Bombers and Bikes, The Stats

 During the course of this trip, Ginny clicked over 34,000 and 35,000 miles, finishing up, not far short of 36,000. At the time of writing, with a run out to Spitfire Club yesterday, she has also moved passed that milestone too.

To Ginny's stats then.

From door to door, we covered 2,479 miles.

Over the course of the 2 weeks, I topped Ginny up 12 times.

Ginny sipped, 43.40 gallons (197.3 litres), at an average of 54.48 miles per gallon (11.98 miles per litre).

The fuel cost was £317.05 (€373.82)

Other stats

The total cost of the 2 week trip (hotels/food, etc, but excluding Race Tickets) was £1,995.86, broken down as;

Assen - £897.74

Sachsenring £1,098.12

3 of us shared the Assen costs, 2 the Sachsenring costs, so those costs were, £848.31. Add on the fuel costs and the 14 day trip costs were, £1,165.36 or £83.24 per day.

For completeness, race ticket costs were;

Assen - £144.81

Sachsenring - £189.78

Total - £338.59

This gives a overall total spend, of £1,503.95 or 107.42 per day.

If you think that sounds a lot, try looking at one of the tour companies you see advertised. The outlay there is substantially more.

That's all folks!

Bombers and Bikes, Day 14, Bochum to Sittingbourne

 The forecast was right. We had a spectacular thunder storm. I was in bed, when the most almighty crack of thunder woke me. Gradually the storm moved away and the rain eased off but it was still raining, or at least, raining again, when we went for brekkie.

It was raining when I went to put my gear on the bike, so I grabbed my waterproofs. In the end though, I decided to risk it without them, as the rain had stopped by the time we were ready to leave. It was about 18 degrees as well, so would have been a bit warm with the waterproofs on. It proved to be the right decision. Though we had some light showers along the way, it was never enough to really wet us.

Like yesterday, we made good time on the motorway, cruising between 60-70mph for the most part, even on the unrestricted parts, which saw cars flying by, easily in excess of 100mph. It made me think what a huge contribution to cutting greenhouse gases Germany could make, if it just did away with the unrestricted autobahns. Those massive BMWs, Mercedes and Audis must be guzzling fuel and pouring out tons of emissions, at such high speeds.

The usual blockage that is Antwerp, was so much easier to traverse than we had expected. Sure, the traffic was tailed back, but we filtered again, avoiding the odd knobhead, as necessary. Soon after, we made our fuel stop, the last on foreign soil. Again, it was at a motorway service station, but somewhat cheaper than the one in Germany. We had a brief stop, for an 80 cent wee, in my case, before cracking on towards Calais. We had plenty of time in hand to visit the supermarket and still be early for our crossing back to Blighty, so as planned, we popped into Auchan and I grabbed a couple of bags of soft chewy sweets and 3 tins of strong, and stronger beer.

I said I like a strong beer!

Back at the bikes, we agreed that once we got to check-in, we would definitely take the earliest crossing offered, as we were still about two and a half hours before our scheduled crossing. We were offered the usual, one before booked, crossing, so 16:20. That gave us a bit of a wait in the terminal to look forward to. However, when we got inside, the boards were saying the crossing was delayed, pretty much to the original time. Toileted we sat down to wait it out, when all of a sudden, the board said we should proceed. 😕  

Surprisingly, we got through passport control pretty quickly and were loaded onto a train almost immediately, a good hour or so, before the early train time, that they had said was delayed! Confused? So were we, but not complaining.

The ride home was uneventful, apart from the foreigners hogging the centre lane on the M20. Strange, back home they immediately move into the nearside, once they have overtaken something.

Catherine was surpised to see us arrive back so early, as I'd not been able to let her know we were that much earlier than we expected. We had got lucky, definitely. Being home early meant we were able to have an earlier dinner, which then meant we could sit down to watch some of the build up to the England v Holland match. The match, like all, was a little frustrating but England got the job done, with a brilliant goal from Ollie Watkins. Will he start the the final against Spain on Sunday? I very much doubt Southgate will drop Harry Kane, despite him underperforming in most of the matches. Anyway, we are in the final. Can we take that last step? It'll be tough but we need to be brave and grasp the opportunity. COME  ON ENGLAND! 

Phil, will be off in the morning and life will return to normal once again. We've had a good couple of weeks. Not everything went as smoothly as it could have, and some plans went astray but all in all, a very enjoyable trip.

We have another trip pencilled in for September but Phil thinks he may not be able to make that, due to family commitments, so we may have to wait until 2025 for that. Next big trip though, might/should be another Wild Hogs trip with Grizzly. I shan't spoil the surpise by saying where we plan to go but, it's likely to test my organisational skills somewhat. 😉

That's all on this trip, save for some stats, as usual, so look out for those. 

Thanks for following this 'adventure'. Till next time.

