Wednesday September 29th mileage 12513 Hounslow London

Woke and had breakfast in the hotel dining room, very nice selection of cereal, yoghurt, juice etc. Noticed that there were a lot of americans and english people staying in the hotel. Had noticed a group of BMW bikes in the hotel parking area but had not identified to whom they belonged.

After breakfast went to the Musee de Debarquement and latched on to a coach tour who were being given an english tour. As I was listening my phone went off and it was Martin Hincks. He told me that David and John Greatorex were staying at the same hotel as me last night and this morning they had spotted my bike, and they were waiting to see me at the hotel. Wondered whether to go straight away or complete the tour, then the tour guide came over to me and said that two of my friends had been at the museum reception looking for me!!

I went back to the hotel and David and John Greatorex with two other friends were just getting ready to leave on their bikes; What a coincidence!!! Had a great chat with them for a few minutes and then thought I had better get back to the museum before they forgot about me and charged me again!!






The museum tells a great story about how the artificial harbour was conceived and then constructed over 18 months before being towed out on the evening of D-Day and put together in the english channel, then towed almost complete to Arromanche. In all it took the Allies just 12 days to have the harbour at Arromanche fully completed and operating to supply their armies. A twin harbour undertaken by the Americans was delayed in building because they had come across greater defences by the Germans, and then when a great storm hit the area between 17-25th June it was totally destroyed and had to be abandoned. The harbour at Arromanche survived that storm almost totally intact. The photos below are taken inside the museum and show models of the harbour and exhibits of D-Day.



































After the museum went to the 360 degree cinema show about D-Day and the landings. This film very cleverly splices together original footage with modern shots of the area, and is a brilliant way of portraying the feeling as if you were there at the time!!






















Later went to Bayeaux and found library to update blog, but closed at lunch time, so went to see the Bayeaux Cathedral and then the famous tapestry. This was another extremely well done demonstration that explained the tapestry story in both audio guide and then in film later. An excellent day.

After Bayeaux set off for Calais and the last leg of the journey home. Decided to make fast progress so went onto the toll motorways and got to Calais for about 7:15. Enquired about ferries and both P&O and Sea France were costing about £50 to cross without a prior booking. The woman in P&O in fact said I could go at 50% of the price if I waited till the 00:55 sailing because I would be prebooking my ticket the day before!! Tried to reason with her, but it seemed the computer was in charge not the people. The people didn't seem to give a damn what price was paid!!

Met a biker at the booking office who was equally frustrated at the high price. He was from Slovakia and was riding a Suzuki bandit.
After the ferry journey we rode together up towards London, then split up when I went west towards Heathrow and he was heading north towards Stanstead.

The weather now turned really nasty and as I approached the M25 the rain was teeming down and the wind was getting up. I thought wouldn't it be ironic if I had an accident on exactly the same stretch of road as I had when coming down the M25 at the start of my journey.

From my past experience of coming off in the rain I took it carefully as I made my way back around the M25.

Arrived back at Jack's house in Hounslow all wet but safe and sound around midnight.

Left the wet clothes in the outside porch and the next day when it got hot the porch was stinking from the motorcycle gear. Well I suppose if you spend everyday for 60 days in a hot suit it is not surprising that it develops it's own character!!

Anyway decided to take all the protective padding out of the suit and put it through the wash.

Wow what a difference a good wash makes!!!

Well folks I think that we are just about done with the great journey.

12500 miles, another set of tyres, three services of the bike, and about £1250 of fuel, but worth every minute for the experiences and the things I have seen and done.

12500 miles is 50% of the way around the world, and with most of that being water it probably represents about how far you would have to ride if you chose to ride around the world.

Now there's a thought !!!!!!


No more on this journey, goodbye folks !


