The Stats Post

 Here we go, tour stats.

Ginny and I covered 4,889km / 3,038 road miles, door to door. 

I made 15 fuel stops and Ginny used 250.77 litres of fuel / 55.16 gallons, at an average of 11.96 miles per litre / 54.36 miles per gallon. Bests were, 13.56 miles per litre / 61.64 miles per gallon.

Fuel costs amounted to €411.68 / £357.64

During the trip Ginny clocked over the 42k, 43k and 44k marks, arriving back home on 44,699.

Phil and I were away for 16 nights together, staying in 10 different hotels and we stayed in or passed through, 7 different countries. 

My total cost for the tour, including Race tickets, fuel, hotels and meals was approximately €1,570 / £1,370, which equates to approximately €98 / £86 per night. 

That's all folks, except to say that  Grizzly has been working on a tour of Ireland for next year, so that will be the next big trip Ginny (?) and I undertake.

Day - 17, Bascharage to Sittingbourne

Another cool start to the day. I could see my breath as I was readying Ginny. Again the day was mostly motorway as we had just over 250  miles to go to Le Tunnel. 

The first stint was about 190 miles and was to pay a visit to Charles Devall's grave at Desplanque Farm Cemetery, La Chapelle-d'Armentières, which is about 10 miles west of Lille. This was to be my fourth visit and one where I had decided to put an artificial poppy with a laminated picture of Charles alongside the headstone. I had carried this around in my topbox for the entire trip, protected by a 1.5l plastic water bottle. Luckily it survived.

We did the whole stint in one go, something like 3.5 hours. we encountered a few sets of roadworks which slowed us down a bit, but we were able to filter through most of them successfully. We came off motorway and cut across country via Dinant. This was by far the most interesting part of the journey as we came to the River Meuse, turned right, to be confronted with the road going between two high rocks. I've since discovered this is called Rocher Bayard. Remarkable! Google describes it as a tourist attraction.

Arriving in La Chapelle-d'Armentières, Tomtom took us around the houses, clearly not up to speed with the fact one end of the road the cemetery is on has been blocked off, now cycles only, so we doubled back and found it signposted off a roundabout. Things have changed quite a lot since my last visit, a building has been built alongside the site and the path to the cemetery, which belongs to the farm, is now a bit of a mess. Nonetheless, we found Charles and I 'planted' the poppy. Phil took a photo, which, when I have access to whatsapp again, I can send to the family. And so we moved on.

About 5km up the road was the fuel stop. It happened to be on a big retail site, boasting a Burger King and a Hyper U supermarket. We had our lunch at BK, then we went across to the supermarket, so I could buy the sweeties and beers I was hoping we had time for. We only had another 60 miles to go so had plenty of time to play with. Having done the deed with the poppy, I now had a void in the topbox, which was just big enough for some cans and sweetie bags, and as I was wearing my micro fleece and gilet, I also had space in one of my panniers! 😉 

We hit the motorway again for the final blast to the tunnel. We were really early and I started wondering if we might get a charge for ariving too early, so slowed our pace a little. The more I thought about it, I thought it is, do not arrive more than 4 hours before departure, so we were ok. On arrival, we were given the choice of 2 earlier trains, so we took the earliest. As it turned out, we think we ended up on an even earlier one, which had been delayed, possibly by a broken down car on board, because they kept apologising for the delay. Result!

Phil messaged Catherine to let her know we would be much earlier than we'd expected and before we knew it we were back in blighty and on the motorway. Not for the first time, having done thousands of miles abroad, there's always some knob does something stupid in the 40 miles ride back home. This time a car sitting in the middle lane, with nothing in the nearside, didn't like it as I went by and pointed that he should be in that lane. Subsequently, he sped up so I couldn't pull over in front of him. Eventually though, I got in front and moved straight to the nearside, followed by Phil. Shame there were no police about, to nick him for driving without due care and attention. Anyway, the rest of the journey was ok and we returned home to a warm reception from my good lady.

After changing, unpacking and some financial housekeeping, we ordered noodles from the chinese, which I walked up to collect. Afterwards, Phil and I got in front of the tv and watched Newcastle v Barcelona. Tomorrow night Catherine and I will watch something together. MotoGP? 🤔😜

I'm hoping that tomorrow I can get the phone fixed and return to some form of normality. It's been a strain not being able to use google maps or translate, or to access my financial sites on the laptop because they want confirmation via the app! Maybe I need two phones like Phil!

That's it for now. I'll try and get some stats together, as I know how much you all love stats. Till then.

 

Day - 16, Muhl to Bascharage

I seem to be apologising a lot recently for you having double posts. That's purely down to the wifi situation at the last couple of establishments, so you'll need to read Day 15 before this one. 

Today was all about motorways, as we had about 300 miles to cover. We woke up to what would best be described as a fresh morning. Halfway down the stairs to brekkie, we could tell the front door was open.

Brekkie dispatched, it was time to hit the road, though at 10 degrees, not before my microfleece and gilet went on under my jacket. The heated grips went on too. It was definitely one of the cooler days of the trip and didn't really get above 20 degrees all day. I was never in danger of overheating, let's put it that way.

