Harz mountains .....

DC

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Any one been round here ? Things to do , see etc . Thanks in advance
 
No. You'll be a first.

You now have two choices:

1. Don't risk going to unknown lands.

2. Go and, like some modern day Marco Polo, return to report on the wonders you have discovered.



Sweet Jesus, are people so idle, scared and lacking in imagination that they really cannot find out anything about anywhere, without posting a 13 word appeal on an Adventure (with a capital A) motorcycle site? Here's a nice pre-made tour that'll take all the effort out of it: http://www.mcitours.com/tours_detail_selfguided/?tourid=S06

Just by typing the single word Harz (12 words less than your appeal) into the site's Search box turned up:

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/405876-Louis-Moto-German-tour-routes?highlight=Harz

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/196668-Harz-Mountains?highlight=Harz

Typing Harz great motorcycling (10 words less) into Google, turned up: http://biker-hotel-harz.de/en/guided-tours/ which if nothing else gives you a 'biker friendly' hotel, a guide (or at least a help with, if you don't want to be guided) the thousands of great roads to ride.

By trying this sticky (created just for bods on this site)

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/416452-Germany-calling

You'll be able to get with just a little effort to:

http://kurvenkoenig.de/motorrad/harz.html

With no less than 12 routes. Yes it's in 'foreign' but it's not impossible to work out.

Enjoy your holiday, mate :beerjug:
 
No. You'll be a first.

You now have two choices:

1. Don't risk going to unknown lands.

2. Go and, like some modern day Marco Polo, return to report on the wonders you have discovered.



Sweet Jesus, are people so idle, scared and lacking in imagination that they really cannot find out anything about anywhere, without posting a 13 word request on an Adventure (with a capital A) motorcycle site? Here's a nice pre-made tour that'll take all the effort out of it: http://www.mcitours.com/tours_detail_selfguided/?tourid=S06

Just by typing the single word Harz (12 words less than your appeal) into the site's Search box turned up:

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/405876-Louis-Moto-German-tour-routes?highlight=Harz

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/196668-Harz-Mountains?highlight=Harz

Typing Harz great motorcycling (10 words less) into Google, turned up: http://biker-hotel-harz.de/en/guided-tours/ which if nothing else gives you a 'biker friendly' hotel, a guide (or at least a help with, if you don't want to be guided) the thousands of great roads to ride.

By trying this sticky (created just for bods on this site)

http://www.ukgser.com/forums/showthread.php/416452-Germany-calling

You'll be able to get with just a little effort to:

http://kurvenkoenig.de/motorrad/harz.html

With no less than 12 routes. Yes it's in 'foreign' but it's not impossible to work out.

Enjoy your holiday, mate :beerjug:

In addition to the good and helpful reply above can I add that I have been to the Harz Mountains - great area, great roads. We stayed at http://www.pensionroseneck.com and enjoyed it very much. The town of Bad Lautenberg is large enough to have a good selection of bars and restaurants and is well situated to make it an ideal centre for a few days stay
 
If you want some historical stuff, and not just biker roads, then I can recommend the WW2 prisoner of war camp and V2 rocket forced labour camp which was built in nearby caverns.

I cannot think of the name at the mo

But the Harz are highly recommended
 
Again, OP, Google is your friend:

http://www.subbrit.org.uk/sb-sites/sites/n/nordhausen/index.shtml

Tripadvisor rates it well.

Yes, I know, Paul could have done that but he, like you, is busy. I'm not, I'm waiting for a phone call from Sweden. It's your lucky day.


Whilst I was troubling the Google server, I thought I'd ask it for:

Harz mountains things to do and see

Not least as it formed part of your 13 word enquiry. Bingo!

http://www.lonelyplanet.com/germany/harz-mountains/things-to-do The Dora site is number one on their list.

http://www.uncommon-travel-germany.com/harz.html

http://www.thisisharz.com

There were lots more. Disappointingly for any Marco Polo dreams you might have been harbouring, it's clear that you'll not be the first and will (hopefully) not be the last to hoon their awesome steed (or wobbled off a Saga Holidays coach) to the land of witches and the former Stasi. But never mind, crack-on and write a full trip report when you are back, listing hotels, roads ridden, links and lots of pictures... Bods like pictures. It could well become the de-facto point of reference for UKGSer and, who knows, the entire worldwideweb.
 
The name of the camp above is Dora mittelbau, i can recomend the harz region we were there last year, realy nice spot with lots to see and do, great roads well surfaced mostly, and also a good central point for other places like Colditz and Belsen if thats your thing.
 
The name of the camp above is Dora mittelbau, i can recomend the harz region we were there last year, realy nice spot with lots to see and do, great roads well surfaced mostly, and also a good central point for other places like Colditz and Belsen if thats your thing.

+1 on this. I was there with a group in 2013. Camp Dora / Nordhausen is astonishing, an underground factory created by slave labour. If you're into WW2 history, Nordhausen is where the V1 and V2 rockets were built and you could combine a trip to the Harz with a visit to Eperlecques bunker from where the V2s were launched against Britain (it's not far from Calais). Goslar is an attractive old town and there's the historic Rammelsberg Mine Museum nearby where you can travel underground and see winding engines and shafts that date back '00s of years. All this plus plenty of nice twisty roads and an historic steam railway too.
 
