What to see? Touring Calais to Hamburg.

[Bretty]

Hi all,

I'm touring over to Hamburg on the next bank holiday weekend for a mates stag do.

I can't drink a lot for health reasons, so will basically spend 2 days cruising there then 2 days back.

Can anyone recommend any good roads, routes or things to see? I know it's beautiful around the Rhine? and I always like seeing World War 2 stuff. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks!

Brett

[Millietant]

That's a difficult one Brett - a lot of recently developed Industrial areas between those two places. Outside of visiting Bruges for a few hours, and  some well known Military cemeteries, there's nothing else that I'm aware of, but I'd bet you'll find lots from some of the WW1 & WW2 historical societies. That's the best I can offer, sorry.

[Fazerider]

Not been there, but the V3 site at Mimoyeques might be worth a visit. And there must be loads of Atlantic Wall defences still present if you choose a coastal route.

[Tmation]

Across the top of France through Belgium, Holland and then Germany is pretty flat and boring, nothing very interesting riding wise.


If you had a few more days then it would be different. I would then go down to the south of Belgium, through the Ardennes and Eifel and across towards Koblenz via the nurbergring and surrounding area. (thats two days riding or one very long day).


From Koblenz head east through the westerwald and across to the Harz (full day riding).


Then from the Harz (you need at least a day to play here) head to Hamburg via Brunswick and Uelzen (about five hours riding)


All the above can be speeded up by using motorway etc but whats the point of that. If you want to see the Dams and other sites give yourself 7 to 10 days

[Bretty]

Thanks Tmation!

That's a cool idea. I'll look at touring all the Dambuster Dams! Operation Chastise! 

My girlfriend used to live in Berlin and Hamburg so I used to frequently drive over there. I always tried to find something WW2 related to see along that way. So any new ideas are appreciated!

Things I can recommend/have done along the way before:

Calais casemates and V1/2/3 sites - La Coupole, Le blockhaus, mimoyecques, Cap Gris Nez
Market Garden Bridges - Endhoven, Nijmegen, Grave, Arnheim
The Ardennes - Bastogne, Foy
The Rhine - The Bridge at Remagen