Eifel Trip

First topic message reminder :


The Eifel is a beautiful semi mountainous region of Germany close to the Mosel and also has the Nürburgring in there. It's a national park much akin to Snowdonia or the Cairngorms. (please have a look at the link).
It's about a 3 or 4 hour journey from Calais to get to.

The German Site is holding their yearly meeting (much like our "Something for the Weekend" meets), at that location next year (2010) from May 13th to 16th (thurs through Sun).

Remember we had 10 of the Dutch riders come over to one of our Welshpool meets and what an international flavour that gave the whole weekend too.
Is it time for us to spread our wings as a group and return the trip ? . . . . albeit to Germany and not Holland.

Here is the LINK to the accommodation at the Hotel-Forsthaus (Hotel-Forest house).
This is a popular meeting on the German site so you'll need to be quick to get in on the group accomm or you may finish up looking for near by alternative guest houses. PM me asap if you intend to go on this trip so I can pass on your details to the event oganiser in Germany.

This event is the weekend before our Bishops Castle II so there's a slight clash . . . . sorry to ask for the choose between them both, but perhaps you could do both .

Who - How many are interested in making the trip to The Eifel and seeing what the other side has to offer ?

Please use this board to ask any questions and discuss the options and opinions . . . . .Cheers
Use the Sign Up board to , well sign up

Hey Ladies ;-)

It was GREAT that you visited our meeting! You are all pretty cool and totaly crazy!
You are allwoed to come next year ;-)

Hopefully you all got/get home without any problems!!

by erdnuss on Sun May 16, 2010 8:54 pm
Hey Ladies ;-)

Hmm. Just looking at the picture. I can't see any of our lot in drag but who know's what went on in the evenings.

Any stories?

Tony

I got home yesterday at around 6pm - safe, sound but a bit wet.

What a weekend. I won't lie and say it was fun, fun, fun all the way because it wasn't. The trip down on Thursday was not at all fun; it is 300 miles from the Eurotunnel in Calais to the hotel in Germany which should have taken 4-5 hours. It was soooooo chuffin' cold though that we had to stop every hour to warm up, for an hour! In the end we left the tunnel around 10 and got in at somewhere around 6? Can't remember now, but it was bloody good to arrive!

Things picked up after that. Once we'd got over the shock of the accommodation arrangements we showed the Germans how to use a bar ([cough] last to leave every night [cough]). The Friday ride-out was a bit damp in the morning but OK. A mix of roads, from perfect tarmac, switch-back hairpins and open corners to roads that would make a ploughed field feel smooth. We rode to the Nürburgring and around the surrounding roads, all full of people as there was a 24h car race on. The German T'Caters do like to rev their engines when they have an audience! Also, you have to see how the Germans manage the traffic to believe it. At any junction they don't simply drop off a marker, they park bikes across the road/roundabout etc to stop all traffic until the groups is through. And the locals put up with it. One small spill on Friday when the German Tel equivalent locked a front wheel in a town and went down - no injuries and the bike kept going.

Saturday saw better weather and some nice scenery - into Cochem and along the Mosel river. After lunch the weather brightened up and the roads were mostly empty and in good nick. We ended up back at the Nürburgring where there was another small spill - another slow-speed lack of concentration but thankfully no injuries or major bike damage.

Then we had the ride home yesterday. Tel (Oldcat), Trev (Sgtbash), Trev's brother (on a Tiger 1050) and I left around 10am. The weather was glorious and this made the ride home far more enjoyable. I had a momentary full-throttle run on a quiet piece of autobahn but at 130 mph the combination of cross-wind and luggage got the bike a bit out of shape so I left it at that. Our average speed was around 90 mph most of the way, but when we stopped for a quick lunch/fuel break in Gent we realised we had 1 hour to get to the Tunnel for our train, and it was 98 miles away. To give him credit, Tel (as leader) gave it a shot but we just missed check-in time for our train and caught the next one. It was fun trying though.

