On the Road Again!

Just an update. My return trip on July 1st will be on Irish Ferries. I have never used them before. I have enquired and mostly have stuck with what I know in the short crossing from Dover to Calais or even Dunkerque. So that's P&O or DFDS. For this trip I did the usual visit to all three ferry companies and Le Shuttle. Irish came out way cheaper at £32.63.  Why ferry and not the faster crossing with Le Shuttle? On this trip I will have ridden about 360 miles and the chance to have somewhere to have a rest and a coffee would be great. The Le Shuttle option is sitting on the deck or the ground waiting to board.  I have been using Le Shuttle for the best part of 25 years. I would estimate that something like 10% have been delayed at one end or the other. Once for 5 hours in Calais in the winter. Luckily in the car. Plus have sat in the dark in the tunnel on two occasions, with no information from train staff. Another reason for the shortness of the trip is due to "Grimm Up No...

I have just finished working on the daily routes for my part of the trip. I am only away five days and have split Neill's routes down by the day. They are already on the TomTom. The first day is quite long and takes in several Dambusters crash sites and memorials ending in Posterholt and the Hotel Restaurant Roerdalen. Day 2 takes up north towards Assen and our hotel for the GP weekend in Emmen. The Stads Hotel Boerland. Days 3 and 4 are at the circuit. Day 5 is my day to leave the BMW Amigos and head home via Irish Ferries from Calais to Dover.  The Amigos continue the Dambusters theme and the next MotoGP at the Sachsenring. Day 1 Day 2 Day 5

Booked the ferries. Or rather the crossings. Out on Le Shuttle with Neill and Phil on 27th June at 0820.  We need to be there an hour before but personally I think 90 minutes would be better! We have to get through French passport control to get our Schengen border stamps. Returning 5 days later on the Irish Ferries route from Calais at 1750. It's quite late but I  want to give myself plenty of time to get back to Calais from Assen in one hit and then get through the marvellous disaster known at the UK Passport control. Not to mention the French clowns stamping my Schengen exit! All the holdups courtesy of those that voted leave in 2016 and the useless politicians on both sides that created this mess.

It's quite a while since we went to Assen for the MotoGP at Assen. Since then the main race day has fallen inline with all the others and is now Sunday. Tradition means nothing when TV money is there. TV is the dictator in all sports it seems. The last time we were here was in 2018 when British Superbike (BSB) had their overseas round. We had a great time. Claire and I went in the car and Neill on his bike. This year we will all be on the bikes and I will be with Neill and Phil, both on their BMW's and I guess I will be on the V-Strom. I am only doing the Dutch MotoGP part of the trip. Neill and Phil are going on to the Sachsenring for the German MotoGP the weekend after. In between leaving up and their return there will be some sightseeing and Dambusters crash sites. I am just looking at the routes Neill has planned. I should be able to get my trip inside the Le Shuttle's 5-day ticket.  There are two days in the plans before we get to the hotel before the GP. W...

This is the first time I went on my own for a couple of years.   Previously my ex-wife had come with me on trip son the bike to the likes of Assen and the Isle of Man for the TT. Unfortunately, by this time we had separated and so it was solo Paul on this trip. This would have been on the GS1000G I think. On the way up I was tailed for miles by a couple on a Yamaha of some kind, I think an XS750. They had bought the bike with Krauser luggage fitted and the pannier lids were covered in plastic sheet so their stickers could be saved. After all these years I can't remember their names. We had lunch together and in the end stayed together for the weekend. In those days we'd camp in one of the fields around the circuit.  The farmers cleared the fields of livestock, usually cattle, and we'd erect tents around the cow pats!  To get there meant the ride of death as the people that had arrived first lined the access roads and filled with copious amounts of be...

The dates have been confirmed for the entire BSB (British SuperBikes) season for 2019 and the Assen round in on the 20th-22nd September, a week earlier than in 2018. This is to fit in another round at Donington Park before the final at Brands Hatch I had a look at hotels and the one we stayed in this year (see  https://devalltravel.blogspot.com/search?q=NL18+-+Assen ) wasn't on booking.com  but one a mile or so down the road was. So I have booked three nights at the Wapen van Vries hotel. For Claire and me it will be some €60 cheaper but a single room for Neill will be about the same as this year. I'm posting this on this blog (this early) as I am hoping that after Claire's successful total hip replacement last week (October 13th) that she will be fully fighting fit to go on the bike. I expect that bike to be Pepe! I am also considering a different route.  Instead of the tunnel I might see about the longer ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland.  It depends on pri...

