foggyeye wrote:Hi All,
I'm a newbie here, so be gentle.
this year (2015) I'm planning on riding my bike in Europe. This will be my first time on a ferry or in Europe with a motorbike. So I'm looking for advice:
[ol]
[li]As I live in Leeds, which is the best place to get a ferry from for Europe?[/li]
[li]I was thinking of going to The Netherlands on this trip, so I need to know a good place to stay with secure parking for my bike?[/li]
[li]I'm only planning on spending a few days there, so i need a small itinerary of places to visit?[/li]
[li]Essentials to take with me, other than passport / money etc?[/li]
[li]any other newbie tourer advice you can give, would be greatly received.[/li]
[/ol]
ah man - i remember writing this same sort of post a couple of years back before a trip to the alps in 2013 - that was my first, i went again in 2014 and looking forward to this years trip already! - its easily one of the best things I've done on my bike - love it.
I agree with the hull ferries - the rotterdam ferry is a better ferry (newer, bigger, more modern) and sets off later so you might (as i did this year) be able to leave straight from work to gain an extra day - you can leave it as late as 19:00 to check-in for the rotterdam sailing and you'd easily do it in an hour and a bit from leeds.
ther hull ferry (either) is a great crossing and you'll meet other bikers there and check-in with them. the restaurants are good and there are nice bars on board and of course you wake up on the continent which is great - you can be out on the road in holland / belgium by half nine the next morning.
Netherlands is fine, but perhaps to be honest a little boring on the bike - i would consider heading to belgium and the Ardennes region which has some amazing biking roads.
another alternative would be to head south on your first day and look at somewhere like the vosge mountains - serch for Colmar in france and look to the left on the map - google the "route des cretes" and "grand ballon" - amazing roads - the cafes at the top of the ski-lifts in summer are a magnet for bikers from all countries and a great place to visit. Colmar can be done in a day but it isn't relaxing - it 440 miles from zeebrugge ( i know this as i returned in a day from colmar last year) it gets you to some very nice places.
As for staying places - there are some dedicated biking websites - e.g. bike-stay.net which might help, but i usually just use booking.com and look on the map and google satellite view to see if i would be happy to park my bike up there. You will find hoteliers, in general, on the continent are keen to help bikers and ensure you and the bike are safe.
essentials - well passport yes but also all your documents for the bike - V5, insurance and MOT - take colour copies too. Cash and cards of course.
pack as light as you can - its a PITA taking your stuff into the hotel each night and then re-packing in the morning.
I like to spend time planning my route - this year i wanted to cover the B500 through the black forest in germany for example and i had a couple specific mountain passes i wanted to cover in swtizerland. I spent time planning the route and saving it using garmin software and then up-loading routes to the garmin sat-nav on the bike. Thats just me though - others like to play it more by ear and create their routes on the day - you'll know which suits you.
newbie advice - hard to say. Don't worry would be the key - al the things you'll worry about like packing and strapping the bike down on the ferry will work out to be not a problem at all.
even 'boring' roads are fantastic cos you are abroad and on holiday and the scenery is all new.
I love having a small tank bag on the bike to hold wallet and phone etc - just a little one helps keep things together.
Enjoy your planning - feel free to ask questions when things come to mind.