Our first stop was for fuel, after a couple of hours or so. we could have had a coffee but neither of us was bothered, so planned a stop a little later. A lot later than I had anticipated I saw the golden arches and we pulled off for a late lunch. We had one more stop, a second for fuel, this time in Luxembourg and only 500m from our hotel.

Earlier in the day Phil had said he thought he might have stayed at the hotel before. Soon as we pulled up, he confirmed it was where he'd stayed before. It's a far cry from the place we stayed at last night, this one being on quite a busy main road, though the double glazing does a great job of shutting the noise out.

With seemingly little in the way of places to eat, we settled on the hotel restaurant, though Phil said reviews weren't that great. Not sure why, the place was very busy, the food looked and tasted good, and the portions were very generous. Gordon Ramsey would have a fit, they were giving people silver trays and pizza boxes to take food home! I had a pizza. It was nice but not as good as the one we had in Piacenza.

After dinner we had a little walk up the road and back. There's not much to see really apart from the brewery, which just doesn't have the same style as the Forst brewery I passed yesterday.

Tonight is our last night and tomorrow night I will be in my own bed, listening to someone else snoring! (Big kiss babe. X)  There's 2 stops to make, one at Charles DeVall's grave at La Chapelle-d'Armentières and the other for fuel. If we have time, there may be a trip to Auchan to get some sweeties and beers.

Till tomorrow then. 

Day - 15, Maranello to Muhl

Once again you’ll find 2 posts together, due to the lack of wifi, so if you’ve not read about the ride to Maranello, read that first. Apologies.

Day 15 started early, as we had a long day ahead. First stop was the breakfast room. Besides a chocolate croissant and a yoghurt, I had some French toasts with jam. I wasn’t in the mood for toasting the bread on offer. It looked dry enough.

We were on the road by 8:30 and our first stop was for fuel. Next up, a coffee stop. Phil had been talking last night about taking the motorway, to save us 3 hours travelling. Besides not wanting to pay tolls, there were 2 things that I had built into the route that I wanted to see. The outcome, we split at the coffee stop, around 11:15. Riding solo doesn’t bother me, it frees me up from always watching whoever is following, be it Phil or Grizzly, however, I was a bit disappointed Phil chose to go it alone, given I have no phone and that only yesterday when he wanted to go to Motorrad, I said we stick together. He’d never pass the SAS course, eh?

I cracked on. Sometimes it seemed that as soon as I got a clear bit of road, a lorry would appear. If not, it was a tractor. Nevertheless, there were long periods where I could really get a move on and overall the ride was really good. The scenery was great and the weather, until the latter part very warm. There were castles, tiny chapels and probably best of all, the Forst brewery building. So ornate, it was more like a castle or stately home.

I had 3 more stops, the first being a large memorial to Italian fallen of the Great War. A very large structure, circular in design, with 3 large feet and 3 separate walls bearing the names of the dead.

The second stop was at a lake to see a clock tower standing in the water. A plaque to some chap, tells you that when the valley was flooded, he was responsible for saving the clock tower of the 14^th century St Catherine’s Church. It looks strange but was certainly worth the stop. If only I had a camera!  Some bikers were taking photos of their bikes with the tower in the background.

My final stop was for more fuel. I was expecting it to be expensive in Austria, especially as the chosen station was a BP one but I was pleasantly surprised to find it cheaper than we’d paid in Italy.

From that point, I still had about 50 miles to go taking me into the heart of the Tyrol. It was noticeably cooler now and the sun had gone behind clouds, so it wasn’t going to get any warmer.

I arrived at the hotel at 17:40 and saw Phil’s bike in the car park. I imagined he’d been there for hours, at least 3 but turned out he’d only arrived at 16:00. He seemed happy with his motorway ride, just as well, it’s pretty much all motorway tomorrow.

The Gasthaus is pretty naff. No wifi, a room at the top of the place with a sink and a shared toilet/shower at the other end of the hallway. Not sure what possessed me to book this. The restaurant isn’t open either, so we popped down the road to a food truck, where I had currywurst, fries and a Kaiser beer. I’ll leave you to guess what Phil had.

Tomorrow we shall end up in Luxembourg, having polished off Austria and Germany during the day.

Bye for now.

Day - 14, Riccione to Maranello

Best laid plans and all that. 

We only had about 130 miles to our next hotel today. I asked about early check-in but got no reply so built in a stop at Imola, to eat up some time. Check-in was 2pm and I calculated we'd arrive around 2:15. Plenty time to freshen up and walk the 3 minutes around the corner to the Ferrari Museum, where we'd already booked tickets. 

Imola went OK. I had been to the Ayrton Senna memorial before but hadn't realised just within another 500 metres there were Giles Villeneuve and  Roland Ratzenberger memorials too. So today we did all 3.

Next up was a coffee stop at McDs. Phil had his usual lunch but it was a bit early for lunch for me, after scrambled eggs and bacon on toast, a vanilla filled croisant and strawberry youghurt for brekkie, so I just had a drink. We just arrived in time as moments later, the place was swarming with kids!

