Euro Ramble 2004

Tuesday - The lost boys

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After an really excellent buffet breakfast we went out on deck, it was dull and windy. The weather until Thursday was forecasted to be good, and after that it was anybody's guess.

Dave, Patto & Ian

There was no particular goal today, and nowhere booked for the night. I had a few Hein Gericke motorcycle clothing shops logged into the GPS, so I set a route for Hein Gericke Aachen just inside Germany.

After disembarking the ferry, we headed for the E34 road to take us toward Aachen. We had travelled just two miles before we had to stop for a lifting road bridge. Half a mile down the road on the left was a similar bridge, we figured by the time we got there, this bridge would be down and ours raised, so we waited and a small queue began to form behind us.

After ten minutes the boats passed, but they hadn't lowered the bridge, despite the fact another bridge had been. Everyone U-turned and headed for it sharpish.

A few miles further on we lost Ian. It was my fault, we all needed fuel but we hadn't seen a single filling station on the E34. The GPS said there was one four miles off the main road so I routed to it. The turn came up very quickly, and Ian couldn't make the turn in time due to flow of traffic, he diapered down the E34 duel carriageway with no easy way to turn back.

It was a huge relief when he rejoined us later after finding a fellow biker who showed him where to refuel.

Later in the day; Phew! it started getting warm.

We arrived at Hein Gericke Aachen at 4 o'clock and it was sweltering! We all had a good look around the shop, feeling that on the whole clothing was generally cheaper but helmets roughly the same price as in the U.K. David and I each bought a pair of Summer Air Gloves for €24 (£16) as it was so hot. They proved to be a real boon in the days to come.

Ian and Patto enjoying the sun

A sobering sight in the later part of the day were the WWII concrete tank traps strung across the fields, I would have stopped to take a picture, but I didn't want to be left behind!

We asked the staff in Hein Gericke if they could recommend a place to stay for the night and were recommended a hotel in Monschau 20 miles south of Aachen. As it turned out, Navigating to it proved to be...er, fun!

The GPS went mad, trying to routing us around an uneven edge of mapping segment, and eventually took us completely off road when all we needed to do was stay on the B258 south!

Pink:                      Detailed mapping tile

Green:                   GPS base mapping

Dotted white line: Our route south

As the GPS was letting us down, common sense prevailed and we followed the road signs instead! Arriving in Monschau, we found the town to be beautiful, but the cost of accommodation was simply too much for us. I'd forgotten the name of the gastehaus anyway! So we travelled two and a half miles further down the B258 to a little town called Höfen and stayed at the Gastehaus Zur Post. It would have been difficult to find a better place for us to stay as the gastehaus had good rooms, superb food and beer and all at reasonable prices, too! It couldn't fault it.

Ebbo struggling with a German menu at the Gastehaus Zur Post.

The second day's map with 238 miles travelled.

Quite an eventful day, and one where we could have done without the GPS running out of detailed mapping! Oh well, perhaps tomorrow would be better.

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