Journey to Poland & back, September 2010.

[kitty kat]

Two weeks ago now, Steve & I returned home from a sightseeing trip to Poland. This was not a tour of fantastic roads, but how to reach our destination easily. Maybe not everyone's cup of tea, but we enjoyed ourselves and saw places we wanted to visit at least once in our lives.
We had 2 weeks to reach our main goal - Auschwitz l & ll and return home.

We had specific things we wanted to see and the distance between many of these would have taken 7, 8 or 9 hours if we took scenic routes. As it was taking the fastest route sometimes took a good 5 hours. So there is little to say about the routes on this tour, just lots to say about what we saw and did.

Friday 3 September

I had the day off work, but Steve was doing half a day, gave me time to check and re-check that we had everything. The latest check-in for the Hull to Rotterdam ferry was 7.30pm,we were aiming to get there about 5pm at the latest and take our time getting there, with a stop off somewhere for lunch. We finally set off about 1.30pm, leaving my 17 year old daughter in charge of the house, 2 cats and 2 dogs for 2 weeks.
Route taken was M6 from Lancaster, onto M61, M62 towards leeds and onto A63 to the King George Dock at Hull. We arrived just before 5pm at the terminal, after a snack at KFC en route, we joined the queue, which mainly consisted of lots of sports cars (I am no good with car makes & models), not sure if there was something at Nurburgring for them over the weekend. We eventually managed to get past them and joined up with quite a few bikes at the front of the queue. It was in this queue that I realised despite my checks earlier, I had forgotten the paper part of my driving licence - fingers crossed I would not need it. We didn't have too long to wait until we were given our tickets and directed up the ramp to a further waiting area and finally we were instructed to proceed up the ramp onto the ship and park up in the designated bike lane and tie our bikes down for the crossing.
It didn't take too long and then we went to locate our cabin and have a shower and change out of bike gear for our time on the ship. We had pre-paid for all meals on board, so we headed off to the restaurant just
after 6.30pm and enjoyed an 'all you can eat' buffet. A wander around the ship followed as we set sail and we watched the docks gradually disappearing from view before settling down with a drink to watch the band play cover versions of popular songs, before we retired to the cabin for the night.


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Saturday 4 September

At 5.00am GMT (6.00am CET) we were rudely awakened by noise through the ceiling speaker. It reminded me of something from Hi-Di-Hi, but it did the job, we were both wide awake. Time for the buffet breakfast before making sure we had left nothing in the cabin and returning to our bikes. We docked at just after 8am and were off the ship by 9am, there were a lot of bikes on board and it did look good as we all disembarked and set off in the same direction. Gradually bikes peeled off and took different routes until eventually it was just the 2 of us heading to Nijmegen, Holland.
This holiday was to be a lot different from last year's, it was the destination that was important to us, not the route, we were sight-seeing quite a few areas that were heavily involved in WW2 and Nijmegen was heavily bombed by the Americans. We just wanted to ride through the town and then travel onto Arnhem in which the bridge there was the subject of the film 'A Bridge Too far'. We rode over the bridge, which has been rebuilt twice and is now called the John Frost bridge after the commander of the Paratroopers, on our way to the Mohne reservoir.
We passed through a small town and stopped off for a brew. We had a quick stretch of our legs before setting off agin to the Mohne reservoir.
This was our destination for the night, a campsite near the water. It took us a while to find the water, despite a sat nav and a few maps. We unintentionally rode some good roads and sort of just came across the reservoir. We managed to park the bikes on the pavement and headed towards the cafe for a drink before we walked across the dam featured in the film 'The Dambusters'. For those that don't know, it was the dam that was destroyed by the bouncing bombs, 16-17 May 1943, designed by Barnes Wallis.
We got talking to a couple of local bikers and they told us of a campsite at the top end of the water and, as it was getting into late afternoon we set off and secured a pitch overlooking the lake. A quick trip to the local supermarket (about 4 miles away) turned into a bike ride of over 15 miles as we tried to find our way back. Silly me, gave Steve the wrong directions, but we did have an enjoyable ride through the countryside.
Tea cooked, we sat at the tent and enjoyed our 1st evening watching the setting sun.

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Sunday 5 September

Up early, breakfast of sausage, bacon, egg & toast cooked on our little
camping stove. While we were eating several hot air balloons appeared over the lake one actually landed at the edge of the campsite. Once we had become bored of them we got everything washed & packed away, tent down and on the road by 9.30am. Next stop Berlin. Our aim was to have all Monday to explore, and just find a campsite today & relax for the evening. Steve has the TomTom Rider 2 so campsites were easily located - supposedly. We rode several times past Checkpoint Bravo on the main dual carriageway into Berlin and each time I managed to miss getting a photo. Eventually we managed to find one that wasn't too far from the city and next to a river. Tent up, time for tea. As there was a nice looking eating area near the water we decided to eat there tonight, we even had a beer each before heading back to the tent.
One thing we noticed about the site, it was on a fairly narrow strip of ground, with what looked like a military type of fence towards the back of it and old lighting which seemed to be illuminating the fence rather than the road that ran through the site. Never mind we would try and find out what was the other side of the site in the morning.