When it came time to leave, the 'fun' started. Phil's bike wouldn't start. It seemed the battery had just died. A bit like my phone!. We fiddled about but ended up calling Phil's recovery people. Probably no more than an hour after calling, a little old chap turned up with his battery booster. The bike fired up first time. Phil decided he would get a new battery, so we made our way, about 20 miles, into Bologna, to the Motorrad dealer there, where they fitted a new battery. Then we were back on the road to Maranello.

Obviously some confusion took place. I was heading to the hotel, Phil the Ferrari Museum. So, within 200m of the hotel Phil turned left, when I had gone straight on! I got to the hotel, checked in, got changed and there was still no sign of Phil, so I presumed he'd gone to the museum. The whole point of booking this hotel was because we could get changed out of our riding gear and then walk around the corner. Phil forgot to read the memo! 😁 

I walked the 3 minutes to the museum, saw Phil's bike parked up and found him sitting outside the cafe. Although we'd lost over 3 hours over my anticipated arrival, we were still early enough to not be after last entry time and in we went.

It was 11 years since I last visited the museum, so it had changed, there were newer vehicles on show for sure but I felt it was bigger last time, as I was surprised when we were suddenly at the exit. Maybe it's a false memory, who know's?

I walked back to the hotel and guided Phil to the car park, then after he'd had time to freshen up, we went to a restaurant just up the road. It was deserted, apart from 2 blokes and an elderly lady, who apparently was running the place on her own. she didn't speak any English but the menu had English translation, so we knew what we were getting and could point it out, though we think she had forgotten her glasses, as she peered at the menu. Food was OK and we both had a large well earned beer. By the time we finished, we were the only customers and the place was not due to close for another 90 minutes. Felt a bit sorry for the old girl.

Tomorrow we have a long day ahead of us and will finish the day in Austria. It may be longer for one than the other. We shall see.

Ciao for the last time.

 

Day - 13, Misano Day 3

Not entirely sure what time we left this morning, probably about 7:15. We had a really clear ride into the circuit and parked in the usual place for another €20. It had rained overnight, so the grass was wet but more of a problem for getting changed out of the riding gear than for manoeuvring the bike. The man was there with his little garden tool and block of wood for my side stand.

My brekkie consisted of 3 cherry filled croissants and a small carton of orange juice, from a previous hotel. I have to say, the croissants were very nice. If they survive the trip back Catherine might get one.

Racing started with the Red Bull Rookies, race 2. The title had been won the day before, after we’d left the circuit. It was a very close and entertaining race, the new champion being pipped for the win on the last corner!

MotoGP had a warmup and then the parade, before Moto3 and Moto2 races. We had 3 lads in Moto3, two of whom fell off, the third finishing out of the points. Jake Dixon was our only hope in Moto2. His fall in qualifying meant he started 9^th but he’d been fast all weekend, so there was hope. That was until he was nerfed off at turn 5, losing at least 6 places. His race never really got going after that and he finished out of the points. Very disappointing.

Lunch was the salmon sandwich on 50/50 bread that I’d bought yesterday too. So much better than the €5 rip-off that we found out was out of date, the price sticker conveniently hiding it. To accompany it I had some crisps and a blue berry flapjack. A far cheaper option than the circuit offerings.

The MotoGP race had a certain inevitability about it but the Italian Bez put up a good fight to finish a close second.

Besides the racing, part of the entertainment is watching people struggle to find the right seats. It amuses me no end how difficult some people find it. At Misano, there are four parts. The stand, the section within it, the row and the seat. Fairly simple but if you don’t read it carefully, then the spanner in the works is, that Section A, B, C & D all have seats numbered 1 to whatever. We were section B Row L, 10/11. Another spanner could possibly be the fact there’s no rows J or K! Even so, it ain’t rocket science. Then of course, there’s the mavericks, who just sit anywhere they please, sod what it says on the ticket. Endless fun.

The ride back was fairly smooth once more but very hot. The car park people had thanked us and wished us safe journey, which was nice, and the Italian plod were efficient in marshalling the traffic. All in all, Misano has been a success.

I took a walk out when we got back, checking out some more restaurants. There’s a lot of seafood on offer, not necessarily salads but I found a couple that could accommodate Phil’s salad obsession and serve me up some pasta. We chose the nearest one, with the cheapest beer. To my surprise, when it came time to order the drinks, Phil had a beer too! His first of the trip I think. As this was our last night in Riccione, I said I was having gelato. Phil agreed it sounded like a good idea, so that what’s we did. A large cone, with 2 enormous scoops of ice cream, for just €5. I’ve I’d known about that on Thursday, I would probably have had one every night!

Tomorrow, we start our journey home. The first leg is a shortish one, so we can visit the Ferrari Museum in Maranello. 2 long days will follow that and Thursday we’ll be back in blighty.

Apologies for you getting another 2 days together, wi-fi at this hotel has been up and down like the proverbial.

Ciao for now. 

Day - 12, Misano Day 2

Day dawned, we had our brekkie and were on the road around 8:30. We chose a slightly different route this time, which was certainly a little quicker, and made our way to the same parking area. We parked in almost the exact same space as yesterday and went through the same procedure, only this time we were asked to pay, €10 each. For security and the fact, we didn’t pay yesterday, we were happy to pay and expect the same tomorrow. It couldn’t be any closer to the circuit and the guy is very obliging, digging out a hole for the wooden block, to ensure the bikes weren’t too upright. They are meant to lean on side stand.

