Not only bikes

I've realised, with the booking of a couple of non biking holidays, that this blog doesn't only have to relate to my biking adventures, so expect to see posts about other stuff I get up to, sort of like a diary.

My next adventure IS a biking one, my trip to Aragon for the MotoGP race. That's just over 3 weeks away. 2 weeks after that, I'm off again, this time with Catherine, to Side, in Turkey. With all this time I've been spending away with Ginny and Grizzly, Catherine thought it about time I went on holiday with her. We've only been to Turkey before on a day trip from Kos, so this will be a new experience. Last time, I made my girls millionaires on my return, by presenting them with a 1 million Turkish Lira note each (value about 50p or something ridiculous like that).

Side, is apparently, on the Turkish Riviera, north and little bit west of Cyprus. We're not sun worshippers, though a dip in the nice warm Med would be nice but there are plenty of Roman and Grecian remains to be visited in the area, so that will keep us active.

I expect the winter will curb any further adventures this year, though some may say, becoming a grandfather in December will be an adventure in itself. Catherine and I have already made plans to pop to Wales once the baby is born, hedging our bets with 2 dates, one before and one after Christmas.

2020 will see me hit the big six-oh. I hadn't given that much thought until my eldest, Jennifer, asked if I had plans. She was fishing I think, because she knew she was expecting but had yet to spread the good news. She did get me thinking though, the upshot of which is, Catherine and I will be on a Caribbean cruise for both our birthdays in February. 😎 I have also booked a place for us and the girls, partners and grandchild to stay at in May, near Frome in Somerset. That's the worst thing about being a winter baby, the weather in February is usually cold/wet/icy, so not much fun for doing stuff. That's why I've chosen to delay the family event a few months. I've yet to devise the itinerary for that weekend yet but I'd like to do something we all remember. After that, I'll be back on the road with Grizzly, in June/July.

TTFN

Stats Time

The usual end of trip stats.

Ginny and I covered a total of 1945 miles on the trip. That's 200 miles more in 8 days, than I have covered in 8 months, in Nessa, my Toyota CHR.

Ginny supped approximately 171.5 litres / 37.75 gallons of fuel, at an average rate of;

12.2 miles per litre / 55.47 miles per gallon.

The most miles Ginny covered on one tank, was 287.1 miles, with 35 miles range showing.

Price per litre varied from country to country, Austria being about 30-35 cents cheaper than Germany but the overall spend was approximately €225 / £205. Besides fuel, I also stuck 300ml of oil in Ginny, which amounts to something like €/£5-€/£6 worth.

My hotel and living costs were around €500 / £455 and my race ticket cost €190, which included €25 for secure delivery (robbing b'stards!)

All in all then, this little jaunt has cost me about €915 / £835. It's not cheap this touring lark!

And I'll be doing it all again in September. At least the ticket is cheaper AND I can print it myself, so that's an €80 / £73 saving right off. I'm hoping the weather in Spain will be better than it was for the second half of this trip. "£$%ing Germany 😠

Keep your eyes peeled for updates about that trip over the next month. I'll be setting off from Blighty on Tuesday 17th September.

The Austrian MotoGP Podium

Home, Sweet, Home

Last on the train, as usual. 3 other guys were on there with me. They'd also been to Austria for the GP. We had a good chat, which passes the the time and before we knew it, we were at Folkestone. 

It was raining as we disembarked and did so pretty much the whole journey home. I arrived home at 18:48. It would have been sooner but for the 50mph limit all the way from junction 9 to junction 6 on the M20.

So that's this adventure over with.

Ginny and I have covered 1945 miles this last week and she has now clocked 12,599. Somewhere there's been a miscalculation, as that's more than I thought we'd be doing. She's in for her 12k service next Thursday though. Better late than never eh?

I'll probably throw out some fuel stats but for now I'll leave you with this pic of a new (I've never seen it before) facility at the Calais terminal. 

As always, thanks for reading.

Covered bike park

It's happened again!

So Day 8 didn't start brilliantly. Left the hotel about 8:30. Fuelled up, then arrived back at the hotel about 9:10!

Schoolboy route planning error, having the hotel as the first waypoint. Typical of Tomtom's perverse nature (you can tell it's a she), she had me riding out several kms before taking me back to where I started. Not for her a quick nip round the block, nope, a 5 mile trek. My own fault. By the time I left Karlsruhe I had already been riding an hour.

