Need tips & info; touring in Germany

[z92720]

Hello All,

I was presented a short notice opportunity to visit Frankfurt, Germany from 3/14/09 thru 4/04/09.
Taking a Garmin GPS and have the Cities of Europe (Germany) SD card coming in the mail.
Would appreciate some "experienced travel advice" on things to see/do plus advice on price, availibility and requirements for a 2-up BMW bike rental.

Thanks in advance!

David Stricker - Goodyear, Arizona
08 K1200LT

[DarrylRi]

Talk to Stefan Knopf! www.knopftours.com. He can rent you a bike and guide you in choosing where to go and what to see.

March is pretty early to head for the Alps, but the area west of Köln (Cologne) called the Eifel has great roads and the 23km long Nürburgring track that you can ride (technically, it's a one way, public, toll road with no speed limit).

Or, you could ride down to Bavaria and visit some of the tourist spots, which shouldn't be too busy right now. Neuschwanstein (Mad King Ludwig's castle), Schloss Linderhof (another of Ludwig's palaces, this one is smaller but more ornate), visit Munich and the just reopenned BMW Museum.

In two weeks you could really visit any area of Germany. As general advice, I'd suggest choosing 2 or 3 areas that interest you and then staying in each for a couple or three days. That way you don't have to unpack and repack every night, you become a bit more familiar with the area and perhaps can learn more about what you're seeing and what the locals are doing.

Distances are shorter, but you will find navigating, even with a GPS, is often complicated. Yes, there are stretches of autobahn without speed limits, but there is also terrible congestion around and in many of the cities. And once you're over holding the throttle WFO on the autobahn, try to stay off of it and ride the smaller country roads. (This is good advice here, too.)

Try not to visit McDonalds or Burger King. For two weeks you can survive eating and drinking what the locals do.

Bitte - Please
Danke - Thanks
Sprechen Sie englisch? - Do you speak English?
Entschuldigung - excuse me
Ein Bier, bitte - a beer, please
Wo sind die Toiletten? - Where is the bathroom?
Mein Bodenefektgeraet ist mit Aalen ganz voll - My hovercraft is full of eels

[franze]

I would follow Darryl's advice on renting the bike, don't re-invent the wheel. Regarding "options" you can pretty much count out any big alps passes: The webcam of Stelvio looks like that hotel in "The Shining".

http://www.alpineroads.com/passstatus.php

If your entire time in Europe is about two weeks, I would head to Spain or Italy. Why? Well, great roads, good weather, good food, good people. It's not a big deal to get from Frankfurt to Barcelona or Tuscany. The center of France is pretty flat and you won't hit snow all the way to the Med., especially if you happen to hit a week of Global Warming. If you don't know Beemerdons, a fellow Arizonian, I would look him up as he's a seasoned Euro-rider with a fondness for Spain. Hi Don!!!

I expect to see a ride report, WITH PICTURES!!!!. I don't know what you ride now but you should rent what you're comfortable with. Don't add an exotic/unfamiliar bike/handle bar controls/ seat height/ etc. to your experience. You will get enough stimulation with the road signs/money/language/ and menus. But mostly, you will have a great time. PM me if you have any questions/concerns, etc.

Oh, and because your from AZ, don't forget to pack some top notch rain gear!

best regards,

Paul Franze

[DarrylRi]

Yes, Spain or Italy would be great destinations!

I also want to make one other suggestion: if you're not into dealing with the traffic in a big city, you can take this approach: stay outside in a small village that is on a rail line. In the morning, walk to the station and take the train into town, then walk or use the subway/trolleys to get around and sightsee. If you try to ride in the big cities you will get frustrated at all the one way streets that have no visible street names and don't go straight, full of traffic. (The one advantage of a bike is that you can find or "make" parking just about anywhere.)

[dbrick]

Very good advice...but watch out for the eels.

[GlobalRider]

I would stick to the lower areas.

Try the Alsace region of France. No traffic, laid back and great motorcycling.

You could also take the backroads towards Salzburg.

Also, a quick run will get you down to Nice and a ferry over to Corsica. At this time of the year, the temperatures will be just right.

[CourtFisher]

David,

All the above suggestions are good, including Stefan Knopf as a possible rental source & routing advisor.