Being earlier than yesterday our seats were in the sun to start with. Phil went to the back of the stand, but I stayed put and after about 10-15 minutes the sun had risen enough that I was now in the shade.

We sat through MotoE race 1, MotoGP practice and qualifying for all 3 classes, before the first MotoGP race of the weekend, the sprint. It looked like being another Marc Marquez win when he overtook the Italian and pole man Marco Bezzecchi but shortly afterwards, he threw it into the gravel and Marco ran out the winner, to the delight of the Italians in the crowd. We stayed on for the second MotoE race before deciding to make our move. We weren’t sure whether there even was any further action as they didn’t show the schedule on screen and online it didn’t even mention MotoE, let alone the Red Bull Rookies we’d seen yesterday.

Same procedure at the bike park and we were back at the hotel in no time. We popped out to the supermarket to get our brekkie and lunch for tomorrow before venturing out to the place we’d eaten on night one. Whilst we were sitting there we saw Gavin Emmett one of the TNT MotoGP team. There are usually five of them, Suzi Perry (the lovely Suzi Perry), Neil Hodgson, Michael Laverty and Silvain Guintoli. Shortly after, Gavin walked back. Phil suggested we follow him, as that might lead us to the rest. No need, next up Suzi (the lovely Suzi). I called out to her, and we both said hello. She didn’t speak but sort of nodded and acknowledgement. That was good enough for me.

Having eaten we decided to take a wander further down the road and were surprised just how big and quite swanky the town is. We seemed to be in the real hub, when I spotted Neil Hodgson in a restaurant, which meant we’d seen 60% of the team. Phil got a photo I believe.

We’ve set an alarm for 6:30 tomorrow, as once again, being full race day, the crowds are likely to be somewhat bigger. Here’s hoping the weather holds up.

Till Tomorrow then.   

    

Day - 11, Misano Day 1

Up at 8am and hit the breakfast buffet, Wow! What a spread, mostly cakes and pastries but still bacon/eggs and the usual cold meats besides. 

The circuit isn't very far away, about 4.5 miles, so it only took us about 15-20, including negotiating the traffic queues. I had no idea where we were going to park but just headed for the nearest entrance to where we would be sitting. Soon I saw signs for Moto parking. We ended up in a small paddock. Surely this wasn't official parking. Anyway, we were shown to a spot, given a piece of wood for the sidestand and then a numbered ticket, half for the bike, half for us. We thought that chaps who came in after us handed over some cash. Nobody asked us for any, so we made our way to the circuit.

We were literally 5 minutes from the entrance. Entry was so much easier than Spain. The chap didn't even open my day bag, just squeezed it and waved me through. Ticket scanned we found the stand and our seats, right by the slowest corner on the circuit, It's a hairpin right at the end of a very fast series of right hand curves, which get ever tighter. One of those is taken at 150mph on a MotoGP bike! It's another covered stand so though the sun was blazing, we were shaded. 

It was another good day of on track action, with one or two incidents in front of us, mainly from the EMoto bikes but otherwise there were fairly few accidents. We finished the day around 17:30 and made our way back the the bike park. There were only 3 bikes left. A lady took our ticket halves and matched them to the bikes and off we went. We weren't asked for any money, so were somewhat bemused. 20 minutes or so we back at the hotel.

We dined at a place next to a supermarket that we went in to check on lunch options for Sunday, as we already purchased sandwiches for tomorrow. The supermarket are doing Birra Moretti 660ml bottles for 85 cents! Dirt cheap. Some might find their way to the hotel fridge and/or my paniers! The restaurant was nice and very popular with the locals, which must be a good sign. I had a turkey schnitzel with chips, Phil a huge tuna salad. The food was reasonably priced too, the beer not so, €7 for a 660ml bottle of Menabrea! Some markup over the supermarket, eh?

As part of the MotoGP weekend, towns in the area are hosting events. Riccione has a motor event, The lure of screeching tyres was too much, so we ventured down to take a look. Some chaps in old BMW 3 series' were doing donuts and power sliding around a track. OK for for 5 minutes, then BORING!

We'll be leaving a bit earlier tomorrow as it's qualifying day and MotoGP sprint race day, so the crowds will be larger. 29 degrees will bring a few more out too I expect.

Hopefully we'll get the same parking spot and it won't cost us to do so.

Ciao

Day - 10, Piacenza to Riccione

2 things that stand out from today's ride. Italy weather great, up as high as 30 degrees, Italy roads, shite, the worst road of the trip today.

The day started with breakfast in the room, for me anyway. Phil had been up in the night with the squits, so was feeling somewhat delicate. Brekkie consisted of some french toasts x 4, a small choccy cake, some biscuits, 2 cartons of orange juice, peach jam and choccy spread. Despite it being sparse, it was OK, The spare OJ and biscuits have gone in my cool bag for another day.

We had 3 stops today, the first at the Cremona race circuit. Grizzly and I stopped there in June, so this was for Phil's benefit.Whilst he was taking a photo of the sign and his bike, I could see some Ferrari sports cars going round the circuit. A car pulled up and an old gentleman gestured to me saying that the circuit was open if we wanted to watch. Nice fella.

