
However by the time I got near Le Harve it had started to pour down and I was wondering where the first leak in my waterproofs would transpire.
To be truthful my waterproofs held up magnificently they didn’t leak at all, although that cant be said of my left boot for some reason it leaked like a sieve.
I headed off towards Paris I was so concerned with keeping the bike steady that I didn’t notice the temperature drop and it had plummeted!! It had been really heavy rain, then I thought what looked like light hail, turned out to be sleet then snow!! I couldn’t believe it I was doing 70 - 80 and it started snowing and getting quite heavy.
Heavy enough and cold enough to start sticking on the road. The verges had already turned white and the trees were starting to as well, I slowed to 60 and my feet and hands were numb even with the heated grips.
As I looked at my speedo there is a temperature alarm giving out 0.5 degrees Celsius, with 20k’s to the next service station I tried to slow down but the traffic was having none of it. Didn’t know what was worse slow down and risk getting knocked off by a car or stay fast and slip over in the sludge. By the time the service station appeared my visor had sludged up! I tried to wipe it with my glove but that made visibility even worse and the inside was steaming up too. Speedo giving out 0.0 degrees Celsius.
I pulled in and filled up with fuel, doing this kept my mind busy stopping me from panicking.
As I walked inside I noticed how deep the sludge was getting,
I got a coffee wondering what I was going to do. If it carried on i would be marooned.
My adventure would be scuppered before I even got half way.
I quickly checked my GPS to find the nearest town, Rouen, but was still far enough away not to make it in that blizzard. I spent about 20 min looking around the service station killing time as you do. Then had another coffee. While I was having that, a miracle happened I noticed the snow had stopped I went out side the sludge had turned to water and the sky was clearing. Result!!
I quickly got my gear ready sank the remaining dregs of coffee and jumped on the bike and left.
The standing water on the motorway was awful but the further I got down the road the drier it became and amazingly the temperature gradually rose and within 20 - 30 min down the road it was nudging 2 degrees getting to the balmy heights of 7 degrees by the afternoon.
That was the worst of the weather, as I skirted the northern suburbs of Paris I could clearly see the city and the Eiffel tower closer than I had expected, well I hadn’t expected to see the Eiffel tower at all so it was a bonus. As the afternoon progressed the sun came out and it went to clear blue skies, a complete turn around in conditions although it stayed cold and windy.
After a few coffee stops along the way got to Metz about 3.30 English time, I thought I could push on to the German border but was split between staying or going, my mind was made up when i came across an Ibis Hotel so stopped to see if there was a room. There wasn’t /0\ but there was in the Ibis central gare \0/ so they reserved me a room and I headed over to it to get some well earned rest.
Metz has s a really nice town centre, especially the square with its original buildings.
Went out for a few beers and a meal was back by 10
28th
Got up early and left the hotel by 8am and headed for the German border, got there quite quickly and was surprised there were no border guards at the crossing driving straight through.
When through what I believe to be the Ardennes forest it must be fairly elevated because the trees were all covered in snow as was the banks and verge. The road was clear but my temp gauge was giving -2 Celsius, which was a concern.
However it wasn’t long before I realised there was something wrong with the GPS all the map detail was missing for Germany I thought that it wasn’t reading the data from the SD card. Turns out I hadn’t copied all the German maps across and quite a vast chunk of Germany was missing.
As I got past the Ardennes and dropped down into Germany I stopped at a service station for a coffee and a play with the GPS to see if I could fix it, I couldn’t. /0\
I tried to wing the route by following the purple squiggly (route) line on the unit I had loaded. But it didn’t really work the GPS was constantly recalculating. Spent nearly an hour trying to find Heidelberg from Heinemann. The loss of map detail totally ruined my tour I had about 7 towns planned to visit during the day and only managed to find 3 totally gutted.
I later loaded the maps from my laptop it took 20 min but that was in the hotel at the end of the day.
Staying in Rothenberg tonight very quaint town but a bit of a tourist trap full of very old medieval buildings, unfortunately there are no bars to sit and have a drink and watch the world go by so it isn’t really my cup of tea. Hotel is quite old and dated but cheap so hey ho!!
There was a market on where all the German folk were gathered.
There was a great atmosphere though reminded me of skiing. Had some Gluwien with rum never had it before and it was great warmed the cockle’s of my cockle’s There were bumper cars and many market stalls, away from that though the town was fairly flat of any buzz.
7.30pm I should go out and try and find a nice restaurant but they seem few and far between so will probably eat in tonight.
7.45 looked in at the hotel restaurant and it was empty so went out in the end, found a restaurant in the walled town it was also empty apart from two German couples.
The Waitress eventually got talking to them and would not stop. I could tell the couples were getting really bored of her incessant talking but she kept on going I mean nonstop for about half an hour.
In the end I couldn’t take any more paid up and sank my drink and left before my ears started to bleed.
29th
What a day left Rothenberg in Germany this morning thick with Snow and fog and -6.5 Celcius
on my temp sensor on the bike, brutally cold !! luckily i have heated grips, unfortunately only brought light gloves.
Couldn’t head towards France or Munich because of forecast snow so headed to Switzerland didn't get above 0 the whole way.
