Adam_P
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Joined: 23 Jan 2004
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 Posted: 13:28 - 25 Sep 2007  Post subject: Adam_Ps euro trip 2007 |
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My summer biking adventure
It’s been a while in the writing, but I’ve been waiting to get more pictures of the trip, but now I can give a little write up about my thrash around parts of Europe in early August.
We were initially planning on a trip to Italy, but the distance and wanting to see other countries too stopped that plan, so instead, we did a whistle stop tour, aiming to visit a few different countries (as the person with me wanted to see as many as possible), so we planned out a basic route of France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Switzerland, with the whole trip lasting nine days.
Set off: Friday Aug 3rd
We were booked on the chunnel to Calais on Saturday morning, but rather than thrash our way down there early in the morning, I’d decided to go down Friday afternoon and spend the night close by, so as not to have too early a start on Saturday (hey, we were meant to be on holiday after all!)
Problem was, that evening was the same time that the Chunnel had a power failure, so the traffic heading towards Folkstone was a nightmare! The trip down was good, stopped for nearly and hour at Cambridge services for something to eat and relax as it was a long trip. The traffic started to get bad around Dartford, but then, it always is! We were making good progress down the M20 but with just 15 miles to go, everything started to grind to a halt.
As we were on the bike I decided that filtering as much as possible was a good idea but eventually had to pull into the queue as the police had routed everything round a roundabout off the motorway as the truck backlog had to park somewhere.
We took the back way into Folkstone as we were booked into a nice biker friendly B&B called the Wycliffe Hotel. Finally found it (after my GPS took us on a magical mystery tour of the top part of town) and checked in. The owner was really friendly and we were allowed to help ourselves from the bar as they were all eating and just marked down what we had to go on the bill. So, a few beers in the room later, I was starting to feel like I was on holiday!
Sat: Aug 4th
We got up reasonably early next morning for breakfast and were told that the news had said the chunnel was pretty much back to normal. I figured being on the bike that we wouldn’t have too much of a problem, as they normally just fit you on the end of each train anyway.
We got through check in and hit the duty free shops, where we purchased a camera and a couple of decent sized memory cards and then made our way onto the train.
Once into France we headed up towards Belgium towards Dunkirk, but I’d decided that going cross country was going to be far more interesting, so we turned off just shy of the Dunkirk junction and began to head east (ish).
We stopped to fuel up not long after turning off the motorway so that we could didn’t have to stop before getting to our destination of Mons in Belgium. The weather was fantastic and once we got going again we ambled along through villages on quiet roads before coming to a nice little town and had lunch.
We then headed towards Lille, which we went straight through and out the other side, before moving north and heading over the Belgian border through a town (blink and you’d have missed it) and on to Mons.
Mons turned out to be a bit of a dump. The centre is nice enough and the food and beer (especially the Belgian fruit beers, which I introduced my friend to and she got hooked on) was good, but the hotel we stayed in was weird and spooky. (Called the Hotel St James) We were right on the top floor and it was weirdly decorated. Gave it a very ‘most haunted’ feel to it, even though it was pretty modern. Won’t be staying there again and I’d not recommend it to anyone either!
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/Monshotel-1.jpg
Sunday Aug 5th
First issue on Sunday morning was to get fuel, as I’d been lazy and not bothered on Saturday evening after we arrived. Then wondered whether there would be anywhere open away from the motorways to get some on a Sunday, after being told by two people from the hotel that they didn’t think there would be.
Turned out that about a mile away from the hotel on the exact route we were heading on there was a Texaco garage open and serving! With that job done, we headed straight onto the N40, out of Mons which was going to take us all the way to Luxembourg and Luxembourg city, before heading just over the border into Germany for our next stop, this time for a few days.
The route down the N40 was mega. Some nice long straights to munch miles up, great scenery, some fantastic twisty sections and plenty of flowing curves, I loved it. The weather was perfect, really hot and sunny, although, it did get a bit much by the end of each day after being in bike jackets etc.
We broke up the journey with a few stops for pictures, drinks (at a village that had a load of bikers parked up in the square)
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/belgiumstop1.jpg
and lunch, which we had at a town in the main street that we thought had just finished an early Sunday market, but turned out was just starting it as every shop was putting stalls out, which also meant the street we’d parked the bike on was now shut to traffic, which meant a bit of a detour back out onto the main road again.