Up and out early enough to get a few hours seeing what Assen town has to offer the tourist before goung to the track for the undercard races and then BSB qualifying. But first a couple of pics near the hotel. I took the Nikon with standard lens and for track action it was a little too short in the lens.  The market in Assen has wonderful flowers and even arrangements. I took a few photos... We bought some food for lunch at the track as well. Claire bought some chrysanthemums for €2. And there was cheese..... and loads of it. Everything has changed at the track,  or at least access has. Easier to get in but car parking a fair way from the entrance!! Our team didn't fair well and both Bradley Ray and Richard Cooper failed the qualify from Q3. Took some pix. More to follow when I get to a computer as the phone app is terrible. 

So the BSB tickets have arrived and Neill has his so that he can call in on Friday if he is up there early enough. We are on the 1120 Shuttle from Folkestone and that means we won't hit French soil until 1255 local time.  TomTom calculates that it will take around 6 hours.so we are really looking at arriving at the hotel about 7pm.  So no stop off at Assen on the way past. Tonight I need to pack a bag. I have a series of motorcycle oriented t-shirts ready to pack, plus of course waterproofs. Last weekend in September and Holland/Netherlands can be iffy on the weather front. So we need to pack for all eventualities. Being in the car in pissing rain might be a bonus over the bike, but it is still as wet when you get out..... so brolly? So that's about it until the morning.  Drop off the dog at his holiday suiter and then top the car up with UK diesel and then straight to the Shuttle. And away....

The trip is getting closer. Hopefully not travelling at a weekend on the Eurotunnel Shuttle  might mean that we don't get the ridiculous delays that I had on Saturday coming back from Belgium on Saturday. Delays in both ways but the return was ridiculous.  Not so much the breakdown but the lack of information and disregard for the paying customers. The bright spot is that the tickets are in the post and should be with us in a few days. I can give Neill his and he can decide what his travel plans are. I expect on his "Ginny" her will make better progress than we will in the car. The Insignia has a range of about 650 miles on a full tank of filthy disgusting child poisoning polluting  (TM anti car groups) diesel so with it topped up before we get on the Shuttle, we should easily make it to the hotel near Assen with plenty to spare.  Depending on the € price per litre I might have to splash and dash instead of a full tank fill-up. The best UK mpg I have ever had was 47...

Booked today.  Cost £64 for the car on top of the Assen MotoGP trip fare that I had parked with them after we couldn't go. To accommodate taking Reggie to the kennels for the weekend on Friday morning I have booked 28/9 1120 out and 1/10 1750 back. As we will be back too late to go and get him on the Monday I have Tuesday leave as well and so I can go and get him in the morning.

So. We have ordered three tickets for the race weekend.  Claire and I will go in the car and Neill on his BMW, I expect. Before then he had a trip to Canada to fly in the Lancaster bonber. Before we make any firm travel plans I have booked the leave from work and Reggie is booked into Wyncot. We need to sit down with Neill and see what his plan is for the journey up. He won't want to be contrained by the progress a car can make especially when the roads get a bit busy. We have to take Reggie to Wyncot. That is easily an hour round trip from home on nasty narrow country lanes. I don't want to be thrashing it all the way there to wherever the hotel at the Assen end is located. I think we'll be looking at around an 11am Shuttle. Anything not to be around Antwerp at lunchtime or evening rush hour. That place is a bloody nightmare through the tunnels and merging highways. The Insignia has a range of about 650 miles to a tank of diesel and so there should be no problems in that a...

I had originally planned the trip to the Assen round of BSB   as a weekend away for me and Claire in the car but since the disappointment of the MotoGP at Assen it has got a little bigger. We have Claire's hip operation hanging over us and until we get a firm date or even a hint of roughly when it will be, it is difficult to start making to many hard plans. I had booked a twin room in hotel we have stayed at a few times before (in 2009 / 2010 ) before at De Wapse. Claire and I will still need to go in the car and Neill may still want to ride his BMW "Ginny" up there. So with three of us we need another room.  De Wapse was oddly full on the Friday night and I had booked Sat/Sun nights.   Neill has booked two rooms elsewhere from Friday to Monday, three nights.   At the moment it all hinges on the hip op.   Of course, Reggie still needs to go on his holiday and that will complicate things a little and at £14 a day I'd rather not have him there long...

Sadly due to illness we have had to abort the mission. I have cancelled the Groningen hotel and as it was after the free cancellation end date we might have to forfeit the €111 cost of the room. I have sent a "special request" to them through booking.com to explain why we had to cancel in the vain hope they will do something.  It's not as though they won't be able to let the room as rooms really are sought after for MotoGP weekend. Luckily Eurotunnel have rebooked my shuttle ticket for another date in the future and I can still use that again. I advertised the Assen e-tickets via Twitter and have had no interest. So we will definitely be stuck with the loss. It's a shame but Neill's health is far more important than money. Update 4th July 2018 It was only in the early hours of this morning that I got a reply to my request to waive the cost of the room. I had emailed booking.com customer services to see what what has happening as it was (at the time) about 230...