Today we actually found some roads that we could overtake on. We're getting the hang of that now but not yet the blatting past in the 50kph zone, like happens to us. We took a break around lunchtime but purely for a drink. Phil was still feeling delicate, so no food was consumed.

Our final stop was for fuel. Unlike yesterday where the chaps were reluctant to let us fill the bikes ourselves, the lady today was more than happy. We like them brim full. 

The last 30km were the usual SS16 nightmare. I hate this road, roundabout after roundabout and slow moving masses inbetween. Ginny overheated on it in June, so she's not too keen either.

We found the hotel without too much trouble and nabbed a couple of parking spaces. There are about 7 other bikes there now and maybe 7 or 8 cars.

Freshened up, I went out for a reccy, looking for places to eat and a supermarket, Restaurants were hard to come by but the supermarket provided me the chance to get a 6 pack of water and some crisps for the weekend. 6 x 1.5l for €1.98. A bit better than the €5 we paid for a bottle at the circuit last week. 

We both went out shortly after for dinner and stumbled across a 'fast food' place. They did salad, so that ticked Phil's box. I had what seems to be a pancake type of wrap, with a chicken escalope in it and salad. Nice, washed down with anothe Birra Moretti.

Tomorrow we're off to the circuit. Not too early though, as it's only free practice sessions tomorrow.

Until then.

Ciao

Day - 9, Gap to Carcasonne

FYI, I've done 2 days in one go, so if you are reading this and haven't seen Day 8, you'll need to go and read that.

Not sure if someone was overly happy with the Lidl decision, though I gave him the opportunity to go for a €12 breakfast, if he wanted. He declined. In Lidl, I got some pastries, he a bunch of bananas.

Weather was dull, grey and cool but there wasn't a hint of rain. The french roads kept on giving this morning, as we climbed up into the Alps. For the early part, we were able to get a good move on but inevitably we came across campers or lorries in the tight twisty uphill sections, which slows things right down.

At one point we came to a queue of stationary traffic and making our way almost to the front found the road had a barrier and no entry sign. A chap was on a phone but nobody seemed to know what was going on. We were there for I don't know how long before the guy waved us on. I was caught napping, as I'd taken my helmet/gloves off. I popped the helmet on but had to ride with one glove in my hand, the other I'd wedged in the fairing. That meant we had to pull over, so I could put them on, which in turn meant the long queue that had built up behind us, including 2 articulated lorries, overtook us. We soon caught them back up but there was no going by them. The summit of the particular mountain was also the border, so we made our way down into Italy, The Italians very helpfully number their hairpin turns on their roads. The first I noticed was 17 and it counts down until the road straightens out. Some of them were very tight. How those lorries get round them I don't know.

It was a day of two halfs, as once in Italy, the driving changes, the roads become much busier, bumpier and the whole experience becomes less enjoyable. What is really infuriating though is the stupid speed limits the Italians have. Most roads are 50kph with no overtaking. Some are 70kph, with no overtaking. Very few allow overtaking, consequently the Italians ignore the speed limits and overtake wherever they want. Well, if you can't beat them. It's a ridiculous situation, especially when you get the tractors, big lorries or the few who are not just happy to sit at the speed limit but usually at several kph below it! Frustrating, to say the least.

Anyway, we eventually made it to our hotel in Piacenza. I say we, Phil had a little tour round the local area, whislt I parked up and checked us in. On the plus side, the weather had stayed dry and was a somewhat sweaty mid 20s degrees.

Come dinner time there was another Lidl type situation. When I'd booked the hotel, I found the only place to eat within easy reach, was a pizza place. I checked again today, 2 other places, a brazilian restaurant and sushi place, both of which looked like being expensive but also further away. I checked the menu for anything other than pizza, nothing doing. It seemed that was accepted but when it came time to go, someone is suggesting eating at another hotel! There does seem to be a communication issue or maybe it's something else. Anyway, after a brief discussion we went to the pizza place and had really nice pizzas, all hand made before your eyes and cooked in a proper oven. 2 large (they only come in one size) pizzas, a coke zero and a Birra Moretti, for twenty quid.

The forecast has been saying thunder storms again. We saw some flashes, possibly lightning but no rain or thunder as yet. 

Tomorrow we are heading for the seaside. Hopefully the weather will play ball again. The TV forecast would seem to suggest it being so and getting warmer for the weekend. Bring it on!

Bye for now.

Day - 8, Carcasonne to Gap

What a great day. The expected rain never materialised and it turned into a really nice sunny day. As per usual, riding in France can be a very enjoyable experience. It's so easy to find yourself on a road with barely any traffic, allowing you to bowl along at a steady 50mph. Even slowing for the villages with their 30kph sections is bearable. Weather helps obviously.

One thing non bikers won't appreciate is the interaction one has with your surroundings, sounds but particularly smells. Sure, they aren't always nice, when the farmers are muckspreading but like today, when we were riding through wine country, the smell from the vines was extraordinary and a sure sign harvest was due. Indeed, we saw a number of tractors towing their wagons full of grapes. And I never knew there were so many wine houses!

It's interesting too to see the landscape change. From the arid to the green and rocky, as we moved east and into the alpine region. At one point I looked over to my right and could see clouds below me in the distance. I had no idea we had climbed so high.