Bombers and Bikes, Day 13, Altenburg to Bochum

We had a leisurely start to the day, with a bit of a lie in. Most of our packing had been done last night, so there was little to do but get ready and have our brekkie. We were the only bikers left in the hotel, but there were still a few other holiday makers. We also seemed to have quite a few workmen staying, with an assorted of vans in the car park.

Fed, we loaded the bikes up and set off, heading north, towards Leipzig. We weren't going into Leipzig but just south was where we picked up the motorway. A cool start, soon turned to something altogether warmer, back up in the mid-high 20s. By the time we needed to stop for fuel, we were ready for a drink. The fuel stop was at a motorway service station, which meant mucho €€€. I wouldn't normally choose to use a motorway service station, for that very reason but we weren't really anywhere near a town, so we bit the bullet. We paid €2.26 per litre! I think before that, the most we'd paid was €1.98. Generally though, it was lower than that.

We were cruising on the motorway pretty much the entire way and made pretty good time as a result. There were a couple of occasions where the traffic backed up but for the main part, we filtered without any problems. Once or twice we had some obstinate git, who either didn't want to let us by, or when we had gone by, tried to come up alongside us, otherwise though the ride was incident free. As we came into Dortmund, there were loads of signs/posters relating to the Euros. Only later did I realise that England are due to play the semi-final against Holland tomorrow, in Dortmund.

Bochum is just 10 miles up the road. I had us down for another fuel stop but the petrol station we pulled into didn't look like it was on line. I spotted one a bit down the road, so we went to that instead. On leaving, I tried to second guess Tomtom, ignoring her instruction, as she had originally indicated to take a certain road. Phil on the other hand, followed the new instruction. After finding a road blocked by diggers and having to retrace my steps, I arrived at the hotel, with Phil directing me into the car park. DOH! There are a couple of Brit rego cars in the car park, here for the footie I guess, and one room has some flags up at the window.

The hotel is a tad strange. It looks like it is an office block and seems to share the building with businesses. Our room is also strange. Very nice and spacious but half submerged, so looking out of the window, your eyes are at ground level.

We had no worries about dinner tonight, as this had been decided before we even set off from home. Kebab! Doesn't sound too glamourous I'll grant you but this was a particular kebab shop, owned by a particular chap, Lukas Podolski, an ex Arsenal forward, who since retirement, has built himself a business around kebabs, with 47 shops across Germany. Being Gooners, it would have been rude not to have visited his shop, especially as it was just a mile walk from the hotel.

Lukas Podolski's Mangal Kebab Shop

We went for the plate, rather than the bread

We had a soft drink with the kebab plate but afterwards, we went to a bar next door, for a couple of beers. It wasn't busy but out of about 15 punters, 10 were English. The train station is opposite, so if they were staying close by, I imagine it's only about 15 minutes to Dortmund for the match tomorrow. Of course, we'll be back in Blighty by then.

Having fed and watered, we made our way back to the hotel. Yet another where the reception clocks off early, though the guy who checked us in had explained how to get in when reception was closed, so no bother.

Back in the room, we watched Spain beat Germany, in the first semi-final. Bugger! Still, there's a job to be done tomorrow, before we can worry about Spain.

Tomorrow we have a straight run through to the tunnel. We'll need one more fuel stop to enable us to get home. There should be enough time to visit Auchan when we get to Calais, and get some beers in, to bring home. I've just about enough room to squeeze a few cans in. 🍻Fingers crossed we don't get held up anywhere. 🤞

Forecast for tomorrow is a bit iffy. We could hit some showers. Tonight though, they have predicted thunder storms. It's just like home, blazing hot one minute, peeing down the next. At least we won't be standing in the middle of a field this time! 😁

Bombers and Bikes, Day 12, NOT Colditz

I think I had seen that Colditz wasn't open on Monday, when I did my original planning but it hadn't entered my head, when we re-jigged the plans, to cut out Dresden and spend another couple of nights in Altenburg. Phil's statement, therefore, didn't seem a total surprise to me. We therefore, had to come up with a Plan B, which meant, we just decided to take a look around the town we were staying in. Unfortunately, Monday closing seems to be a thing across Germany, so the public buildings, such as the huge Schloss, were closed in Altenburg too. Never mind.

The Schloss

We decided that we could still visit the outside of the 'sights' and take photos, even if we couldn't venture inside, so that's what we did. There are a couple of parks and lakes in the town, one with a zoo in the middle, so we thought there'd be enough to busy us for a few hours. It was another warm day, as we made our way around the town. Besides the buildings, which were impressive, one of the most interesting things we saw, was the carp in the lakes. They were obviously used to being fed, as they seemed to congregate at the viewing platforms.

Carp

Having walked a fair few kilometres, we reached the Markt, where we decided to have a cold drink. It was nice just to sit and watch the people going about their business, whilst trying to stop the wasps crawling into our drinks. I resorted to dabbing some of my sprite onto the table, to lure them away from my glass. It seemed to work. It was a surprise though, just how much liquid the wasps could drink. It would have amounted to me drinking a bucket of sprite!

