Well, thats it, been there, done that!

Just to let you know that I got home in one piece, safe and well, mission completed.
I got up on Thursday morning to heavy rain again, got kitted up and rode from Gent to Brugge. Within 1 mile of the hotel I came to the first obstacle, the canal bridge I needed to cross was in the open position for the boats. I sat, rain running down my visor, as 1 boat went through, but the bridge failed to close, I sat, and sat and eventually, a huge barge, which appeared to be the length of a football pitch, came in the other direction up the canal. It finally went under the bridge then stared to make a turn in the wider mouth of the canal, I don't know if this delayed the bridge opening for traffic or what, but it was about another 10 minutes before the bridge swung shut and the traffic started flowing. It was then a reasonable run to Brugge although, once again, the Belgium motorways were a worry to me with the shear amount of water that they held in the ruts. I solved this by running in the wheel tracks of a coach which was pushing waves of water off the road with its tyres.
After reaching Brugge, it was into a cafe on the square where I had a hot drink and a chocolate and banana crepe, thats what I call a breakfast.
As it was still raining, and I saw little point in wandering around, I went into a Salvidor Dali exhibition, which I must say I found quite good. I know the regular Dali paintings but this opened my eyes to a different Dali. I was quite impressed, although, from his quotes on the wall I think he must have been a bit of an arse!
After another hot drink in a differant cafe I made my way to Zeebrugge for the ferry, I was very early but knew there was a cafe on site where I could at least keep dry and be in a position to get straight on the boat when the time arrived.
I got to the port and joined a group of about 15 wet bikers huddling under cover trying to keep out of the elements, great fun and a bit of a laugh really.
We were eventually allowed onto the ferry, and after a meal and a drink before sailing, the boat cast off about 20 minutes late, the captain warning that it would be a bit rough as there was a force 8 storm brewing, great!
As soon as we left the harbour the boat started rolling which was my sign to go to my cabin to lie down and read out of the way. I did not move again until 6am when I awoke to a calmer sea, washed, dressed and made breakfast.
After docking and leaving the boat, on a nice dry Friday morning, it was a nice drive across country to Liverpool where I met up with Chris for lunch and the eventual sailing back to the Isle of Man (and another rough crossing), and that is about it, journey over, and back to work first thing Saturday morning.

My total mileage for the trip was 3754 miles, I think I estimated 3700 miles before the trip so I was pretty close.
High points.......too many to mention really but I suppose, Stockholm, Tallinn, Hill of Crosses, Krakow, Auschwich and Birkenhau, the Salt Mine, the caves in Slovakia, Prague, of course, and Strasbourg.
Low points, only 2 really and both rain related, the day I rode into Riga in pouring rain and I must admit I was really down, and the other on the Sunday I rode into Olomouc, when I took shelter under the garage awning and I had no Czech money, what a bummer.
Even the tyre puncture was not really a down point, just a niggle which to be honest, you have got to expect on a journey, just a little obsticle.
Would I do it again? The same trip, No, another trip, too right I would. I have, on the whole had a great time, although like all trips its very nice to get home.
There are places that I have seen on this trip that I know Chris would like, so you never now, I may well see certain parts again, especially places like Prague, well worth a return visit. You never know, I may combine them with a visit to the Alps!
Once again, thankyou all for taking the time to read the blog, and making it worth my while writing it every day. I have had a lot of kind comments and I do appreciate them, thankyou.
That is it until the next trip that I make, so finally, from myself and Jed, Goodbye.

Sorry Gent, you don't do it for me.