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/belgiumstop2.jpg
We then got to Luxembourg city. We’d made decent time, so decided to head into the city centre to have a look around before going on to the hotel, as it was only about 25 miles the other side anyway.
It’s a very nice place, very picturesque and there are some fantastic buildings in the city itself.
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/luxembourg2.jpg
It was a brief walk around, but as we’d decided to spend a couple of days in the area we decided to go back for a more thorough look the next day. But we did se the ultimate kids TV set while we wandered around!
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/luxembourg1.jpg
We headed out of Luxembourg and got onto some very small country roads on the way to the hotel in Germany. The place where we crossed over the border was right in the middle of some of the wine region and it was absolutely stunning. A place called Wormeldange. We stopped on the side of the road as it twisted its way up the hillside to take some pictures as the weather and the scenery were fab.
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/wormeldange1.jpg
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/wormeldange2.jpg
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https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/wormeldange4.jpg
We clambered back onto the bike and it was only a short hop of about 8 miles from the border to the hotel, so took a steady cruise around some very narrow and twisty roads into the village of Trassem and the Hotel St Erasmus. It wasn’t a very busy village and there wasn’t much to see or do. But the room was good, food was really good and the beer was very welcome!
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/trassemhotelview.jpg
Monday August 6th
With more good weather and the pannier unloaded, we headed back to Luxembourg for a good look around the city centre. And we found it to be, disappointing. It’s got everything you expect from a capital city, lots of high end boutiques and top end fashion shops etc. But the actual shopping part of it is pretty small and once you’ve done a couple of laps, you’ve seen it.
There’s a lovely park that meanders through part of the city, which we looked at and took pictures of, but actually touristy stuff, was a bit boring and thin on the ground.
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/luxembourgpark1.jpg
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/luxembourgpark2.jpg
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/luxembourgpark3.jpg
It was also pretty hot walking around, so after getting fed up or going round in circles, we decided to head back to the hotel and stop off to catch some sunshine at the village on the border again, which was on the river.
We stopped and had a drink in the sun and watched the world go by for a bit as there was a water-skiing place on the river. After about an hour we noticed that there was a cloud front coming over the hillside, so decided that heading back to the hotel would be a good idea. We got back and decided to take a walk around the village to see what was around, but after getting several hundred yards away, it started to rain, heavily! And this was the setting for pretty much the remainder of our trip!
Tuesday Aug 7th
Despite me never riding in the wet before (apart from a brief shower while in France a couple of years ago) we decided to go and check out one of the nearest towns to Trassem, a place called Trier. On the GPS it looked like a small market type town as it wasn’t very big. However, when we got there, the centre of the place was huge! It even put Luxembourg city to shame!
We parked up in a multi-story and wandered into town. Even though it was raining it was good as there was plenty to see and do. The shopping area seemed to go on for ever and it was a shoe shopping heaven for a woman, every other shop seemed to be one!
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/trier1.jpg
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/trier2.jpg
We had a good wander round for pretty much the whole day then headed back to the hotel. Had more alcohol and then packed for the trip to Annecy the next day, which we knew was going to be long and arduous.
Wednesday Aug 8th
This has to be, literally the scariest and worst day of riding I’ve ever had in my life! We set off in what was a torrential downpour for a run of nearly 300 miles, venturing back into France, before crossing over the Swiss border and then back over to the pretty lakeside town of Annecy in France, as it was the best route.
I had a slippery moment on the way out of Trassem as I couldn’t see in the rain, which put me on edge, but after we got going it started to ease off a little. After crossing back into France and hitting some better roads we made up some time and decided that a couple of short runs on the dual carriageways would eat up the miles a bit quicker.
We almost had a shunt with a lunatic ambulance car driver on the way. Both of us had checked and double checked the blind spot as we came off a slip road and I pulled out without any worries at all, until I glanced across to my left to see the driver’s door of the car edging towards our left legs!
With that near miss averted we stopped off at a lay by for a quick pit-stop, where there happened to be the most disgusting toilets in all of France™. A bit more of a thrash south and we turned and headed towards the Swiss border on the N5. Just after we set off from what was going to be our last stop before the hotel in Annecy, it started to rain again, hard! We kept heading higher and higher and stopped again a few miles short of the border to take a breather as we knew it was going to be rough going for a while.