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Monday 6 September

Woke up to a dry day, not too hot, perfect for exploring Berlin. Breakfast over with and off to find Checkpoint Charlie. We past checkpoint Bravo on the way to the centre and right on the border there is a statue on the centre reservation of a very busy dual carriageway. It was only because I wanted a photo of the checkpoint that I saw it. It was a box-like plinth with the word Berlin engraved into it and a bear on the top. The bear is the symbol of Berlin, even the city's coat of arms has a bear on it. Using the sat nav it was easy to find the centre and we actually rode past Checkpoint Charlie & parked the bikes on a pavement not too far away. We decided to have a coffee before wandering off and discovered we were sat in East Berlin and if we had been there 22 years ago we would probably have been shot.
On the pavements either side of the road there are huge billboards, if you take time to read them they tell of the history of the wall and detail the escapes and attempted escapes from East to West over the 29 years the wall was in existence. The thing that surprised me was that right opposite the checkpoint is a MacDonalds cafe. I was going to take a photo of Steve at the checkpoint, but I was not prepared to pay €2 to use my own camera! We wandered around the area for a while, reading all the information, there is even a section of the Berlin wall outside a museum there. Well we had seen one section of the wall, now we wanted to see more of it.
Back on the bikes and we headed in the direction of the Brandenburg Gate. Bikes parked on the pavement outside the park that once was the shooting grounds of royalty and we walked over to the Brandenburg Gate. There were a lot of tour guides in the area so we found one that spoke English and tagged on the back of her group. We ended up at the memorial to the Jews killed in WW2. It is a large area filled with stone slabs that resemble grave stones. They are all positioned in straight lines, but some stones are vertical, others are leaning. Once in the middle of them it was quite eerie, quiet even though it is near a main road and there were a lot of people walking through it. We walked through to the cafes at the top end of the memorial and sat down to have a drink and work out where to next.
Back on the bikes and we decided to seek out the Wall that remains and the large section which is now known as the East Side Gallery. We had an idea where to go, but getting there was another matter. We ended up riding round in circles, until Steve shouted that some of the wall was over to our left. It was actually 4 sections of it stood in a circular grassed area in front of several large hotels. There was a road that we could have parked on but it was a one-way affair with the entrance very close to a set of traffic lights on a major junction. Several circuits of a large housing estate and we gave up trying to get to the road and just parked the bikes at the side of the main road.
If we hadn't we would probably still be there now trying to get closer to the remains. It was weird, 4 sections of concrete, about 12 feet tall, about 4 feet wide with a base that was about 4 feet deep. It was just 'there' surrounded by a main road and hotels. We were able to go up to it and touch it, take photos, noone walking past batted an eyelid at us and noone took any notice of it. It was as if it was just another sculpture in a park, but there was no modern graffitti on it, no vanalism at all. It was such a big thing to a lot of people less than half a lifetime ago, it seperated families, husbands, wives, parents, friends.
We walked past a few bus drivers on our way back to the bikes, we got talking to them and they gave us a map and told us how to get to The East Side Gallery. It was a good 20 minute ride from where we were as it was getting up to rush hour traffic. Thank goodness for TomTom, we arrived in one piece and parked up quite easily. The East Side Gallery is a large section of the wall, running between a busy main road and a large grassy area on the banks of the River Spree. It was interesting walking along it's length.
The history behind it; the paintings are on the east side of the wall, the side that noone could get close too, untouched since 1961 when it was constructed and 1989 when the east was liberated. The art work on it was done to celebrate freedom, it expresses people's hopes for the future, remembers the past. It is however becoming damaged and crumbling and there is a restoration project being undertaken by many artists who are trying to save the art work. It was well worth the effort it took us to get to see it, we had now accomplished everything we had wanted to do in Berlin, it was hard to imagine a time when people couldn't get from one side of a road to the other because of a wall, 27 miles long that was built around the entire city. It made us realise just how lucky we are to have been born into a country that had freedom of movement and no threat of death if we wanted to cross from east to west.
Anyway, back to the present, it was getting on for tea time, now the fun of finding the campsite. We arrived back at the tent and decided tea at the cafe again. We decided out of curiosity to ask the girl behind the counter what this place was - it was originally where the soldier's barrack were when they were guarding the wall. A few metres beyond the site's boundary was the wall and our shower block was a lookout tower as was the reception area. We were actually camped just over the border of East Berlin. It finally made sense of the fence and odd buildings.

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Tuesday 7 September

We had enjoyed our time in Berlin, but now we had other plans - Poland. All packed up by 9.30am and off we set towards Poznan in Poland. There was nothing there that we particularly wanted to see or do, it was just a stopping point on our way to Warsaw.
The roads in Germany are great, well maintained, well signed, a pleasure to ride, the roads in Poland are - well just the opposite. To be fair, a lot of European money is being spent on improving their road network and no matter where you go there are major roadworks and roads under construction. It was quite funny, you are travelling along a decent bit of road and you come across a bridge being built over the road, there is quite often no sign of a road being built up to the bridge, just lots of seemingly random bridges.
Anyhow we start off from Berlin on the E30 to Frankfurt Oder and across the border to Poznan. The road is great for a while, then it becomes full of roadworks and seems to be less of a major road than in Germany. We continue on. As we pass through a couple of towns we see signs for night clubs, only problem being, they seem to be in small towns and there are no big buildings that look like they could be a night club. Eventually we pass a house with a sign outside, a picture of a woman virtually naked, with strategically placed tassels and little else. It suddenly dawned on us that these'night clubs' are in fact brothels. They are not hidden away, they are often in the middle of a line of domestic houses.
We continue on our way to Poznan, the road wends it's way through wooded areas, on the road side there are people selling mushrooms that they have picked in the woods, they were usually well wrapped up as it was not particularly warm today. At one clearing Steve commented that the woman there was not really dressed for a walk in the woods - short skirt, heeled boots, skimpy top. We never thought anything of it, until we passed a few more and then realisation struck, they were prostitutes. We saw lots of them, all stood at the edge of the woods on what looked like a path leading in to the trees, then we saw a car parked - noone in it at one of these clearings and no girl stood nearby, guess she was at work!
Uneventful journey, quite boring route really, 176 miles which should have taken under 4 hours. We arrived in Poznan about 5pm after just a couple of short stops for a drink. The sat nav seems to lie about the time to travel anywhere in Poland. We had decided to stop in a hotel tonight and found one near the centre. As we were going up in the lift to our room, 2 girls got in the opposite lift. We thought nothing of it, but as we went back down to reception just over 30 minutes later the 2 girls got in the lift with us. One was looking in the mirrored panel and spotted a ladder in her tights, as she exclaimed we took more interest in them, they were certainly not guests at the hotel, they were dressed like up market prostitutes. We could see that our time in Poland was to be an eye-opener. We left the hotel and wandered outside to the city centre for tea. There was a large shopping centre a bit like the Trafford Centre in Manchester, a real mix of shops, cafes, art galleries, restaurants. We found a lovely cafe on the outer edge of it and enjoyed a large ice-cream sundae while we relaxed and watched everyday life go on around us. A long walk around area and we found a little restarant suitable for tea. This entire building looked as if it had been a factory at some point and although there were new additions to it, they have done the new building work very well and only when studied can you see the new and the old. We enjoyed a leisurely tea, watching people walk past, it was great to have time to sit and relax with no time limits. Another wander around and then time to go back to the hotel to sleep - Warsaw tomorrow.