I think I may have overdone the Red Bull yesterday, I went to bed at 1130hrs after updating the blog, then read till midnight, then tried to sleep, however I was awake reading again at 3am till about 3.30am, I finally managed to sleep, and woke at 8.30. That is the latest I have slept this trip.
Once I was up and showered, I looked out of the window, and yes, it was raining, the receptionist seemed delighted to tell me that this weather was set for the next 7 days, whatever, I have still got to make the effort to get out as the cleaners wanted to do their jobs in the hotel. But first, I delayed , by buying a hot chocolate from the machine and sitting outside watching the rain, hoping for a break.
Well, the break never came, so once again, on with the waterproofs for the short 3km ride into Gent. I parked up near one of the canal bridges and secured the bike, and started to wander, the very quiet streets on the edge of the old city, however, as I got closer to what I presume was the centre, it was a hive of activity, but the wrong sort. It would appear that there had been some sort of festival in the city over the past few days and there were men and lorries everywhere, dismantling numerous stage and stall areas, it was bedlam. There also appeared to be a lot of building work taking place so the first impression of the town was not good.
The second impression did not improve things either as it appeared to be just another city with the same shops as everywhere else and a general dowdy look to it.
I wandered around a bit but just could not get worked up at all, it did not do it for me in the slightest. I don't think it helps that I may have a bit of the end of holiday blues I suppose.
There are no photos today I'm afraid, one, because I could find nothing of interest, and two, I had forgotton my camera and had left it in the tank bag strapped and secured to the bike.
By 2.30 I had had enough and, after buying some fruit and a baguette for mr my tea, I rode back to the hotel in order to read and chill, do a bit of washing, and re-pack for tomorrow.
I am off to Brugge tomorrow, a city I like very much, and from there it is on to Zeebrugge for the boat to Hull. In view of this, this is the last blog entry until I get home, when I will put a post script on the site on Saturday evening.
I do hope you have enjoyed reading about this trip, and hopefully you will all read about the next one that I do......oh yes, I am sure there will be another one in the future, I just need to save a lot more pennies. I will be looking at reviving my interest in riding across Newfoundland, Canada and Alaska, but I think that that may have to wait a couple of years as the planning will be quite extensive, maybe a 60th birthday treat for myself.
In the meantime, I am looking forward to meeting Chris on Friday lunchtime in Liverpool.

What a waste of a day.

After another night that was not brilliant, sleep wise ( I will be glad to get back in my own bed,) I was up and on the road by 8am as I had a ride of just over 300 miles to my final hotel of the holiday, Formule 1 at Ghent in Belgium. I rode about 48km and stopped to re-fuel and to grab something to eat and a drink as I had had nothing when I got up. It was then back on the bike with the intention of knocking off 160km before my next stop for a stretch, at least that was the plan.
After about 30km, I was passing a lorry which was in lane 1 of the motorway, when I heard/felt something strange from the back wheel, my heart leapt to my mouth but all seemed well. I must admit I was travelling at 100mph at the time listening to my ipod. Anyhow I shot past the lorry and after a feww hundred metres realised all was not well. I cruised to the hard shoulder and found that the rear tyre had deflated. I had seen nothing in the road and can only assume something came from the lorry. I put the bike on the main stand, and turned the back wheel, and found a cut of about 1cm right in the middle of the tread on the tyre. No wonder it had deflated.
At least the view from where I had stopped was good, I was right above the Canal des Houilleres de la Sarre, pretty eh. I made a quick phone call to my european breakdown recovery people at Carole Nash Insurance and was told as I was on a French motorway I would have to call the Police who would arrange recovery, I was then to ring them back once recovered. Well, muggins here, ex motorway police officer, breaks the cardinal sin, and phones the police from his mobile phone. I explained the situation and have my position from the marker post and the officer says he will sort recovery so just sit and wait and enjoy the view.
As I said, the view was nice and it got even better when the boats started travelling along the canal.

The puncture had happened just before 1030 and I phoned the police at 1030, however by 1130 still no recovery, and it was getting rather warm by now, and there was not much shade, so, I did what I should have done in the first place....walk to the emergency phone, you've guessed it, the police had not passed over any message! After speaking on the emergency phone assistance duly arrived after 40 mins and Blackie was put on the back of a recovery vehicle to get clear of the motorway.

What a sad sight.

Truly recovered from the motorway I was taken to a garage that happened to be a Renault dealer that was unable to fix bike tyres, so it was back on the phone to Carole Nash to sort the repair. They immediatly paid for the recovery, and asked what was needed, so I gave them full tyre information, stressing that the tyre HAD to be Bridgestone BT023 GT in order to match the front tyre, and in order to take the weight of Blackie. I emphasised the GT part because this means Grand Tourer and is specifically for heavy bikes (the tread is harder in the middle than on the edges to help with the tyre wear) Peter, from Carol Nash, said he would ring around garages in the area I was in and get back to me, the only problem being that it was lunch time in France and everywhere was shut till 2pm.