We carried on to view, and drop inside, the Brüderkirche, a striking red brick building, before making our way back to the hotel, where we chilled for a couple of hours, before heading out for dinner.

The Brüderkirche

Once again, deciding where to eat proved problematic, so we plumped for the Indian restaurant, mainly because it was one of the few places actually open! Tell me why, Germans don't like Mondays, tell me why! With a long ride tomorrow, this was a risk. We shall see tomorrow whether we live to regret it.

Saying that, the curries were very nice. We pushed the boat out a bit, with poppadoms to start AND a banana/ice cream pudding. Obviously, that was all washed down with a couple of beers. I've lost count of the beers now, hence, no count anymore, but it must be over 20.

Tomorrow we hit the road, heading west, with our overnight stay in Bochum. Weather is looking fine again. 

 

Bombers and Bikes, Day 11. Sachsenring Day 3

Race Day!

I was awoken by some noise outside, I checked the phone for the time. Bugger, the alarm hasn't gone off. Get up!! 

Once we were awake/up, Phil pointed out that the alarm hadn't gone off, because I had misread the time on the phone, and we were an hour early! DOH!

No matter, we got ourselves ready to go. One problem, the breakfast room wasn't open. I could see all the food was laid out, but the door was locked. We were on the the verge of leaving, having got everything on the bikes, when I heard noise from the breakfast room. A quick check showed it was now open, so we had our usual fill, before setting off. Once again the ride was fairly quick and easy. Even getting on the bus wasn't too bad, as there were a lot more of them, and we we positioned nearer the road once again.

The circuit really was heaving today. It was dry but cloudy, and the forecast was only predicting 18 degrees, so I decided not to change. In our seats, we got talking to a family of Brits from St Albans, who were regulars at GPs around Europe. MotoGP warm-up was in progress when we arrived, with the racing starting at 11:00, with the Moto3 race. I couldn't tell you who won. I'm pretty sure he was Spanish though. Following that, was Moto2, with our own Jake Dixon taking part. Fermin Aldeguer won, with Jake coming in 2nd. The main event looked like being another Jorge Martin Victory, as he had a good few seconds lead with a few laps to go, but Pecco Bagnaia slowly closed in, and not for the first time, Jorge buckled under the pressure, throwing the bike into the gravel at turn 1, handing the victory and the championship lead, to Pecco. The E-Moto race was stopped due to a crash, then re-started over 5 laps. They don't do many anyway, as the batteries don't have the power for more than about 12. Hoping to avoid the queues, we decided to watch the Northern Talent Cup boys. One poor lad, had his bike slow and then catch fire, setting light to his nether regions in the process. I have to say, the marshalls were particularly slow in getting to the lad, much to his consternation. To top the meeting off, we had a medical emergency a few rows behind us. People rushed to get help, whilst others tended to whoever it was, until the paramedics arrived. An eventful end to the day's proceedings.

We walked back to the bikes again. No rain this time. Then the fun began. The route we had taken away from the car park for 2 days, had been blocked off, so we found ourselves heading in the wrong direction, with no signs to advise where to go, to get to something like the right way. After riding around in what I thought was the right direction and being thwarted by road blocks each time, We came to another halt. Throwing up my arms in utter frustration, we were lucky that a passing gentleman, came over and asked where we wanted to go. He didn't speak English but was able to tell me to just ride through the barrier and that would bring us to the road we wanted. Sure enough, half a kilometre up the road, we were back on track. Such a shame that the organisation wasn't that great. It will definitely make me think twice about going to Sachsensring again.

Home in good time, we made our way into town, to find somewhere to eat. Apart from fast food places, only an Indian restaurant and a pizza place were open. We decided on pizza, a lady behind the counter preparing them to order. When they were ready, they pinged a bell. We were outside, so I went in to get them. The lady asked me what a fork was known as, in English. I think she was trying to teach the young woman with her, some English. As I picked up the plates, the young woman said, "yum, yum". I laughed. When I got back outside, I could here them laughing and chatting. The older woman telling the younger one, she should have said, "enjoy your meal". Having finished, I took the plates back in and when asked if everything was OK, I just said, "yum, yum"!

Tomorrow, the plan is to ride to Colditz and visit the castle. It's only bout 25 miles away, so we can have a lie in.

Bombers and Bikes, Day 10. Sachsenring Day 2

 Just one of those days.

Up earlier than usual, as being a qualifying and race day, it would be a lot busier than yesterday. Weather, superb and was to reach the predicted 29 degrees. As per Assen, we needed plenty of sun screen, as our stand is uncovered. One very large fly in the ointment was, that they were forecasting thunderstorms for around 4pm.

The ride, second time around, was much easier, as we knew where we were going. At the park and ride, I managed to go in the right entrance this time, but instead of being directed near the roadside, like yesterday, we were some way into the field, amongst a growing sea of cars. The attendant offered us the German sidestand 'puck', which we declined.

