Weekend in Kent

For this second weekend of October, I got invited by some motorbike friends to spend a three day motorbike fun in Kent, UK.

This time I got to cross the narrow sea by boat instead of by train like last August when I went to Oxford.

And strong of my knowledge from that trip, I decided to spend the night over in Oostduinkerke in a Youth Hostel (de Paerdevisser) so I would be halfway to Calais already ^_^

I left work around 16.00H on Thursday afternoon and head to Oostduinkerke. After I took my quarters in my (private \0/ ) room I decided to go and have a look at the sea (and also grab a bite actually).
I drove to the nearest (bigger) city: Nieuwpoort where I could enjoy a very nice sunset:

I kinda got absorbed by this view and forgot my initial intention wich was grabbing some food!
Once the show was completely over I made it to Nieuwpoort city and got myself some meat 'n chips.




The night was cold with a bright open sky, which was a very promising thing for the weekend to come.
Finally a motorbike trip in the sun :)
And this in October AND in the UK :D

On Friday morning I left Oostduinkerke around 08.00H for a bit more than an hour ride to Calais. It was freezing cold! I had to think of my sister and our friend Baard. They got me some Norwegian thermic underwear (pants and pullover) two Christmas ago ... darn is really good material! Bless them both!

Once in Calais I was a bit nervous because it was my first time with my motorbike on a boat. I was completely wondering about how it would be attached and stuff. As it came out it was as simple as for the Chunnel :D
With only one strap more ;)

Once in the UK it was riding, riding, riding. The weather was just brilliant!

On Friday we went to Bodiam Castle, a 14th century moated castle.

And as you can see on this pictures, the weather really was magnificent :D

Sunny and even really warm if you stayed in the sun.



Planning for Saturday: riding to the Ace Cafe in London taking the long way.
The Ace Cafe is on the West Side of London, approx. 120km away of our hotel in Maidstones but we decided to make 190km out of it, avoiding highways as much as we could and choosing the smallest roads we could :)


First things first: get the frost off our saddles! That's also what you get with a clear sky, in October, it's freezing by night.
But honestly, I really prefer freezing my ass and riding on dry roads than rain most of the day ;)

After that was done we had a big traditional English Breakfast in a motorbike breakfast place (the Oakdene Cafe) and then head out for the day. There we got to meet Brian, a friend of our trip organizer.


The gang  at the Ace Cafe:

(left bottom to top: Brian, André and Chris.
right from bottom to top: Ann, Jan and me)


Sunday was a bit of the same planning: big English breakfast and small curvy roads to Dover.

But I took another option ^_^
As it turned out, Brian and I found out we share a couple of same interests. Besides some Star Wars quotes and being found of Science Fiction ... we both have what some people could call; speed issues ^_^

Brian proposed me to leave the hotel around 11.00H on Sunday and take "the fast road" to Dover.
My friends left around 08.30H, I stayed in bed, watched the Rugby World Cup Semi final New Zealand v Australia, checked out and was ready at 11.00H sharp when Brian arrived.

We left Maidstones and were at 15km from Dover 1hour and 15min later ^_^
So we decided to have breakfast on a famous motorbike rendezvous cafe along the way.
We waited, and waited, and waited, and waited some more. We took a look at all the bikes around us, talked about life, the universe and everything. And waited ...
Around 12.45H my friends called me to know where we were because they were waiting nearby the ferry check-in in Dover.
We got our forgotten breakfast refunded and raced to Dover.

This weekend was great! We had wonderful weather, brilliant company and amazing roads!
And I really hope to be invited again for next years "Ace Cafe tour" :D

Thanks a lot my friends for a very, very nice weekend!

Oxford, some riding and back to Brussels

And here I'm back in Brussels.
Four days off, three days of motorbike of whom two under heavy rain.

Saturday was a day off (from the motorcycle)
Ela took us through a smaal tour of Oxford. There is so much to see, so much to visit that you quickly know you'll have to come back.
We went from Risinghurst to Oxford by feet, passing through some nice towns and old areas of Oxford.
One of them was Headington where we briefly stopped at the Holy Trinity Church. There lies C.S. Lewis, writer of many books and also more known for his Narnia Chronicles. There's the "Narnia Window" in the church and his grave somewhere in the yard.
(more info: http://www.sacred-destinations.com/england/oxford-c-s-lewis.htm)

After some more walking, passing through some very nice gardens and inner ways by the water, we arrived in Oxford.
As I said, way too much to visit, one day, even one week might not be enough.
Being a total tourist and a Harry Potter reader, I asked to visit Christ Church. So I could take a picture of what is probably the most photographed staircase in the world:

That leads to what is now the most well known Dinner Hall in the world :) :) :)

Some more tourist views were taken from the Tower of The University Church of Sint Mary the Virgin:

(on this picture: one of the Colleges, near the Radcliffe Camera)

On Sunday we went back for a ride. At first we were lucky with the weather but unfortunately that didn't last the whole day.