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Wednesday 8 September

I am a member on www.deauvilleuk.org and told them that I was planning a trip to Poland, a member known as sbho (Seb) contacted me as he lives in Warsaw. A few messages later & it was left that I would contact him when I was near Warsaw as he gave me his phone number. It was left that I would make contact when near to the city. Something to look forward to.
We packed up and went down to the 2 bikes in the underground garage, we had the G4 intercom system charging on Steve's bike. His poor bike wouldn't start, thank goodness for the security man, he helped push the bike and it started. Now for the journey to Warsaw.
We were going to use the E30, which according to google would take 4 hours to do 198 miles, obviously the person who works out the time has not used Polish roads. We set off just before 10am and arrived just after 4pm in Warsaw. I had made contact with Seb a while before we reached the city and he sent his works address. That was fine, but we didn't realise just how long the road was and that we were coming on to it in the middle. Of course we picked the wrong way to go, but at least we got to see a little of the city. I must say I was very impressed at how clean it was and some of the beautiful buildings there. There are also a lot of shops there that are popular here in UK, like C&A. We managed to park the bikes in a parking bay and waited for Seb to be able to leave work and meet up with us. It wasn't too long before a very smart man approached us - Seb, who suggested a drink in the cafe over the road. How wonderful to have someone to order for us, he told us the history of some of the builings and he suggested that when we travelled to Krakow that we visit the
Salt Mines. All too soon it was time for Seb to return to the office, but he very kindly used his phone to make a reservation for us at a hotel nearby. We bade farewell and set off for the hotel, he made a good choice, we were impressed and decided to have our tea there as it was almost 8pm. Tea finished and we decide to retire for the night as we weren't sure what we were doing the next day. Steve managed to sleep most of the night, I got woken up by workmen taking up what seemed like a perfectly good bit of tarmac and leaving the road closed for rush hour in the morning.

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Thursday 9 September

It was overcast when we woke this morning, we went down for breakfast and decided, as it was forecast heavy rain, that we would head south to Krakow, a day earlier than originally planned. It was an early start for us as the journey was theoretically going to take almost 5 hours. Our first obstacle was to get out of the city, not only had the road below our window been removed, but several others had roadworks on them. It took us nearly an hour to travel under 10km, glad we were on bikes as we were able to filter and push our way through the heavy traffic. It was fun though, cars seemed to ignore red lights and totally blocked exits from the main road. Just as we left the city it started to rain a little, about another hour and it was like a monsoon. We persevered, slowed our speed down, had a couple of stops for a brew. We were slightly behind the planned time of arrival when I saw signs for Oswiecim (the death camps). We turned off the main road and headed for the town. We had decided to look for a hotel for the next 2 nights as we were dripping wet. We rode through the town, went past Auchswitz 1 twice in our search. Every hotel seemed to have closed down so we went to the next town, the only hotel we found was somewhere I wouldn't recommend to anyone, it smelt and was dark and dingy looking. Back to the original plan - Krakow. Just over an hour later and we found a decent hotel not too far from Krakow, roomed secured, bikes unpacked and time for a drink at the bar and dinner which was supplied by the hotel. We picked up a tourist information leaflet and decided to go to the salt mines tomorrow as suggested by Seb. Another drink at the bar and time for bed.

