On the Road Again!

... a chance to get out for a ride. I feel more and more guilty as I head off for work knowing that behind the garage door, there lies Dora. Waiting to turns her wheels on the road. With life being so hectic, the time to actually get out and ride seems even more diminished so when an opportunity arises, then it needs to be grabbed with both hands. It wasn't all that far as it happens. I togged up and as it was actually sunny and warm, I chose the Joe Rocket mesh jacket. I set off out of Hythe and onto the M20 for a ride, cruise control on, for Dover.  I ended up past the castle and on the White Cliffs.  I stopped at the box at the entrance to the site and the guy said that motorcycles were free.  It's recently gone up to £3.50 for a car, but for that there aqre many marked spaces. Bikes have to squeeze in wherever there is space! There were a couple of others there although I never saw the riders/pillions at all. When on the bike I always ride through the disabled parking...

A new era. A new bike. A new blog. A natural progression. The Explorer part of the title comes from the new lady in my life. The Non Dora part is so I don't infringe any copyright, but I bet that a couple of umlaut will do the trick. Döra the Explorer. In fact Döra the Explorer sounded like a good title.  I was going to name it after my mascot, Baloo. Baloo joined us back in about 2005 on a trip to France. We parked up at the Eurotunnel Terminal at Calais and failed to notice him on the beak of the GS. Whether he had been there longer I have no idea but he was there when we were on the shuttle itself heading for home. I kept him and cable tied him on for safe keeping. I need to find somewhere for him. He has been there now for about 70000 miles and is part of the biking family. Maybe the blog should be Baloo the Explorer? The photo is taken from the Triumph Configurator website and shows Döra as she will come from the dealers, Laguna Triumph in Ashford, sometime in early to mi...

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....

The choices for crossing Germany were the "A4" route or the "A3" route. The former being the run across East Germany and entering Czech from the north, or the latter, the route across Germany from Koln to Nurnberg and across the border in the west. When I saw that you could stay in Colditz Castle, and that part of the infamous PoW site was now a German Youth Hostel I was quickly on the email, booking two nights.   In their paperwork I saw that there are tours of the remainder of the castle as well.  After an exchange of emails I have booked us on the "standard" tour and then we can have the afternoon to maybe have run out locally to Leipzig or Dresden. Info: "Extended Tour:  10.30 am  and  02.00 pm which is showing you all places possible to go to, lasts about 2 hours and costs 15,00€ per person. Standard Tour:  10.30 am  ,  01.00 pm  and  03.00 pm  which is showing you the main places, lasts about 1 hour and costs 7,00€ pe...