InvictaMoto's On The Road Again!

Haggis.  Ornery Little Critter. You hardly see them in the wild, and it takes a specially licenced hunter to go and catch them. The two families that I buy from are the MacSweens and the Halls. Once caught, skinned and dissected it can be cooked in a microwave, although many afficioados leave them in their skin and boil or better, steam them. Although in their homeland of Scotland, they are often consumed in the form of a sausage either in batter or without, and deep fried. Yum. They can be served with traditional tatties and neeps, but in this instance it comes with boiled spuds and baked beans. The Hall's haggis is milder than Mac Sween and some others, far less peppery. This time it was washed down with Bing rather than Irn Bru or beer and there was no dram either.

We were up early to escape the ashtray that was and is the Etap Düren West. The idea was to stop at the first services on the motorway and have coffee and maybe a croissant. We happily sailed past the one at Aachen Ost as there was another signed at 14kms. Sadly we turned on to another autobahn and missed it. Finally 75 minutes later and after crossing the Netherlands we arrived in Belgium, and after a false stop at a weekday only services (one with no petrol) we arrived at one where we could sit outside in the sun with the wasps and eat!! As usual the monument to moronic driving and poor planning that is also known as Antwerp arrived in front of us. Solid traffic and lane swapping all make for tense driving. I was glad of another calming stop before we got stuck again in a huge tailback. No reason to be seen and no information available, but traffic as far as the horizon. My detour via the cobbles of Gent and the N9 might not have saved time but is was certainly more scenic although p...

The YHA at Creglingen was relatively cheap for an en-suite twin room. Breakfast was the usual German youth hostel fare; rolls, cheese, ham and salami plus cereal and coffee. The coffee was some of the best all trip and I gorged three cups. The plan was to spend all day to meander to the Etap at Düren. And we did. The first part was along a bit more of the Romantische Strasse and then across the 'green' routes on the Michelin map towards the Rhein. First stop was Rüdesheim am Rhein. We have been here before, but on a river boat trip not by road. We had lunch. Here I learned that rindwurst is beef. Once again we had sausage and for the first time (and last!) chips. A walk round the tourist heart wasn't complete without another Käthe Wohlfahrt visit. In Rothenburg our beer was served in lidless steins and it kept it cooler longer, so I was on the lookout for one. In the end it was the afore mentioned shop that had them, and more surprisingly they were cheaper than any I had se...

A largish breakfast to set us up for a day sightseeing in Bavaria. As previously mentioned this came about after the  Romantische Straße  was featured on "Worlds Greatest Motorcycle Trips". We escaped from Prague by a route I have never seen before but were soon on the D5 towards Plzen and the border. One stop for petrol as it is about the same price as home than more expensive Germany, and also to use up our coins to buy Kofola and lemon tea!! After Nürnburg we stopped for a sausage! This time we both had a 30cm bratwürst and fried potatoes rather than chips. I wanted to get off the motorway sooner rather than later for Dinkelsbühl and as luck would have it the A6 ground to a halt by a junction and we were off! By now we were back in TomTom's hands. Dinkelsbühl is very nice. Lot's of old buildings and hotels too expensive for our budget. No doubt Henry Wassisname gets rooms paid for him for his programme. We dawdled about and then set off for Rothenburg ob der Tauber...

After consuming so much wine the night before we had quite a late breakfast. Jarek and Tomas joined us to try and eat our way through a mountain of palačinky. Pancakes to us. We'd packed and loaded the suitcases the day before and I had the Garmin sorted well in advance. Firstly, after saying our goodbyes, a nostalgic trip to the Gymnázium in Zastávka and then across to where I used to live in Sportovní 481. The plan was then to visit the Santini designed  Pilgrimage  Church  of Saint John of Nepomuk near  Žďár nad Sázavou  and then to The Church of Bones ( Sedlec Ossuary) . We were told by "experts" that neither was worth a stop. Wrong. Pilgrimage  Church  of Saint John of Nepomuk You can blame Charley Boorman and Ewan McGregor for the Sedlec visit. They went there on the "Long Way Round" trip and I harboured the interest to vist. Both sights are well worth the detour.  The Church of Bones near Kutna Hora is weird rather than frightening. Macabre...

In the first part of the day we went into Brno, ostensibly to do some sightseeing of places I hadn't been for years and that Claire hadn't ever been. We parked behind the International hotel and walked through to Svobody Nam to see the new clock. I thought it looked like a bullet but apparently is was supposed to commemorate the defeat of a Swedish Army and at 11am a ball drops and it sounds off. http://my.opera.com/Gaddag/blog/new-black-granite-clock-in-brno-post-100 . I was right huh!! After a few sights were struck off the list of things to see, we ate a slice of Czech pizza before visiting a large shopping centre. I needed new trainers and bought a good pair of Puma in the sale. Result. Once back at Lilka's we had a quick snack and then off to the wine tastings!! No spitting it out required although we could if necessary. We drove down to Mikulov and then into the countryside to a vineyard that Jarek already knew about and had already bought wine from. Reisten in Pavlo...