TOR

Sunday September 26th mileage 11607 St Junien near Limoge

Lazy morning at Jill and Marks checking on emails, updating blog from yesterday and listening to all the politics on Sky TV about the new Labour Party leader Ed Milliband.    Left Jill and Marks at about mid day and set tomtom for Oradour-sur Glane near Limoge where France sufferred it's worst attrocity during the second world war under German occupation.
On the way travelled up the N21; between Perigueax and Limoge and tried to remember how to get to the property owned by our friends Cheryl and Gordon.  I knew the turning was about half way between the two towns and then it was to the west of the main road.  I was hoping my memory would be jogged and I would be able to muddle my way somehow to their houses.  It wasn't and so I carried on to Chalus and then started just touring the area west of the road hoping something would look familiar!!   No luck so after about 45 mins of touring around reset off again for Oradour-sur-Glane.  By the time I got to near Limoge it was getting cold and dark, so found an hotel not far from Oradour-sur-Glane at a place called St Junien.

Meal of salad with cold meats (and lardons) followed by a nice piece of steak and then creme brulee, all washed down with two carafes of house red wine, no trouble sleeping tonight!!

Saturday September 25th mileage 11379 Pessac Bordeaux

Up and had breakfast with Jill and Mark, then updated the blog for the three missing days whilst Jill went to have her hair done.

Researched on the internet Arromanche (where my father landed after D-day) and also a village in France near Limoge called Oradour-sur-Glan where there was a Nazi attrocity, and programmed these locations into tomtom.

Later in the day we went to Bordeaux via the park and ride on the tram and visited the U-boat docks in Bordeaux harbour.  These are huge concrete protected docking pens that the Germans built as soon as they occupied France to service their U-Boat fleet in the Atlantic. 

They reminded me of the concrete bunkers in Hitler's headquarters in Poland.  The concrete was very thick, but also constructed with gaps to absorb the blast should a bomb havz a direct hit.  Apparently the Allies bombed the Bordeaux harbour repeatedly to try and destroy these buildings, but they survived because of their robust construction.  It reminded me of the last scene in "Das Boot" where the submarine gets sunk as it waits to enter the protected docks!!

We then walked along the river side to the Unesco world heritage site of the buildings along the Bordeaux waters edge.  This is now a popular place for families to stroll whilst their children roller skate and ride along the promenade. 

They have built one of those multi-level roller skate area where teenagers perform fantastic tricks with bikes, skateboards and roller blades.  We noticed that it was definately not cool to be waring protective clothing!!

Further down the front they have built a mirror lake, which is a 1cm deep water feature that changes from being empty to having mist spraying from jets, to then filling with water to give a mirror effect.  Very popular with teenagers splashing each other!!

Then back to Pessac via the new tram system to watch grand prix qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix on Marks wall sized TV.

For evening meal we went to a  Piella and Couscous takeaway shop and had a combination meal of Couscous and piella. The woman cooking in the shop was having great trouble with a four feet wide piella dish full to the brim, but clearly not level, she kept turning the dish  and it was sloshing out over the low side.  The meal was delicious though!!

More later

TOR

Friday September 24th mileage 11379 Pessac Bordeaux

Up early because long way to go today to get to Jill and Mark in Bordeaux.

Downstairs for breakfast and nobody about but all food and juice etc laid out so helped myself.

Put a cup under what I thought was an automatic coffee machine and pressed the green button.  Hot water came out and I naturally assumed it would stop when a cupfull had been dispensed, but no the water kept coming, filled up the cup, the drip tray and then overflowed down the table leg and puddled onto the floor.  now strting to panic it took me a moment to realise you have to press the green button again to stop the water flow!!  Started to use serviettes to soak up the puddle, but then realised there was no bin or sink in the room so left holding soggy serviettes!!  Had my juice and left quickly before anyone came!!

Packed and departed as quick as possible, and then onwards on my journey towards Andorra and then on to Toulouse.  This route takes you through mountain passes in the Pyranees (1700 metres).

  Beautiful with lots of conifer covered hillsides.   I then set tomtom to take me not on the toll roads and went through Moissac, Agen, and Marmande and every small village in between!

Arrived at Pessac about 7pm had to wait on the ringroad around Bordeaux for an accident to clear, and watched people get all agitated as some people started to go on the hard shoulder to get away faster!!


Lovely evening with Jill, Mark, Christian, Lauren and Jessica though Jessica went out almost straight away with her boyfriend.

More later
TOR

Thursday 23rd September mileage 11057 Ripoll Spain

Up early in the plastic box hotel, packed and then down for my own home made breakfast of bread, cheese and onion!