Peter did eventually phone back,and told me he had found a Honda dealer in a town about 30km away which had the tyre in stock, I asked if he was sure it was the GT and he told me that the garage said it was....no problem, back into the recovery truck for the trip to Moto Concept, the Honda dealer.

We eventually got to the dealer and Blackie was put up on the ramp ready for her tyre. The fitter eventually brought the tyre over, and I checked, and it was not the GT version. Off goes the fitter again, sorry we don't have a GT (in fact he had never heard of the GT and thought it was the same as the sport tourer tyre). As he did not speak any English and I speak no French we struggled a bit but eventually worked out that he could get a tyre in 3 days!!!!!

Back onto the phone to Peter at Carole Nash and he asked if the bike could be fitted with the none GT version, I explained to him the difference and told him that with the weight of Blackie I would wear through the none GT tyre by the time I got back to England and would have to replace it again which would be a waste of my money. He then suggested that he square it with his boss that Carole Nash would pay for the none GT version and then I could replace it when I got home and I would not be out of pocket, he then hung up to sort this out.

As soon as he hung up, a very excited tyre fitter came out of the stock room with the correct GT tyre, thank god, it could all be sorted at last.

The new tyre eventually cost me 170 euro, money I did not want to spend, but hey, at least I was back on the road by 1730hrs having wasted the best part of the day, and still 250 miles short of Ghent.

I did eventually reach the hotel at Ghent (soaking wet after a rain for the last 20km, I got caught, and by the time I got somewhere where I could get waterproofs on, I was already soaked to my underpants, so did not bother to stop) I managed to do the 250 miles with only one quick stop to re-fuel and eat a banana and drink a large can of Red Bull.

I must say I have nothing but praise for the staff at Carole Nash, especially Peter, for his help. Not bad when the breakdown recovery came free with my insurance.

My room at Formule 1 is like a laundry at the moment with wet clothing hanging everywhere, but no doubt it will all be dry in the morning. I shall have a look around Ghent tomorrow before travelling to Zeebrugge, via Bruges, on Thursday, for the boat back to Hull on the evening. Then its across to Liverpool, where I shall meet Chris at lunchtime, before catching the evening boat back to the Isle of Man..........and then work Saturday morning...what a shock to the system.

A day in the sun

Woke today to glorious weather and made my way into Strasbourg for about 10am. 1st stop was for a hot chocolate in a cafe opposite the cathedral followed by a look around the cathedral itself. This was a treat in that there was no entrance fee, this made a nice change I must admit. The interior is superb, but this time I will not bore you with the photohraphs that I took.


After the cathedral I made my way down to the river and booked myself onto the 11am run around the river. This lasts some 70 minutes and has a commentry, although cloth ears here though he heard channel 3 for the English version, then heard channel 13, si I selected channel 13 and heard the childrens version for the first 5 minutes...all "ahoy me hearties" and references to a parrot, most strange I thought, before trying channel 3 and finding the correct commentry. I could not resist this picture of St Pauls Church, have you ever seen so much scaffholding?

This is the Tanners House in the area called Petit France, which was the area of the town where all the trades people lived. The upper floor of the building is all open and was used as an area to spread the hides for drying after they had been cleansed in the river water.

The building above was apparently the most famous laundry in the town where all the rich folk had their washing done in the river. The poorer people had to wash downstream, the only problem was that if the rich folks washing got swept down stream, the laundry owners had to pay the poorer people in order to get it back.

What was not pointed out on the boat trip, but was fairly obvious, was that the Tanners House was upstream from the laundry, so that obviously meant that they used the water first, then the laundry for the rich people, so just how clean were the clothes after the washing, especially as tanners also use human and animal urine in the tanning process?????

The boat trip also took us past the EU parliment buildings, some of which you can see below. The first building is the front one, but then as the EU has grown, the rotunda was built behind it for the overflow. The rotunda is donut shaped apparently, and the inner courtyard is full of trees and lawns, sounds like a nice enviroment to work in. I love old buildings but I also like modern buildings made of glass, and I was impressed with the design of these buildings.