Had one scary moment leaving a tunnel somewhere en route, the only place where there appeared to be ice on the road for about 250 meters. It had a textured surface so the wheels didn’t slip went straight ahead was doing about 50 so didn’t touch the brakes or adjust the throttle. Bum clenching moment!!
Strange how the roads stay clear in Germany and Switzerland not sure what they are treated with but all the roads were free of snow and ice, everything else covered in snow!!!
I don’t recall seeing another biker all the way to Switzerland.
Prior to arriving in Switzerland I went into quite a long tunnel probably 10 Kilometers?? Not too sure how long, but was in it for some time. Anyway the temperature change was unbelievable it went from -2 outside the tunnel to +23 in a very short space of time all the Perspex and mirrors fogged up instantly and I can only put it down to this temp change, but I now have stress fracture cracks in my screen!!
Gutted that will be expensive.
Switzerland was much the same as Germany although a little warmer +2 went to Zurich tried to find a hotel. 170 Euros a night in some crappy area I don’t think so!!! Didn’t like Zurich so left and carried on through to France where i am now in Besancon.
On the outskirts staying in a Campanile not bad although a touch pricey. Had to economize so skipped the offered dinner and went to McDonalds then a local bar.
30th
Left Besancon early and the GPS immediately screwed up, I made certain I had the latest maps loaded on the damned thing before I left Jersey but it insisted on trying to send me down a road that didn’t exist!!
Not a great start then I had to spend the next half an hour of it bitching about recalculating.
I also forgot to turn off the toll roads so even though I loaded a D roads route it still insisted on trying to send me down a Peage, but ha! I was ready and did an unbelievable u turn doing the v’s to the bloody GPS unit.
I then had a great 20 - 30 mile twisty re route to find my original route to Paris, once I turned the toll roads off.
Some stunning scenery in France when you get away from those blasted Peage roads. If you ever have the time take the D roads, there is never anyone around on those country roads and they are absolutely priceless on a bike, it’s as if the people who built them were bikers.
However I later ended up on massive open plains with endless straight roads and huge blue skies not really what I wanted but not unpleasant none the less!! Still quite cold.
Getting close to Paris the skies turned black and the roads got busy and then getting into Paris the roads got mental! Got to the hotel before the rain started it didn’t pour but it was forecast!!
31st
Paris is a beautiful city I decided to give the bike a day off and see the sights, not that I haven’t been here before. In fact I will probably go to all the sights I have already done before but hey ho unless you know somewhere new you usually end up doing the same places.
Been checking the forecast and the winds are picking up over the weekend so the ferry back to Jersey may get cancelled so I am looking at dashing back tomorrow to avoid getting stuck here any longer.
1st Nov
Woke up to torrential rain against the hotel window, decided I was heading for St Malo as soon as possible. Went early for breakfast and the restaurant was closed the lady on reception informed me that today was a national holiday and breakfast would be later. Wasn’t feeling hungry so skipped breakfast and packed the bike and left.
Sure enough Paris was extremely quiet because of the holiday and the rain had eased but the cobbled roundabouts looked really slippery, I gingerly went around them hoping not to lose the front wheel.
As I neared the city limits I could feel the wind was really up getting blasted by some strong gusts and the sky looked bad with really angry black clouds sweeping in.
I managed to dodge the heavy rain showers and sped down mainly dual carriage ways away from the city. I turned the toll roads avoidance off wanting to get to St Malo quicker. Although I had set a D road route the GPS seemed to ignore a large majority of it as I stayed on dual carriage ways for about 80% of the time. Not exactly my cup of tea, it’s fairly boring as you get buffeted by the turbulence of the cars and trucks in front of you but if you want to get somewhere quickly there really isn’t much choice.
About 1/3rd way into the ride another angry black cloud was rapidly approaching and I wasn’t going to avoid it. Being quite new to biking I wasn’t sure about what to do in a torrential down pour.
Went it started it wasn’t too bad then it really hammered down and it was difficult to see, I decide to slow down and follow a car at a safe distance it then started to hail fairly heavily. Which stopped as quick as it started. But it carried on raining hard I was thinking do I stop and shelter till it eases but I also thought it could rain hard for hours so I persevered. I could feel the cold water around my groin and arse through my waterproofs it was so cold it felt like my waterproofs had leaked luckily they hadn’t \0/ but the water magnified the wind chill and I felt really cold.
That was the last of the rain during the ride but the strong wind remained and as I got closer to St Malo it felt that I wasn’t ever going to get there, it couldn’t come quick enough.
I also had to endure a force 7 ferry crossing and en-route there was an announcement asking for a motorcycle rider with reg No….. my heart sank believing my bike had been damaged as I didn’t see another bike waiting to board but thankfully it wasn’t mine another bike had gone over!!
All in all its been a pretty disastrous trip I had images of me riding Alpine passes in Austria and Switzerland and visiting quaint medieval towns in Germany not running from freezing weather conditions I am so gutted I had been really looking forward to it but I suppose you have to take the good with the bad.
I read that on the iPhone so couldn't see any photos; did you take any?
