Ducatisti Forum - View Single Post - I Famosi Quattro Road Trip #3 Eastern Europe

**998gsb** · 27 Jul 08, 09:01 AM

MONDAY:

Today was supposed to be an easy day - 400km to do heading North through Czech Republic towards our hotel in Leipzig in former East Germany.

We met in the lobby at around 8.15 and checked out, and were at the hotel garage for 8.30 sharp.....

Went to start Sophia and the starter was very slow and struggled to turn over and within two attempts - the battery was stone dead - BUGGER.

Debated the options - breakdown recovery or find the nearest Ducati Dealer.....fortunately RodH had his dealer booklet with him and we discovered that the nearest dealer was 1.8km away from where we were - result.

Royum very kindly volunteered to go find it and try to buy a battery for me, whilst I sat on the pavement, lit a cigarette and enjoyed one of those hamlet moments - much to the amusement of RodH and Baggers.

He arrived back half an hour later with the news that they didn't have any batteries, but that they had leant him a set of broken jump leads......

Eventually we got the bike started....we were just letting it tick over on fast idle, when Czech Plod turned up. Now Czech Plod didn't speak much english, and they were insisting that we turned the bike off, as we were making too much noise - they didn't grasp that if we turned it off, it wouldn't start again......despite the valiant attempts of RodH in best johnny foreigner english to explain. It ended up in a bit of a stand off - plod withdrew to about 5m away and just sat there, in their skoda watching us and glaring at us.

We stuck the panel back on the bike - good job it was a 998 and not a 1098! and tenatively set off for the dealership to return his jump leads....I was just praying that the thing wouldn't stall!

So far so good - leads duly dropped off, and dealer thanked....we programmed the sat nav for Leipzig and off we went. We had a great ride today - the weather was kind, the roads were ok and the traffic wasn't too suicidal for once.

Just outside Leipzig is the town of Chemnitz, and close to Chemnitz is a small saxony village called Colditz, and in the centre of Colditz is Schloss Colditz - Castle Colditz.

Now I've always wanted to go to Colditz since being a small boy watching those black and white films of daring escapes from the castle....

In more recent years the castle was used as a sanitorium hospital in the Eastern Block, but since repatriation with Germany, a trust has been set up and the castle is being restored....there is now a visitor centre and museum at the castle - and whilst only small, it is pretty impressive. The thing I found most fascinating, is that the Germans didn't find all of the escape plans - as the castle is being renovated, new things are constantly being found - new tunnels, a complete radio transmitter hidden in the roof, etc. The ingenuity of the prisoners was astounding - there is a home made sewing machine on display fashioned from wood, with tin lids for drive pulleys!

Outside the gates of Colditz

I Famosi Quattro - escaping from Schloss Colditz!! - Colditz is the big white building behind us...

We left Colditz around 4.45pm and arrived in Leipzig around 6.00pm. The hotel was a modern business traveller hotel, on the outskirts of the city, close to a BMW Factory and Porsche Factory (and I thought they were all built in Stuttgart!). The hotel was nice and the food was good, but its not the most picturesque of places! - It was tacked on to the side of a small shopping centre, and our rooms looked across the flat roofs of the attached supermarket!

Tuesday:
Raining -

We set off in light showers and these got progressively heavier, before drying up as we got further west. We were heading for Koblenz to pick up the top of the Mosel Valley and ride down the Mosel to Trier.

We made good progress across Germany and had some fun on the derestricted sections of the Autobahn

We got to Koblenz at around 3.30pm and headed off on to the twisties of the Mosel - OH MY GOD - the roads are sensational........

These roads down in to the valley were awesome - just switch back after switchback...but they were bloomin' tight on a superbike - I think a Motard would have been the weapon of choice ideally. However, in the valley bottom the roads open out in to fast sweepers - totally totally awesome....

Check this picture of the Sat Nav....

Miles of smiles!

After picking up the main road through the Mosel, we made good progress in stunning weather and light traffic.....We passed through any number of picture post card chocolate box villages on the side of the river.

We were headed for Trier along the Mosel - we'd got to within 40kms of Trier, when we happended on a road closure for road works. There was no diversion, and Sat Nav didn't offer any sugestions either. We back tracked to the last junction and turned right to clmb up the side of the valley - I figured if we could find another road off this, we could cut along the top of the ridge for a few clicks, and then drop back down and pick the road up again.

