Touring Harz Mountains

i went to the Harz Mountains a couple of years ago,ferry from Newcastle to Amsterdam,stayed at http://biker-hotel-harz.de/ for 3 days it was just over 300 miles to the Hotel (once i was there i did almost 900 miles on the brilliant roads in the Harz Mountains)..roads like these

most of the roads in the Harz are great Kyffauser and Torfhaus are famous ones..as the google man is not allowed in Germany get yourself a good map..you can't go wrong
from there i was meeting up with mates in Chemnitz for the Moto GP at Sachsenring,i stopped of at Colditz on the way,i didn't have time to do the full tour (2 hours) but it would be worth doing

 

English version of the hotel website..very reasonably priced and an ideal location
http://biker-hotel-harz.de/en/your-biker-hotel-harz-mountains-germany/

 

Do you know Germany at all?

The broad brush stroke approach is to see the area North of the line Osnabruck Minden (the Teutoberg ridge) as being as flat as a pancake with rolling country to the South. Lots of valleys with wooded hilltops and many small conurbations between bigger towns.

I served there long enough from the Dutch border to the Harz and have ridden round the Harz on a bike. What sort of trip do you hope to make?

Dougie D is dead right. Torfhaus was the old British Army ski hut location.

 

Well a German phrase book will keep you right ordering beer and allow you to mumble something before an indulgent smile behind the bar breaks into English.......
Your best bet is to plot your ‘must visit’ destinations and ‘could visit’ destinations on a map and get your head round the distances and how far you want to ride in a day. You could visit Colditz from the Harz in a day but it is a 250 mile round trip while being something like 450 miles from the Hook of Holland.
Arnhem is just off the route out of Rotterdam but Dutch motorways are pretty bland. You will also want to flog through the industrial Ruhr to get to the Sauerland beyond (Mohnesee etc) and Route 1 is pretty straight and undulating. If it was me I would plan a big clockwise loop staying off the motorways where I could and using them to get through the tedious bits. Arnhem then Kleve (Henry viii Anne of Cleves?) is an historic old town just inside Germany that gets you headed to Munster, Osnabruck and the roads that straddle the Teutoburg all the way Minden (victory over the French) to Detmold and Herman the German’s statue (Arminius who did to the Legions what the Scots did!) It is a fun run cross country to somewhere like Goslar on Day 3? If Belsen is a must then the Minden-Hanover autobahn is a fast run on more undulating terrain til Hanover itself. Central Hanover is modern (go figure why) and best avoided with a loop North then South to the Harz. A few days there will give you short rides on great roads before a run to maybe Winterberg in the Sauerland for a couple of nights from which you can do all the dams and is itself a great place for biking. Return via Cologne towards Aachen and in an easy day you are into the Eifel for Battle of the Bulge as well as the 1940 invasion routes. Don’t miss Monschau! Then West and North into the Netherlands via Maastricht (last night? great pubs/clubs) and Roermond to arrive at your return ferry for tea and toast.

 

Oh I just suggested clockwise because driving on the right the camber is in your favour