The 'puck', 1 inch thick piece of wood

Changed into our shorts, etc, we made our way to the bus stop. One bus was just about full. No problem, we thought, we'll be on first on the the one behind. That was until, the driver decided to open his doors where he was. Still, we adopted the German queueing technique and managed to squeeze on.

At the circuit, we found our proper seats (the row in front of where we sat yesterday), and enjoyed some good qualifying and an E-Moto race, before the main event, the MotoGP Sprint race, at 3pm. These are 10 lap, all out, all action, fairing bashing affairs, whereas the main race is 26 laps and somewhat more considered. The race was won by Jorge Martin, to extend his lead in the Championship over nearest rival, and double MotoGP champion, Pecco Bagnaia.

We were thinking of staying on to watch the Northern Talent Cup youngsters (future GP stars) but the wind had got up and the dark clouds had crept up behind us, so we decided to head back to the bikes.

The queue for the buses was huge, so we decided to walk. Two thirds of the way to the car park, the first spots of rain arrived. I fished my waterproof poncho out of my backpack. Within minutes though, the heavens had opened, so by the time I found my way to the bike (Phil was some way behind), my shorts and trainers were soaked! ⛈ 

Now the issue was, how to get riding gear out of the bike and change into it, with rain lashing down and thunder and lightning overhead, whilst standing in the middle of a big field. Luckily, the rain eased, so we were able to unpack and get changed without getting too much wetter. Needless to say, the ride back wasn't all that pleasant.

Once back at the hotel, a major drying operation began. Luckily, the radiators were working, so dialled up to max, we had plenty of heat to start drying things out.

We arrived home in time to see the England v Switzerland Euro Quarter Final. Another tortuous game to watch but the boys came good in the penalty shoot out, so Holland next. Come on England!

 As soon as the footie finished we headed around the corner again, to the chinese. Places in town all seemed to be closed or closing soon, so we had little choice.The chinese was really handy though and good value. We shared a couple of dishes again and washed them down with a Bitburger or two. 🍻 

Back at the hotel, I've set tomorrow's alarm for a bit earlier. Main race day is sure to be much busier than today, so we aim to get on the road earlier.

Bombers and Bikes, Day 9. Sachsenring Day 1

 Up and ready for brekkie a glance out of the window provided some amusement for me. Watching one of the Brit knobs work out how to get boots, etc, into his tiny panniers. With a lot of persuasion, he got the boots in but then the stuff he'd taken out wouldn't all fit in the other pannier. As I said, amusing.

Trying to fit a quart into a pint pannier.

The ride to Sachsenring was easy and pretty quick. I'd been unable to get a response from the circuit about motorcycle parking, despite 2 emails, and the only info I could see said to use the free public car park with shuttle bus. The route looked straightforward. It wasn't, as the German plod had other ideas, diverting us in a huge circle around the circuit and town. Still the signage was ok. Finally, we arrived at the car park, which I knew to be a field. I couldn't see any bikes, only cars, but a guy waved us in. 100m away, another guy told us we should turn around and head to the other side of the field. He didn't speak English but I gathered he was saying there was somewhere where the sidestand wouldn't sink in. So, we turned around and made our way to the other side of the field, where it turned out the shuttle bus went from. People were videoing us as we turned onto a concrete area, me not realising, the entrance was further along, nor that the shuttle was just about to pull away! I guess the punters thought bendy bus and BMW were about to have a head to head. No harm done.

We parked up, on the grass, as it turned out and got our plastic sidestand pucks out. Had we gone through the proper entrance, we would have been given an inch thick piece of wood for the sidestand! Class. In Austria they gave you big orange KTM plastic pucks.

We crammed onto a shuttle for the 10 or so minute ride. I would say to the circuit but the drop-off point was probably 500m away from the entrance. Scanned in, we then had another 5-600m walk to get to our stand, in the middle of the circuit. Phil wanted to buy some MotoGP stuff, so we stopped at the stall and whilst he was trying on a t-shirt, I bought a cap, something I'd always been meaning to do.

Finding the stand was easy enough, the seat not so. The row labelling wasn't where you would expect, so we actually ended up in the row behind. It wasn't busy, so no worries. The view from the stand was pretty could, being able to see the riders come through turns one, two and down to three, before they appeared below us, before turning left.

Turns one and two, middle of pic

We sat through most of the free practice sessions, before deciding to head back. Arriving at the shuttle stop, there was a bit of a queue and we probably had to wait ten or fifteen minutes before the shuttle arrived. The way back was different to going but we realised that it wouldn't be able to turn around at the car park. Still, we expected the plod to help the bus along its journey, instead of standing watching it trying to get out of a side road, whilst eating their sandwiches! There were a lot of plod on duty, all seemingly, doing feck all! 

The route away from the car park/circuit was a lot more straight forward than the arrival, with traffic flowing freely. We know it won't be the same tomorrow or Sunday.