Then things went from bad to worse.

There are 3 things guaranteed when it comes to Germany;

1) They will always lose a world war.

2) They will always beat England in a penalty shoot out.

3) It will always piss down when you are on your motorcycle. 

And so it was. Not long on the autobahn and the heavens opened again. No immediate service station this time BUT small emergency laybys. Fuck it, I pulled over and once again struggled into my rain gear. Then, I had to negotiate my way back onto a limited visibility motorway from a layby no longer than 50 metres, with traffic speeding by. Luckily, a big enough gap appeared allowing me to gas Ginny into the deluge. 

4 hours later, at my pee stop I was still in the waterproofs.  It had been raining on and off the entire journey, over 200 miles and didn't look like getting any better, so I left them on. 

Vindicated once again. By the time I arrived at Eurotunnel, 4pm ish, I had sat through several more heavy downpours. This time, without a care. One has to take the smooth with the rough 😁

My early arrival, didn't bear the fruit I had hoped, namely an earlier crossing, so I am writing this whilst I wait for my scheduled train  at 18:20. We should get the call to proceed in 20 mins.

I'll get the hour time diff back, obviously, so I anticipate being home about 7pm. I'll be keeping the waterproofs on, just in case.

Day 7, part zwei

By the time I'd finished my hot choc, the rain had stopped.  Dark clouds were still hovering though.  With the memory of cold, wet bollocks still fresh in my mind, I decide to don the waterproofs. 

Us motorcyclists, well me in any case, are perverse so far as the weather is concerned. Having watered up, the worse thing in the world, is for it to then be dry and sunny, so I (we) hope, that having got the waterproofs on, it actually rains again, to justify the effort.

Today I was vindicated, as there were one or two more showers. By the time I got to Karlsruhe though, it was 22 degrees and sunny, so I was more than ready to disrobe.

The autobahn, apart from several lots of roadworks, was pretty uneventful, except for one small incident.

I was in the slow lane coming up on a brit reg'd Skoda Fabia. In the centre lane, overtaking, was another brit reg'd Skoda, an Octavia. I indicated to come out and waited for it to pass me, which it duly did. However, soon as it cleared me and I began to pull out, the clown slowed, resulting in some braking, headlight flashing and swearing on my part. I have no idea why he did it but in all these miles, I think it's ironic that my only 'moment' was caused by some prick from back home. I soon passed him and gave him the head shake!

Ginny clocked 12,000 miles on this part of the journey, which means we have covered over 6,000 together in the last 64 days or thereabouts. Impressive eh?

At the hotel, I checked her oil level and put the last 300mls in to top her up. Discarding the bottle, I have replaced the space with some wheat beer from Aldi, just up the road 😁

Dinner tonight is one of Grizzly's favourites, McDs. It's only 3 minutes from the hotel. 

This time tomorrow we shall be back in Blighty. Before that though, there's the small matter of 647kms to negotiate.

Till tomorrow then.

Truly Scrumptious

Woke up to a dry if chilly morning. At least it was outside. Having had the heated towel rail on full pelt all night drying my gear, it was nice and toasty in the bathroom.  Glad I wasn't paying the leccy!

Fuelled up, I rode the 4k up the road to Hohenschwangau, which sits just below the Neuschwanstein Castle. After riding around looking for motorcycle parking, I left Ginny by the bicycle park and began the 1.2km walk up the hill.....slowly.

The place was heaving, mainly with orientals. The queue for castle tickets was 100m long. They only have a limited number, so it's best to get there early. I wasnt there to go inside, just to walk up and get some snaps. They have buses and horse drawn carts, for those unable or unwilling to make the climb.

Going up was ok but coming down in motorcycle boots put a bit of pressure on my toes.

If it was busy when I arrived, by the time I came to leave, you could barely move for traffic. I was soon on the road though and after one last photo, was on my way to the autobahn. It was nice to finally be away from those boring twisty roads 🤣

Bang Bang Chitty Chitty Bang Bang

Tomtom said 2 hours to my fuel stop. With Ginny cruising at 70, we were bowling along nicely. That was until some black clouds appeared and as I discovered to my detriment yesterday, that means rain. Sure enough, the heavens opened. Luckily for me, there was a service station about 1k up the road; so I was able to pull in before I got too wet.

You know that feeling...

..when you just wish the ride was over? Well, today was that day.