The ski jump to nowhere is perhaps worth a small detour. Scroll down in this (reasonably) interesting article:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/d...ermany-fairytale-highs-in-the-Harz-Mountains/

You could maybe also take in a museum where bits of the Iron Curtain (it stretched from the Baltic to Hungary or beyond are preserved. Riding around the Harz, you may well come across pieces of it, or at least evidence of it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museums_of_the_inner_German_border

If you want and easy read (though the stories are maybe unsettling) about what life was really like under Communist rule and the Stasi for many of the people you'll see and places you'll visit in the Harz area, give this a go:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Stasiland-Stories-Behind-Berlin-Wall/dp/1847083358

If nothing else, you'll see how far from a police state we live in.

PS If you pass a rural farm, the dogs are not frightened by awesome steeds and they bite like hell, trust me.
 
Ha ha ha Wapping you make me laugh , thanks for all your info and from others too

I actually put Harz into the search and got zero , then I went to the Germany forum , north Germany and got sod all

Yes I've googled all the roads and done some research , the V rocket factory is on the list of places I'm going . Think there's a U boat museum around there too

End of August trip is planned for so plenty of time as yet to prepare

Thanks again :beerjug:
 
....... the V rocket factory is on the list of places I'm going . Think there's a U boat museum around there too

It's a long way from the sea to the underground factory in a Harz mountain.

I think you might be muddling up one of the rocket sites on the Baltic, perhaps?

Enjoy your trip.

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Peenemunde on Usedom Island on the Baltic coast has a replica V2 rocket and some of the original buildings from the WW2 era. The whole facility is spread out over a large area and much of it (e.g. the rocket test firing & launch facility) on the far side of the old airfield is closed to the public. The museum has some interesting artifacts but is nothing special. The area has pretty much returned to nature with lots of stuff hidden from sight on the island - that and the warning signs about no entry due to unexploded ordnance (mostly probably courtesy of the RAF).

There is 1960s USSR submarine moored in the harbour at Peenemunde which is worth an hour. Missile launchers on the rear deck rather than stowed vertically as in the more modern boats. I think thay had to surface to launch the missiles.

PS If going to Mittelbau Dora V rocket site. Check the opening days & guided tour times. Museum is open but the guided tours inside the tunnels and mountain don't operate on Mondays. Guess what day I turned up??
 
Peenemunde on Usedom Island on the Baltic coast has a replica V2 rocket and some of the original buildings from the WW2 era...... Guess what day I turned up??

Many thanks ..
 
Just for info, the Roseneck as was, is no more, Greig and Jackie have packed it in and are looking at starting an operation up in Spain. They've sold the hotel to a local, so still probably a great base for the Harz, but maybe not the same atmosphere. You'll have no problem finding anywhere to stay though.

Kyffhauser is a great road to ride if you get a quiet midweek day, can still get a brattie for 1 euro at the cafe at the top as well :) The Border Museum is worth a visit to with excellent roads inbound and outbound http://www.grenzmuseum-sorge.de/ Morbidly there's a white cross on the hillside marking the place were the last person was killed trying to escape to the west on that side.

It's a nice area the Harz, and you can easily take in places like the Mohne, Eder and Sorpe Dam's on the way of "Dambusters" fame. In the region, Wernigerode and Quidlenburg are places you'd probably want to take in, Blankenburg is a great bike road on the way, you could even hop on the steam train and chug up the mountains.

Herr Wapping has given you all the information you'd ever need though. Enjoy the trip, I'll be passing through in a couple of weeks myself.
 
thanks for that Tony ….will check out the roads you mention, and also thanks to Waoping as well ..too much information now !!
 
thanks for that Tony ….will check out the roads you mention, and also thanks to Waoping as well ..too much information now !!

If you fancy a brew, I've got plenty of maps you can borrow, including the Harz "Biker" map, and a load of gpx files for Garmin if you want Dave.
 
If you fancy a brew, I've got plenty of maps you can borrow, including the Harz "Biker" map, and a load of gpx files for Garmin if you want Dave.

you are the man …might be popping over again soon :beer jug: thank you
 
Looking for Euro Trip Number three for this year I was thinking of the Harz Mountains, I too thought I might be the first biker to venture here, but a quick forum search threw this up.

I was wondering if the OP ever got there (and back) and if so was it a delight :nenau

I already have two weeks in the Alps, a long weekend in the Ardennes and am looking for a 5-6 day trip in Autumn with a few mates.

The Harz comes up as about 2 days each way for me as by the time I get to Calais it will be almost lunch time. I am rather hoping a quick dash to somewhere around Spa on the way out for the first night will give me a nice route, basically this is a straight line from Cologne to Kassel on back roads, with no Street View in Germany I have less to go on than is often the case these days. The way back is looking like a straight line from Kassel to Bitburg.

I have made the assumption that once in the Harz the roads will at least be a match for the Black Forest / Ardennes and hopefully may be even better (not much point asking too much advice as opinions will vary) but I have not seen anyone show anything other than praise for the Harz, plus we will be a bit out of season so hopefully avoid hordes of bikers (and the Police they attract) and backpackers, cyclists, caravanners, camper vans and all the other people who inconsiderately clutter up my roads.

Of course opinions of the Harz are welcome, but more than anything I am asking if my second / second to last day crossing German Countryside is likely to be pleasant as if this is just a boring trudge (like many of the back roads in Northern France) then 4 days of a six day trip might be a bit crap, and maybe I would rather re-visit the Ardennes or go to the Vosges as they can both be reached in a day, or ad an extra day and just bugger off back into the Alps again.
 

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