Suggest a route

On Friday morning I'll be riding, with friends, from Rotterdam to
Mayschoss with a view to attending a wine festival and revisiting the
Nurburgring.

Last year I just followed my satnav, which led me, via motorways,
across then down, crossing the border near Venlo. This meant we headed
down the wrong side of the border for an extra 30 or 40 miles before
benefiting from the autobahns. On the way back we headed more towards
Nijmegen with a view to do more miles in Germany.

This year we fancied a more interesting route. We toyed with the idea
of going via Koln but decided against it. As we all have soft luggage
we wouldn't want to wander far from the bikes and there didn't seem to
be much point in going to the city without having a mooch about.

So, could anyone recommend a scenic route that wouldn't add hours to
the journey? The Tomtom quickest route is 204 miles in 3 hours.
Avoiding motorways goes to 198 miles but 7 hours. Basically we'd like
to enjoy the journey, not just mile-munch, but still get there early
enough to enjoy the first part of the festival. A bit of nice scenery
and some bends would do.

The quick route is shown here:
http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?daddr...l=51.265352,6.38855&spn=2.447355,5.603027&z=8

http://tinyurl.com/rotterdam-mayschoss

 

:

The route from Rotterdam is pretty uninspiring for most of the way,
whichever route you take.

Personally, I'd blast down the motorway to the hotel. Dump the luggage and
then go out for a blat around the Eiffel Mountains.

If you want to make the last few km put a smile on you face, head for
Blankenheim and then follow the 51 & L165 Provinzialstrasse into Mayschoß.
This only adds about 45km to your journey but will cheer everyone up.

 

Get a Michelin map, look for roads with green lines. Use as many as possible.

Keep valuables like passports, bike docs and money in pockets, bum bag. If someone wants to steal your dirty underwear, who cares ? Go buy some more.

In all my years of travelling (mixture of soft and hard luggage) I have not had any luggage interfered with. I also usually leave my helmet on the rear view mirror.

As I said, look at the map, pick good looking roads. Then mix and match motorway and non-motorway. Getting there should be more fun than arriving.

 

In which countries ? (can't be arsed reading it, blogs are bastards to
follow due to being backwards)

I've done a lot of Europe, and the USA, never a problem.

However, I would expect to hit issues in the "stans" (as I will in South
America), and would then take precautions, like not having valuables in
npanniers (as mentioned). I would take locking side panniers, or top box
minimum. I would also take more care over where I left the bike, my
preference if I cannot lock it away is to have it in full view.

The point I am trying to make is that people should not overly worry about
theft from the vehicle, and if it does happen.. so what? That is what
insurance is for if it is a valuable item, otherwise just replace it and
get on with things.

You have more chance (IMO) of theft in the UK, but people relax more at
home for some strange reason.

More than 99% of people are not thieves, muggers, murderers. Try to meet
those ones.

 

He seems to be a bit of a mugging magnet. A disaster magnet in general,
actually.

 

Some people just go looking for trouble

 

Cheers for that. I'll have a look.

 

That's a wonderful new term you've got there. What does it mean?