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Eifel Mountains 2018


Bungleaio
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Sounds like another great trip lads! Gutted I couldn't make it this year, it's made me miss the Schloss though, I just love staying there. I remember the Romanian moonshine :shock: Definitely will be back in 2019.


The Eifel is my favourite biking region bar none, not the most scenic part of Germany (but in some parts it's stunning) but the roads were made for bikes.


Need to smash the B50 next year.

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I know I'm a bit slack with these updates but here's another one


Wednesday


The sun was out so after the usual bread overload it was time for some maintenance faffing


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Followed by some fuel faff


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I'm not sure where we went but the roads were fantastic again. It's hard to describe what it's like unless you've seen it yourself but it's a mix of Scotland and Wales with villages like the Cotswolds mainly joined together with tarmac that wouldn't be out of place on a race track.


We stopped at a place for lunch which had a bit of a reputation for a frosty service but she must have been happy that day as she was fine.


It's nice having a beer at lunch


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The food was spot on too


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I didn't want dessert but the peer pressure was strong


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I decided to leave the guys after lunch and go off on my own pace and get some photos.


There was a nice little river


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And when I was looking for where to go next I bumped back into the rest of the guys as they were being diverted due to an Umleitung.


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Yet another amazing deserted road


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and another. This is the photo I show people when they ask what it was like.


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I was the first back to the hotel. Mileage for the day was 145.


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Gerontious and Smallfrowne were back next


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Then there was quite a gap for the other three. We'd pretty much given up on them getting back for dinner but just after we sat down they appeared


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They weren't quite as full as the day before but sadly no more schnitzel.



Thursday


Not the brightest of starts, the view from the balcony in the morning


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Not to worry a healthy serving of bread meat and coffee later the rain really started to come down. I decided to have a proper day off the bike and get the bus to the bitburger brewery so off I went to find a bus. The other guys wanted to ride but were seeing what the weather was up to so I left them at the hotel. I wandered about a bit and found a bus stop, sadly as this is quite a remote place the bus service leaves a little to be desired, the service was every few hours rather than being every few minutes. I carried on with having a bit of a walk around the town and stumbled upon the tourist information.


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It's probably great if you speak/read German but as I don't it was useless to me. This area isn't somewhere us Brits go so they really aren't geared up for the English language. It's probably a lot better off for it too.


The town is immaculate though and even looks good when it's raining


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The only really odd thing I saw was this


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I kept quiet and slowly backed away.


My plan of getting the bus was out of the window but I still wanted to go to the brewery, the weather was improving so I got the gear on and went on the bike


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I got there in time for a tour but as it was only in German I declined, at least I'd finally made it. I was at a bit of a loss of what to do after that and Bitburg is a small place so I thought I'd go to Trier and have a wander around there, i didn't make it though as I caught up with the rain on the way so I turned around and headed back.


Despite me still not really achieving anything I was still enjoying myself and just went riding around with nowhere really in mind to go, I stumbled across a lovely little bakery in some random town


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As well as getting sort of completely lost and ending up in what seemed like the middle of nowhere


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I spent a while there just taking in the scenery but also realising that a couple of years ago I wouldn't have imagined that I would be here, let alone on a bike.


I headed back towards the hotel, these corners are near the hotel and were wonderful. They did provide a moment to the other guys later on though after someone dropped a load of oil on them.


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Whilst I was there something that we very rarely see in the uk, someone mowing the verges! Ours aren't even this short after they get mowed let alone before.


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Back to business though and I went to my natural habitat


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I picked up three beers which were all I could fit into my bag.


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Back to the hotel and the mileage for the day was the lowest for the week but still a fair few considering I wasn't riding at all that day.


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I like keeping my bike clean and seeing as most of my photos of the trip involved the bike I decided to give it a clean. I had packed some Vulcanet wipes so gave the bike a once over https://vulcanet.pro/shop/uk/home/10-vulcanetuk.html I did the obligatory stand back and admire your work whilst having a beer.


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I then spent the next hour or so sitting on the balcony enjoying the rest of the beer and listening to music. I tend to be on the go all the time when I'm at home so it was nice to actually do nothing for a bit.


The rest of the guys arrived back


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I can't remember what we had for dinner that night but Smallfrowne and I ended up in the pub, we met a chap that had been working in the afternoon, had a few beers with his mates in Belgium and then drove back to the pub to carry on. A nice bloke and was very proud of his Grandad who had turned on his own side during the war and shot a load of Nazis. It was him that brought it up not us!