We headed to Marlborough, grabbed a coffee and continued on to see some stones in Avebury.

(more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury)

Ze stones:

And some nice trees (with tree-huggers):

Our planning after Avebury was to go and see some "White Horses", these big prehistoric hill figures, but a heavy (HEAVY) rain decided otherwise. To give you an idea of the "White Horses" concept, the one of Uffington might be the best known: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uffington_White_Horse


Today we headed up to Brussels. With a little coffee stop in London's famous Ace Cafe :)
A real biker place that's worth a visit if you're in the area.
(more info: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ace_Cafe_London & http://www.ace-cafe-london.com)

Got the four o'clock train in Folkestone. And I got to see a White Horse after all :D
Not a real prehistoric one, but still one from another century ;)

(more info: http://www.hows.org.uk/personal/hillfigs/folk/folk.htm)

Four days off.

Too much rain, not enough sightseeing because of it and anyhow, way too much to see for four days.

Oxford, Kent, Wales, ... gazillions of places to visit and even more reasons to come back!

Brussels - Risinghurst (Oxford)

At 6h30 this morning, the sky above Brussels was nice, not too many clouds, dry, almost warm actually.
But as Bert and I didn't want to get surprised by the rain on our way to the Euro Tunnel in Calais, we decided to take a quick look on a weather website (http://www.buienradar.be) and it was a very good idea to do so! A huge bad-ass rain cloud was waiting for us along the way.

On the E40 direction Ostend, a bit passed Aalst, the skies turned that weird color they can have before a storm, that kind of undecided color between orange and yellow or something. A bit later as we approached Ghent it started, heavy rain poured out of the skies, dark, too dark clouds above us, low visibility and too much traffic.
I've been a few times under the rain with my motorbike these past 15 years, but today was one to remember.

Right on time around 9 o'clock we arrived at the "Chunnel" we could drive in directly and the train left a few minutes after we were in. Right.on.time :)
The crossing is about 30 minutes but it feels way faster.
Once on the other side it looked fine ... for a couple of miles it was though.
Our initial planning was to go to Risinghurst only through nice secondary roads. We were supposed to go from Folkstone to Tenterden, then Battle and Petersfield. Then up to Oxford.
It was raining so heavily that we gave up in Battle.
We took the M25 to London and then M40 to Oxford.
Rain, more rain, traffic jams on all the highways and even more rain :( ad some wind, more rain and some wind from the side and you get yourself 200km of cold and wet clothing.

We arrived in Risinghurst around 17h00 (UK time), got our rain gear off, congratulated ourselves we made it one piece ... and then ... off course, that Murphy b*st*rd came along. And with a huge grin he brought us: The Sun! Yes mam'
We were here since ten minutes. Then it stopped raining and the sun showed up.
Ehr!

Planning for tomorrow: Visiting Oxford :)

Studs in mi tire :(

One of the very nice items that were borrowed to me for my trip was this ... heu ... what's it called? Hmm ... let's call it a pillow :) a but-pillow: *AirHawk

At first you need to get used to it of course. Suddenly you don't sit on a soft piece of wood anymore but either on a water bed :) Anyhow, the thing made good office and I was really glad to have it :)

Because you move a bit on it (due to the multiple air chambers in it) you loose a bit the feeling of your rear wheel. At least I lost it. I always had the impression that my wheel had lost 1bar :/


This afternoon tough, I thought I might have a look at it :)
And hum yes ... let's say there was something wrong ... 2.2 instead of 2.7 and this:

After a surgical removal this was the result:

So it was reEAaly time for some rubber injection in there :P

Overdue off and I'll ride the rest of it till the end ;)

And I surely hope it will last this time cause otherwise it would be my second brand new tire that I have to replace in less than two months :(
I surely would prefer to replace them due to proper wear from edge to edge instead of silly nails and screws and such crap!