After a coffee by the entrance we set off for home, stopping in   Křtiny . Here we saw a magnificent church. We stopped to have a look and it is another pilgrimage church. The legend has it that the Virgin appeared to villagers in the 13th century and of course it became a site for Catholics to visit across time. The current church is by the architect Santini and was built in the mid 18th century.  Santini has also responsible for another seven or eight similar edifices in Czech and surrounding countries. Tomorrow on the way home we will call into another one at Zdar. In the evening there was a big shower but we still did the rounds of Lilka's relatives. Everyone is so friendly and greet you like friends. Lovely.

The plan today was to visit one of the show caves in the Moravian Karst. This is an area near the small town of Blansko to the north of Brno. We found that to visit  Punkevní jeskyně    t hat we should have booked three weeks ago! Jarek called a business contact at the caves administration and they sorted out tickets. We drove up there, stopping for lunch at the hotel attached to the  Černá Hora  brewery. Claire and I both had gulaš and Lilka a healthier salad! The brewery here was first built back in 13th century. They have become very proficient. At the caves we took the cable car from the parking level to the entrance area. I have been here before but not into the cave. Lilka collected our tickets and we found they were free. The tour is about 800m of walking through galleries and caves with many stalactites and stalagmites in clusters. I took some photos (a couple here) and some came out okay in the low light. There is then an electric boat ride through the ...

The focus of the entire trip! Up early to have breakfast and then walk a few hundred metres up the road from Lilka's house to catch one of the free buses that run between the city centre and the circuit. There's room on the first one and ten minutes later we are following a huge crowd to the viewing area G. We set up camp at the top of the bank about half way up the hill that sucks the power from the small classes. We are in the braking area for the series of bends that lead into the start and finish complex. Although I managed only three  laps here before the brakes on my Cavalcade overheated I can't remember any of it now! We see Moto2 and MotoGP warm-up and then a couple of Ducati's do some warm-ups. These are the pillion ride bikes with Randy Mamola and another rider. All the commentary is in Czech and German so we have no real idea what is going on! The 125 race is pretty close run all through as is the Moto2. But the MotoGP starts close. Lorenzo leads the three Re...

A quieter day beckoned but still we crammed some visits into the day. Before lunch a trip out to Bystrc so Lilka could show Claire some garden centres. For me they could be at home except for the pond with large turtles basking in the sun. Next stop Lidl for more provisions and us to get lunch etc for race day. After lunch we had a short run to  Ostrovačice  to visit a former student of Lilka,  Jiří ,  who is into bikes. He has a small collection of CZ and Jawa motorcycles he is restoring plus a modern and modified Suzuki SV650. We eat and drink. Near his house is this sign: Guess whose campsite this is? Then it was off into Brno to meet old friend Ivan Benda. A couple of hours drinking more beer and visiting the bar where the local SOC meet - the Black Diamond. Heavy metal pub. Only us not in black T-shirts. Jarek and Lilka picked us up and we had another BBQ in the garden. More beer and a fruit based cocktail for the ladies. Then to bed ready for an early start for...

The final part of the day was the bone shaking run down the D1 to Brno. The junction we needed was closed do we went past to Brno-Bohunice and back along the 602 to Popuvky. Once we arrived outside the door we were met by Lilka and son Tomas. Shown to our room and then we sat to chat before BBQ dinner. It was after midnight when we finally went to bed, BBQ and two bottles of wine later...

Today we were hoping to have a lie in after a thousand miles in the road, but instead we were up at a reasonable hour for breakfast and then out with Lilka in her Corsa to Lednice Castle. Tomas followed on his CBR 125. The castle is undergoing major renovation work and this includes painting it like a blancmange in a yellow colour. We had the tour for 150kč and opted to save the 50kč it would have cost for the English speaking tour. The printed explanation in the binder is quite sufficient. We then took a horse and card ride around the park to the minaret. A kind of folly built by the owners in the 1850's. The walk back was okay as long as the sun stayed behind the clouds. Lunch was in a nearby town Vlatice at a Czech restaurant. Luckily Lilka was there as my Czech might not have got us much more than "dva piva". From there we headed to Mikulov to check out the wine shop. Moravian wine comes in all shapes and sizes and we chose a reisling and a couple of chardonnay's ...