Set tomtom for Perpignan and made good progress on the D class roads that seemed empty.

Past Montpellier, and then saw signs for the Herault Gorge where we ad been canoeing when on a previous visit to Jill and Mark when they lived in Montpellier.

On from the Spanish border and over to Figueras and then Ripoll on the route through the Pyranees to Andorra.

Stopped in Ripoll and enquired at the tourist office about accomodation and internet access. Both available so decided to stay the night here.  Sorted out accomodation in a small bistro/hotel for €33 and then went to the beautiful new library where they let me have access on their modern fast machines.

Lovely meal in the bistro place lamb done in the catalan style (cooked in the oven!).

More later
TOR

Wednesday 22nd September mileage 10796 Arles France

Not a good nights sleep in the tent, hqd bqck ache and then when on my sides the hand underneath my body kept going numb causing me to have to keep moving.  Long night, cold also but not enough to bother getting up and doing something about it !

Went for shower and there was no hot water even though the sign said there would be hot water after 7:30, so abandoned that idea!  Went and boiled a cup of water and had a cup of coffee and waited for the sun to come up and dry the tent.

Eventually pqcked up and set off with tomtom set for Cannes.  Went through Gap and then Chateau Arnoux following the N85.  Nice scenery but not as impressive as the previous days in Switzerland and Austria.

Looked qt the map and decided I needed to make some progress towards Spain if I was going to get through all the places I wanted to go and get back into the UK on schedule.  So decided to use the paege motorway and speed up my progress across the south of France.   Stopped at a large out of town supermarket with an outdoor eatery place, but I went and bought myself bread and tomato and cheese and made myself a huge sandwich.  I think the people eating outside were amused by my actions, as three chaps were leaving they smiled at me and wished me "bon appetit" .  I think they were jealous of my freedom to just do what I wanted!

Tried to find a hostel in Aix-en-Provence but although tomtom took me to the qddress I could find no signs of the hostel.  Decided to press on and tried another reasonable looking priced hotel, but could not raise anyone, eventually the man from the bar came over and told me I had to phone a number to get the owner!!  So didn't bother with that one either!  pressed, on towards Arles and went through an industrial hinterland, and then through the Camargue which seemed like open salt flats with no people or civilisation for miles.  Dark now and I thought it was strting to rain, but in fact it was mosquitoes and they were masses of them.

Eventually arrived at Arles and on the outskirts there was a collection of hotels, Camponile, Ibis etc.  tried three of them and all fully booked and thought I was in for some trouble, but the fourth hqd rooms; Probably because it was one of those plastic box F1 type hotels, anyway good enough for me !

More later
TOR

Tuesday 21st September mileage 10,437 Le Mure (between Grenoble and Gap)

Almost slep in and missed "le petit dejeuner", but not quite.  Nice breakfast of juice, muesli and yoghurt, croisant, bread and jam etc.  Absolute heaven a whole pot of hot coffee!!

Set off and tootled along the Rhone valley towards Martigney, then a climb up to the St Bernard Pass and on towards Chamonix-Mount Blanc.  Very impressive scenery and a beautiful glassier. 

Saw a cable car that looked to be taking people up to a viewing point, but decided not to bother. (Not sure about this decision now as later learnt that the cable car took people to 3400 metres ,an opportunity missed !)

No incident for me but witnessed another biker come off his bike at a roundabout.  He picked himself up and righted his bike so I assumed he was ok.  he had not been going fast so I can only assume that he hit a patch of diesel or something.  Made sure I was vigilant about looking for diesel spills at the roundabouts!

Missread tomtom in Chamberry city by-pass.  Tomtom then took me through the city centre and then onto a minor road to Grenoble.  It was a lovely run and a more direct route.

After grenoble set tomtom for Cannes and along the N85.

Stopped and camped at a site about 10km north of Le Mure.

Tent up and then into Le Mure for a meal.  Nice typically french restaurant doing fixed  menus at different prices.  Chose walnut dressed salad with grilled cheese and then a half roast chicken, followed by a cream cheese, then creme caramel and coffee.  To drink iced tea because I was on the bike.  Delicious!!