I was going to title this "I fucking hate Germany" but I'm mindful the fairer sex read my blog, so didn't want to offend.

Saltburg was surprisingly ok to negotiate. I guess I thought it would be really busy. No, that was fine. Just before I got there, I saw signs for the Saltburgring circuit, so guessed I was close.

The 'problem' started a fair bit down the road. From grey skies, they turned so dark, that the streetlights were coming on! This at about 14:30! I felt sure it must rain. Hindsight is a marvellous thing. I should have stopped and put waterproofs on but it was OK, coz the sky was brightening. Next thing I knew, the bright sky dumped a zillion gallons of water on me. No place to stop, no tree cover. Within 2 minutes I was literally soaked to the skin. 😭 Almost as quickly as it started, it was practically stopped.

Not much point in putting waterproofs on now I thought, besides the hotel isn't far away.

DOH! That was my fuel stop, not the bleeding hotel. That was still another 75 miles away and just to punish me for such a basic error, within a few miles of the stop, the heavens opened again. A double dose of wet bollocks and roads awash!

I fuelled up. Ginny had done 287 miles and the fuel light had just come on, showing 45 miles range left. Impressive.

Once I realised I still had about 90+ minutes to ride, I got out the waterproofs. Too little, too late.

Not only was I wet but I was bloody cold too. A soaking summer mesh jacket and a t-shirt aren't great at retaining body heat. Anyway, I soldiered on and finally reached my hotel.

First thing I did once unloaded, was jump in a hot shower. There's no heating in the room, it's summer!, but there is a heated towel rail in the bathroom, so my dry gloves are drying on it and I've wrapped my jacket around it, to help it dry. I'll probaby have to get the hair drier on my jeans. The t-shirt may just have to go in a laundry bag wet.

I've had dinner, by which time it had thundered and pissed down again and still is. I deviated from schnitzel tonight and had a turkey cutlet, with a gorgonzola sauce, atop some tagliatelli, with some broccoli. The receptionist had given me a voucher for a glass of prosecco, so I had that and my usual weissebier.

Tomorrow, the plan is to visit Neuschwanstein castle (of Chitty Chitty Bang Bang fame) in the morning but I've not checked the forecast, so may abort if weather is still shite. Will be a shame but no fun if it rains. Tomorrow night I'll be in Karlsruhe. Till then.

View from my balcony. It's Germany, so it's raining

Day 6, the long ride back

And it is proving to be so. I left, in glorious sunshine and 26 degrees at about 8:30. 

The ride has been entertaining and scenic but there are few places to overtake, so if you get a lorry, camper or tractor, it can be ages before you get passed it. Speed limit is 100kph on open road anyway.

Upshot is, after 3.5 hours in the saddle, I've only covered 130 miles.

Stopped for a cappuccino, which seemed to be 1 part coffee, 2 parts froth!

Weather has gone grey and a bit chilly as I hit the mountains but there have been some nice sweeping bends to keep me warm. Couldn't help thinking of Grizzly whilst I was sweeping through them at 100kph! 😃

I should shortly be hitting Saltburg. Bound to be a nightmare traffic wise. Fingers crossed.

Turned out nice

With more rain during the MotoGP it didn't look promising. By the time the races started though, there was a dry line showing. None of the races failed to deliver, so everyone went home happy, well, depending whose cap you were wearing!

During lunch, more punters went on the Ducati 2 seaters but today there was also an air display. There was a B25 Mitchell, a Corsair and an old jet, plus a couple of Typhoons, which were even noisier than the MotoGP bikes. There was also a stunt plane, that came along the main straight at grandstand roof height. You could almost reach out and touch it.

Getting away from the circuit wasn't so bad on the bike. I watched the Red Bull Rookies race to let the initial rush go but I'd hate to have been in a car. They reckon there were 85,000 people today. By home time, the sun was out, so normal clobber. Still no coms but I've sorted it now.

Just got back from dinner, my usual and took a walk up to the Schlossberg on top of the hill overlooking the town.

Now it is going dark. From my bed I can see the hilltops and the moon.

Tomorrow I'm starting the journey home, stopping at Fussen. This end, the temp is due to hit 30C again. I've not checked Fussen yet.

That's all for now. 

A moonlit night tonight

Race Day

Had some rain in the night. Woke before the alarm, so decided change of plan in order.  Skip breakfast and get on the road early, hopefully beating the queues.