There are several BMW rental sources in the Frankfurt region:

Allround Vermietung (Peter Meisel).
+49/69 560092 0, fax +49/69 560093 20, meisel@motorradvermietung.de, www.motorradvermietung.de; Am Dornbusch 31, D-60320 Frankfurt, Germany
BMW Niederlassung Frankfurt Motorradcenter (Dimitrios Varvitsiotis)
+49/69 4036111, fax +49/69 403 6340; nl.frankfurt@bmw.de, www.bmw-motorrad-frankfurt.de; Hanauer Landstrasse 255, D-60314 Frankfurt, Germany
Bosenberg Motorcycle Excursions (Leon Heindel).
+49/671 67312, fax +49/671 67153; information@bosenberg.com, www.bosenberg.com; Mainzerstrasse 54, D-55545 Bad Kreuznach, Germany (Frankfurt; also Bern & Zurich CH).
Brunner touren & testen.
+49/9721 533569, fax +49/9721 533568; mail@tourentesten.de, www.tourenundtesten.de; Fischerrain 24, D-97421 Schweinfurt, Germany [ west of Frankfurt].
Knopf Motorcycle Touring (Stefan Knopf).
+49/6221 782913, fax +49/6221 786814; knopftours@aol.com, knopftours@t-online.de, www.knopftours.com; Buergerstrasse 21, D-69124 Heidleberg, Germany. (Frankfurt airport pickup)
Motorrad Senger BMW.
+49/6142 68021, fax +49/6142 63600; info@motorrad-senger.de, www.motorrad-senger.de ; Eisenstrasse 26, D-65428 Russelsheim, Germany (6 mi Frankfurt airport).

[Above info is usually available on this MOA website, but website is currently be updated]

have a great ride:)

[porterjet]

Two and a half years ago I "had" to spend two weeks in Germany. Not my first visit so getting around was easy. It was during the World Cup and we had to stay well out of Frankfurt for a few days.
The people we dealt with found a small hotel right on the Mosul River in Traben-Trarbach. It's not to far from the Frankfurt-Hahn airport.
The Mosul is a fabulous valley, it looked like you could ride the entire way from Trier in the south to Koblenz which is where the Mosul merges with the Rhine without climbing out of the valley. The river doesn't start in Trier but that looks like a good mid-sized city to start or end with. Except for Trier and Koblenz it's nothing but small towns. A lot of Germany's wine production is in the Mosul valley.
I'd go back in a heartbeat.

[porterjet]

P.S.
It's been a wet, cold winter in Europe. I don't see that changing in the next two weeks. You could see snow even in the low areas of Germany and France. Leave your Arizona clothes at home!

[AKBeemer]

I lived in Germany for six wonderful years and I envy you. Weather could be an issue but it will be worth it to tough it out; good rain gear is a must. You could have a great time just putzing around Bavaria going from village to village, eating and sleeping in their small gasthaus, drinking the local beer and meeting the people. There are some great sights to see and many have been mentioned above, but focus on meeting the people and sharing some liquid bread with them. Also, stay off the Autobahns as much as you can; Germany has a great system of rural roads and they are far more fun.

On second thought, I don't see how you can pull this off without help; you are just going to have to take me with you.

[franze]

http://elcid.smugmug.com/photos/217639702_9XL4S-L.jpg

[womanridge]

Another suggestion is to take the "Romantic Road". It starts in the south, just west of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the city of Fuchen and travels north to Wurzburg, which is within approx 75 km of Frankfurt. Or you can travel the reverse, from the north to the south. All the road is off-autobahn and takes you through lots of historic villages and towns. A very pleasant ride. I took the road in 2005 and would love to ride it on a bike someday.
www.romantischestrasse.de

[z92720]

