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.