Then in the UK the rain came. I left the other three for my trip home and played a blinder. I stopped for fuel (somewhat earlier than I had planned - the previous high speeds had clearly made a dent in my tank range!) and thought it looked a bit gloomy so spent 10 minutes getting into waterproofs, putting my covers on my panniers etc. It paid off big-time as I rode through several cloudbursts.

There are many memories from the weekend, most of which will only mean anything to those that were there. Expect numerous caption comp pictures from Rosco.

Thanks to:
Tel - for setting it all up, taking us there and back, translating the lingo and generally making sure we were where we should be when we should be, despite having to leave Bea behind. Thanks too to Bea for insisting Tel should go - hope you recover well and soon.
Thundercat-club.de - for inviting us and making us so welcome (especially the last night!).
(Dirtbike)Dave, Ross(co), Tel, Trev, Dave (Trev's bro') - for going and providing the laughs (intentionally or otherwise)

Finally, to those of you who thought about going and didn't, next time, just go!

Well I'm home, left Rosco at Carlisle after a superb run up from Hull. Managed to clock up over 1500 miles in total. Did the go Karting before we got on the Ferry, was good and I even got the fastest lap of the race, much to Rosco's dissapointment cos he was 2nd slowest
What a weekend, Wealsey(Paul) has pretty much said it all.
Thanks to our German friends for allowing us to tag along and for making us feel so welcome.
Big thanks to Tel for organising the Brit division and for his translating.
Apologies again to Dave for my "what a plonker" moment.
Another trip to remember and it was great to meet such a cracking group of ppl Brits and Germans. My sides are still sore from all the laughing. The craic was brilliant.
Trev make sure Dave gets himself signed up on the site and hope to see some of you guys at BM.
The " What a plonker" T shirt will be there waiting. Just hope it's not my turn to wear it again!!

Sorry to take so long to post up.
Back home safe and sound.
Thanks to everyone who organised and everyone who came along and welcomed us.
The biker accomodation was excellent.
I love German food.
I love German scenery.
The rideout had precision built in. The German marker system is something I can't see translating into British rideouts however.
I will be playing catch up for a while at home but will get pics loaded up just as soon as I can.

Cheers
Rosco

Well best check in huh ! Apologies for the late/delayed post. But having abandoned the good lady on the day of her op to go on a jolly , I thought some TLC was called for rather than a mad dash to fire up the PC.

Me and Trev (sgtbash) got back home at about 8:30pm yesterday. Safe and sound if wet cold and tired.

Nice abridged write up by weasley (above), which as dave says covers it nicely.

The less said about the rooms and sleeping accomm the better , especially as I see spooning mentioned . Lets just say we called it "The Scottish" room

I appreciate the thanks, but for my part I thank you all for making the mammoth effort of coming along with me. Especially when the going got positively winter cold from Calais to the hotel at the Eifel and I could see the "just what the ****ing hell are we doing" look in eyes around the table of hot soup and coffee.
I didn't want to get back on the bike at that point either, but pauls moral boosting it's ONLY 80 miles to go spured us all on to the finish line that day.

Special thanks to our hosts for inviting us in the first place, for putting up with us and making us feel so welcome, as well too for all the fantastic organisation.

2011:
We have been invited to their next years meeting which will be in the Harz in eastern Germany (yes the former DDR). It is planned to be in june 2011.
So that gives those of you thinking you missed out on a good trip (and you did), the chance to look to the future and plan well ahead.
More details as I get them.

All the best
Tel

weasley wrote:Also, you have to see how the Germans manage the traffic to believe it. At any junction they don't simply drop off a marker, they park bikes across the road/roundabout etc to stop all traffic until the groups is through. And the locals put up with it.

That is because i was sure that nobody will be lost during the trip :idea:

Nice report, Paul

We have to thank you for doing that trip to Germany and giving such a special flair to our meeting
Even if there was the barrier of the language at the beginning this meeting shows that riding and drinking is an international language

By the way - when i first said that i am thinking about doing one of your meetings i was the only one of our (german) forum. But after meeting you many members are thinking about registering and visiting you
I think there is no need to say anything more :idea: