A somber start to the day

The Meuse-Argonne American war cemetery and memorial.

14,000 dead, 130 acres.

First accommodation stop (apart from the ferry!!)

Two Wheel Mooring - Dun sur Meuse.

http://www.bikersbedsfrance.co.uk/

Arrived after a long day on the bikes....was met by Carol waving to us from the street. She had a nice dry garage waiting for our trusty steads......very impressive especially as it had just started to rain.

Carol too is a biker (Suzuki SV650) and she helped us with our luggage and took our jackets etc from us and put them in her dry room for the night. Nice touch!!

Carol's Bike.

Ian her husband (too a biker)  loves his V Max, a special build that he has done himself very impressive!! Poured us a nice beer to welcome us into their house.

What more could you asked for!!

Met a couple staying there who both had bikes, a Yamaha Phaser, and a Benelli.......
We ended up in a smokey French Bar taking about 70's 80's music. We offered up Sandau Ballet and Genesis keeping Rick Ashley up our sleeve, but to be completely trumped by Megadeath and other thrash metal.....so we left it there......

Went back to the digs, and Ian had MotoGP recorded... Top Man. Completed the day....

Avez-vous petroleum?

The big advantage of riding a GSA is the size of it's tank - 33 litres.

This gives you a range of 300-400 miles. Enough to go from Leeds to anywhere in Europe?

CB2 found out this is not quite the case!

When we got over the French border his fuel guage went from a reliable German to a deserting Froggie. 100 mile range became 40 miles.

No problem we thought as we at last abandoned the mways for some nice tree lined twisties.

Then he disappeared. Guess what........

On Sundays in France all the petrol stations close down and leave un-manned pay card machines.

CB2 jumped on CB1's bike and off we went in search of the amber nectar.

Problem. Unmanned service areas - no petrol containers.

You girls are gonna love this - thank feck for Lenor :-)

We pulled in to a 'greasy spoon' to explain our predicament.

' You need a jerry can' they say.

'Oui' we reply in a relieved manner.

'We do not have one'

Bllocks

Then our best French mate in the world comes up with an empty Lenor bottle. Mon dieu.

We then got to play with the credit card roulette of French un-manned petrol stations which CB1 lost 'cos it accepted his card.

One repatriated bike with the 'rescue vessel' on display.

We went back to the cafe to thank them.

They are big into trikes.

Time to go to bed. Au revoir.  

Those crazy dutch guys

And we are off.

The view of CB2's cockpit - so he doesn't forget about his dog.

Anybody who has used the Hull Rotterdam ferry will know there are two boats, one Pride of Hull, the other Pride of Rotterdam. Each one is staffed by natives from each country and we got the Dutch (all imported from the Far East??).

We followed a Scottish biker on board and parked up along side as we started the ritual of tying the bikes down. Mr Porridge was hard at it when one of the Dutch deck hands came over to give him some experienced advice.

'Herdy girdy strappun wrongun' he said helpfully.

To which our Northern friend replied

'See you pal, ya canna teach a Joch about straps!!'

We quietly left the scene.....

The Dutch crew obviously get bored with the daily repetition and so we unwittingly became pawns in their game of 'how many times can you get a guest to do something'.

The paper room key would not register in the electronic lock. Walk back to reception where the happiest receptionist in the world (fresh from Amsterdam space cake) put the cards under the desk across some imaginary reader and handed them back 'reprogrammed'.

Back to the room - still no joy. Back to see laughing boy. This time he issued new paper keys - back to the room - still no joy.

Laughing boy feigns surprise at seeing us return and calls for help. 15 mins pass where LB realises space cake is no protection against fed up Yorkies and books us into another room.

The night moves on to two brothers exploring the meaning of life, the universe and everything - facilitated by Grolsch.........

The Swabian

If you're from Leeds - you're a Yorkie.

If you're from Stuttgart - you're a Swabian.

This is Gerhart, the original Swabian. We plan to meet up for a local's tour of the Black Forest.

He's a great guy but 2 problems - he drinks light beer and rides an historic GPZ!!

His claim to fame is being photo'd with a young Valentino Rossi.

Time to start packing :-)

Getting closer to the off.......

This is the stolen car after the crash

The police have arrested two 14 year old's.

Anyway.......the planning is almost completed - well one of us has given the other one a list of things he needs!!

The plan is to watch Leeds RLFC win the cup at Wembley on Saturday (we'll be in front of the telly in Leeds) before we depart to Hull - and discover what we have forgotten :-(

'Joy' riding

CB2 and his Mrs were in the car last night when from the opposite direction a car came spinning across and took them out. The other car flipped over and ended in a house.

The car was stolen.

The crash was so big that all observers assumed that at the very least the occupants would be seriously injured. But when going to check - the scroat/s some how had got out and legged it.

CB2's car got a bad knock on the rear end and it's off the road. At least the kids weren't in and nobody got hurt.

Being away for a week may work out as he will be down a car whilst repairs are done.

One week to go

This is the planned trip by two brothers on motorbikes to conquer Mont Blanc.......via cable car - the Aiguille du Midi

http://www.chamonix.com/aiguille-du-midi,80,en.html

Starting off on Saturday 28th August on the ferry from Rotterdam, returning a week later.

Route?

http://maps.google.co.uk/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&msid=106799661480663408696.00048def7d6e74bd2ce35&z=6