Chairman's Blog

Five bikes from Goldwings North Wales went on the Germany trip this year.

The destination was the Harz Mountains region.

I had read accounts from Germany bikers, and indeed many British bikers, who commented on the quality of the roads and scenery in the area, together with some historic towns full of old-time character to visit.

The area was the boundary between the old East Germany and West Germany with the border zig-zagging through the region.

I gave the details of the proposed holiday to members of Goldwings North Wales and four other couples gave their indication of interest enough to book the holiday

We chose to travel across from Hull to Holland then cross country to Germany and eventually to Bad Lauterberg where we were booked into a biker hotel for 2 weeks. Bad Lauterberg is on the South West edge of the Harz Mountain region.

We met up on day 1 at the Chester Services meeting spot, 3 GL1800, 1 GL 1500 and a BMW K1200LT (but we wont say too much about that except to take the mickey out of Ed).

The couples were Nigel and Joanna, Ian and Val, Dave and Elaine, Ed and Ann, and finally Jan and me.

We had a nice gentle trip across to Squires Cafe for lunch then carry on to the ferry port at Hull, where we were soon loaded onto the ferry and the Wings tied down.

We had all booked 4 berth inside cabins, but it was not to be 4 berths cabins for all of us. Our cabin was a bit noisy, we were in the centre of the ship and from the noise and vibration we were probably over the engine room, but at least the room was a 4 berth.

Ian and Val were allocated a 2 berth with bunks, and one of them was not level. Unfortunately all attempts to resolve the issue with staff on the ship were fobbed off with the comment that all complaints were to be referred to the head office. They would not even be allocated an alternative room as the ship was full.

The following morning we had an excellent breakfast on board the Ferry and then set off across Holland in nice weather on the longest leg of the journey, Rotterdam to Bad Lauterberg.

The journey to Bad Lauterberg was straight forward though a bit boring as it was mostly Autobahn.

Countryside was good in parts and featureless in parts (especially in Holland). The flatter parts were only given highlights when Audi cars or Porsches went past at warp factor 3, or what I thought was the fastest car of the day went past – a Jaguar – at about 160 mph or so it seemed.

After a rather long day with many stops for the loo, coffee, burgers and fuel, we arrived in Bad Lauterberg at our hotel at about 6.30pm.

We had booked a meal at the hotel for the first evening and we settled in for our holiday.

We managed over the next two weeks to visit and ride nearly every road in the Harz mountain range. The roads are very good and, in the main, very quiet, except at weekends, with plenty of German bikers enjoying the roads which gave a good mix of twisties and roads to make progress.

Many villages and small towns in the Harz area were like ghost towns, though it was obvious that there were many people living around the area. We rarely saw anyone in the street, unlike in the UK where it is rare to pass through a village without seeing signs of activity.

It was noticed that more than the usual number of houses were unoccupied throughout the area.

We were told by our hosts at the hotel that many houses were abandoned by families who escaped to West Germany and as yet nobody has come forward to reclaim the abandoned houses. It was also a fact that the population of Germany as a whole is shrinking steadily so these abandoned houses are likely to remain so for sometime to come.

We also visited Uslar where we called in at the biggest Goldwing dealers we have ever seen – Goldwings Haus Fuchs. It was eye candy for the Wing owners!

This dealership had more Goldwings for sale in one place than you can imagine but not one was brand new as far as I could see (though I stand to be corrected on that).

There were numerous Gl1500 and Gl1800 models for sale with many having been treated to a ‘paint’ job particular to this dealership.

To top it all, at the time of our visit to Fuchs there was a rally of German GoldWing Trikers to the premises and there was literally no places left to park.

If anyone is passing close to Uslar (within 100 miles) it is worth diverting to the dealership to see the Wings in stock. There is also a large trike showroom at the dealership which is spectacular.

The only point I would mention is that the Wings and trikes were expensive when compared to prices at home, so don’t expect any bargain bikes there.