We were back in the hotel in time to catch some of the Germany v Spain game. The hotel bar had the match on and was full of Germans. They were noticeably quiet until their team scored, when in the room, we could here them shouting and screaming. That didn't last long though, did it? 😂

With the game over, we made our way into town to find somewhere to eat. We found a restaurant with an outdoor seating area and about six TVs. The place was pretty busy but we found a table and sat down, looking at all the sombre faces. Easy to think, that could be us tomorrow night.

I had currywurst, chips and sauerkraut, washed down with 2 of the Altenburg brewery ales, one at 7%. Nice.

The seven percenter

A German staple, probably!

Back at the hotel, we're setting an earlier alarm, as it is bound to be busier than today, with qualifying and some races, including the MotoGP Sprint race. Forecast is for high 20s and sunny. Wow. About time.

Bombers and Bikes, Day 8. Brilon to Altenburg

After a really pleasant stay at a really good hotel, we left, once again, with the rain falling. 40 miles later, it was dry, as we parked up at the Eder Dam. The waterproofs came off and we took a walk across the dam and Phil took some photos. Whilst on the Dam, we were buzzed by an Apache helicopter. Clearly  a rooky pilot, as he was a long way above 60ft! 😁

Achtung! Apache.

Our next stop was just a few miles up the road, an upside down house! We parked up, took a few photos of the exterior, then decided we may as well take the €5 punt and take a look inside. It's quite clever the way they have everything that would be on the floor, fixed above your heads but it didn't really have the wow factor. It's not something you would spend a lot of time in. We were in it little more than 10 minutes.

Yes, it's upside down

Whose that on the upside down telly?

Our next stop was for fuel, 60 miles away. For the first time in days, the weather seemed to be on our side. From our fuel stop, we had about 85 miles till our next point of interest, a Dutch Windmill. Not sure why it is in Germany or why it doesn't look like any of the windmills we actually saw in Holland, but hey, it was worth a photo stop, though not open to the public. It took us a couple of goes to find it, Tomtom preferring a 4km round trip, than the 500m route it could have taken! As we rolled up, some yappy little dogs, well, yapped at us! More photos taken and back on the bikes, for our last stint of the day.

The Dutch Windmill

A little over 45 miles away was our hotel, in the town of Altenburg. It's hard what to make of the town. There are lots of obviously old buildings, but many of them are derelict or their facades are crumbling. As we pulled into the fairly large car park, we clocked 4 UK regos, taking up almost 4 car sized spaces, huge gaps between each bike. Inconsiderate knobs! A group of German bikers arrived a little after us and I could see they weren't impressed.

Checked in and refreshed, we looked for places to eat. Harder than it sounds, as there seemed to be little close by. In the end, we settled for the nearest, a chinese restaurant, about 100m away. With google translate on the menu, we made our choices, 2 mains, a rice dish, and a noodle one also. The owner/waiter didn't speak english, but was able to convey to us quite easily, that we didn't need the rice or noodles, as the mains came with rice and would be enough. He was right. Nice of him. He could have just brought it all, and we'd have had to pay whether we could finish it all or not. We washed it down with a couple of beers, before retiring to the hotel.

Tomorrow, we will be at the Sachsenring. It's only qualifying day but it'll give us a chance to suss everything out in a leisurely way, which should make things easier for the next two days. We are about 28 miles away, so shouldn't take too long. Forecast is dry, 18 degrees.

 

Bombers and Bikes, Day 7. Etten-Leur to Brilon

A nice inclusive brekkie set us up for the day, the worst day so far. It was raining again, as we packed the bikes. Waterproofs on.

We only had 2 memorials and 2 fuel stops today. The rest would be taken up with motorway riding to get to our 'sightseeing' stop.

First up was a visit to the grave of probably the most famous Lancaster pilot of all time, Guy Gibson. It was only a short ride but 99% of it was in peeing rain. As I'd been before, I avoided the dreaded wet hand syndrome (bikers will understand) but Phil understandably wanted to take photos, so off with his gloves. Of course, we had no choice at the fuel stop, and it was still raining cats and dogs. We struggled on to our final memorial, tucked away in a back street housing estate, somewhere south east of Antwerp. Off came the gloves again, and yes, it was still hammering down. 

No info, just this 'sculpture'

Photos done we started the long trek towards Germany. This should have been easy but was anything but, as there was a road closure. In an attempt to find a suitable route, we ended up heading towards Antwerp, up one side of the motorway, back to where we started and beyond, but unable to get tomtom to find us a route east. After much frustration, google maps came to the rescue and we made some progress, albeit having lost an hour or so, and still in the pouring rain, I should add.

With yet more, road closure diversions, motorway roadworks and traffic jams, we eventually made our second fuel stop of the day. This was a chance to also have a coffee, try to warm up, hope the rain would stop. It looked like it might but back on the road we hit torrential rain again. Finally, we arrived at our next destination, the Mohne Dam. Phil had never been. I had been last year, so was able to show him where to park, before we walked out to the middle of the dam. At last it had stopped raining as was starting to look like a nice evening, so I took the chance to take the waterproofs off. They'd only been on for about 8 hours!