Once we'd arrived at our hotel and unpacked, I carried out some maintenance on Ginny. I'd already done the tyre pressures in the morning but now I checked the coolant level and the oil. Coolant was fine, oil was about halfway down the dipstick, so I topped her up. I'd only been back to the room for a couple of minutes when it started to rain. It rained steadily for a while but had stopped by the time we went for dinner across the road. I got my beer tonight, as the place had a good selection of artisan beers. 😁 I had something called Glaciale. Nice it was too.

We've decided or is it just me, that we'll go to Lidl and get some stuff for brekkie tomorrow. Someone will be missing his cereal!

Forecast looks like it could rain, maybe even thundery. Fingers crossed.

Till then.

Day - 7, Vilassar de Dalt to Carcasonne

Well, had to happen I suppose. Lost Phil today. Not my fault though. We made it to Andorra together and lunch at McDs but from there it went pear shaped. A few miles up the road is a viewpoint, high up in the mountains. That was to be our next stop. It was mine. Meanwhile Phil's satnavs, yes he has two for some reason I don't quite understand, stopped working. Once the inevitable happened and he lost sight of me, he had no idea where he was going. So that was the last we saw of each other until the hotel.

The viewpoint itself, is a metal structure that hangs out over the valley. They charge to go on it. I didn't pay. The walk to it offers some great views anyway. Having spent about 15 minutes at the place and with no sign of Phil, I thought he may have gone on to the fuel stop. I got there but no sign, so decided to just carry on. with no phone, there was no way of contacting him. I was just hoping he hadn't had an accident or something.

The ride out of Andorra and into France was interesting, with some very twisty roads. Not long into France, I encountered some rain, a reasonable shower but not enough to really wet me that much and as I could see it was brighter ahead, I didn't stop for the proofs. That proved OK, for the time being but as I went higher into the Pyrenees, it got colder but also quite foggy. After a while I stopped to put my down gilet on and the proof jacket. They warmed me up a treat. I never saw any more rain.

Arriving in Carcasonne I had a fantastic view of the walled city. I had planned a stop for a photo op but with no phone or camera that was a waste of time. I half expected to find Phil at the hotel but no. I checked in and staright away got the laptop out to whatsapp call/msg him. He wasn't that far behind me but had had quite an adventure getting here and a very wet one too.

We ate just up the road in a Taco place, though the Tacos look more like burritos to me. They do all sorts though, so I had a chicken burger and some cheesy bacon fries. Phil, yes, you guessed it, a salad, though he did have chips too. It was another beerless night for me too! This isn't like my usual trips. 5 beers in 7 days, is verging on teetotal!

If we are lucky tomorrow we will avoid the rain, following it as it moves east. Our destination tomorrow is a place called Gap in the French Alps, about 278 miles away.

Incidentally, the problem with Phil's satnavs, he's used up all the data allowance on his phone. Let's hope he fairs better than today.

Our second week starts tomorrow. It looks like being a wet one early on.

Till then.

  

Day - 6 Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya - RACE DAY

Up at 6:00 and out the door by 6:35. We had a good ride in, in the dark and were probably in the first 40 bikes in the car park, meaning we were in the stand by 7:30. There were 2 people already in their seats, I was gutted, hoping we'd be the first.

It was a long day. There was nothing on track until almost 10:00 but the main thing was to beat the crowds, which we did. Besides MotoGP warm up, there were 3 races, Moto3, Moto2 and MotoGP, Our lad Jake Dixon came 2nd in Moto2, so we had something to cheer about, not so much for the 3 in Moto3. We don't have any Brits in the premier class unfortunately. The Spaniards were loving it, 4 times we heard their national anthem today!

Racing finished, we waited half hour or so, before making our move. We couldn't avoid the queue to the car park, as there were still loads of people trudging back, in the sweltering heat. It had been very warm and humid most of the day, if not sunny, though the sun was beating down at that point. Apparently over the 3 days there had been 187,00 visitors. 

On the walk back, some French guys called me over and asked if they could take a picture of my t-shirt. I had my K1600 GT one on that Catherine bought me . One of their guys has the same bike, so bizarrely they wanted a pic of me and this chap! I was happy to oblige. Why not?

We were sweating buckets by the time we reached the bikes, then had the get in our bike gear. Not pleasant. Despite the crowds getting out of the car park was pretty easy and quicker than we'd expected. We got split up again but I thought Phil would catch up at our fuel stop, just up from the hotel. He didn't show, a call of nature taking priority, so he was already at the hotel when I arrived.

We freshened up and did a bit of packing before going down to dinner. Tomorrow we are back on the road, ending the day in Carcasonne, France but taking the route through Andorra. Weather might not be as good as the past 3 days. We shall see.

Till then.

Day - 5 Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

Up in time for a 7:30 brekkie, to be told it wasn't until 8:00. Waited it out but they weren't even ready at 8, so we were later leaving than we'd planned. Journey wasn't too bad though. The hoped for parking didn't materialise. Despite taking a route that should have got us into a different car park, we ended up in the same bloody one. An uneccessary loop! So we had a long walk again but knew where we were going this time. We were still in our seats for all the qualifying sessions and the first MotoE race, so all worked out in the end.

