On the Road Again!

Well, that's it for now. Planning the overall route at least.  I have hotels booked on booking.com with the "free cancellation" and "no prepayment" option.   I have roughly mapped out a complete route but this doesn't take into account the waypoints that each days route has coded in to ensure we go the way we want! As far a Point 3 I have left toll roads switched on and so it will add to the trip cost it will mean we get the first long day over reasonably quickly between 1 and 2. From there it is no tolls from 3 to 6. Points 6 to 7 are currently set to no toll.  The road seems to parallel the toll motorway for the entire 225 miles. The Insignia currently has a range of about 650 miles in my day to day running.  With the first few days being motorway I hope to extend that when I can set the cruise control! Later in the year I will start to scope out the cost of a crossing to France. I expect we will take the Shuttle option simply as it is quicker. Well, quick...

Planning continues. Recently there was "discussion" on a biking Facebook page about planning a trip to France.  The original poster was merely asking whether it was wiser to plan ahead for a visit in August 2020.  Once the observer had discounted all the "I wouldn't go to France" posts, then the "just go" posts it seemed from the sensible brigade, planning was a little over 75% of the responses. I tend to over plan. Especially in peak holiday/vacation periods. I have "been there done it" when it comes to parking up and trying hotel or B&B's to get a room for the night. It becomes the driving force to the afternoon. Gotta get to Xxxxx to get a room! The worst was arriving in Seville, it was mid-afternoon. The temperature was over 40°C. We tried several hotels and received the "no room at the inn" signs. It was mid-August.  We were hot and fed up. We ended up in a four star hotel that had air-conditioning and a cold shower.  A...

The ideas are still bubbling away.  With an Old SOCs weekend planned in the English Lake District for the middle of August this trip needs to be done from late July. I had the idea of fulfilling one of my bucket list points and heading for Poland.  Auschwitz has been a pilgrimage for me for many years and I have never made it. Once in the 90's when I worked in Zastávka u Brna I did get as far as the Czech/Polish border at  Český Těšín  and got no further. The bridge over the river was closed to traffic although I did walk across to the halfway point to say I had stepped foot in Poland. I have no idea whether this was just that day or (semi) permanent. I watched Richard Ayoade's " Travel Man - 48 hours in Krakow " recently and the lure of a salt mine was almost too great.  But the lure of a scenic railway tops that! The railway in question is Train des Merveilles and runs between Nice and Tende.  It winds its way through the mount...

I had hoped that Claire would have felt able to go on the bike.   I looked in October at the long ferry to Spain when Brittany Ferries released the prices and the booking system opened for the summer.  In the end that didn't go any further. We toyed with a cruise but none met with where we wanted to go or the dates didn't quite fit when I can go. So. No cruise. No bike trip.  Some while back when I was hoping for a bike trip I had a look at visiting the eastern part of France - the Vercors. I scrapped that and deleted all the routes I had worked out.  Until I started going on trips with my brother where he plans to the Nth degree, including prospective fuel stops.   I haven't been that exact.  My level of planning was to choose a place, what to do/see and where to stay to achieve that. A chance email from Claire and a French contact from work about Evian les Bains has given me food for thought. I do have some restrictions....