Harz Mountains & Saxony 2004

Camping Mittle Bau Dorra Harz Area Krumbach Motocamp

In July 2004 three members of the Wigan Pie Eaters MCC and one Member of the Hoad Hogs Furness, spent 10 days in the Harz Mountains and Saxony region of the former East Germany. This trip was the first trip to Germany for my BMW K1200RS Merlin sidecar, driving a motorcycle and sidecar on the other side of the road takes some getting used to, not just for me but also for my passenger Keith. There were three other motorcycles Stan on his Motto Guzzi 1000sport, Jim on a Triumph Trophy and Alan on his Honda pan European.
We took the ferry from Newcastle to Ijmuden and then spent the first night in Groningen; we went looking for Blue Star motocamp only to find it was closed. We set off the next morning after getting Stan’s punture repaired heading for the Harz Mountains only for Jim to loose his rear brake pads on the way.
We spent the next week going for rides out and visiting various tourist attractions only heading back to where we were camping for food and drink around the tent, then we went off to either the local bars or the campsite bar.
One of the attractions that we went to see was the Mittel Bau Dora memorial site; this was where the underground rocket factory just outside Nordhousen. Other places we went were the HSB steam railway at Wernigerode, the spar town of Bad Harzburg and Gosler.
At the end of the week we went to Saxony to the Krumbach Motocamp passing Colditz on the way. The meeting at Krumbach was a good rally I had been to it 10 years before so I knew where it was at. Keith won oldest participant. After getting seriously drunk on schnapps for 2 days we had the long drive across Germany to Holland near Meldeslo to Toerstop biker only campsite. The following day we went to Ijmuden for the overnight ferry and home.