Following the boat tour, I had a wander around the old town before popping into a shop to buy some fruit and a baguette for my lunch, which I ate under the shade of a weeping willow in the shade as it was now about 28 degrees. Whilst I ate a family of swans swam along and stopped for a spruce up, it looked as if this one needed it. Talk about ugly duckling.

By about mid afternoon I realised why I don't like the sun so strong, as I developed a blinding headache that I could feel was turning into a migraine. I hot footed it back to the hotel where I had left my tablets (Iwill learn one day to take them with me). Back at the hotel it was tablet time and an hours sleep, waking to feel much better, this was one I certainly caught in time.

A bit later one I felt that I could manage a little tea, so I walked over the Rhine and back into Germany, where I found a nice little place right on the bank of this mighty river, where I ate and watched the world go by, very pleasant indeed.

Tomorrow I have a ride of just over 300 miles to Ghent, so a long day in the saddle, with the temperature expected to hit 31 degrees in Strasbourg tomorrow, the timing is about right.

And so, into France

Yesterday I ommittedto mention that I had left the Czech republic and had ridden into Germany, I guess that most of you would have realised that when I said that I was in Nurnburg. Well today I left Germany and I am now in France (only by about 200mts as the Formule 1 I am stopping in is literally as you cross the Rhine from germany into France)


I managed to get a little wet again today, whats new, I could see some clouds gathering, and I went though a few spots of rain, then, about 500mts in front of me I could see the traffic braking, and that the road surface was very wet. I had arrived at the edge of a some pretty heavy rain. As I was on the autobahn I did not have the option of stopping to kit up, but had to ride through it. To be fair it only lasted a few minutes, but is suprising how wet you get at 90mph.


The rain did ease back to spots and I pulled into a rest place (lay-by) and I did get the waterproofs on, I was glad I did, because it rained heavy again for the last 30 mins to the hotel.


I decided to have some music today and one of the tracks that belted out was Fat Bottomed Girls by Queen, well, I did not think I would see my own sample so soon after arriving in Strasbourg. Its been a time since I have seen someone with a pair of boobs on her back as well. Sorry, uncalled for!

One place I will not be going tomorrow in Strasbourg is up the tower of the cathedral....I have been told that the tower is 142 mts high and that there are 332 steps up to the first level, my thighs have started complaining just thinking about all those steps. This, I am afraid, is one tower too far.

The cathedral is very hard to photograph due to its height and the proximity of the other buildings, but it sure is a stunning sight. It is amazing to stand at the bottom of the tower and look up, makes you feel dizzy so I don't know what it would be like from the top looking down. One thing I will be doing is taking a tour on one of the boats that travel around the town, like the one below (if its sunny) or a covered one. For 9 euro you get a 70 minute trip complete with commentry on all the places that you pass. The cruise takes in the Imperial district, Petite France, which is all the old half timbered builings and even the European district which is where the European Parliment sits. I just hope that it is a nice day tomorrow.

I've worked out the route into town via the bus and tram system so I am all set. I must admit I love the european tram systems, I think they are great, and every sytstem I have used has been so easy and clean.
Sorry its short today, but most of today was spent riding.

Jeds found new transport

Nothing much to report today folks, just a quiet run from Prague to Nurnberg, well I say a quiet run apart from the fact I had a bit of a dust up with an impatient driver of a car behind me as I left Prague.
I got caught out by a set of lights so stopped at the line as they changed to red, as they had just changed I knocked the bike into neutral but was ready to take 1st gear as the lights went to green. A car pulled up behind, me and I swear that the moment the red light went out, he was on his horn for me to go. I moved off and I must admit I made one or two hand hestures and shouted a few words to the idiot. Anyhow, he came past me but at the next set of lights he got stuck behind a car in the outside line, however I managed to cut to the inside lane so I was back in front of him. Again, as the lights changed, he was straight onto his horn again to the car in front. This must be the way the idiot drives all the time.
At the next set of lights, and after I had heard his horn a couple of more times, and after much head shaking from me, we again came to a stop. This time I put the bike onto the side stand and started to get off the bike, at which point the idiot in the car behind slammed his car into reverse and shot backwards before pulling around me and shooting across the junction against the red light. Boy, did he look worried....he would have laughed if he had seen me without my helmet but at this stage I still had my dark visor down so he could not see what an old man I am, Ha ha.