We were also supplied with a few shots of some sort of concentrated bloody mary stuff, it was lethal.


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Edited by Bungleaio
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@smallfrowne That bike is simply class and I want one so bad :)

It's a great bike. I wanted one too until I went and sat on one and found out that my body doesn't fold up in the right way... if that bike was ever one for me, that day has long gone. :(

 

I tried sitting on it too. My heal was touching my arse, at that point I had a lot more respect for someone who chooses to ride such a torture device on a European road trip.

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Wednesday was our traditional day in Northern Luxembourg, somewhere I never grow tired of. small.. but perfectly formed with stunning tarmc for the most part. Lunch at the dutch owned Hotel Huberty at Kautenbach.. where we had a fair old diversion to get there due to yet another closed road.. but.. its one to look forward to next time. :mrgreen:

 

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Thursday began wet.. so we ummed and aahed and dawdled over breakfast. we have never lost a day to rain in the Eifel.. and didnt want to start this year. A quick look at weather sites told us that south was warm and dry.. and set to remain that way all day. So.. by 10am the rain was down to occasional drops and we headed south.. over the border into Luxembourg and then.. through the city. the 3rd capital Ive ridden through and the least painful. then on south and into France. I wanted to see the Douaumont ossuary.. which is a monument to the Battle of Verdun.. the biggest longest lasting battle of WW1 a slaughter that went on for 9 months concentrated in just under 8 square miles and achieved absolutely nothing. The Ossuary contains the bones of at least 130,000 french and german soldiers.. all unidentified. many of which were blown to bits. and the bones gathered together a few years later.

its an amazing structure.

 

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Lunch afterwards at the brasserie close by and then a rather sober ride through what is called "Zone Rouge" a lot of the land cannot be farmed as its been poisoned with arsenic... is full of unexploded ordinance.. which a 100 years later is still dangerous. as well as 1000s of undiscovered remains. Its classed as "unsuitable for human life". And it will take another 700 years to be cleansed and fully cleared. Villages that were erased from the map. 6 of which remain 'dead'... just a concentration of craters and a small chapel to show where they were.


anyway.. after that a ride back north into luxembourg and the hotel.. to listen with wide eyed wonder to tales of torrential downpours that we missed completely. :mrgreen:

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Such great photos and write ups. I can’t stop looking at the tarmac. Is it different tarmac to here, I mean is it a different mix from here? It looks so smooth.


[mention]Bungleaio[/mention] You took wet wipes with you to clean your bike? They look like good wipes but the tub must have taken up more space than your wash kit?!


[mention]Gerontious[/mention] I feel a bit ashamed I’ve not heard of these places. I don’t understand why I haven’t heard of them. I’m going to have a little read up.

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The germans take pride in their infrastructure, in their roads. When a road wears out, they are not content with taking the cheap route.. resurfacing. They dig the whole lot up and rebuild the road from scratch. They also bring in the utilities.. and so pipes and cables are examined and possibly repaired/replaced at the same time. So.. you will be very lucky to ever see a road being dug up by the local water company. or the gas board. or anything like that. if that were to happen.. they would be sued - by everyone. including the locals who would demand compensation for the inconvenience. consequently its in everyone best interest that when a road is replaced... its done properly.


The side effect of this is that the roads are generally stunning... like silk. Which is why we go back so often. we have two years there, then a year someplace else, then two years there. Its totally addictive. There is nothing like it in the UK.


last time "matts road" was closed.. so this time I made it a priority to return to it. the road.. for almost its entire length had been rebuilt and was absolutely fantastic.. we rode up it. next time we will do it in both directions. its just one of 100s of truly stunning roads in an area of over 3000 square miles. Much of which.. aside from the area around the Nurburgring. is totally unknown to the brits. our hotel never sees any.. aside from us. Its evident almost every where we go that they never or rarely see any brits. And so we are always treated very well..


the place is a gem.


as for not knowing places.. there is no reason why you should. The British were hardly involved in fighting in the region in either war. In WW1. it was mainly the French/Germans.. to the south of our base. and in WW2 - our area was the site of the battle of the Bulge, which was almost exclusively the Americans fighting the Germans. So..some really quite stunning American cemeteries.. with rather muted german cemeteries close by. and.. if you venture into Luxembourg and the Belgian borderlands.. you will see lots of American flags and small monuments.. as well as some huge ones to the Americans who fought over and liberated the area. In fact the only british thing we ever encounter on our week there.. is the Northampton tank we stop by at La-Roche-en_Ardenne.