We still had some way to go, about 50 miles to our hotel, in a small town called Brilon. We arrived at the hotel just after 18:30. Weather and delays had made us quite a bit later than I had anticipated. The lady of the house led us to a double garage, where we were able to store the bikes, alongside a 70s Rolls Royce and an even older Harley Davidson.

We enjoyed a nice dinner and a couple of beers, before retiring for bed, reflecting on what a terrible day it had been.  

Tomorrow we will make our way to our digs for the next 5 nights, in Altenburg. Forecast doesn't look too promising though. 😞

Bombers and Bikes, Day 6. Aalsmeer to Etten-Leur

 A day in the waterproofs again. We'd decided against paying €12.50 each for brekkie, as there was a LIDL, over the road. Some pain-au-chocolat would do just fine, at a fraction of the cost. Except, LIDL wasn't open. It was raining by the time we came to leave and rained on and off for most of the day but nothing that significant. It was easier to keep the waterproofs on though.. Brekkie turned out to be McDs, egg and bacon McMuffin.

We stopped at 6 memorials today. The first, not only had bent and twisted propellors, we've come across afew, but quite unbelievably, a broken Merlin engine, in a huge glass case. Spectacular! In contrast, one of the others we visited, had just a small plaque on a fence post. 

At another, there was a horse, in an ajacent field, looking fairly sorry for himself. He came over to say hello, so I stroked him and gave him some of the long grass, on our side of the fence. When it came time to leave, I warned him he might get frightened by the engines. I started up, nothing, but when Phil fired up, the poor fella jumped and ran away. The power of 6 over a twin!

We arrived at our hotel, late afternoon. On the edge of town and in what seems like a health complex, it had a huge room, with a little seating area, really quite nice. We thought about eating in but Phil looked at some reviews, which were not so positive, so we chose the only option available, McDonalds and not for the first time today. Not only was this a deviation from our usual 'posher' nosh but also meant we were beer free for the evening.

Tomorrow we shall be making our way into Germany. We have a couple more memorials before that though.

Beer count remains at 12

Bombers and Bikes, Day 5. Emmen to Aalsmeer, via Texel Island

3 musketeers, became 2 today, my bro' returning home. Phil and I continued on our quest to visit more memorials. The day had started dry, but at our first memorial stop, we noticed some threatening rain clouds moving in our direction. I was quickly into my waterproofs, getting my last glove on, just as the drops began to fall, and the heavens opened!

Moving on, we took a road that crosses open water, effectively separating, Ijsselmeer and Markemeer. Halfway across is an island with a car park, a cafe (Checkpoint Charlie), which was closed, and loads of feckin mosquitoes! After a brief stop, we headed north to Den Helder, an interesting looking seafaring town, with a large nautical museum. From there, we took the ferry to Texel Island, where we visited another couple of memorials. After returning to the mainland, we made our way down towards our overnight stop, in Aalsmeer, not far from Schiphol airport.

Our last memorial of the day was one of the best. The site was once that of a farmhouse, housing a couple and 4 young boys. Unfortunately, a Lanc was shot down and crashed into the farmhouse, killing the family and all crew. To mark the deaths, 13 trees have been planted. What is remarkable, is that each tree is the native tree to the land of the deceased. For the crew, that meant 3 oaks, 2 maple and 2 eucalyptus. A very well thought out memorial.

Arriving at the hotel, we were able to park the bikes bang in front of the hotel. One chap took a great deal of interest, as we unloaded our gear.

We had dinner in the hotel bar/restaurant. The owner/manager, obliging us by giving us a table where we could see the tv. I think it was France v someone. A forgettable match. The food was really nice and we washed it down with 2 glasses of Texel beer.

Weather forecast for tomorrow doesn't look great, so I'll be prepared for the waterproofs again.

Beer count = 12  

Bombers and Bikes, Day 3/4. Assen MotoGP

Saturday,  the first of 2 days at the circuit. Assen, The Cathedral of Speed. Didn't start great, 2nd turn  ed us to a road closure. After a trip around a car park, I took us the scenic route. Asking Tomtom for an alternative might have been quicker but it was a glorious day. 

The organisation at Assen is very good, cars in one way, bikes another. Bike parking is all under cover, with a strip of concrete for the sidestand.

Our grandstand was in a great position. We could see 3 corners,  which provided plenty of action. 

There was barely a cloud in the sky and the temp was 25+, really too hot for sitting in for hours, and practically unheard of in Assen. There were 3 races, 2 E-Moto and the MotoGP Sprint. Pecco won the Sprint and Marquez fell off in front of us, so a good result.

The ride ride back gave some respite from the heat, which was quite draining. Once back we went to another of the local eateries for dinner and beer. I had my first schnitzel of the trip.

Beer count = 7

Schnitzel count = 1

Sunday, race day. Much, much cooler and much, much busier. Bikes four abreast on the way in. Races from all 3 classes and plenty of action again. Despite waiting quite a while for the crowds to disperse, leaving the circuit was a nightmare, and the 3 of us got separated.  Nothing to do with organisation, just down to the sheer number of bikes, pedal as well as motor. 