The highest mountain in the Harz range is the Brocken which is 3,743 ft high, which is comparable with Snowdon at 3,560 ft.The summit can be reached by a steam train or on foot.

Being Wingers we took the train option, which was quite expensive, and not as good as I had hoped, as the views on the 2 hour each way journey up and down were spoilt by the very extensive forestry which surrounds the railway line up to the last few hundred metres.

It also didn’t help that half the German population (or so it seemed) had decided to visit the Brocken on the same day and the train was rather busy!!.

The summit of the Brocken was very busy but did enable us to see across the large flat plain which starts to the east of the Brocken.

The Brocken has a very large radio antenna and old East German listening post from the Cold War days, with the border running in the valley between the Brocken and Torfhaus, which was also blessed with a large radio antenna and a listening post for the West.

Aside from radio masts, the Brocken was also home to billions of wasps and other flying insects so we all decided to return on the next train down after having grabbed a spot of lunch.

Bad move! It appears that after that train there is a gap of a couple of hours before the next train goes down to Wernigerode where we had parked the Wings. The queues of people waiting for the train was incredible and reminded me of some of those film I have seen of trains in India.

After discreet use of elbows and size 11 boots, I was able to get seats for the journey down from the Brocken, but this might have been a bit of a mixed blessing as the temperature in the carriage was very high. Once in a seat we were unable to get out of it until after a large number of people had got off at several of the stations on the way.

Out of the carriage window the view again was absorbing, but only if you are into tree-watching!.

Ian and Val took a day out to visit Colditz Castle, scene of the TV series made following the exploits of P.O.Ws at the war-time prison camp.

For some reason it is only the British who have an interest in the place as the locals are not really aware of the history of the place other than its use as a war-prison.

Ian can now relate to the box set of DVDs he had of the Colditz story.

We visited the City of Kassel which Ed had been recommended to visit. He was ride leader for the day and we had a great time visiting one very large water feature, the Herkules Monument, which sits on a ridge overlooking Kassel.

The monument is a visitor attraction as it is a fine building to look at, but it is really a large water tank which supplies water for the fountains and waterfalls.

We were not lucky enough to see the water running but it was a really nice place to visit.

This was also the day I ordered a hot-dog in German and received sausage stew instead – much to the amusement of everyone when I walked out with it.

We discovered that the Harz Mountain area, and I suppose many other areas in Germany as well, really do close down on a Sunday.

It was rather weird, after the Sunday trading laws in the UK, to visit a country where shops are all closed and Sunday trading does not take place. Full Stop.

We were particularly lucky to find a small transport type cafe open for our late lunch as most were closed. Even during the evening not all restaurants or cafes were open.

We managed to keep Nigel happy by finding a set of tight bends for him to scrape his pedals in both directions.

He enjoyed it so much he returned a couple of days later to play on them again.

A few of us took a guided trip around the region courtesy of our landlord, who was a very fast rider, even though I requested him to leave his fast bike behind and use his slower machine.

He managed to take us along some rather fine country roads and to some nice view points and along roads we would not have visited without his guidance.

Ian and Val did not stay for the full holiday as Val needed to get back for her business.

It must have been fate that put them in the same cabin on the ferry back -and the bunk had not been fixed.

Just goes to show that nobody listens to complaints anyway.

While the ladies were busy sorting a few things out at the hotel, Dave L and I took the opportunity on the last free morning to visit the museum of the Border crossing just outside Dudestadt.

This was quite a sobering experience, and bought home to me how lucky we were not having had to suffer the likes of the Iron Curtain.

It was quite obvious on our rides around the area where the border points had been situated and it was often quite visible to track the border due to a large wide swathe of overgrown grass in many parts of the area, where local farmers had not reclaimed the extra land.

I found the area to be very interesting and varied. It was worth the time to visit and have a good look around, though next time I might look for a bigger hotel, with a few more facilities, if we plan to stay for as long again.

All in all a nice holiday with good scenery, reasonable weather and great friends.

As usual Nigel has put all the photos in an album for you all to see here

Dave T