InvictaMoto's On The Road Again!

I blame Henry Cole, who's programme on the Travel Channel called "World''s Greatest Motorcycle Rides", for this amendment. The last programme we had on Sky+ was about the German Romantische Strasse . Places like Donauworth, Dinkelsbühl and Rothenburg ob der Tauber. So we will be in the car but the roads looked pretty open and traffic free when he did the ride. Claire is most interested in a visit to http://www.wohlfahrt.com/index.php?article_id=1&clang=1  in Rothenburg.  Depending on time and miles we may "do" one or maybe of the places. On the run back from Prague the plan was Heilbronn and the Sinsheim Museum. This has now changed to a tour of some ancient and umbombed Bavarian towns. Due to the vagaries of the Tom Tom mapping where Czech doesn't exist I can't actually map all the way from Prague!! So to check the distances I have to map from Waidhaus on the German side of the border!! As a result, I have changed the booking from DJH at Hei...

For one reason or another we have changed to the car from the bike; then for a while it may have become "all change" as I looked at flying to Brno instead of driving. A fly-drive trip may have come out a little cheaper, even via Vienna instead of Brno. In the end I have simply shaved a day off the schedule and Poland has been dropped. The route now takes us from Colditz across the nearest border and to Prague and the dalnice to Brno. The TomTom mapping is pretty daft. They sold the XL with IQ mapping but when the first (and free) upgrade ran, the maps are too big to fit. Instead you have to choose a sub section. The only one that includes UK doesn't include the ČR! So. We have to hope that the free wifi at the hotel in Bochum will let me download the right maps or we simply shift to ancient Garmin power; which does have all the maps. Three weeks to go!!

To mark the 95th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, and more especially the Battle of Bazentin Ridge that kicked off the second phase of the battle, on July 14th 1916, Claire and I are off the France to visit the grave of my Great-Cousin William Devall. We went on the 90th anniversary and left a British Legion poppy cross to show that someone in our small family had remembered. Trying to find out more about how William came to be in the Kings Shropshire Light Infantry for a bloke that was born and bred in Vauxhall in South London has proved to be a little more complicated.  An email to the regimental museum didn't really help as they don't have many records any more, and what is available are on Ancestry.com. A visit there seems to have got nowhere really. It is a shame that national records that should be owned by the country and managed by the UK Government have been let go to a commercial site. From the regimental history book, I can see how the 7th Battalion made ther...

To mark the 95th Anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, and more especially the Battle of Bazentin Ridge that kicked off the second phase of the battle, on July 14th 1916, Claire and I are off the France to visit the grave of my Great-Cousin William Devall. We went on the 90th anniversary and left a British Legion poppy cross to show that someone in our small family had remembered. Trying to find out more about how William came to be in the Kings Shropshire Light Infantry for a bloke that was born and bred in Vauxhall in South London has proved to be a little more complicated.  An email to the regimental museum didn't really help as they don't have many records any more, and what is available are on Ancestry.com. A visit there seems to have got nowhere really. It is a shame that national records that should be owned by the country and managed by the UK Government have been let go to a commercial site. From the regimental history book, I can see how the 7...

On the way back from work I saw the odometer was getting close to 74000 miles. I worked out that the it would flip up in the middle of the motorway stretch between Maidstone and Ashford.  As if by coincidence, as I approached the turn off for Leeds Castle the motorway came to a grinding halt.  Usually something that happens only on a summer Friday as everyone flees to the coast for the weekend or is going to the ports to escape to France on holiday. I took the slip road and as I approached and headed down the A20 instead. Luckily, the road was pretty clear so I guess the hold up was rather fresh. The 74000 clicked up and I made a quick dask to the left to where the Pilgrim's Way works its way along the edge of the hillside.  I saw a programme once where TV personality Nick Knowles (before the DIY programmes) did rides in the country on motorcycles with a selection of celebs. I am sure he did the Pilgrim's Way.  I assume it is a different bit, as this section...

Another superb ride to Cambridge with friends from the Kent Centre and my brother Neill. Me at Cambridge United States Memorial Cemetery at Madingley, wearing my Suzuki Owners Club Buff to keep the sun off my head. Once again the weather was kind and the Royal British Legion have raised loads of funds to assist with the work they do with ex-servicemen, both abled bodied and those carrying injuries or disabilities from their service.

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