On the Road Again!

Today started off badly. I dropped the bike exiting the petrol station in St Goar! Not anybody else's fault but mine. No real damage to us or the bike. Pride suffered the most with the bike getting scuffs to the plastic cylinder guard and to the right pannier. I simply lost balance making a U-turn out of the place onto the road. It was slightly downhill and an acute angle to turn onto the road.. foot down, nothing there and bingo; nought mph keel over. What is the secret to BMW mirrors? The right one is prone to loosening and spins about and as if by magic it fixes itself. But not today, over 200 miles before I managed to get it tight. This time I tugged up on it and turn it at the same time and it locked in place. How the heck do you get them off? Mine simply turn round and bloody round. Aaaagh. After 308 miles we arrived at Dunkerque for the 1600 ferry back to Dover. Holidays for 2006 nearly over. Once I have got all the pix sorted on the camera I'll add ...

A whole day on a cruise boat might sound a nightmare but in fact it was very relaxing to sit on deck before going to one of the saloons for a coffee and a cake. A chance to unwind and read a book. Rüdesheim am Rhein was a bit touristy and the greatest gathering of our fellow countrymen we had seen since we got off the ferry over a week ago.  There are also more Christmas shops than seems really necessary, one lured Claire into buying a small snow storm dome thingy complete with snowman! Back at the hostel we had a read and a second cake! Dinner to look forward to, then back to the hostel and start packing the panniers. Doris reckons it's about 285 miles to Dunkerque and the ferry is at 1600, so we need to be away pretty smartly after breakfast. Should be home in time for Corrie! One of the big successes has been the Lakeland vacuum bags.  Apart from one losing the little slider that helps seal the zip end they have been tremendous - I wouldn't hesita...

I had to get up in the night to check on the bike as it was parked on dirt...  As it had rained heavily for a few hours. In the end it was pitch dark and I had two disc locks to get off, then I could see f.a. and took in down outside the main entrance. When I came to shift it later in daylight, I found I was only about 2ft from nice firm tarmac!  Bugger! Today is boat trip day, 1020 from St Goar. Let's see how it turns out.

I had to get up in the night to check on the bike as it was parked on dirt... As it rained heavily for a few hours. We should be used to this by now.  In the end it was pitch dark and I had two disc locks to get off, then I could see f.a. and took it down outside the main entrance. When I came to shift it later in daylight, I found I was only about 2ft from nice firm tarmac! Bugger! Today is boat trip day, 1020 from St Goar. Let's see how it turns out.

Well. As is now the norm we set off in waterproofs. Waterproof over trousers and Hood Kevlar lined jeans do not make for happy motoring pleasure. Betty Swollocks within minutes.  At least on the positive side Doris has got over last week's problem of losing the sats every ten minutes. And so she led up from Switzerland into Germany. Swiss petrol was reputed to be cheap, but the fill up I did just before the border was 118 cents a litre. So about 55p a litre. No wonder their so many American cars about with Swiss plates. Once in Germany we hit the motorways. Getting to St Goar was more important than scenic touring!  One small detour was forced on us when I chose the wrong Rüdesheim from the two options that Doris had in her city finder. I had a 50-50 chance and chose wrong. In mitigation I have to say that both were about the same miles from where I created the via point AND are the only two in the entire Atlantic base maps and 16 miles apart! As a result we added 20 miles to ...

Well. As is now the norm we set off in waterproofs. Waterproof over trousers and Hood Kevlar lined jeans do not make for happy motoring pleasure. Betty Swollocks within minutes. At least on the positive side Doris has got over last week's problem of losing the sats every ten minutes. And so she led up from Switzerland into Germany. Swiss petrol was reputed to be cheap, but the fill up I did just before the border was 118 cents a litre. So about 55p a litre. No wonder there are so many American cars about with Swiss plates. Once in Germany we hit the motorways. Getting to St Goar was more important than scenic touring! One small detour was forced on us when I chose the wrong Rüdesheim from the two options that Doris had in her city finder. I had a 50-50 chance and chose wrong. In mitigation I have to say that both were about the same miles from where I created the via point AND are the only two in the entire Atlantic base maps and 16 miles apart! As a result we added 20 miles...