Getting out of the circuit seemed to be a bit smoother this time, literally, as we avoided the bumpy dirt track from yesterday for a tarmac road. It probably took us a bit further out of our way but it's hard to tell when you are just following satnav and/or other traffic.

We'll be leaving here early tomorrow, as with a 3rd scorchio day and all the full races, the crowd is bound to be massive. Brekkie will have to be missed, so we stopped at a Lidl on the way home and got some bits for tomorrow. Bananas and another salad for Phil! Rolls, crisps and sweets for me!

We ate out tonight down by the sea. Phil had identified a KFC which he said was about a mile away, it was actually 1.6 miles! There's a huge complex by the marina with lots of places to eat. One right next door to KFC looked OK, especially the beer price but as Phil is on his diet that was of no interest to him, so KFC it was and another salad for him. Can't knock his commitment but I would have liked an iced cold Estrella! 😞 We had a quick walk along the seafront before heading back. Here's hoping we get there and back in one piece tomorrow and see some really good racing. For sure the weather will be good.

Back on Sunday evening. Bye for now.

Day - 4, Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya

We had a lie in this morning, not getting up till 08:20. Brekkie was nice and plentiful, though Phil only had cereal and a coffee. A lady came with a tray of goodies, 2 of everything. You can be sure I didn't let anything go to waste. Phil took a banana for his lunch, whilst I packed up most of his uneaten breakfast for mine.

The circuit isn't too far away, about 13 miles, so it was a fairly quick journey. We were prevented from getting to the car park I'd identified, which meant we were parked at the opposite end of the circuit from our stand. We entered at the first gate we came to, where I was turned back because I had my metal drinks bottle with me. Thermos' are ok apparently, so I argued that's what it was but they weren't budging, so I could either throw it in the bin or take it back to the bike. More steps for me then! Meant I had to buy a bottle of water, 1.5l for €5.

We didn't have a circuit map, so although I had an idea of where our stand was, I had no idea it was as far away as it was and it was hard to get our bearings on the ground, as to which part of the track we were by. It must have taken us about 30 minutes and asking a few times, before we finally got to the right stand. Thankfully though, it's a covered one, so we were spared having to slop on factor 50 and risk getting sunstroke.

The view from our seats is pretty good. We can see the bikes come down the last part of the straight, go into turns one and two, then they re-appear from our left coming out of turn five, round six, before disappearing into seven. We have a big screen to watch for the rest of the lap.

There wasn't too much incident to speak of until the very last lap or two of the MotoGP practice session, when Johann Zarco (French) fell off in the gravel in from of us, followed quickly after, by Enea Bastianini (Italian), whose bike ended up on top of the tyre wall and wedged between it and the fencing. Both riders were ok, bikes not so. More entertainment was to come watching the marshalls retrieve the striken bike. It needed a fork lift type thingy to lift it from where it was wedged. Job done, there was a round of applause for them.

Coming back was as to be expected, roads chocka with traffic. We managed to filter for a while then a gap appeared and like a rat up the proverbial I managed to wind my way through the cars and continue on my way. Phil wasn't so lucky. Long story short, I was at the hotel 30 minutes before Phil. Only problem, I couldn't get in the stupid qr coded room, having no phone!

We ate at the hotel place again. I had a plate of very tender calimari, salted and with a lime mayonaise. It was very nice. 

Tomorrow we'll be up earlier, as the circuit will be busier for sure. We'll try and get closer to the right end of the circuit this time but if not, at least we now know the quick way to get to our stand. The day will mostly be qualifying until the MotoGP sprint race, which is exactly what the name suggests, a mad dash over about 10 laps.

Till tomorrow then.

 

Day - 3, Millau to Vilassar de Dalt

A long ride today, over 300 miles, mostly on motorway, where we didn't have to pay.

Weather was pretty dull but no real rain to speak of. There were a few spots as we walked up to the viewing spot at our only attraction stop, the Millau Viaduct but after that it looked like it would hold off. Not long after that though we were on the road and I spied what looked like some serious cloud up ahead, so the proofs went on. Turned out it wasn't rain but fog! That meant I was warming up nicely, as the temperature rose to 24 degrees. I was going to wait till we got to our fuel stop but had to stop and take the proofs off 50 miles short of the stop, I was that warm and sweaty. 

We fuelled up and paid what is becoming our daily visit to McDs. I had a drink and a McFlurry. At this point we were still in France. I have no idea where we entered Spain, all I know is if was a very busy little town and seemingly at the bottom of the high street, there was the border, 

Once in Spain the standard of driving changed and the remaining part of the journey was more frenetic and certainly not as enjoyable as France.

We located the hotel ok and have free underground parking, a bonus. The place is high tech, to the point where you access your room by scanning a qr code and entering a code on a website. OK if you have a smart phone but as mine died on Tuesday, that means I'm tied to Phil. Everything is qr coded, info in the room, menu in the bar, it's crazy.

We ate in what can losely be called a restaurant, it's more snack bar than full blooded restaurant. It's ok though, a limited menu but at least the beer is a lot cheaper than France. There's no other eateries within a kilometre of the hotel, so we might have gone through the menu come Monday.