 

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I find it hard to comprehend it’s a doable thing to dig up and relay the road and all the utilities. It’s a stark contrast from Goat mentioning the people on his American trip who are responsible for the road and drain because their house is serviced by it. Or that here there’s constant roadworks digging up patches of road and not even attempting to patch it properly.

Looking at the pics I’m surprised you haven’t moved there!


I’ve never viewed the losses of WW1 or WW2 as separated by nationality. Before you mentioned it above I’d never thought about only being presented with the atrocities that effected Britain. They were events of such a mind boggling and awful scale I always thought of them as something we shared with other the nations so we would have also shared what happened and where. A bit daft now I think about it, that all events would be presented equally. I wonder what else I don’t know.

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It's hard to describe the state of the tarmac with mere words. On the best roads, the ones that have been recently refreshed, it's silky smooth, rolled out like fresh pastry, and grippy as hmmm I don't know, grippy stuff. And there's not a stone or piece of grit to be seen, hardly even a lead. One road we went on was bordered by crab apple trees; but someone had come along and swept all the fallen apples off the tarmac and onto the verge. And this was out in the middle of nowhere - not even near a village.

Last year we were in France, near the Alps. There scenery is fantastic, and there's no shortage of hairpins, but the roads were shytier than here in the UK, and for me, it took the edge off the biking.

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The Vercors.. where we went and Le Camping Moto, where we stayed was great.. but the roads were patchy at best. many were truly awful and extremely dodgy. roads masquerading as rivers of gravel.. some that went on and on and on and on. It was very much a last minute decision to go there.. the original intention was to go to the Austrian Alps. But.. sadly the weather over that side was awful and so to the south of France we went following the sun and heat. our experiences there made a return to the Eifel an absolute joy. Theres no comparison. Its definitely made me think twice about ever returning to that part of the world again. Though I would love to try for the Austrian Alps sometime in the future.. even the Dolomites. But our next destination is pretty much settled. 2020 and we will be heading for the Pyrenees or perhaps the Picos.

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Jealous.... Just jealous.

What was the total cost and when is next year's trip people?

 

Difficult to pin down.. depends on how much you drink. and how far you are from the Tunnel.


the upfront costs were the channel tunnel crossing and our overnight stay at the Premier Inn or Travelodge at Ashford. I tend to get these out of the way in the early spring.

staying at Ashford means its just a 14 mile ride to the tunnel on the Sunday morning. we generally go for the 08:20 crossing.. so that means leaving Ashford soon after 7am.

For me.. this splits what is almost a 500 mile ride into two.. fairly easy days.


this year the Ashford hotel was about £60 and the return crossing £79. the hotel can be cheaper.. they do various offers throughout the spring/early summer.


The hotel we stay at costs €42 per night half board and including single room supplement. so.. €37 if you are happy with a single room. Half board.. huge breakfast and set 3 course evening meal. The food is spot-on. no frills.. home-type cooking. (very german)


This for the second week in September. crossing on Sunday 8th returning Saturday 14th


maybe up to €20 per day for lunch. snacks and a couple of drinks in the evening.


petrol for on average a 200 mile day. +/- (more for the outward and return.. the hotel is about 260 miles from the tunnel.)


so.. you should have change from £600. for the week itself. assuming you pay for the crossing etc in advance. £100 per day all-in is a decent ball park figure.. with cash left over for more drinks.


This year there was 6 of us.. the maximum Im happy with is 8. for various entirely selfish reasons. And.. at this point in time there may already be 8 going. I cant be sure of that at this point in time. It also depends on how many rooms are available when I make the actual booking and/or.. whether anyone simply wants to tag along.. but do their own thing once we are there. That is always an option.

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I once made the mistake of organising a week for 10 people and I wouldn’t do it again unless there was general agreement before leaving that everyone just does what they want, perhaps meeting in the evening for food.

It was just too many people to get going in the same direction at the same time and everyone be happy with it. Don’t know why eights fine and 10s not but I swore I’d never do it again!

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I have arranged a trip to France in the last week of April for the last five years, there are between 4 and 7 of us and it works well. They pretty much leave it up to me to pick the places and the hotels, I just send an email with all of the links. I must be doing something right as they keep coming back :shock:

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Don’t know why eights fine and 10s not but I swore I’d never do it again!