DELAYED??? We are due to set off tomorrow afternoon, an overnight in Gent and then up to Assen to see if we can arrive for some practice on Saturday.  But. Neill had to go to hospital today and they kept him in.  So I guess it depends on how he feels... and when the let him out. Best case scenario is early tomorrow and he feels chipper. Or later and we go Saturday.

Day 4 is not quite over. We have just boarded the ferry for home after a palavver over changing our ticket. On P&O coming back a day early costs a ticket change cost plus additional fare amounting to £60. I kid you not. In the end we got it down to £29 but even that is a disgrace when the website return is £19! Maybe when I next travel I will remember this rip off? The problem was that Claire's hip wasn't causing the expected problems so we cancelled the night stay in Breda and had the run to Calais. We left the hotel around 9.45am and wasted a bit of time getting to the Motorway. We had Steve in tow until the motorway when he shot off. We stopped for petrol pretty quickly as I wanted to make sure that when we arrived at the badlands of the N49 between Antwerp and Brugge that we has loads. We made good time until I followed the overhead signs for Brugge. We had a tour of the Antwerp ring including three tunnels. The middle one carried a toll... So once you arri...

Day 4 is not quite over. We have just boarded the ferry for home after a palavver over changing our ticket. On P&O coming back a day early costs a ticket change cost plus additional fare amounting to £60. I kid you not. In the end we got it down to £29 but even that is a disgrace when the website return is £19! Maybe when I next travel I will remember this rip off? The problem was that Claire's hip wasn't causing the expected problems so we cancelled the night stay in Breda and had the run to Calais. We left the hotel around 9.45am and wasted a bit of time getting to the Motorway. We had Steve in tow until the motorway when he shot off. We stopped for petrol pretty quickly as I wanted to make sure that when we arrived at the badlands of the N49 between Antwerp and Brugge that we has loads. We made good time until I followed the overhead signs for Brugge. We had a tour of the Antwerp ring including three tunnels. The middle one carried a toll... So once you arrived at th...

Race day. A short ride after breakfast to the circuit. Within 45 minutes we were parked and looking for our seats. The Winterdijk stand was full to busting. We sat for over six hours in the burning sun to watch the main races. Hopefully when we download the pix from the camera we will have a few decent ones. On the way back we got separated but arrived in Diever for an ice cream about the same time. Tomorrow James and Steve ride home and we head for an overnight near Breda.  Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

Race day. A short ride after breakfast to the circuit. Within 45 minutes we were parked and looking for our seats. The Winterdijk stand was full to busting. We sat for over six hours in the burning sun to watch the main races. Hopefully when we download the pix from the camera we will have a few decent ones. On the way back we got separated but arrived in Diever for an ice cream about the same time. Tomorrow James and Steve ride home and we head for an overnight near Breda.  Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device

We were up early enough to nosh through a large breakfast and it was about 930am when we finally left Zonnemaire. The plan was to go back to the N57 and continue island hopping towards Rotterdam and then head north. Once we were in Maasland we seemed to be heading east before a 180deg turn brought us to a ferry. It made a change and €5.05 later we were aboard and soon whizzing across the Maas. My Garmin interprets routes created in Mapsource and Tyre with Google Maps as it sees fit. So after the ferry we had a tour of some housing estate before we emerged on a road roughly north and roughly towards Amsterdam. Eventually we joined the A4 to the east of Den Haag and headed north at a greater speed, under the runway at Schiphol and onto the A10 ring. Eventually onto the A6 running along the eastern side of the Ijselmeer. We made one stop for petrol and a snack, otherwise it was non stop to Wapse and the hotel. Once checked in we had a walk into the village to see...

We were up early enough to nosh through a large breakfast and it was about 930am when we finally left Zonnemaire. The plan was to go back to the N57 and continue island hopping towards Rotterdam and then head north. Once we were in Maasland we seemed to be heading east before a 180deg turn brought us to a ferry. It made a change and €5.05 later we were aboard and soon whizzing across the Maas. My Garmin interprets routes created in Mapsource and Tyre with Google Maps as it sees fit. So after the ferry we had a tour of some housing estate before we emerged on a road roughly north and roughly towards Amsterdam. Eventually we joined the A4 to the east of Den Haag and headed north at a greater speed, under the runway at Schiphol and onto the A10 ring. Eventually onto the A6 running along the eastern side of the Ijselmeer. We made one stop for petrol and a snack, otherwise it was non stop to Wapse and the hotel. Once checked in we had a walk into the village to see if de Wapser has a rival;...