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/swiss1.jpg
We stopped at the border and I bought my road ticket for there, even though I wasn’t going to be in the country for that long, we had thought about going back over the border again the next day as it wasn’t far to Geneva, so thought it best rather than get a fine, knowing how anti-vehicle the Swiss are!
This part of the journey was the scariest and silliest bit of riding I’ve ever done. The rain got harder as we got closer to the border as we were so high up and basically sitting in the middle of the clouds. About a mile from the actual border point we came across some roadworks as they were laying fresh tarmac on the road. As we sat in the queue at the traffic lights we both just sat there giggling to each other, it really was ridiculously wet! If you’d jumped into a river you wouldn’t have got any wetter, it was bizarre!
It was at this point I noticed that my feet were wet, as I could feel the water actually sloshing about over my left foot! Ooops! After crossing the border I checked on the GPS and noticed that it was 10 miles exactly to the next junction, which was the motorway up to Geneva. But… I could see Lake Geneva on the GPS map, and it wasn’t 10 miles away, err..
If anyone has autoroute or goes to google maps check out the 123 road from the Swiss border to the motorway from Saint Ceruge to Nyon. Fuck me its twisty!
If it has been a dry day, it would have been a mega ride down the mountainside, but it wasn’t, it was torrential rain and it was bloody scary. I was terrified of tipping the bike in too much incase the front washed away from me as I didn’t want to have a shunt with the other half on the back. I had to ask her to relax a little at one point as she tensed up and I couldn’t get the bike turned it properly. It wasn't only her either, I was bricking it! She wasn’t enjoying the ride and neither was I! After what seemed an eternity, we eventually got onto a straight section and then onto the motorway. I thought the rain couldn’t really get any worse, but it did and the spray from the lunatics on the road with us made it even worse still! The highlight had to be some nutter on an R1 who scythed past us doing about 90mph, filtering between coaches and vans! I’d decided to stick to a steady speed and just get us to the hotel.
I made a slight rod for us as we hit Geneva by taking the wrong lane at a junction and getting forced into the centre of the city, double oops! Lol
We stopped on a side street for a minute, where I was told that my riding had been great and that we were thankful to still be upright. Which made me feel better as I was starting feel a bit down about the whole day’s journey by that point, it really was depressing, albeit exciting too, weirdly!
A brief detour later and we got on the road to Annecy and eventually found the hotel. I unloaded and took the panniers to the room and then put the bike into the hotel garage and left it to dry out for a day! We then dried out, got changed and headed into town for a well deserved beer and food!
Thursday Aug 9th
Annecy is a fantastic little town, right on Lake Annecy. It’s really beautiful and the centre is really old and full of great little streets and alleyways. It would have been nicer if the weather had changed again, but the low cloud meant that it was a bit grey. But the sights were good and we split the day up morning and afternoon scouring the shops and walking around the park and around part of the lake in the rain (huddled under an umbrella!)
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/annecy1.jpg
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/annecy2.jpg
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/annecy3.jpg
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/annecy4.jpg
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/annecy5.jpg
And then also found this doorway to one of the old buildings!
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/annecydoor.jpg
With a trip up to Paris on the agenda for the next day and the weather forecast looking about as promising as a kick in the teeth, I asked the other half if she would prefer to take the train to Paris, as I knew that it would be a: a boring ride up there on the motorway and b: bloody wet and miserable, seeing as it was meant to be a relaxing holiday I made the offer as I didn’t want her to have to put up with the frightening crap we’d had the day before and also knew I would ride harder and faster without someone on the back to be mindful of.
So, one one-way ticket to Paris later, we were all set for the final leg of the holiday.
Friday Aug 10th
The train station was literally a couple of minutes walk from the hotel, so after walking her to the station, I went back to the bike, loaded up, checked out of the hotel and headed north!
As I headed out of Annecy I thought I could smell burning, which I initially put down to following a lorry that was smoking a lot. However, as I got further out of town it was still there, so I stopped to give the bike a quick check over. I then realized that I should have done this before setting off from the hotel, as I found that the fuel overflow pipe had pulled itself up and had been rubbing against the chain and now had a nice chunk gouged out of it! I pulled it back down and decided there wasn’t a great deal I could do with it at that point, but it did make me wary whenever I brimmed the tank from that point on as the hole was right beside the exhaust up-pipe! Note to self, check bike properly after long rides!
