Madness! Ducks have actually swum onto the terrace of the Hotel Hauer. A small sign on the wall next to the entrance staircase marks the water level of the flood in July 2021: around 2.20 metres from the pavement. "Thanks to flood defences, the ground floor was not massively flooded, but the damage was still enormous and the entire basement and garages had to be completely renovated," says Carlo Hauer. The boss of the hotel grew up here and has been running the hotel since 1989 in the fifth generation, actively supported by his wife Christiane and his two daughters Katharina and Dana. A real family business, in other words, and that's not the only thing that makes the hotel so appealing.
The location directly on the River Sûre, which forms the border with Luxembourg for around fifty kilometres, can almost be described as idyllic. The small municipality of Bollendorf is also a state-recognised climatic health resort and ideally situated for extensive motorbike tours. Carlo has been active in this area for a long time. Together with TF colleague Tiemo from the "Wolffhotel" in Kopp, around sixty kilometres away, he is a founding member of the Eifel Motorcycle Route Team, which was later joined by other TF hotels.
It was therefore easy to recruit Bernd and Ralf, two of the certified Eifel tour guides, for this event. Partner hotel "inventor" Rudolf also took the opportunity to help organise the tour and lead a group.
As it has become customary for many - indeed most - people to arrive a day early, a tour was also planned for Tuesday. In four groups of six motorbikes each, we first travelled through Luxembourg, past Lake Echternach and then to the "Mannebacher Brauhaus" for lunch. The route then led past the Fell slate mine and over the mountain race track to Riol, then through the Kyll valley and finally back to the hotel.
On the second day of the tour, the weather also presented itself from different angles: Sometimes there was rain, sometimes fog, in between a bit of sunshine, occasional sleet showers, sometimes garnished with the finest hailstones ... The temperature, on the other hand, was relatively constant around the five-degree mark - but that can't shake real bikers.
On Wednesday, the now complete team set off in a northerly direction. The next mountain race route was already waiting there, namely from Wolsfeld to Holsthum, before the groups arrived for lunch at "Haus Hubertus" in Winterspelt. Well warmed up, it was off to Welchenhausen to the "wArtehalle", probably the smallest art museum in Germany, located at a bus stop. A stop at the Ouren European Monument in the border triangle D / L / B was of course a must, before the tour came to an end via Clervaux and the canton of Vianden.
Of course, we could have visited the Bitburger brewery. But Carlo had a better idea and invited the hop farmer Andreas Dick. The trained brewer and maltster is also a passionate beer sommelier. And so the advertised "dinner with beer accompaniment" was an entertaining, exclusive beer tasting to go with the menu, with in-depth expertise directly from the "master of Bitburger Siegelhopf" - great!
The bad weather was quickly forgotten and the atmosphere was good. It always is, come what may. Of course, we also talk about business, but basically this is a get-together for friends and one of the highlights in the annual calendar of the TF landlords. Everyone is already looking forward to the anniversary event, the 50th meeting in October. At Wolfgang's in Törwang in Upper Bavaria - where the very first specialists' meeting was held. And there's something else to celebrate on this occasion ...