Bitche - Brussels

When I left this morning, around 10, there was not very much to see of the citadel of Bitche.

This picture I took yesterday eve on the terrace of the restaurant of the hotel:

Well this morning you had to search after the whole thing through the fog.
I took it as a sign, fog on the 1st day -> fog on what would be the last day?

So I left France direction Saarbrücken and then Luxembourg.
After a slight GPS mistake (my fault this time) I ended up discovering Saarbrücken at mid day :-/ pfff
First highway possibility taken and course set for Ettelbrück, LU.

Of course it would have been too much fun if the skies above Luxembourg would have been blue, with loads of sun and stuff ... well ... at least it was not raining :)

I didn't bother visiting the city, the skies where kinda clear so I headed up for some nice and curvy roads :)
In the North of Ettelbrück I aimed for the CR 348 ... that I missed :P
You don't want to make the same mistake as the CR 350 is very crappy Belgian look-a-like road :-/
Anyhow, I passed Welscheid and Kehmen to go to Bourscheid.

From there on, ride the CR 348 to Goebelsmuhle, then continue to Consthum, the CR 348 has a brand new asphalt and is a pure pleasure to ride on :)
In Consthum take a left on the CR 322 to Wiltz, again a real pleasure as this road is also very, very nice :)

Once out of Wiltz (following the N12 to Bastogne), take a right direction Wilwerwiltz and Clerveaux on the CR 325.
In Enscherange follow the CR 324 and in Wilwerwiltz the CR 326 and then again the CR 325 to Clervaux.
In Clervaux I took the N18 to Bastogne and at the roundabout with the N12 I went straight following Houffalize.

Around 16 o'clock I entered Belgium between Hoffelt (LU) and Burret (BE) ... I couldn't have missed it, the first announcement was a "damaged road" sign and the second was a huge difference in street quality :'(

Houffalize, Ortho and the N4 to Brussels.

18h15
Home

Satisfied of my trip but next time I leave for ten days (or more) I'll think about doing that in the Summer ^_^

I would also like to thank everyone again who hosted or joined me during this trip :D
Andreas and Tilly: you guys rock, you guys rock so much that I actually hesitated this morning :) Popping by in Lörrach again and going back home on Sunday, or just go home :) Thanks again for your hospitality <^_^>
Andi: thanks for the Ovomaltine cookies :) it's amazing but I still have some :)
Corinne: all the best with the R1200R
Claire: I became a fan of the Alsace accent :) I actually stayed a while in a café just listening to people :)
Urs: It was a lovely day we had and I surely want some more :) there's still a lot of roads in Switzerland we can ride on ;)
Valérie: I'll be back ;) keep that candle lit, I'm working my way into der Schweiz ;) I dont know how yet, but I'll be there ;)

Thank you all!
I'm glad I'm home one day earlier as I'm completely wasted. I could surely use a week holiday in a warm and sunny place :)
And I would go there by motorbike, and I would leave this Monday morning :)

EDIT: for those who asked, the exact amount of km was 2211,7 from wich approx 600km on highways :D


(more pictures here: Motorbike Trip "Summer" 2011)

Col de Bussang - Villé - Bitche

Left this morning around nine, blue sky (at least a bit, at last blue skies!) and no one on the roads :)
Col de Bussang, Grand Ballon and co. here I come :D
As the roads were dry and empty, the road up to the Grand Ballon was a pure pleasure.
The last hundred meters to the top were a bit broken due to loose wild animals:

 Up there, a restaurant, Vue des Alpes it's called ... again ... and what a pitty, again nothing to see due to clouds.

I met a German women called Kerstin on the top, she was riding back to Hildesheim after four weeks of motorbike trip on her own. She and her GS Adventure went to Spain and back :) Lovely women :) we exchanged motorbikers forum and nicknames and wished each other a nice trip.

At that point, the GPS told me I would be in Villé before noon. Way too early to stop and yet so much to see in that region. So I decided to stop following my route and headed up for the Petit Ballon and some more Col's in the area.
Around 11h30, on my way up to Les Trois-Epis on the D11 the sky broke open and it rained gazillions of liters of water during two hours!
Very convenient name for this Col:

But even if it's bad weather, you have to choose :) :) :)

I made it to Villé around 14h00, a wee less rain and I was exhausted.
As I entered the town (back on route with the GPS) I encountered the hotel where I had planned to stay. Their kitchen was still opened so I decided to stop there, eat, take my time and let my gear dry up a bit.