 

Its a nice round number and easy to manage.. also it makes our random lunch stops very simple. 2 tables for 4. means the options are pretty much endless. The places we stop at for lunch.. we tend to sit outside and its so simple when you see two tables free. Petrol stops are fairly quick. even if there is only 4 pumps at a small indie petrol station. All.. fairly practical reasons. I did 10 one year and it was hard work. very hard work. So, anyway, 8 may seem an arbitrary number.. but it works. I wanted 8 this year.. and once Bungle came on board I did ask a couple of people (including you) but.. for various reasons it was impossible. 2 regulars had already dropped out. still.. it worked. 6 of us.. was great. Bungle fitted in with the group from the get-go and caused us no problems at all. it was a joy to have him along and really opened his eyes i reckon. The region we go to is stunning and perfect for someone like him.. a new rider who had never been abroad before on a bike with a group of guys who were nothing but supportive. but.. it was also important that he was an independent spirit and knew his limitations. I spent the 6 months from him saying yes, filling him in on exactly how it pans out, So that by the time we set off.. we werent exactly strangers and he knew, pretty much what to expect.


The only link i sent him was the hotel we stay at.. so he could have a look. and a YT video that gave him at least some idea of what the region is like. only a hint. the reality is something else entirely. Sadly there is no 'streetview' in much of Germany so that wasn't an option.

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Gerontious really helped set the scene and make sure I was prepared as I could be. It still absolutely blew me away. Friday especially. I'll get the final bit written up soon, work is a bit manic at the moment unfortunately.

 


@Bungleaio You took wet wipes with you to clean your bike? They look like good wipes but the tub must have taken up more space than your wash kit?!

 

 

No I took four in a sealed bag. I only needed 2 of them, the whole tub would be overkill!

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I was pretty sore I wasn’t coming along as soon as I’d had to turn it down, now looking at the pics its even more of an ouch!

Hit upon a decent smooth piece of tarmac today which made me groan again at missing out, especially when because its the UK it was an anomaly and lasted a mere 100 metres!


The needing more than two tables thing makes it hard but what made it much harder for me is expecting everyone to be a grown up about some people wanting to do one thing and others something else. As if constantly staying clumped in a 10 was important. Which it is not. That’s one of the nice things about reading Bungleaio’s write up he had a good time and pleased himself.


[mention]Bungleaio[/mention] don’t apologise, we all have priorities, yours are just out of whack- where’s my fix? :lol:

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Jealous.... Just jealous.

What was the total cost and when is next year's trip people?

 

I reckon I spent £540 in Europe. That includes the hotel, petrol, meals out, drinks at the bar, everything. Then another £120 in the UK on petrol, a night in the hotel and dinner. Then it would be another £70 tunnel crossing, except I got some off with Tesco clubcard.

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Jealous.... Just jealous.

What was the total cost and when is next year's trip people?

 

I reckon I spent £540 in Europe. That includes the hotel, petrol, meals out, drinks at the bar, everything. Then another £120 in the UK on petrol, a night in the hotel and dinner. Then it would be another £70 tunnel crossing, except I got some off with Tesco clubcard.

 

I haven't bothered adding it up, I know I went though €500 in cash, 300 of which was for the hotel & bar bill. It was all very good value for money other than some of the petrol stations €1.72 per litre at one of them was a bit eye watering but I still got change from a €20 note after filling up so it didn't really matter.

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Its good value for money.. but no longer the stunning bargain it was. in real terms the price has increased by almost a quarter due to the dire value of the £. for years petrol in particular was about 20p a litre cheaper in Luxembourg. and usually a penny more than here in Germany. thats all gone by the wayside. Petrol.. in particular is now very expensive in Germany and this is made a whole lot worse when you convert the price into £. But having said that, its not going to put me off going again.

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Yes, it's amazing value for money.

I was also a bit taken aback by the price of petrol - it's a lot more expensive than I remember it from previous years. .... I now I've had to erase half of what I was writing about how much more petrol had risen in Germany than in the UK. But I made the mistake of looking for some facts to validate my argument. But I couldn't find any... because the facts actually told the opposite story. Looking at the period September 2016 to September 2018, the average price of petrol has gone up 17% in the UK (1), 14% in Germany, and 15% in Luxemburg. I guess I reacted to seeing the whole hike between one visit and the next, whereas at home I've seen the prices rise a penny at a time, which is a lot less noticeable.


1. UK stats: https://www.racfoundation.org/data/uk-pump-prices-over-time

2. Germany stats: https://www.mylpg.eu/stations/germany/prices#chart

3. Lux stats: https://www.mylpg.eu/stations/luxembourg/prices#chart

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