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Friday 10 September

We enjoyed a long leisurely breakfast before seeting off to the Salt Mines in Krakow. They were well sign posted, so easy to find. We arrived just in time to join the English speaking tour at 11.30, we paid our money and proceeded down an awful lot of wooden steps to the 1st level of the mine. The tour would take us down to level 3, there
were another 3 below that, but as it was still a working mine the public were not allowed that deep. We were going 165 feet below ground anyway. There was a large group from Eastbourne there and of course we get talking and they tell us about Schindler's Factory exhibition not too far away which has only opened this year. We decide to do that after the mine tour. It was almost 3 hours long and we both found it really fascinating. The last pony working down there only finished working in 1997 and is now out to pasture enjoying his retirement. The miners have carved lots of statues out of the salt over the years and there is even a church on level 2 where there is a service held every Sunday and the it is licenced for marriage. They have a large function hall down there and a restaurant. Seeing miners walking around and hearing them drilling the other side of doors was almost surreal,I have only ever been in non working mines before. Just before the tour ended, we were told that the large cavern we were in was used by the Nazis in WW2, they realised that beeing 165 feet underground it was invisible to anyone above ground and would likely not suffer any attacks. They used it for war related industries, there has also been an underground hot air balloon flight that is listed somewhere in the Guiness Book of Records. It was definitely worth the money to go down and it was certainly not a boring tour. If you ever go to that area, it is worth the time to visit.
Out in the fresh air and time for a drink and work out what to do next.
We decided to visit Schindler's factory this afternoon and leave Auchswitz until tomorrow morning.
Next destination, 4 Lipowa Street, Krakow. No problem finding it, or
parking outside on the pavement. First impressions were that it was just an old building and would probably be quite boring to walk around. I was certainly proved wrong. The original gates are still there and the frontage remains the same, inside there are various displays, many are
interactive. There is a section about the ghetto, there is even a ghetto wall there, you can walk into the living accomodation for Jews in the ghetto. There are videos made by survivors telling of their experiences and there is even the office still in tact that Oskar Schindler used. It was definitely an eye opener about what he achieved. Schindler was a member of Hitler Youth but when a bankrupt enamel factory became available by the courts, Schindler acquired it, and changed the name of it, it was known as DEF. He employed Jews in the factory and told the Nazis that it was necessary to employ them. Schindler went against all his beliefs to save the lives of over 1100 Jews as he was disgusted with the way the Polish Jews were being treated. If you have any interest in the events of WW2 then this is a 'must see' exhibition and very cheap to get into. We must have spent well over 3 hours in there and probably didn't see or read everything on display. It certainly gets you thinking.
As it was a pleasant evening, we decided to head into the town centre for tea, of course we were heading there in rush hour again. We were sat in a queue of traffic and got told to filter by the police, didn't need telling twice! We parked up near to the castle and found a great restaurant, the food was fantastic, I ordered some saurkraut soup, followed by a schnitzel which was at least 10 inches diameter and I struggled to finish it. Of course there was just about room for some dessert.
Back to the hotel just as it started to rain, and into the bar for a drink. We met up with a group from Norway who had done the death camps that day, it sort of prepared us for the day tomorrow and what to expect, so we thought.


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____________________
Enjoy everyday, tell those you love everyday you love them
Life is too short to fall out with people

[Skudd]

I thought Steve had one of those tractor bikes.

Looks like you had a good time.

One thing to ask...................... did the motion of the ocean help.
____________________
Famous last words of Humpty Dumpty. " Stop pushing me "
Petty Anarchists look at "1984".............. The Visionary looks at "Animal Farm".

[Howling TerrorOutOfOffice]

Some nice serendipity for a planned tour
____________________
Diabolical homemade music Bandcamp and Soundcloud
Singer songwriter, Artist and allround good bloke Listen to Andrew Susan Johnston here
The Harry Turner Project

[kitty kat]

The motion of the boat helped us to sleep


If you don't wish to read about the camps please skip over this posting, the rest of our tour will be totally seperate.



Anyway, now the most traumatic day of the trip, the day we had come over for. Pictures are a link so that you don't have to look if you don't want to. I do know of people who have grandparents & parents who suffered in this place and out of respect to them I will not print the pictures on an open forum. I ask anyone to please not copy the pictures and post them anywhere in this thread.

Saturday 11 September

Up early for breakfast, our plans were to visit Auschwitz 1 and
Auschwitz 2 (Birkenau) in the morning and then travel to Brno in the afternoon. There was no reason for Brno apart from it was on the way to Prague and we would not make it to Prague in just a few hours. Ok, we get to Oswiecim and follow the signs to Birkenau. We have both seen the pictures of the railway going in through an archway in the red brick building on the internet and in history books, but actually seeing it for yourself is something else. I stopped some distance away from the entrance and just sat and looked at what the prisoners might have seen from the railway trucks. All along the perimeter fence were watch towers and inside that fence was another fence, then the camp was sub-divided involving even more fencing and on top of all that it was electrified. We parked up on the car park opposite, there were not many cars there and no coaches so far, so not too busy. We walked in through the arch way and just stood for a few moments. If you know very little about it, there are very informative boards positioned around the place, telling you what each part was, the reason for it and what happened there.
We walked up the railway line, heading towards the memorial at the top end of the camp. It was a long walk, isolated from both sides of the camp by once electrified fences and watched over by guard towers. We were shocked by the size of the camp, it took us a good 10-15 minutes to walk the length of the camp. The buildings to our left were mostly brick and still standing, the ones to our right were mostly wooden and for a lot of them only the chimney remained. We made it in almost complete silence to the top end - where the memorial is and the remains of the 2 gas chambers that were once there. There were quite a few flowers placed at strategic parts of the camp, that in itself was very moving. There was an English speaking guide near us so we listened to what he was telling his group. He bent down and picked up what looked like a pebble, it was one of the gas pellets that were dropped through holes in the gas chamber. If you look carefully there are hundreds lying around, intermingled with the gravel. The Nazis tried to destoy the 2 gas chambers as that was their secret. Concentration camps were known about, but not the gas chambers. You can still see quite a bit of the remains, the area where about 2000 people both male and female got undressed 'for a shower' at the same time. That was a fairly large area, then they were herded into a room about 2/3 the size were the doors were locked and the gas cannisters were dropped in
through the roof. Thank goodness the crematoria part was not there, it had been successfully destroyed. We spent quite a while there, mostly in silence, in fact the whole place was almost silent. It is surrounded by trees, yet there were no birds and no sign of any wildlife at all. It was eerily quiet. We started to walk back to the entrance, something the people would not have been able to do and we went to the wooden huts that were now on our left. They were originally stables for 24 horses, but were converted to living accomodation. Each building held about 400 people,they slept on bunks that were 3 high and there were only 48 lots of bunks. They were sleeping at least 3 to a bed. We had had enough, we walked out through the entrance to freedom. Now on to Auschwitz, it was only a short distance away. it was originally the barracks for the Polish soldiers until the Germans took it over. We paid to walk around with a guide, who took us first to buildings that had been altered inside to accommodate posters which told the history of the death camps and life as a prisoner. Next part of the tour was to the building that holds all the articles the Nazis had collected from the Jews for their own gain. There was a glass case filled with human hair. That was used to make blankets, stiffening for jackets and many other things. Then there was the case with spectacles, the 1 with artificial limbs, hair brushes, tins of shoe polish, clothes, shoes and the one with the suitcases was particularly upsetting. A lot of them had the owner's name and date of birth, almost every owner was killed as soon as they arrived at the camp even Petr who was born in November 1942. Next stop, the execution wall, the torture yard and the punishment cells. We never quite finished the tour, we left after about 2 hours and went for some lunch in the cafe. It was some much needed down time before we moved out of Poland.