It never rains, so they say. Well, it bloody did this morning, just as I was about to leave. Waterproofs on ☹ But it pours, the saying continues. And so it did, in respect of my satnav coms. Headset not talking to Tomtom. Aaaagh! Just as well this was the third time I'd done the journey.

Was wet pretty much all the way, which meant parking up on freshly wet grass!!

Didn't leave anything on the bike today, so normal earplugs in place, as Moto2 warm up. Had a bit of a shower 5 minutes into the session but has stopped now. About 19 degrees at the moment. Should warm up later.

Not so sunny RBR.

Another day done

That's qualifying over and done with. Another scorching day. Apart from the incident with my earplugs, which I subsequently found in my jeans pocket, it's been a good day. Even my makeshift lunch turned out OK. The qualifying was great to watch, though I think judging by what I saw, Marquez will be breaking his Red Bull Ring duck tomorrow. Dovi and Vinales for the podium too. To top it all, I managed to reach down and grab the KTM side stand puck today. Will try for another tomorrow,

On the way back, I fuelled up at Hofer (ALDI) @ €119.5 /ltr. Ginny had covered 245.8 miles and was still showing range of 95. Maybe I'll test how accurate that is.

By the time I got back to the hotel, I was sweating buckets. It's been over 30 degrees. I never expected it to be this hot. I got in and decided to jump in the corner bath and have a shower. The bath is on the slant, so I felt myself slipping 'downhill' away from the taps once the water began to flow. It's not east to have a sitdown shower anyway but on a slope and with no shower curtain!

I popped over the road for my dinner. I'd reserved a table by the river. I wasn't right by the water, hence no photo but it was better than dining inside. I had my usual weissebier and a change from the usual schnitzel, with grilled chicken. The riverside unit has it's own  chef and tiny 'kitchen' area, so they aren't marching food across the road.

Alarm is set for 7am again. I'm hoping to be in my seat before 10.00, when the MotoE race starts. That's the electric bikes, for the uninitiated. The day should be finished by about 3pm. Here's hoping for another warm and dry day, though that looks unlikely and that all the riders, including myself, end the day in one piece.

2 seater Ducati MotoGP bikes!

Bucket list

Just watched Randy Mamola and some other geezer taking fare paying punters around the circuit on the GP12 Ducati 2 seater motogp bikes. Defo one for the bucket list, even for just one lap. Lottery win required and I'll helicopter in too. 😁

Day 4, Day 2 at the Ring

Left earlier than yesterday. Packed my shorts, as it's gonna be a scorcher again. Arrived at circuit about same time, with added queuing. Parked up and started getting changed. Lady next to me had same idea, so I was 'treated' to more than I would care to have seen. 

With leaving jacket and jeans on the bike I had to remember to take everything I needed for the day, phone (tick), wallet (tick), bike keys (tick), entry ticket (tick), earplugs. Bollocks! No earplugs. Thought I'd taken them out of my jacket pocket, so they could be on the floor near the bike.  Meant I had to buy a pair in a little metal cannister for €5. DOH! Just hoping I haven't lost my proper ones, as they cost £20.

Waiting for FP3 of MotoGP boys. More later.

Day 3 over

Seems longer than 3 days but no, that's only day 3 over. A lovely day sitting in the shade of the main stand. I bought it to avoid the rain, as other stands are open. So glad I did, it was 28 degrees and blazing sun. Tomorrow promises to be something similar, though there may be a chance of rain, even thunder. They are issuing warnings about the heat.

I expect being Saturday and qualifying day, it will be a bit busier than today. I don't plan on going any earlier though, as I'm guaranteed a seat. It can be difficult to find a good spot in general admission if it's busy.

I finished off the day with my third schnitzel (I like schnitzel ok?) and an Austrian weisse beer, 5.4%. This was at a place up the road. Tomorrow I'm booked in the riverside seating area of the Baderhaus restaurant. Wonder what I'll eat? 🙄

That's all for now. 

It's the principle

Have come up with a cunning plan for snacks at RBR over next two days. Stopped off at Hofer (a.k.a. Aldi) and bought some provisions, water, rolls, meaty sticks, plastic cheese slices and some pretzels. They can stuff their cashless card. I'm more than happy to pay cash, don't see why I should pay for the 'privilege' of not being able to.

