On the Road Again!

It's getting closer. This time on Thursday I expect the Three Amigos will be in the first hotel on the trip. Our usual modus operandi is to get to the GP circuit and go Friday and Saturday for practice, Sunday for race day. This year my brother Woodie has planned some stops on the way to some of the Dambusters sites.  So we'll only be at the circuit for the qualifying and sprint race on Saturday, and all day Sunday. I have to say that this year I am less excited to see the MotoGP class as Moto 2 and 3 are more exciting. I guess it will be exciting when we get there!! The bike is ready. I have the Shad panniers fitted and waterproofs and spare gloves packed in a Tesco bag in the left one. Currently the right is empty.  In the top box I have a bag that fits snuggly with all my gear in. When I pack it. I have made a start.  The debate is what to wear riding to the north of the Netherlands.  Summer gear and waterproofs? Or all season jacket and trousers? The weather is ...

It's a little under three weeks until we set off on the early morning Le Shuttle to France for the roundabout ride to Assen for the MotoGP. When I have been before it's been for the long weekend with racing formerly on Saturday. But tradition has bitten the dust and the main race day is Sunday.  This is possibly down the the newer format copying World Superbikes and British Superbikes by having a premier class "Sprint" race on the Saturday. My trip is ending on the Monday when I ride back to Calais and come home on Irish Ferries. Both Phil and Neill will continue the trip to take in more Dambusters sites and then the German MotoGP the week after. I was never going to do this as there is a trip to Yorkshire the same weekend as the German MotoGP in the motorhome - " Grimm Up North ". I need to be able to get out on the bike before then though!  I gave Vera as wash last week with the MukJunkie stuff that was bought to clean Molly the Motorhome.  It looks to hav...

Well. Since the last post we have booked a triple room in a hotel with bar restaurant about 20 miles from the Assen TT circuit. We have booked one nearer with a twin and a single, and cancelled the first one.... ALL ON THE WRONG DATE! It was assumed that the GP would be the same weekend as 2023. It used to be the last weekend in June and race day was Saturday. In the modern world, tradition goes out of the window, and the TT racing is now Sunday, and the date moves!  So more rooms cancelled and we have managed to book another hotel, but back to about 20 miles away again.  My brother Neill is doing the planning. I expect he will do a blog for the trip. How to get there?  The choice is limited to Eurotunnel or the Ferry from Dover. I have a friends and family contact for P&O that I might be able to use. I'd have to check that they are happy to do that.  For the Meldrews Wipers Weekend in September  and it cut the fare from £85 to £50. Of course there is alway...

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...

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...

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;...

We were up early and away by 0715 for the short run to Dover. The checking in was pretty simple and quick and we were loaded straight on the ferry. We were at the back of a large group and the rings in the deck were rusted tight so we were moved to the other side. The sailing was relatively painless and we were soon on the way out of the port. The other group were all over the place in the road out and we slid past. The idea of island hopping seemed a good one. I topped the tank up on the outskirts of Bruges and then we seemed to get in a tizzy as the GPS mapping is out of date. The roundabout trip to the tunnel underneath the West Schelde eventually came up in sight. Just not from the direction I had expected. The day has been warm and sunny and we are both glad we are wearing our vented jackets. I've ridden all day with just a T-shirt and mesh Joe Rocket Phantom jacket. Only cold in the 6.6 kms long tunnel. We had a Coke break in a small place called...

The trip has been on the cards from way back in 2009 when we had to pre-order the ticket.  Then my brother decided to go on a trip along Route 66 ( http://ndr66.blogspot.com/ ) so we made a team change and old mate Steve Hazlehurst stepped up to the plate. Now with just two weeks to go we have had a small change to our part of the trip. To save Claire's hip we have already broken the outward journey into two days with an island hopping first day Zeeland and a second day to Wapse and the hotel. On the way home we are going to break the trip again to keep the riding and subsequent pain down a bit. To keep the costs down I have booked a Premiere Classe hotel in Breda. It's not quite half way but will be okay I hope to save Claire's hip from hurting to much. It should make for a more relaxed holiday!

The plan for the run back was to set off after breakfast and head towards the Afsluitsdijk and then south past Amsterdam, rejoining the route up around Utrecht. After petrol and a detour around Sneek we eventually found the top of the dijk. The reason for the detour was one of mapping and roadworks. I took a wrong turn at a newish roundabout that was shown on the Garmin but not with as many of the exits as exist now. In the end our position was shown with our marker in the middle of a blank area. After a few detours we got back to the A7 and headed off without any further mishap. The first stop to have a look and take a drink at Breezanddijk. Amazingly here, less than halfway across the dyke was a caravan park to go with the small harbours housing a load of pleasure boats. From that point it was all plain sailing (as it were) via the Amsterdam ring, then Utrecht, Breda, Antwerp and Gent. We had a few stops for petrol and water intake arriving back at Calais with an hour or ...