I got stuck behind a bus and it wasn't safe to overtake it, and stuck between 1st and 2nd, the bike was getting hotter and hotter. We pulled over at a lay by near the crest of the hill, and header tank let go again.....

- this one had lasted all of 750 miles - Not happy - bike covered in coolant yet again, as was I this time.

We decided to sacrifice the rest of the twisties and head for the Autobahn down to Trier - it was getting late and we were hot, tired and hungry.

Arrived at Eurener Hof Hotel in Trier and tucked the bikes up in the garage. This is a great hotel - bike friendly, and the food and local brew is out of this world - would definitely go back there.

Wednesday:

In the morning we headed for the local Ducati Dealer in Trier. They didn't have a header tank, but they were very helpful nonetheless and picked out dealers in the service booklet who were along the route back to Calais.

We had a ring round but all of the dealers didn't have tanks in stock - all on back order from italy it seems.

Ducati Trier

We decided that as you no longer get your passport stamped in Europe that we'd go for dealer stamps instead!

So we decided to set off for Calais and in fairness Sophia was fine on the motorways she just got a bit hot and bothered when we met traffic. The battery was fully charged again by now and seemed to be behaving itself and we made good time across the continent back to Calais, and we arrived around 3.30pm.

Back in to the UK and it seemed agonisingly slow after Germany! but we settled in to a pace and survived the M25 and M1 at rush hour.

So we all got back home safe between 8pm and 9pm that evening. We had covered 3000 miles in a week, crossed France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Germany, Czech Republic and Poland. The trip hadn't quite gone according to plan, and we had to improvise in places to make up lost time from delays, and the weather wasn't as kind as it could have been. But overall we had a fantastic time and seen some amazing places and things - and I couldn't have wished for better company. Thanks for a great trip guys and to everyone else, I hope you enjoyed the Road Trip #3 Diary!