Around 15h00 it was time to get back on tracks, the sun was still well hidden but the rain had stopped. I shortcutted my roadbook after Breitenbach and headed up for the D214 to get some air through my rain combi and try to dry things up a bit more. Very nice idea that it was, the D214 is a very nice and fast road (but yet very curved and with a great view).

Passed Niederhaslach the sky cleared up and the roads were drying. It gave me a smile again and started to feel like holiday again.
The D218 to Dabo was very nice eventough there were loads of loose shippings. Thank the French they always warn you before!
At 17h00 I made a short pause at the Rocher de Dabo were I had a very nice viw on the valley, with the lovely sound of racing motorbikers in it :D

 
The D98 to Lutzelbourg was brand new and a real pleasure to ride :)
The uphill from Saverne to the Col de Saverne (D604) is a pure pleasure, long and wide curves that allow you to go very deep with the bike :) habba, habba, habba!
The rest of the roads untill Bitche were a real pleasure too :)
I finally arrived here around 21h00, found a hotel after a while and really glad I could still have a meal :)

Planning for tomorrow: maybe go and visit the Ligne Maginot :)
If the weather is nice I might continue to tour a bit :) after all, I'm on holiday :) :) :)


(more pictures here: Motorbike Trip "Summer" 2011)

Gruyères - Col de Bussang

Bye, bye la Suisse.
France, here I am :)

Left Gruyères this morning around 9 o'clock, way later than planned but I really needed to sleep a bit more :)

Nice roads, no rain, a bit chilly and again, lovely roads :) Darn Switzerland rules :)
I stopped somewhere around noon at the "Vue des Alpes" ... there was not really much to see due to a lot of clouds :-/

Entering France afterward was one big misery :(
The first black point was a blocked road (the D464), as I didn't wanted to go back on my tracks, I took a small way back in Switzerland on the other side of the mountain.

Approx one hour later I finally made it into civilization again O_o
I ended up in Saignelégier and instead of following my instinct, I followed the GPS ... bad move.
Missing all the fun from Maîche to St-Hippoliyte and then to Porrentruy I sticked on the 18A to Porrenttruy.

The road from Porrentruy to Belfort was one big misery too, all new roads and GPS going completely crazy :(

Once I was out of Belfort I headed up for the Ballon d'Alsace :) finally some fun ... but also ... finally the rain that had been following me the whole day :(
Anyhow, ending your day with the Ballon d'Alsace, even in the rain, it's a big fat WIN :D

I arrived at the Moto Hotel du Col de Bussang (http://www.coldebussang.com/nl/accueil.htm) around five, Blues and Bikers (and also some regular motorbikers) all over the place. Most of them are Dutch but who cares :) it's good music and friendly people :)

Program for tomorrow: Col de Bussang to Villé through the most bendy streets possible :)


(more pictures here: Motorbike Trip "Summer" 2011)

Lörrach - Gruyères



Back on tracks!

It was around a quarter past seven when I left Lörrach this morning. Quickly made it to Reinach, where I had an appointment with Urs who would join me for the trip to Gruyères.

We have had a lot of luck with the weather! Nice and cosy the whole day, not too cold and even sometimes too warm :)
The sky was packed with clouds but the two only times we had rain it was quickly over and even not enough to make us stop and put our rain gear on :) Perfect!

Our first stop was in Weissenstein where we had a view on the Alps and some warm drinks (heisse schoggi for me ^_^ ).

After that break we took back down the same nice 22% slope road that brought us up :)

Later on we arrived in Aarberg. We also made a brief touristical stop there. Aarberg is a very nice fortified "stedli" (small city).

After some leg stretchin we headed up to Gruyères and it's Castle.
The Castle is definetely worth a visit and so is the Giger Museum (yes, yes, Mr Giger himself, the Alien designer).

And as I was short on time, these two provide me with yet another excuse to come back :) :) :)
We had a drink in the Alien café, walked a bit around in the stedli of the castle and walked back to the parking.

Around 16 o'clock I hugged Urs goodbye letting him go back home direction Basel/Reinach. And I headed up to Estavennes to pay a visit to my cousin Valérie and her husband who live 10 minutes away.

Thanks again to you Urs for your very nice company :) we will do this again ;)

Planning for tomorrow: Gruyères - Col de Bussang (Belfort)

Off to sleep now :) this lizard is one of my many companions tonight :)
(there are lots of animals at my cousins place ^_^ )

(more pictures here: Motorbike Trip "Summer" 2011)

Heidelberg - Lörrach

Same player, shoot again!

