Page 17 - Shining On Winter 2022

BMW Club meeting in Berlin (Keith Alexander)
BMW MOTORRAD DAYS, JULY 2022. This wasn’t a Ulysses trip, but as a lot of members ride BMWs I
thought you might be interested in BMW’s official annual international meet. The event used to take
place in Garmisch, but thanks to Covid and BMW management (they wanted the event closer to the
factory) the 2022 event was held at the Summer Garden in Berlin.

As I haven’t toured abroad for several years I
thought this would be a good way to get back into
European travel, as all you need to do is book
your place. The ferry and 4 star hotels (with
breakfast) are all included in the price. The only
expenses once the trip is paid for are petrol,
lunches & drinks. Routes are planned and sent in
printed format and downloadable to your sat nav,
but you can go your own way if you wish and
meet at the pre-booked hotels.
Wednesday 29th June

The tour started with the overnight ferry from
Harwich (a ferry option from Hull is also available).
Once I found my cabin I headed to the bar for
refreshment and a chat with the tour team and other people on the trip, this is when I discovered I’d
forgotten to pack my toothbrush and deodorant, so I didn’t think too many people would want to get to
close for a chat!

Thursday 30th June (265 miles)
The ferry disembarked at 8am so the boat alarm
sounds at 6 to allow enough time to get ready and
have breakfast before you leave. It also means the
shops are open so I could buy the necessary
deodorant and toothbrush, so perhaps someone
would talk to me at breakfast. Tour leaders were
waiting in the ferry terminal car park for those that
wanted to follow an official tour guide, and I went
for this option. It turned out to be a good choice as
my Garmin Nav4 decided to play up and just had
a straight line from the ferry port to the first stop
(you need to import the GPX waypoints into the satnav’s Trip Planner app to calculate the route, Ba).
The first overnight stop was to be in Bremen, 265 miles away.
It was hot, 30 plus degrees, and the speed limits in Holland
don’t allow a lot of airflow to cool you down. First coffee stop
was at the bridge in Arnhem - “A Bridge Too Far”. A look
around the museum and a coffee and cake later we were back
on the road. I don’t think the Dutch are keen on motorised
vehicles, with low speed limits (60 mph on motorways) and
kamikaze cyclists who don’t stop or get out of the way for
anything.
After another couple of stops for lunch and coffee with heavy
traffic most of the way we reached Bremen in the rush hour
and had to get to the opposite side of the city to the hotel. I’m
not a fan of riding in cities, especially when they have cobbles
and tram lines. The reason for using city hotels was because
all the hotels used for the BMW official tours are a minimum 4
star rating to cater for the expectations of your average BMW
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