The price of progress

Spielberg event is cashless, so if you want any food or drink you have to load up a card, for which you are charged a fee.  As if we haven't spent enough already. Everything costs, even a plastic pouch to keep your ticket in.

Sorry, not everything, the KTM side stand puck to stop the stand sinking into the grass is free.

Day 3, Red Bull Ring

Got to my digs about 17:25 last night, after a pleasant but fairly slow ride. Room is quirky to say the least. Beer and schnitzel for dinner.

Left for circuit about 8:10. Arrived about 9:10. Car park, on wet grass is about a mile (15 mins) from the circuit entrance. Just watching MotoGP practice. These things are freakin noisy. 

Marquez already in the gravel, though stayed upright. 

Clear blue skies. Should be a good day.

The hills are alive

With the sound of six cylinders and Ginny is singing.

After 3 hours plus on the 3 autobahn, I am now on 'normal' roads in Austria. And very nice they are too. First bike I saw in Austria? Guess.

Just fuelled up. 20c cheaper per litre than Germany.

Still 180km to go but it's sunny and very warm, so should be a nice ride.

Laters

Day 2

Left about 8:35. Rode for about 50 miles before fuelling up. Had a quick outside lane blast just beforehand. First time Ginny has seen 3 figures.

Currently stopped for wee and drink at what was to be my fuel stop.  No need for fuel now though. Am easily getting 240 out of Ginny, with a range of 100 still showing.

Sitting in the sun at the moment. Been a mixture of sun and cloud thus far but no rain. 4 5 hours to Bruk.

Chalk and Cheese

Up at 6am, on the road by 7:15. Even with my fuel stop I was checking in by 8am and to my delight, got the option to catch the earlier train. 

Train left on time too. Me and one other bike (see pic). Young guy called Andy, been riding just over a year.  Bike was 883 Sportster till he chopped it. Shortest exhausts I've ever seen I reckon.  His first tour, to the Dolomites! Was going to be riding further than me today! Good luck. Our steeds were like chalk and cheese standing next to each other. Nice lad. Wished him safe journey and hit the road. 

Touring on that!

Ginny was purring and I was surprisingly comfortable. My blue hood jeans maybe having more padding, who knows. I'd been in the saddle over 3 hours by the time I eventually stopped for fuel and I hadn't been bum shuffling much at all. My planned stop turned out to be a truckers, diesel only gaff. No matter, I had plenty range left. I stopped about 20 miles further on.

After watering the pony, as Grizzly would say and grabbing a bite to eat, I was back on the road and within a 100 metres, Ginny was back in the land of her birth for the first time. She celebrated by clocking up 11,000 miles.

Roadworks slowed me by about half an hour, despite me filtering, so the 2nd part of the journey was also around 3 hours. I arrived at the Jagerhof Hotel in Weibersbrunn about 5:35pm.

The journey had been pretty uneventful and the expected rain failed to materialise in anything other than a few spots.  I got lucky there, as they had clearly had heavy rain today.

I took a walk around the town, took a few snaps and then had dinner. Schweineschnitzel, washed down with a weisen beer.

Tomorrow I'm heading to my digs for the next 4 nights, in Bruk an der Mur, Austria. 

Till tomorrow then.

T minus 61:11

Ignore the title. Best I could come up with.

Suffice to say, my trip to Austria is almost upon me. Ginny has had a wash, after getting covered in muck on the Spain trip and tomorrow I shall be checking her oil level and tyre pressures. I've already started my packing, though at the moment that amounts to the paperwork and some electrical bits. Tuesday will be my main packing day. I'll be checking the weather forecast first though. My wet weather gloves and boots have had a dubbin type polish, so at least I'll look presentable when the heavens open, which I'm sure they will at some point.

I'm booked on the 09:20 tunnel crossing on Wednesday, so I'll be leaving home about 2 hours beforehand. I'll be making the usual stop at the Tesco fuel station, just off J10 on the M20, so I can just crack on, once on the other side. That's about 10 miles from the tunnel. Hopefully everything will be running on time. If so, I will arrive in Calais at 10:55.

My first overnighter is in a place called Weibersbrunn, in Germany. It's about 410 miles from the tunnel. I'm expecting it to take me until about 18:00, maybe later, depending on number of stops and time off the bike but there'll be no sightseeing or non motorway riding this time. Ginny and I shall be focused on mile munching, which after all, is what she does best.

Make sure you check back on Wednesday for the first on road updates.