We all made it back ok AND in plenty of time to watch England v Slovenia. We grabbed a prime spot in front of the tv and ordered the beers. Food cam just as the half time whistle blew, another schnitzel for me, and we're not in Germany till Wednesday!

Shite game, scraped the result. Not even 3 beers could help the mood.

Beer count = 10

Schnitzel count = 2

Bombers and Bikes, Day 2. Posterholt to Emmen - 262 miles

A very long day, longer than I had anticipated. It wasn't as warm as yesterday, which was a bonus and somewhat cloudy, so perfect biking weather really.

We visited about 11 memorials today. They are but a small number of the total across Holland and Belgium. Apart from being all Lancasters, my favourite, the theme, albeit a small one, was 617 Sqn, The Dambusters. We visited the memorial for Dambuster AJ-Z, piloted by Henry Maudslay, killed returning from the attack on the Eder Dam, 17 May 1943.

 Another 617 Sqn connection, was closer to home for me, as we visited the grave of my MAPS Chaps colleague Gerry. Harold Wilson, never it made it on the Dams raid and was killed on 16th September 1943, undertaking the Dortmund-Ems Canal raid.

 The 3rd and last 617 Sqn connection, was the memorial to Les Knight who died on the same raid as Gerry's father. Unlike Harold Wilson, Knight had taken part in the Dams raid, but like many, his luck ran out, just 6 months later.

 Our route took us through the city of Nijmegen, in over one bridge, out over another. Neither unfortunately, THE Bridge at Nijmegen.

 We arrived at the hotel, our home for the next 3 nights, at 19:45. There was just time for a quick freshen up before finding a restaurant, There are quite a few, so we shall move about, whilst we are here.

 Beer count is up to 7.

 Tomorrow we are heading to Assen for our first of 2 days at the MotoGP event.

Dambuster AJ-Z, Crash Site Memorial

Last Resting place of Harold Wilson, 617 Sqn

Les Knight's Lancaster Crash Site Memorial

Bombers and Bikes, Day 1. Sittingbourne to Posterholt - 324 miles

A very warm day. We mustn't complain though eh?, except it was 30 + the entire journey, so not that pleasant.

Arrived at Eurotunnel check-in early enough, but lane I chose had issues with the ticket production, so had to change lanes. Still, loaded ok and left on time. ✔  

Early part of the journey was ok, stopped at some memorials and a cemetery but then got caught up in some heavy, very heavy, motorway holdups. Using motorways today, was supposed to save us about 3 hours. Not sure it did that much. Ginny had been fine until that point but once again, the dreaded overheating raised its ugly head, and I had to stop and let her cool down. Frustrating to say the least.

A couple more memorials and what seemed like endless motorway travel and we arrived at our hotel in Posterholt (Holland) around 18;45, later than I had expected. A quick freshen up, and down for beers and dinner, Our lunch stop at Burger King, a bigger than expected burger, had filled me up, so I settled for a small goats cheese salad at dinner,

Pre trip beer count of 2, was increased to 5 this evening. Hotel seems to be family run, chap and his wife, possibly daughter too, who, like most Dutch, speak great English. Rest of the world, take note!

Tomorrow we have another raft of memorials/cemeteries to visit, before we arrive at Emmen, out home for 3 nights, whilst we take in the MotoGP at Assen.

See below, some pics of one of the day's stops.

Lancaster ND587 Crash Site Memorial

ND587 crew. Buried 25km from crash site, some 2 to a grave.

Counting Down

Less than 3 weeks to go now, till I head off to Europe, in search of memorials and motorcycle racing. I've managed a few trips to Spitfire Club on Ginny this last month and am really looking forward to putting another couple of thousand miles on her clock. Here's an interesting fact; I put fuel in Ginny on Monday 3rd June. The last time I fuelled her up, was 4th September! It's even longer since she last had a bath, so I'm hoping to get that done before we set off.

As mentioned in the previous post, Ginny's warranty expires whilst I'm away, least it was to have done. I've renewed again, taking Mark the mechanic's advice. That done, I'm currently working on getting all the necessary paperwork together, and starting to think about what I'm going to pack. How few pairs of pants can I get away with for the fortnight, leaving enough room for some beers on the return journey? 🤔

Apart from the odd day, we're still waiting for summer to arrive, so I'm hoping things perk up soon. I don't fancy spending 2 weeks in my waterproofs! In prep for this trip, I've washed my mesh jacket. Not sure it had ever been done since I bought it in 2018, and it's been through some sweltering temperatures in the interim period, so definitely needed it. Having done that, I decided to upgrade the armour in it. That it came with, was thick rubber. Probably effective but quite uncomfortable. One of the shoulder pads had come loose (velcro shagged) on tour last year, so I needed to do something. So, on the way back from Bognor, a few weeks back, I stopped off at Motolegends in Guildford, the place where I bought the jacket, and purchased some more modern, thinner and more comfortable armour. It took some fiddling, to get it in the right position but now it is in, it is so much more comfortable and flexible. I bought some extra for my jeans but have yet to fit that, as I need to get some heavy duty sticky backed velcro to fix it in place.