In reply to the Ride-Report, I'm a little late on my first one. I ride an '08 K1200LT I found on Craig's List last August 08.
I've been riding since the late 70s, mostly touring iron and had a break in 1999 when a little old lady in a Buick tried to knock me off my brand new pearl white Gold Wing SE 1500.
I took a hiatus from 99 to 09 and finally had to scratch the itch, so started looking for an LT. I live in Goodyear, Arizona and this 08 black LT was in Sarasota, Florida.
Well any self respecting tour bike rider wouldn't have it shipped, he'd fly down there and ride it back. So that's what I did.
There are several hidden stories in this trip, but suffice it to say, I did a LOT of riding.
Sarasota to Tampa the first evening with minimum safety gear (helmet, boots and a lite jacket). Tampa to Jacksonville the next morning was light rain and I sure was glad for the heated grips and seat. My next goal was the Olympia Moto Sprots distribution center in Ashville, NC. I had talked to the owner Ken, who said he would hook me up with the kind of gear I wanted. The dealers in AZ didn't have what I wanted, so that's how the plan developed. True to his word, he did me well...NEON yellow. No more old ladies running over me. My folks live in central Ohio, so that was the next leg. Some of the most beautiful roads in the US run from Florida to Ohio...just awesome. I rested up a couple of days and golfed with my brother, then it was back on the road west.
My wife and I rode a 78 Gold Wing from Ohio to Phoenix in the late 70s and I had convinced her to ride part way this time from her sistes's house in Kansas City. You can make good time on a motorcycle, but freeways get boring pretty quick. I found the bike, as comfortable as a touring bike can be, can wear on your backside. Fuel endurance on this bike was the best I ever owned, I could run 350 miles between fillups. Sore butt stops were about every 150 miles!
I made Kansas City in fine shape, visited a couple of days with relatives and we were off again westward bound. I would not recommend riding across Oklahoma and Texas in August...DANG its HOT and WINDY!! I might have ruined my wife for future rides.
Our plan was to overnight in Amarillo, Tx then cut across NW New Mexico to Ruidoso and overnight there with her relatives. This part of the ride worked out very well; temperatures were in the 80s, rural roads, very light traffic and wonderful scenery. We didn't want to leave Ruidoso, but we both had jobs waiting on us and limited vacation time. We were 450 miles from Phoenix and weren't interested in riding the super-slab any more than necessary. The last leg was through Socorro then an almost direct route west on SR 60 over the Continental Divide to Show Low, across the Mogollon Rim to Payson a short break then through Phoenix to Goodyear.
Everything went as planned untill we got to the Rim Country. Fantastic scenery, smooth riding with frequent rest stops an no trafic.
Everyone knows; All good things must end and so it was for us. Rains in the High Country can come at unexpected times and this was one of them. I had light rain gear for us, but this was no light rain and there was no place to get in out of it, so I rode with the emergengy flashers on ~45 mph for half an hour through the twisties and then another 20 minutes to Payson.
Time for a break and lunch. Well that storm followed us right into town, so we waited it out while enjoying a few tacos.
It was mid-afternoon, the rain had subsided and it was time to ride the 110 miles home. As we rode out of the mountains ~6000' towards the desert (Goodyear airport is 960' elevation) the temperatures really started to go up. In Payson after the rains it was a comfortable 80 degrees.
We were coming in from the east and when we got to Fountain Hills it was already 95 degrees, Tempe was 105 and by the time we got home to Goodyear it was 116 degrees, HOT!!
3700 miles, two hot and tired bodies. We did some travelin.

Germany is not looking too bad, but I will be prepared for the rain.

Best Regards and Safe & Happy riding!
L David Stricker
08 K1200LT

[unigobill]

Another suggestion is to take the "Romantic Road". It starts in the south, just west of Garmisch-Partenkirchen in the city of Fuchen and travels north to Wurzburg, which is within approx 75 km of Frankfurt. Or you can travel the reverse, from the north to the south. All the road is off-autobahn and takes you through lots of historic villages and towns. A very pleasant ride. I took the road in 2005 and would love to ride it on a bike someday.
www.romantischestrasse.de

+1 on Wuzburg and the area my wife and I were forced to send a month in '06 there, small guess houses and the art in the churches is somthing to see! oue most plesent surprise was the food at these small guess houses!!!:german

[VanFrederick]

You might consider the Black Forest with Freiburg im Breisgau as centerpoint. The the ride from Himmelreich (Heaven) through the Hoellental (Hell's Valley) to Titisee/Neustadt has one of the most renowned ascents Germany outside of the Alps, which I'd not suggest this time of year. The Black Forest has been warming over the past two decades (surprise!) and high snow and ice are rare, but you might get unlucky. You never know.

Freiburg features the only Gothic cathedral in South Germany to have been actually completed in the Middle Ages (the Cologne cathedral wasn't actually finalized until the 19th Century). It's a beautiful mid-sized town with a major university, and from there it's only a brief ride to Colmar, France and Basel, Switzerland.

Like I said, what's great about the Black Forest is that the mountains are geologically flat-topped and low, not peaked and glacial as are the Alps, so you don't get the elevations or extreme temperatures that you do elsewhere in Southern Germany. Also, this time of year you'll find people very happy to see tourists and travellers, as mostly they only get these during the high summer because winter tourists tend to stay in the high-population areas.

If you want to ride this time of year, in my opinion you're best off heading straight south from Frankfurt. You don't have time to do Bavaria and the 3-Country-Area of the lower Rhein valley you can comfortably hit 3 countries in 2 days.

I see you're already on your way...hope you're still online from Europe.

Good luck, V and B