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____________________
Enjoy everyday, tell those you love everyday you love them
Life is too short to fall out with people

[kitty kat]

From Poland to Brno Saturday 11 September

We had now left the camps and were moving onto Czech Republic.

It was well into the afternoon now and we were going to use some scenic roads, but if we wanted to get half way to Prague we had to get a move on. We used the E462 to reach our destination. Over 3 hours it would take us to travel 161 miles on a highway. We thought the Polish roads were bad, as we approach the border with Czech the road stopped, it was barricaded, we had to make a sharp right hand turn - not easy fully laden. The 'road' we turned onto was a very steep, very gravelly, pathway with a nice 90 degree turn halfway down it. My Deauville was never meant to be an off-roader. Thank goodness it wasn't raining, then as gazz said, 2 guys came running over to us. They were trying to sell us a hi vis jacket for €3 and wanted us to prove we had one of our own. We managed to drive on past them to a small kiosk just through the border and bought a soft drink. After that, we made steady progress to Brno and managed to find a decent hotel just out of the centre. We had our tea and a couple of drinks in the bar area to wind down. Luckily there was some entertainment, a party of some description was taking place in a room just off the bar. It was a group of older people, I would say recently retired sort of age group. They were drinking,there was music so they were dancing. It was actually funny to watch a lot of the men doing 'the Dad dance' and staggering as they walked.The party started to break up around 9.30pm, and we decided to go to bed.

The Czech Border
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Sunday 12 September

A new morning and a new destination to reach. After reading the thread by Gazz on www.bikechatforums.com I suggested going to see Kutna Hora. I read that the church there is a pig to find, so I did my homework before we left and found out in was somewhere called Kostnice. Steve put that in his sat nav, we ended up on an industrial estate and then we ended up at a cathedral. Luckily I spotted a sign that had Kostnice on it so we followed it and lo & behold we stumbled across the church I wanted to see. It is quite a pretty little white church on the outside, there is the Black Death memorial outside and several gift shops dotted about the village. I had an idea what to expect after reading the experiences of Gazz, but Steve only knew that there were some decorations inside made up of human bones. We paid a small fee to enter the church and I must admit I was surprised at all the bones around the building. The chandelier was huge and has at least one of every human bone in it. The bones stacked up at the sides of the church I was surprised at. You read something and you get a mental image of it, this was bigger than anything I could ever imagine. Photos just don't do it justice. Steve just kept walking around saying 'weird, it's weird' I was just fascinated by it. It was certainly an experience I will
never forget.
It was getting quite warm now, we had bike gear on so decided the best way to cool down a bit would be to move off on the bikes. Steve put in Prague and then campsite near destination into his sat nav and off we set. We found a site on the banks of the river and not too far from the city centre. The site was absolutely full of Germans and we managed to squeeze our tent in. There was dragon boat racing on the river that finished today so the site would empty soon. We went for a walk along the river before making our tea (pork snitzel). As we were so near the city we decided to take the bikes in as I really wanted to see the Astronomical clock in the square. The gates for vehicles to the site were locked at 10pm so we only had 3 hours in which to visit the centre. No problems getting in and parking the bikes, it was easy to locate the main square an all the attractions, we even saw the clock strike 8pm and we had a coffee in a cafe there. 9pm and time to leave.
I laughed when I read what Gazz wrote, "Getting out of Prague is a c**t, what else can I say? I think the Czech government only made a certain number of road signs for different places and then stuck the
name ‘PRAHA’ on all the rest of them. Any road sign that we did see was not on our map"

It was a nightmare getting out, we seemed to double back on ourselves and do illegal u-turns in order to get back to the site. Road signs are great for a while, then they just stop and you have to work out where you are. It took about 15 minutes to get to the centre and about 45 minutes to make the return journey, never again !!

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Monday 13 September

Destination today, Cochem, Germany. We were going to attempt to find the site we stayed on last year on the banks of the Mosel. First thing we had to do was get fuel and get out of Prague. We had to travel over a mile towards the centre, turn into side streets to enable us to come back on the opposite carriageway. It took us almost an hour before we could say for definite that we had left the city. We would never have escaped without the help of the sat nav. We had decided on the fastest route to Cochem as the journey time was over 6 hours with no breaks. We had put 10 litres of fuel in each tank as we found fuel was dear in Czech. We had enough to get us over the border and into Germany. We head off for a town called Rozvadov on the border, using the E50, once there Steve changed maps from east to western Europe, new destination, Cochem. Once over the border we start to look for fuel. There had been quite a few rest areas with fuel in Czech along the road, but into Germany and they all seemed to be with just toilets. I was now on reserve and Steve's fuel guage was in the red. He had to put nearest fuel in, luckily it was only about 2 miles away and in a village off the main road. Steve's bike started spluttering and it cut out a couple of times. He managed to crawl to the garage and put 19.22 litres in a 19 litre tank! We stopped and had a drink and a bite to eat and set off on the rest of the journey. It was uneventful after that and we even managed to ride some great roads in Germany, looking for the campsite. I say uneventful, both this & last year we saw hundreds of signs warning of deer. All the miles we have travelled and we never saw one. We were coming down a twisty bit of road when I suddenly saw a brown female deer eating vegetation on the road side. Not sure if the the bikes scared it, or me shouting to Steve scared it, but it ran at great speed up the hill. We past very near to Nurburgring and once in that area, the roads are twisty, with signs saying 'Rassin ist oot'. We reach the Mosel, now which way to the site? After riding several times up and down the same stretch of road along the banks of the river we gave up and just went to a site that was on the water's edge. We booked in for 2 nights (we wanted to play out in the area tomorrow with no luggage) and got ourselves settled in for the evening.