I made great time to Nurnberg, in fact I got to the hotel 3 hrs before I was allowed to book in. My idea was, book in, get changed into some lighter trousers and a tea shirt and go into town for a look around. Because I could not book in till 5pm I had to go into the city in my bike kit. Although I did manage to put my jacket in a secure bag and lock it to the bike I was still in my motorcycle boots and trousers, and boy, do you get hot walking about when the temperature is 28 degrees.

Jed spotted this cool trike parked up in the square in Nurnberg, I don't know what the engine was but the caravan behind is attached to the trike!! Jed has now decided this is what he wants for all his trips, he says it beats camping hands down and just think of the money saved on hotel bills, he says it is the only way to go. The picture below was taken in the town square, can you see how I have tried to hide the little bit of scaffholding behind a lampost?

On the way back to the hotel I passed a beer keller which is only about a 10 minute walk away, so I think that is where I will end up tonight.

I have about a 200 mile ride tomorrow to Strasbourg, where I will be spending 2 nights. I am booked into a Formule 1 hotel, so will aim to get there at about 5pm, so I can have a little bit of a lie in in the morning as I do not have to rush off.

Turned out nice again

Started out this morning a little damp, but I am used to that on this trip, however by about 11am the sun broke through and the temperature soared, just like yesterday.
I decided today to take a clser look at the Jewish Quarter of the town. This is a previous ghetto but was the jewish quarter for hundreds of years before becomming a ghetto. In fact, Hitler decided that Prague would become the cultural centre of his "empire" and that the Jewish Quarter would be maintained as a museum to an extinct race. Therefore the jewish quarter was saved from destruction. One of the places I wanted to visit was the Old Jewish Cemetary. At one time this was the only piece of land in Prague where Jews could be buried. Realising this, the Jews started to excavate the land and went down some 14 ft. They then started the burials. A coffin was placed, then covered by a very thin layer of soil, in time the next body was palced on top of the first and also covered by a thin layer of soil, and so on over the years. In time the bodies were stacked so deep that they had to import soil from other areas of the city, and so the cemetery rose above ground level. The last burial took place in 1787 but by then some 12,000 tomb stones were in place although the number of bodies buried far exceeds this. A lot of the tombstones have been used on more than one occasion.
Another place visited was the Pinkas Synagogue which contains the names of all the jews from Bohemia and Moravia that were exterminated by the nazis. The names are written in red and black in letters about 2cm high and they cover many square mts of wall, very impressive.
The synagogue also displays an exhibition of childrens drawings, the story being that a certain lady named Friedl Dicker-Brandeis started an illegal art class for the children of a ghetto in Torezin. The idea was to take the minds of the children off the horrors of the ghetto, although a lot of the drawings made by the children do show the horrors.
Friedl got wind that she was to be taken to Auschwitz, and knew that no person ever left the camp, in view of this she gathered 2 suitcases and filled them with as many of the childrens drawings as she could. She then buried the 2 suitcases but left instruction for where they could be found.
Friedl was executed in Auschwitz as she expected.
After the war the cases were recoverd and the pictures now form the display at the synagogue. The names of the children are on the pictures, however the vast percentage of the children who made the pictures were also gassed in the concentration camps. It is a very sad exhibition.

Another place visited today was the John Lennon wall, a wall in a quiet corner of Prague where the youth can express themselves. There are may mentions of the Beatles and more son of john Lennon. It is said that you can add something today but by next week it will more than likely be covered by something else. It is an ever changing display.

Myself and Jed added our names but for some reason the photo stands on its end. I have tried changing it on the computer and a memory stick but it keeps getting entered on here on its side.

We are imortal until someone paints over our bit of wall!!

I also did a bit of tourist tack today in that I visited the Chamber of Torture, an exhibition displaying various forms of torture carried out throughout history by cultures throughout the world, although the majority were medieval. It was over 3 floors and quite a number of rooms, and I must say it was very interesting. There was every torture imaginable and a few that wern't, I just cannot get over just how cruel man can be to his fellow man. It may be tacky but its history.


Finally today, a game for all................Wheres Wally?