The Old Armour

The New Armour

Some other prep I've been up to, is washing all the padding from my crash helmet (again, not been done since 2018), installing the latest Tomtom maps (and the route maps), and updating the firmware of my Sena headset, so, I'm not far off being ready to go.

Think that is all for now.

Testing times

So, Ginny had her MOT and failed!!! Apparently, her headlight was out of alignment. How that occurs, I have no idea. However, the fault was rectified and the re-test passed. Good for another year. That was completed a few days before Catherine and I went on holiday, so there was no chance of actually getting out on her, and since we got back, the weather has been pretty shite too.

Besides the MOT, I also had to renew the insurance. Plenty of searching for quotes turned up nothing better than the company I was already with, so I renewed with them.

Ginny's service was also due, not due to mileage but to time. As she is out of service contract now, I decided to go to an independent garage, rather than the official dealers I have been using. The guy, Mark, is an ex Motorrad mechanic, who went solo. He services police bikes and  bikes owned by police motorcyclists, so that sounds like a decent enough recommendation in itself. He was originally recommended to me about 5 years back. I used him for fitting some tyres but this is the first time under his spanners proper. It's Ginny's 36k service, a big one, which, even at an independent, comes at a big cost. I booked her in for 30th of April, and he'd told me he'd need 2 days. Beside the service, I asked him to carry out the recall work on the footrest circlips, to check a possible water pump leak, and investigate the overheating problem I've had since the last big service. Grizzly's mate Fox (I think they must all be named after animals in Ireland! 😂) said he thought it had not been re-filled properly, so there was possibly an airlock. Mark reckoned that was highly likely, as he's come across this before. He says there are 3 drain plugs but one is difficult to get to, so some of the main dealers only use 2, which leads to air getting trapped. When he undid that plug, rather than coolant escaping, it was air. Well sussed Fox. He replaced some o-rings on the water pump but has asked me to keep an eye on it. It might even be a problem with the pump itself. If so, that's a warranty job. I have the BMW extended warranty, and Mark recommends keeping that, so I'll be renewing that before I head off  in June. I picked Ginny up this morning and am now looking forward to some decent weather. Fingers crossed. 🤞🏻

That's about all the news for now, except, I have been investigating/planning a trip to Italy and Spain, for World Superbikes, in September. I have routes mapped out and hotels booked but as yet, I/we are undecided if we will do it. Watch this space for that one.

Bye for now.

Waiting for Spring and Summer

Ginny has been SORNed since the beginning of December and I got my 3 months tax refund as a result. 2 and a bit months on and I have to start thinking about re-taxing her. She'll be 6 in March, and being that age means her annual test is due, so although I might not normally get riding again until April, I have to tax her from 1st March and get her up to my local MOT centre, Ryders Motorcycles, for when that runs out on the 17th. Add to that, it's also insurance renewal time. If my car insurance is anything to go by, I can expect a big jump in premium. 😟

For those who have been following recent posts, you'll know that I am off to Europe in the summer, with Paul and Phil. I'd got the hotels booked (it's always good to get something booked early, even if I change later on), when Paul announced he'd be cutting the trip short by a couple of days! Consequently, I've had to change the hotel bookings for the couple of days after the Assen MotoGP. One of the bookings, I was able to just cancel one of the rooms. On the second, I found a cheaper alternative for one room, so cancelled the whole thing. Knowing who was going to be where and when, prompted the booking of the channel crossings. There was some talk (not sure now if Paul went down this route), of coming back on the ferry, rather than LeShuttle. Ferry is cheaper but takes longer. We were all going out on the shuttle anyway, so Phil and I decided to stick with it coming back. As I say, not sure if Paul is tunneling or ferrying back now.

I had pretty much got everything sorted for week 2 (Phil and I in Germany), what to visit along the way, etc, then a couple of weeks back I had this message, through Booking.Com messaging, from one of the hotels, saying they needed to verify my credit card, and giving me a link to click on. This seemed strange, so I contacted both the hotel and Customer Services. Customer Services said the hotel shouldn't be asking that, advised not to use the link, and confirmed my booking was still valid. The message said I could lose the booking if I didn't comply. I didn't get a response from the hotel. To be on the safe side, I located another hotel and booked that. If it all turned out to be OK, I could always cancel. Then, a week or so later, I got the same message again. Once again I contacted Customer Services, this time though, I cancelled the booking. I've still had nothing from that hotel in response to my message, so not sure what's happening. You'd expect the messaging internal to Booking.com would be secure, yet they do advise to be vigilant against unusual messages! Anyway, I have the repacement hotel booked, so all is on track again. Only 140 days to go!

That's all for now.

Till next time.