998gsb

27 Jul 08, 09:01 AM	#15 (permalink)
998gsb Ducati 998 Forum Moderator Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: On tour with I Famosi Quattro Posts: 5,460 998gsb's Gallery Bike: Ducati 998s Mono Fi	Best laid plans and all that..... MONDAY: Today was supposed to be an easy day - 400km to do heading North through Czech Republic towards our hotel in Leipzig in former East Germany. We met in the lobby at around 8.15 and checked out, and were at the hotel garage for 8.30 sharp..... Went to start Sophia and the starter was very slow and struggled to turn over and within two attempts - the battery was stone dead - BUGGER. Debated the options - breakdown recovery or find the nearest Ducati Dealer.....fortunately RodH had his dealer booklet with him and we discovered that the nearest dealer was 1.8km away from where we were - result. Royum very kindly volunteered to go find it and try to buy a battery for me, whilst I sat on the pavement, lit a cigarette and enjoyed one of those hamlet moments - much to the amusement of RodH and Baggers. He arrived back half an hour later with the news that they didn't have any batteries, but that they had leant him a set of broken jump leads...... Eventually we got the bike started....we were just letting it tick over on fast idle, when Czech Plod turned up. Now Czech Plod didn't speak much english, and they were insisting that we turned the bike off, as we were making too much noise - they didn't grasp that if we turned it off, it wouldn't start again......despite the valiant attempts of RodH in best johnny foreigner english to explain. It ended up in a bit of a stand off - plod withdrew to about 5m away and just sat there, in their skoda watching us and glaring at us. We stuck the panel back on the bike - good job it was a 998 and not a 1098! and tenatively set off for the dealership to return his jump leads....I was just praying that the thing wouldn't stall! So far so good - leads duly dropped off, and dealer thanked....we programmed the sat nav for Leipzig and off we went. We had a great ride today - the weather was kind, the roads were ok and the traffic wasn't too suicidal for once. Just outside Leipzig is the town of Chemnitz, and close to Chemnitz is a small saxony village called Colditz, and in the centre of Colditz is Schloss Colditz - Castle Colditz. Now I've always wanted to go to Colditz since being a small boy watching those black and white films of daring escapes from the castle.... In more recent years the castle was used as a sanitorium hospital in the Eastern Block, but since repatriation with Germany, a trust has been set up and the castle is being restored....there is now a visitor centre and museum at the castle - and whilst only small, it is pretty impressive. The thing I found most fascinating, is that the Germans didn't find all of the escape plans - as the castle is being renovated, new things are constantly being found - new tunnels, a complete radio transmitter hidden in the roof, etc. The ingenuity of the prisoners was astounding - there is a home made sewing machine on display fashioned from wood, with tin lids for drive pulleys! Outside the gates of Colditz I Famosi Quattro - escaping from Schloss Colditz!! - Colditz is the big white building behind us... We left Colditz around 4.45pm and arrived in Leipzig around 6.00pm. The hotel was a modern business traveller hotel, on the outskirts of the city, close to a BMW Factory and Porsche Factory (and I thought they were all built in Stuttgart!). The hotel was nice and the food was good, but its not the most picturesque of places! - It was tacked on to the side of a small shopping centre, and our rooms looked across the flat roofs of the attached supermarket! Tuesday: Raining - We set off in light showers and these got progressively heavier, before drying up as we got further west. We were heading for Koblenz to pick up the top of the Mosel Valley and ride down the Mosel to Trier. We made good progress across Germany and had some fun on the derestricted sections of the Autobahn We got to Koblenz at around 3.30pm and headed off on to the twisties of the Mosel - OH MY GOD - the roads are sensational........ These roads down in to the valley were awesome - just switch back after switchback...but they were bloomin' tight on a superbike - I think a Motard would have been the weapon of choice ideally. However, in the valley bottom the roads open out in to fast sweepers - totally totally awesome.... Check this picture of the Sat Nav.... Miles of smiles! After picking up the main road through the Mosel, we made good progress in stunning weather and light traffic.....We passed through any number of picture post card chocolate box villages on the side of the river. We were headed for Trier along the Mosel - we'd got to within 40kms of Trier, when we happended on a road closure for road works. There was no diversion, and Sat Nav didn't offer any sugestions either. We back tracked to the last junction and turned right to clmb up the side of the valley - I figured if we could find another road off this, we could cut along the top of the ridge for a few clicks, and then drop back down and pick the road up again. I got stuck behind a bus and it wasn't safe to overtake it, and stuck between 1st and 2nd, the bike was getting hotter and hotter. We pulled over at a lay by near the crest of the hill, and header tank let go again..... - this one had lasted all of 750 miles - Not happy - bike covered in coolant yet again, as was I this time. We decided to sacrifice the rest of the twisties and head for the Autobahn down to Trier - it was getting late and we were hot, tired and hungry. Arrived at Eurener Hof Hotel in Trier and tucked the bikes up in the garage. This is a great hotel - bike friendly, and the food and local brew is out of this world - would definitely go back there. Wednesday: In the morning we headed for the local Ducati Dealer in Trier. They didn't have a header tank, but they were very helpful nonetheless and picked out dealers in the service booklet who were along the route back to Calais. We had a ring round but all of the dealers didn't have tanks in stock - all on back order from italy it seems. Ducati Trier We decided that as you no longer get your passport stamped in Europe that we'd go for dealer stamps instead! So we decided to set off for Calais and in fairness Sophia was fine on the motorways she just got a bit hot and bothered when we met traffic. The battery was fully charged again by now and seemed to be behaving itself and we made good time across the continent back to Calais, and we arrived around 3.30pm. Back in to the UK and it seemed agonisingly slow after Germany! but we settled in to a pace and survived the M25 and M1 at rush hour. So we all got back home safe between 8pm and 9pm that evening. We had covered 3000 miles in a week, crossed France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Germany, Czech Republic and Poland. The trip hadn't quite gone according to plan, and we had to improvise in places to make up lost time from delays, and the weather wasn't as kind as it could have been. But overall we had a fantastic time and seen some amazing places and things - and I couldn't have wished for better company. Thanks for a great trip guys and to everyone else, I hope you enjoyed the Road Trip #3 Diary! 998gsb __________________ Being plastered all the time is no where near as much fun as I they said it would be...... Last edited by 998gsb; 27 Jul 08 at 10:03 AM.