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Tuesday 14 September

Today was a day for playing out, we had all day and no definite plans, no time constraints. First things first, make sure my bike is empty of camping gear and remove the panniers from Steve's bike. There is no point playing on twisty roads laden down and wider than normal. We had decided to visit Nurburgring, 25 miles away and about 45 minutes. Rode some great roads, twisty bits up hills and long sweeping bends with straight parts for a bit of faster riding. What a wonderful ride with no extra weight to hinder. We arrived at the entrance to the ring behind 3 German bikes, they parked up on the kerb, so we parked next to them. We went into the building and had a wander around. We got up close to the Aston Martin, the luggage for it is hardly worth having, not even big enough for a weekend away! We enjoyed the Ferrari shop too. My bike now sports a small Nurburgring sticker. Ok it has not been around the track, but it has been to the track. We were not going to pay to go into any areas, but we enjoyed what we did.
Unfortunately it was a day for Porches on the track, but we decided to go and watch a few going round. We went away from the buildings and actually rode up a path which went over a bridge and then back down the other side. The area is designed for walking, but we found an area to watch the cars through the chain link fence. I am not 'into' cars so got bored fairly quickly, we then made a joint decision to go to Koblenz (35 miles away) for the afternoon.
I thought it would be good to see where the Mosel joins with the Rhine. I was following Steve through Koblenz and as we entered the city he managed to put a bit of distance between us. I accelerated slightly and next thing I saw a little box at the side of the road flash twice, I was the only vehicle in range of it, so I am now assuming the German authorities have a photo of me on my bike. (Fortunately it was a forward facing camera). We parked in a designated motorbike parking area in Koblenz, not too far from the rivers. We were also near a square with a sculpture in the middle and cafes around the outside. The sculpture depicted Koblenz's past, the plague, WW2 and several other important events and finally at the top was Koblenz of the future, the hopes of the people. we had a drink and a piece of cake in a cafe before we wandered off to locate the 2 rivers. What a surprise when we got there, there is a cable car crossing the Rhine over to a castle on the opposite bank. Steve decided we were going on it. I am glad he did, we had a wonderful view of the 2 rivers, the town and far into the distance. The castle is getting seriously renovated in time for some big festival next year and the popularity of the cable car was being tested out this year. We went to the top of the castle where there is a restaurant, we sat outside with our drinks and just enjoyed the view and watched the boats passing by so far below us. We had spent all afternoon in Koblenz, but now we were heading back to Cochem to have tea in one of the restaurants on the banks of the Mosel. We got back to the site after dark, but what a wonderful, relaxing day we had had, playing out on the bikes.

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Wednesday 15 September

We had had a rethink last night about the last few days of our holiday. Instead of 2 nights in Brussels, then Ypres and Rotterdam, we were going to have 1 night in Brussels, then Lille as we opted out of going there last year, onto Ypres for Friday night and then the day in Rotterdam before sailing home Saturday night. We set off, along the Mosel first, then through the lanes towards Nurburg continuing on the lanes until we reached the E31. The best of both, some twisties then some motorway. We reached Brussels in just over 4 hours. For some reason the sat nav told us there were 2 campsites in the city. We did have fun riding through all the traffic though.
We found a site not too far from the city centre, so pitched the tent there for the night. We set up camp, then went into the city centre. We both wanted another waffle from the same place we got one last year. We even managed to park in the same place. It was better this year, it was daylight and there was no concert on infront of the Grand Place, so there was no huge crowd. We easily found the Grand Place and the Mannequin Piz. It was great to see things properly in daylight. We even found the same waffle place and we each had one with fresh strawberries, cream & chocolate. Well worth the journey. We had tea in a restaurant just ouside the centre and then made our way back to the tent for the night. Tomorrow, the journey to Lille.