Anyway, once I got on the motorway it started to rain again and in the spray I was taking it fairly easy. Then I got passed by a couple on a BMW GS, who were tanking on at a fair lick. I noticed that the female pillion had her hands tucked under the rider. I noticed why when she took one out and waved at me as they went past, she had no gloves on!! As they were cruising so well, I decided to bite the bullet and tagged onto the back of them, upping the speed up to about 130-140Kmh from my 95-100kmh before.
This helped my confidence no end and I made great time up to Paris. My GPS did a superb job of finding the way to the hotel, which was literally 500 yards from the Eiffel Tower!
After unloading the panniers and dumping the bike at the underground parking spot around the corner, we went out to see some of the sights. First of all heading under the tower and across to the Trocadero building and took plenty of pictures of the tower.
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/paris1.jpg
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/meandpigeons.jpg
After having a look at the queues we were wondering about going up the tower. The walking queue was virtually non-existent, so we decided to go for it. A lot of steps later (and a lot of hand squeezing as she is scared of heights but wanted to go up and I wasn’t going to let her miss out on such a great experience!) we were on the first level, where we sat down for a breather, I was knackered!! Lol
We did the same to the second level, stopping to read some of the information and fact boards on the stairways on the way up. One of which stated that a trials rider had once ridden all the way down the steps of the tower, cool!
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/paris2.jpg
From the second level we bought tickets to the top and joined the queue, along with about 300 other tourists, for the lift. It was incredibly busy at the top level, but was a fabulous sight seeing Paris in the dark from there and I was incredibly happy to be there, especially after the long journey to get there during the week.
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/paris3.jpg
Saturday Aug 11th
We had the full day to roam around Pairs and see more sights, so we got up early and headed out back towards the tower to see where to go to. We were walking across the bridge over the river towards the nearest underground station when we spotted the river boat taxi service and decided that would be a nicer way to travel, so bought a day ticket and got on board. It’s a great way to take a more sedate trip to the main sights.
We got to Notre Dame and the queues were all across the courtyard at the front, so we decided against wasting a few hours to get in, and walked around it instead.
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/paris4.jpg
We then went to the Bastille, which was a major let down to be honest. I was expecting a museum or something fairly major. When all there is, is a big column celebrating the killing of the aristocracy. While we were in that area we headed to the Paris outlet of Hein Gerricke, so that I could buy some new boots, as after the water logging of the last four days, were knackered (and smelt, bad!) I had a bit of a meltdown when we got there as the store had decided to have a mini staff meeting during working hours and had locked the door. We could see them chatting to themselves at the counter, as about four of us waited outside the door!
I kept banging on the door and pointing to my watch, as the sign said 15 minutes and we’d been standing there for nearly half an hour by this point.
Anyway, once we got in, I found a pair that I liked, tried on and paid for within about 10 minutes, which was good, but it had kind of taken a chunk of the day away that it needed have done. I still intend to write to the HG head office to make a complaint! Lol
We then took the boat across to the Louvre, which was again heaving and queued up across the courtyard. After that we headed to the Champs Elysees and walked up virtually to the Arc D‘Triumphe, going in and out of various shops on the way. We then headed back to the hotel and getting an early night before the thrash back home on Sunday.
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/paris5.jpg
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/paris6.jpg
https://i48.photobucket.com/albums/f204/Adam_P/europics/paris7.jpg
Sunday Aug 12th
It was an early start as we needed to get back to Notts for mid afternoon. So, we headed back out of Paris, where the GPS took us all the way up to the Arc D’Triumph, which was nice and quiet at just after 6:30am on a Sunday morning and was a cool way to leave Paris, before then getting us a bit lost as we tried to head north!
We eventually found the right road and once onto the motorway it was a case of racking up the miles to Calais. We got an earlier crossing as we’d made up a shed load of time and then took a steady run back through the UK, making it back just after 3pm UK time, which was nice.
If I do it again, I wouldn’t do as many miles per day and I want to stop more and see more during the trip. It was a bit too ambitious really, which made it more stressful than it needed to be. But it was definitely an adventure and I enjoyed it, albeit worried too much about heading to the next stop, which I won’t do next time.
____________________
Colin McRae MBE 1968 - 2007 RIP 
Orwell Rolls in his Grave
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