We'll have a bit of a lie in tomorrow, then head up to the circuit to suss things out, parking, seating, etc. It's all practice, no racing, so we won't miss much. Weather is supposed to be mid/high 20s degrees and sunny, so sunscreen out for sure.

That's it for now.

 

Day - 2, Blois to Millau

Another uneventful day really. A couple of wrong turns but otherwise a good day, with a bit of everything thrown in.

The good news, the proofs stayed in the topbox. It was a tad overcast first thing but it didn't rain once and once the sun came out it was scorchio, both Ginny and Phil's RT showing 30 degrees at one point.

We've covered over 300 miles today, which necessitated 2 fuel stops, either side of another McDs lunch. We probably had a 50/50 split of motorway and smaller roads, both entertaining in their own way. The motorways were far from straight bits of tarmac and remarkably free of traffic, so we were able to keep up a constant speed. The smaller roads were no less entertaining, though slow in places, taking you through endless deserted villages or on fast undulating and sweeping bends. I've said before I love to ride in France and today was one of those days. The weather helped, obviously.

The sun was full on by the time we reached Millau, which, as we found when we went out for dinner, is a quaint old town. We found a restaurant in a little square by the museum and sat out side watching kids running about, happily chasing each other, just playing, not at all antisocial. We had a suggested 3 course menu, salade terroir, sausice something or other and creme brulee. I shan't bother describing it all, suffice to say, it was all very nice.

After dinner we walked down to the river and across a very strange bridge that had no sides, so it wouldn't take much to fall into the river. Phil got some photos of the Millau Viaduct just as the sun was going down and tomorrow we'll be stopping off at the viewpoint, before riding over it. There'll be no photos from me I'm afraind, as my phone has died on me. Was ok yesterday morning but when I came to charge it last night, it wouldn't play ball.

We have another long ride tomorrow, finishing up in Spain, at Vilasser de Dalt, not far from Barcelona. 

Weather is a bit of an unknown at the moment. It may rain this end but should definitely be dry by Perpignan, 135 miles away.

Till tomorrow.

Day - 1, Sittingbourne to Blois

 I'll keep this brief. A mainly uneventful day.

Up at 05:50, on the road at 06:55. On an earlier train that departed at 08:24.

Weather OK for first part of the day, then there was a shower, necessitating me to stop and put the waterproofs on. We had a drink at the same time. Carrying on there was a mixture of sun, cloud and light rain. We made our fuel stop, then had lunch in McDs. I'd kept the proofs on. Just as well. As we bypassed Chartres there was the most torrential rain and very strong winds. It was as if we were riding through the cloud itself. Later on, it cleared up and was OK when we got to our hotel but not for long. We managed to get one bag upstairs before the heavens opened again, so we sat it out, before bringing the rest of our stuff in.

Dinner was had at a Buffalo Grill about half a mile away. On the way through the commercial estate we passed some travallers caravans. Besides having some really large leathery looking women call out to us, we were facinated by the trail of wires leading from various caravans/appliances, to an electricity supply box, at the side of the road. Made all the more remarkable due to fact it had been peeing down under an hour before! On the way back, the washing machines were in full swing! I've never seen anything like it in my life.

Tomorrow looks to be fine and should be about 23 degrees when we reach our destination, Millau. I'm going to temp fate and pack the proofs away tonight.

Till Tomorrow.

Ready to Rock 'n' Roll

This time tomorrow (Tuesday) I expect Phil and I will be sweating our nuts off in our waterproofs and in 19 degrees, half way to our first overnight stop in Blois, France. Forecast isn't great, least not until we get to Spain, where it is currently 26 degrees. As I write, Phil is on his way over from Cheltenham and I'm expecting him by 18:00. We'll have a pre-trip noshup at Wetherspoons I expect and a couple of  beers, to get some practice in. Before that though, a catch up on the last few weeks.

Ginny went in for her 42k service on 18th August. Turned out, it wasn't the big service, so it was ready again the same day. I'd already arranged with Mark that I'd collect it Tuesday though and that's what I did. I wore my new Rokker jeans. They are comfortable. Looking forward to seeing how they are on a long journey. Tuesday also saw the arrival of my new Neotec 3 helmet. It's a lovely snug fit. I expect it'll take me a little while to get used to the difference in visor and air vent opening but otherwise there's little obvious to differentiate it from the 2 version. I mentioned I bought an adapter kit for my intercom. That was fitted last week, fairly straight forward really. It's not as flush as the made to measure version but don't fix what ain't broke, eh? The intercom has been fully charged too.

I finished tweaking the routes and Phil downloaded them. Then when testing, I found some didn't work as expected, taking us on toll roads, so had to redo a few waypoints. They're all good now. It'll be interesting to see how they match up on Phil's satnav compared to Tomtom, especially when he leads.

Ginny is all prepped to go, tyres pumped, tomtom fitted, panniers attached. I decided, given the forecast to forego a wash but did give her a quick spray/brush to get rid of some of the crap from the Athens trip.

Packing is 99.5% complete, just some electrical bits and my meds to go. ETD is 06:45 for our 08:54 train. Nowadays you have to check-in at least an hour before crossing. I think that's everything covered. 

Bye for now.