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Thursday 16 September

Tent packed away, we had decided to just have a piece of toast at the tent and stop for breakfast on the way to Lille. It was only going to take us just over 2 hours to reach there, so we could afford the stop and the scenic route/non highway route. We were ready to go about 9.30am, France here we come. My bike had other ideas though, we were going through a residential area, uphill when my bike just cut out. I thought maybe fuel so turned it to reserve - nothing. I pushed it to the side of the road, Steve & I both had a go at starting it, it made a noise as if it was trying to fire up, then gave up. Nothing to do but phone Green Flag. I was told that they would co-ordinate with the Belgian equivalent and someone would phone with an ETA of the garage. Ok, it was 9.56am, hopefully a few hours here and we could still get to Lille.
Dream on Sandra!
I got a call back, they couldn't locate the road we were on. I had read it from the street sign. We were very near a roundabout, so I gave them the road name of the next road, great they knew where we were. Recovery would be about an hour, it was now 10.30. Luckily it wasn't raining and there were workmen digging up the opposite pavement, so at least we had something to watch.
Midday, nothing, I phoned Green Flag, the fax machine had developed a fault they had to email so there was a delay on anyone getting to us. Another hour at most. Ok late afternoon our plan was still do-able.
A man from a flat opposite us had been watching us sitting there and came out, offered jump leads and a drink. It wasn't the battery, and Steve accepted the offer of the drink. I stayed with the bike, after all
recovery were due anytime. Steve returned, we saw a recovery truck go past twice, Steve waved, but the guy was looking at the road works, not looking for a bike.
I phoned Green Flag back, the garage couldn't find us could we give better directions? Oh yes, I am familiar with Brussels. I again gave the road name and the fact we were near a roundabout with a church on it. Ok we will find you, about an hour now - same old story!
The guy from across the road even offered us a room at his flat for the night if we were still there. He sounded really optomistic. Steve went on his bike to find a shop for some lunch, he was gone a short time when one of the workmen approached me. Was I ok, did I need anything?
I replied, he kept chatting. Steve returned, guy moved away. Strange guy!
I phoned Green Flag again about 2pm, what had happened to the recovery? They couldn't find us! We went to the guy's flat to ask him to talk to them, he didn't answer. Luckily a delivery van pulled up, I asked him to speak to the garage for me. A man and a van arrived within 30 minutes. He tried the bike, nothing, fuel pump was disconnected, sounded like I had a faulty fuel pump, I would need a new one - great. The guy contacted the local Honda garage and was told they had one in and could fit it tonight. Ok we were staying in Brussels again tonight, Lille was out of the picture again.
Steve phoned Lancaster Honda, new pump £152 + vat, but they felt partly responsible as I hadn't owned the bike long, they would sort something out for me when I got home, very decent of them.
A second van was called to collect my bike. While we were waiting, the owner of the flat, whose wall we were sitting on, got out a table & chairs and made us both a drink and put down a plate of biscuits.
A large truck arrived, bike was strapped down and at last were were moving somewhere. A short journey through the mad traffic of Brussels and we arrived at a dirty looking back street type shop, with the word Honda outside it. Bike unloaded, dirty looking little man pushed bike to side of road, he turned alarm off, turned key and bike fired up first time. He disconnected fuel pump, it was now working, but they could get a new one for Monday. Of course that was no good, we were on the boat Saturday. A lot of discussion and I took my bike, I would take a chance with it. We had been in Brussels too long. It was now gone 5pm. A quick rethink we would head straight for Rotterdam and cut out Ypres altogether. We were both hungry so stopped for tea on the services in Belgium, then went non-stop to Rotterdam.
We were aiming for a hotel abot 10 miles from the city, but looking ahead at the sky, we decided to stop just as we rode into exceptionally heavy rain. We found a really nice hotel and booked in for 2 nights. MacDonalds was just across the way so after we had settled in we nipped over to MacD's for a light snack and a cuppa and then returned
to the hotel for a couple of drinks at the bar. As we weren't travelling too far tomorrow we were able to have a late night and a lie-in in the morning.

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Friday 17 September


How wonderful, a lie-in and a long leisurely breakfast in the restaurant area of the hotel. We still had not decided what we were going to do, so back to the room and worked out on the sat nav how far anywhere was. We finally plumped for Amsterdam today and Rotterdam tomorrow before we headed for the boat.
Just over an hour after we set off we arrived in the centre of Amsterdam. What a wonderful first impression, ok it was exceptionally dangerous when crossing junctions, you had to watch out for cars that had jumped the lights be aware of pedestrians that just stepped out regardless and then there were the cyclists, intermingled with scooters on cycle paths. OMG the bikes & scooters! Some scooters had riders with no helmets, some with pillions, using cycle paths, while some scooters were on the main road and the riders had helmets on. We were baffled until we asked a girl on a scooter. The ones with blue number plates needed no lid & could use the cycle lanes, the others had yellow plates.
We had never seen so many push bikes in one place before, they were absolutely everywhere, chained to every available post, railing even just parked up and chained to another bike. We managed to find a space to park our bikes and went off in search of, I don't know, anything, a cafe for a drink was a good idea, no, not that sort of cafe, just one for a cup of tea and a coffee. After a drink we had a wander around the city. It was fantastic, we were having a great time. We decided to go for a tour of the canals on a barge, I certainly recommend it, it is a different view of the city and as there was an English commentary it was very interesting. We learnt so much about the buildings and really enjoyed the cruise through the city. We even went out to the canal that joins with the North Sea. I have never been on a canal with waves before. When we returned to dry land we went in search of somewhere to have lunch. We somehow managed to stumble into the 'red light' district. Yes, there were a lot of women stood in the windows, but some were also men wearing bikinis and basques etc. We eventually ended back near the bikes and had a Chinese meal. After a little shopping time we decided to head back to the hotel and enjoy another evening at the bar.


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Saturday 18 September

Our last day before sailing back to England. As it was Saturday the hotel served breakfast until 12. We were not going to stay that long, but it meant that there was no rush to pack up and leave. We enjoyed another leisurely breakfast and took our time in packing up the bikes for the return sailing. All packed, one last check and off we set for Rotterdam. We followed signs saying centrum and just parked up on the pavement. We just wanted to wander around the shops with no ideas at all of what we would do in the city. It was actually quite warm, so we did what we did best, found a cafe to have a drink where we could sit and watch the world go by. After a while we decided to move off. There is one huge shopping area, we could have easily spent another day just walking around the shops.
We wanted to be at the port for about 4.30pm, which meant leaving the centre about 3.30pm. What should have been a half hour ride, turned into an absolute nightmare, an entire motorway had been closed. As we couldn't read the road signs we had no idea of where to go. In the end we turned down a side street and Steve put in 'no motorway' on the sat nav, we now had a travel time of almost an hour. Good job we had left enough time for mishaps. We arrived at the port with some time to spare. We joined the queue of traffic and got talking to the other bikers. It is great to meet the same people you travelled out with and talk about your experiences. We boarded at 5pm and after securing the bikes went up to the cabin to shower and change before going downstairs to the lounge areas.
We met up with a couple we had chatted with earlier and had a couple of drinks with them in one of the bars, then we went to the restaurant for tea. After a long, leisurely carvery tea we decided to return to the cabin and relax before going to sleep. The sea was slightly more rough than the sailing out, so it made it great to fall asleep with the gentle rolling of the ship.

