Germany 2000
Well, surprise,
surprise - it's raining! But it is time for our annual trip to foreign parts.
Germany this year, and with my wife, 10 other bikes and 14 people in tow, we set off
from the BMW showroom on Saturday afternoon, 7th October. The trip to Dover was
unremarkable as was the crossing. the first meeting point for us to re-group was
just outside the terminal. unfortunately, there were only 2 other bikes so we
set off onto the motorway heading for Ostend. We bumped into 4 more bikes and
carried on. No-one saw the sign that said there was no petrol on the motorway.
After travelling at 50mph through France and into Belgium to try to conserve fuel
and allow the others to catch up, we pulled off the motorway and headed into a
town to try and find fuel. The first garage was closed (this is at 7.30pm!) a
card machine was attached to the pumps but it only took certain Belgian fuel
cards of which we had none. I tried out my pigeon French on a waiter in an
adjacent restaurant who suggested I go to Bruges 60 km away to get fuel! There
was no way that any of us could have travelled that far without walking a
considerable part of it so plan B was put into action. This involved heading for
the hotel near Ostend at 50 mph. If someone should run out of fuel then we would
worry about it then! I must admit that it probably wasn't the best plan that I
had ever come up with but I was riding the K1200LT which can do about 50 miles
more on a tank of fuel than most other bikes so I figured that I wouldn't be the
first to run out! As we took the exit off the motorway we saw a petrol station
and pulled in. It was 9.30 by then and the garage closed at 9.00. However,
seeing 7 bikes pull up, they opened and saved our day. Just a short run to the
Groenedijk Motorcycle hotel now, but everyone following me decided to go
straight on when I turned left, so I was the only bike to find it. It was 10
O'clock by then and the kitchen staff were supposed to finish at 9.30 but hung
on until, miraculously, the other 10 bikes turned up a short while later.
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If you have never
stayed at the Groenedijk, or even heard of it, then it's an experience not to be
missed. All the bikes are ridden into the large warehouse/hotel and parked
inside overnight. All of the rooms overlook the parking area, so security
couldn't be better. Food and drink is of a superb standard and the atmosphere
was excellent. Unfortunately,
a couple of our party decided to try a few too many Trappist beers and were
looking a little worse for wear as we left in the pouring rain. Riding
through a rather damp Belgium, brought us to our lunch stop in Spa. |
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A pretty
town, famous for the race circuit. During a wonderful lunch, the rain stopped
and the sun came out until it was time to move on towards Germany when the rain
returned with a vengeance. The fine twisty A roads became rather slippery and as
we approached Bonn, it started getting dark and we managed to lose half of the
bikes. After an hour of U-turns in Bonn I spotted a police station and managed
to get a police escort to the hotel. The rest of the group turned up over the
next 45 minutes looking very wet and feeling rather sorry for themselves. This
was definitely the lowest point of the holiday. A meal in the local Turkish restaurant
did little to dispel the gloom and we trotted off to bed praying for better
weather tomorrow.
When
we got up on Monday morning, it WASN'T raining! We left Bonn and headed south on
the motorway. I was glad to see that the state of the roads and the number of
roadworks was no better than British roads. The lunch stop in Karlsruhe brought
us headlong into a drunk German who seemed quite happy that Germany managed to
beat England in the football a couple of days before and kept telling us
throughout lunch - I managed to keep myself from mentioning the war!
The wind had picked up
overnight and the twisty roads from Freudenstadt to France were quite
treacherous. Once into France, it was a couple of hours up the motorway to the
Camponile for our last night. A good meal and some wine soon saw Wednesday turn
into Thursday and we were off towards Calais to catch the ferry home.
Unfortunately, the wind hadn't died down which made for an eventful crossing for
some! Back in England we found out about the flooding that had happened over the
previous few days and I, for one, was glad to see my home again.
Overall, the Germany trip was
enjoyed by all, we experienced a few new things - whether that be new hotels or
leaky boots! If you fancy joining us on one of our adventures, let me know
and I'll put you on our trips mailing list. It only remains for me to thank
everyone who came for making the trip as much fun as it was.