This one turned out to be a very long day. After breakfast and then cleaning our room in the Castle we eventually set off about 0915. Using the Garmin we navigated to the border in good time and bought our motorway vignette. After just a few miles the road ends and there is a big gap to the final section to Prague. The traffic was heavy with trucks in both directions nose to tail. We stopped for petrol soon after Teplice and found the price was even higher than at home. A litre of unleaded was 35.50kč or £1.54! And we complain! The Garmin took us into Prague and then out on the D11 towards Hradec Kralové. Here a former student of mine,  Rostislav Kříž,   lives and I wanted to call in and see him. We stopped for lunch at a Motorest that shared its site with a Hummer dealers!! Rosta lives in a nice house with a massive garden in the outskirts. We had a chat about the old times and then we had to leave. The ordinary road 37 to the D1 took nearly two hours, passing through ...

After our first night in the Colditz YH we went across the outer courtyard to the inner gate. This leads into the older part of the castle and it is where the PoWs were billeted. We joined the 1030 tour. The guide spoke good English and led us through the history of the castle from the 16th century to present day. All the tourists were English speakers including two blokes about our age on bikes. Good job I had ditched my GS Club shirt for a plain one. Embarrassing being in the car, but it couldn't be helped with Claire's soon to be replaced hip. We took quite a few pics and some have made it to Facebook and I have uploaded a lot to  Flickr .  We then had a walk to the town to get supplies for dinner. Eating out goes through money like a hot knife through butter. Bochum was nice but just short of €40 was too much. We stocked up at Lidl and headed back. We saw the bikers and spookily they were on a GS and a 1250GT Bandit... Once the shopping was stashed in the room we got the c...

  Colditz Castle , originally uploaded by InvictaMoto . This is the view from the back of the castle. As prisoners were marched from the station they would have approached across the river bridge on the far corner. More pictures:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/pauldevall/sets/72157627313023949/

As many of the buildings at Dora have been destroyed and the inmates parade ground turned into a communist arena by the former GDR government, the impact of the inhumanities that took place until it was discovered by the US Army in 1945 is hard to conjure in the mind. Dora Flickr From Dora we continued east towards Leipzig and finally to Colditz. Nothing could prepare the visitor for the sheer size of the castle on a rocky promontory overlooking the town. Despite sometimes torrential rain with near zero visibility, our arrival was in the evening sunshine.  The TomTom took us to the main gatehouse that is by the entrance to the German courtyard.  Checking in was easy and we then moved the car, humphing all the bags back up the hill from the Castle's own car park was  a little harder! Finally arrived a Colditz Castle.  This is the view from the window  in the corridor outside our room. Dinner was a 40cm pizza car of the Istanbul Pizza House in the town. Be warned....

Up late and fuelled and on the road about 9am. Had breakfast in the little Cafe Ayer attached to the Aral petrol station near the hotel. On the way eastwards we went on BS1 right through the centre of Dortmund and past the football ground at Borussia. Heavy rain on the 44 autobahn reduced speed to about 80kph at times. Stopped at the services for a coffee. Next stop Nordhausen where we had hoped to find an imbiss kiosk and get a sausage (bratwurst or bockwurst I wasn't fussy) but could we find any traditional imbiss stalls? Could we buggery. In the end we had to make do with a lunch of noodles from a Vietnamese  stall!  Not the same Germany!

Up bright and early for the 0815 ferry Dover to Calais. One small and significant problem. Our neighbour that was due to take the keys and feed the cat was nowhere to be seen. It was too early to contact Seafrance or even our other neighbour. In the we loaded the car and set off about 9am. Our second neighbour was happy to do it and we always feed her cat when she is away. Sadly as we missed our sailing we have incurred a £19 surcharge on the ferry and a three hour later ferry. Once off the ferry we were soon on the way eastwards. The planned route via Gent, Antwerp, Eindhoven and Venlo, then across into Germany and a northern route into the Ruhr for our first overnight stop in Bochum. The TomTom took us right to the hotel front door. With stops for a snack soup lunch in Belgium and a coffee break in Netherlands we took about five hours Calais to hotel. not bad considering we stuck to about 70mph most of the way and the various roadworks between Antwerp and the Eindhoven turn on the mo...

Kirin Ichiban 5% ABV. , originally uploaded by InvictaMoto . Drunk cold very refreshing.

A few days left before we go. I've been through all the paperwork to make sure that it is all printed and in the right date order in a plastic wallet.  This is turn will be kept in a bag and locked away or in a safe place in the car. Packing.  We have one suitcase each. One small suitcase each. Unlike the BMW, the car allows us to have two equally small suitcases. The BMW allows Claire to have the much larger pannier and me the smaller one.  Claire's CC , originally uploaded by InvictaMoto . As well as the suitcases that must fit under the "topless" screen, there is a warning triangle.  I have one that was given away to us when we took delivery of the company FIAT Panda cars that some colleagues and I had on the car lease scheme back in about 1983.   When you got one why pay £14.99 in Halford's for one half the size that looks as robust as a Twix wrapper? Some customer cars even came with an awning that fitted in the back to make the Panda into a sort of c...