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Sunday 20 September

We got rudely awakened at 6.30am by the wake up call, showered and went down for breakfast. We were due to dock at 8am, so didn't have to long to eat breakfast and ensure the cabin was empty of our stuff.
We were allowed to return to our bikes when the ship was secured in port, shame that some of the car drivers did not want to return to their
vehicles, but were quite happy to allow their vehicles to totally block the exit for all the bikes and most of the cars. Some very skilled manoeuvering got some of the cars moving and that allowed the bikes to move out. One of the drivers returned to one of the offending vans just as the bikes were moving past him. He decided to push his way out and jump the queue to leave the ship. I had other ideas, I pulled in front of him so he couldn't move. This allowed everyone who had been patiently waiting to finally disembark.
Once outside we were greeted by typical British weather - rain! We had intended riding from Hull to Kirby Lonsdale, but when the rain just got heavier and heavier we decided just to head for home.

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We had a wonderful time, saw sights we never want to see again - the concentration camps, spent many happy hours in the towns and cities we visited, revisited a city we enjoyed last year.

Would we do it again? Some of it.

Was it as good as last year's trip? I would say yes, it was different, just as enjoyable though.

Would we change any of it? I would have said the breakdown, but without that hassle we would never have visited Amsterdam.

The only thing we have to do now is work out where to go next year.
____________________
Enjoy everyday, tell those you love everyday you love them
Life is too short to fall out with people

[vindice]

Lovely write-up.

[Tiff]

Great story! You covered pretty much the same ground as I have over the past couple of years! Berlin is an amazing city and makes me want to go back.. so much so I've just bought a Trabant I crossed over at Frankfurt an O too, and couldn't believe how quickly the roads got bad.. I went North after this, up to family and further up to Gdansk, but my experiences of Poland were much the same, apart from I travelled through the night, which was terrifying!. If you went from the 'ring to Koblenz, you nearly passed by the bridge at Remagen, if you like WW2 stuff, and on the way to Berlin, you weren't far from Bergen Belsen camp, a lot of these places are kept fairly quiet.
Everyone else seems to want to head South, but Northern Europe, and the old communist countries fascinate me!

Frankfurt an oder, the border between Germany and Poland

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Brandenburg gate. I was standing thinking about the history here too, soaking it all up, when Corsa passed with a bare arse hanging out of the window.. how times have changed!!
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1996 Kawasaki GPZ1100s,1996 VFR750,1980 BMW R80,1982 Kwak Z250B,1992 ZZR1100C,1996 BMW K1100LT,1994 Kwak ZZR600E,1993 BMW R1100RS,1992 ZZR 600D,1988 BMW K100LT,1998 Aprilia Pegaso 650,1994 Suzuki RF900,1991 Yamaha XJ600, 1988 Honda Dominator,1992 Kwak KMX125,1987 Yamaha RD50MX,1984 Honda MBX50.1984 Honda Superdream 125

[bluevfrrider]

Wow some write up were next?

[kitty kat]

Tiff, you were parked just further around the corner from where we parked at the Brandenburg Gate.

It depends on money as to what we do next year. If we go on the bikes I fancy going to Spain or straight down to Italy, if we fly somewhere than I am not sure, just not Florida.
____________________
Enjoy everyday, tell those you love everyday you love them
Life is too short to fall out with people

[Frost]

I'm surprised you did such a big trip without being able to fix a bike, and that you didn't have a bash at fixing it yourself before calling recovery... But then that might just be because i've always been like that so i assume everybody else is.

Did you see the multi story bike park in amsterdam?

https://images.travelpod.com/users/susb/1.1210103640.multi-storey-bike-park-amsterdam.jpg

My friend Adam insisted we always went to the Free Adam coffeeshop, it's probably the worst one there is!

[kitty kat]

We did have a go at fixing the bike but by the time we knew what was wrong the battery was underpowered and not having access to jump leads or fuel to fill the tank over half full so the pump could be bypassed all we could do was wait. We had already backflushed the fuel filter when the breakdown guy finally arrived. All he did was basically confirm it was the pump and arrange for our lift to the garage.
It has not failed again since we got home.
We did see the big multistory bike parks near the station when we where on the canal cruise never seen so many pushbikes in one place.
____________________
Enjoy everyday, tell those you love everyday you love them
Life is too short to fall out with people

[Sir Black Pig]

What a crackin' write up.

Funnily enough it is very, very similar to the trip myself and Funmokee are looking at doing next easter but instead of Warsaw, I would like to see Krakow. and also toss a little bit of Cz Rep and Austria into the mix.
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Eurotrip 2009
Sportugal 2010

[kitty kat]

Thank you kindly Sir Black Pig

If I was going to Poland again I would certainly like to spend more time in Krakow and the mountains (Tatra mountains). This time though our main aim was to visit the camps in that area.

DaFrostyOne, I forgot to mention that I do most of the work required to my bikes, which means that I very rarely require the services of a mechanic. Me, being a female is quite capable of fiting and adjusting c&s, full service on the bike, anything to do with forks etc. It is only the major engine stuff that I probably would not touch.
____________________
Enjoy everyday, tell those you love everyday you love them
Life is too short to fall out with people

[pepperami]

Ten out of ten for the write up ..... an interesting read!
____________________
I am the sum total of my own existence, what went before makes me who I am now!

[map]

[Chris750]

Great write up, found it very interesting.

What suprises me about the bikes in Holland is they are all old fashoined type bikes. Even the ones the kids are riding.

[Tiff]

[Chris750]