And here we go, breakfast at 6:30 and only left the Hotel and Heidelberg at 8:00 :P

After a big traffic jam on the A5 due to a truck incident I finally made it to my first "Schwarzwaldhochstrasse" board around 10 o´clock ^_^

Not very much of a Black Forest to see due to massive mist 8-/

But nice road anyhow :)

Up there around 1000m it was cold and wet but every two hours I was down another hill and it was warm and almost sunny.

After a lunch stop in Schramberg around noon I hit the road again, passing through Triberg that looked very nice. But there was something like 10 busloads of teenager hanging out the streets so I didn´t bother to stop.

Some very nice roads later I made it to the Feldberg. As I just stopped on the parking lot to take a picture, the time I had grab my camera, a huge misty cloud came in front of it :/

Back on tracks, the last km until Lörrach, rain, almost rain, wannabe rain ... the whole day I had wet roads but never saw the real rain.

As I arrived here around 15:30, the time I got to Andreas and Tilly´s place and it started!

As I´m writing down this note it´s heavily raining outside, with some thunders. Sunny on one side of the apartment and rainy on the other.

Timing is everything ^_^

Planning for the weekend: relax and enjoy some good company :D

Monday at work and back on tracks Tuesday for day three: Lörrach to Gruyeres.

(more pictures here: Motorbike Trip "Summer" 2011)

Brussels - Heidelberg

First day on the move and everything went well.

6:30, lift off from Brussels
I had a thick mist until after Leuven, then it got brighter until Germany.
Shortly after I passed the border the mist and some rain were back.
I must say I'm glad I have put one one more layer and of course my rain combi ;)

After a second stop in Hochwald I started the last 100km to Heidelberg. On my way I noticed I was passing by near Ramstein so of course I had to stop :D

12:30, arrival in Heidelberg
After I checked in at the Ibis Hotel I couldn't help myself and went to the Burger King :) :) :)
As I had the whole afternoon time for visiting I headed to the Old Town and to Heidelberg Castle.
Besides the wayyyy too many tourists the city is nice and the castle is worth the never ending hill to get up there :P

Back at the hotel now.
I'll score something to eat here and will hit the sack pretty early so that I can leave before 8 o'clock tomorrow.

Program of this Friday: autobahn to Ettlingen and then the Schwarzwald!!! Wuhu!!!

[pictures: Ramstein town, Heidelberg Castle and one of the big barrels to be seen inside]

(more pictures here: Motorbike Trip "Summer" 2011)

It's raining dude, it's raining :/

Well, well, well ...
According to several websites, it seems I'm not gonna have that much of a sunny weather.
There goes my relax holiday by motorbike :/

If I have to beleive these weather websites:
- http://www.wetter.com/
- http://france.meteofrance.com/
- http://www.meteosuisse.admin.ch/web/en/weather.html/

It looks like it's going to be a wet and chilly ride through the three countries.
Makes me think about my outfit again, should I go for leather after all? Now I'm planning on my summer outfit with of course a rain combi should it be wet or too cold. But I don't think it's gonna be warm enough to go through 10 degrees and maybe less :/
When I take a look at my roadbook I notice that the highest roads I'll have will be around 1200m of altitude (Feldberg in the Black Forest, some tops in Switzerland and most of the Col's in the French Vosges). So it might indeed get chilly :)
I surely hope for some sunny weather!!!
And if the sunny weather won't come on my path, I'll go after it. I haven't booked anything besides the stay at the Col de Bussang, a biker's hotel in the Vosges, so it would be only one night that I would "lose". I've decided my holiday will be relaxed and so be it. If it's really shitty weather, there's enough to visit in the region :) and if better weather is only a couple of hours driving away, I'll shortcut my ride in that direction.

So tomorrow I'll be taking off with this song in my head: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h7eRiAnZt24
What does not kill you makes you stronger!

One week to go!

Next week around this time I should be cruising somewhere in the Schwarzwald.
I've just created this blog in order to keep as much people up to date as possible using only one platform.

I'll be off for ten days with my motorbike, on my own, going from the Schwarzwald (DE) through the Western part of Switzerland and back to Belgium through the Vosges (FR).

Here's an approximate idea of what the roadbook is looking like: http://twitpic.com/5gremf/full

I'll do my best to keep a daily update ;)