Day 1

It was reasonable weather as Bob & Pete left Sawtry at 7am on Saturday 20^th May, fully loaded on the BMWs, ready for an 8 day adventure through Europe. First stop – Godmanchester, to meet up with the remaining members of the team, Keith, Derek and Keith’s brother-in-law, Dave for the mandatory ‘before we leave’ photo.

Amazingly, having planned to leave there at 7.30am, we left at 7.30am en route to the Channel Tunnel; we were booked on the 1107 train. The weather turned nasty on the M20 with heavy rain slowing us down a bit. An urgent requirement for a call of nature (no names, eh Keith?) saw us stopping at Maidstone services, which also gave those of us with leathers a chance to clamber into waterproofs. It worked, because the rain stopped shortly afterwards!

We arrived at the Channel Tunnel Terminal in good time, only to discover that because of a ‘technical problem’ there was a delay to all trains. Still, it gave us a chance to chat to some of the other bikers, or alternatively to sit quietly for 40 minutes or so in quiet reflection.
We finally got on the 1136 train and about half an hour later were departing Calais for our first night stop at Laon. We had decided to stay off motorways in favour of the A-roads, to see more of the countryside and hopefully more enjoyable riding. As it turned out, the numerous villages and 50 kmph speed limits became frustrating, but we weren’t to know that at the time. To add to that, a fierce gale-force cross-wind made for interesting (and tiring) riding. Before we’d even done 100km we suffered our first minor hiccup – riding through a town with a few traffic lights & roundabouts, we realised that the ‘back 2’ (Keith & Dave) had disappeared! We waited for ages and finally decided to press on. We arrived at the Hotel Ibis in Laon at about 6:30pm to find the wayward pair waiting for us!
A quick shower & change and our minds turned to food. Just how far was the town centre from the hotel? The bloke in the hotel looked aghast when Keith said we were going to walk, but that was nothing compared to the look on Bob & Dave’s faces when the bloke said it was ‘about half an hour’ on foot. Well, that guess turned out to be, er, “optimistic” is one word, “b*****ks” is another. It was more like a hour. Uphill. The first restaurant we found (“La Petite Auberge”) looked good, a bit posh but it had food, beer, wine and most importantly seats!! A welcome rest. Needless to say that after the meal we taxied back to the hotel!!

Day 2
Raining. Deep joy. Got into waterproofs and they did their magic, the rain had stopped by the time we left, heading for Besançon, with cries of “Ride on the RIGHT, Bob!!”. The weather improved as we went south, and we had a fairly uneventful trip… apart from one little episode in Chaumont. The town seemed determined not to let us out, and after a couple of tours of the town without finding Route 5 to Dijon Keith pulled into a car park, took off his gloves, threw them at his bike with a cry of “Well I’m out of ideas fellas”. The rest of us had a stretch, drink, passed the sweets around while Bob checked the sat-nav. We though it best to let Bob lead us out of the town, trusting to technology rather than signposts; it proved successful and we arrived in Besançon without any more problems. This time, to everyone’s delight, the hotel was within a few minutes walk of the town centre!

Besançon itself was lovely – a large pedestrian square

with cafes/restaurants all around, very typically French. It was warm enough to sit out all evening, enjoying beers from one bar and then dinner at another. Pizzas for all, except Pete who went for a set menu because it included escargots!!

Bob, Dave & Keith retired early(ish), leaving Derek & Pete to order another good bottle of red wine and enjoy the atmosphere. They even managed to persuade the waitress to join them for a while which was a good test of Pete’s French!!

Day 3

Light rain. Left Besançon at 9:30am for the relatively short trip to Lausanne, Switzerland. The weather improved as we got closer to Switzerland. Stopped for coffee in Pontarlier and lunch in Vallorbe. It was while we were having lunch that we spotted a little problem… the road ahead was closed for roadworks
So after a short backtrack and detour, we made a steady climb to 1100 metres, a gentle decent to Lausanne with a backdrop of snow capped alpine peaks...it was hell!. We arrived at the Hotel Ibis (a few km outside of Lausanne) at about 2pm.

Having duly dumped our gear in the hotel, we set off to catch a bus into Lausanne (a 15-20 minute trip). We strolled down through the town to the lake and found somewhere for a few beers. Dinner was in a small Swiss restaurant – fondue etc – although Keith wasn’t hungry and decided to go for a walk while we ate. 45 minutes or so later, Keith turns up in the restaurant and, without a word to any of us, goes upstairs to the toilets. This caused quite a stir amongst the staff, who suddenly became very agitated. Pete explained that Keith was, in fact, a friend who had come in to meet them, and this quickly calmed everyone down. Speaking with the owner, it transpired that the restaurant had been the victim of a burglary the week before, and they had thought that Keith might be about to rob the place!

Day 4

Non-biking day, aka ‘give bum a rest’ day. Took the bus into Lausanne and then caught a train to Geneva (half-hour journey). After a quick coffee stop, we walked down to the lake to see the famous fountain. It was very impressive at 140m high.

Keith & Derek fancied a go on a pedalo on the lake, so off they went while the sane members of the team found a cafe.
Spent the rest of the day strolling around the city, trying to drag Bob out of just about every Swiss Watch shop (and believe me there were a lot!) while looking for somewhere for dinner. We decided to ‘go Mexican’, but had to wait until the restaurant opened at 6pm. What a shame – so we just had to find a nearby bar and found one that sold John Smith’s Bitter on draught! Back to the hotel later on by train and bus, and a few “nightcaps” before retiring!

Day 5

Having tried various modes of transport thus far (bike, car, bus, train) we decided that a boat trip was in order. So – a familiar bus trip into Lausanne, a visit to the bank to replenish the rapidly disappearing Swiss Francs and a short trip down to the lake. We found that there was a boat which went across to a town on the other side of the lake, about a 30 minute crossing, which sounded ideal.

We bought our tickets and headed for the boat. Half an hour later we were in Evian, home of the mineral water, and after strolling down the main street, we began wondering why all the prices were in Euros and not Swiss Francs. It took until nearly lunchtime to realise that we had in fact crossed back into France when we crossed the lake. So, of course, we had to find another bank to get some Euros!! Keith led us to an old funicular railway, running between Evian and Neuvecelle, which was originally built in 1913, restored in 1995 and reopened in 2002. Even better than that, it was free! The idea was originally to grab some lunch in the town at the top of the run. The ‘town’ turned out to be a collection of houses, a tennis club and a hotel that wasn’t open for lunch!

So, back down the funicular railway and a very late lunch in Evian. After boating back into Switzerland (luckily no passport checks, as we didn’t have them with us), we chose the Panoramic Restaurant for our final dinner there. We naturally dined al fresco, overlooking the lake with Mont Blanc in the distance.

Day 6
The past three days of extortionate Swiss prices left us screaming for the respite of the Euro so we made for the Hochschwarzwald and pulled into the first hotel we saw in Neustadt bearing the welcoming “Zimmer Frei” signs. Not only that, it had garages for the tired bikes and a pair of Harley riding owners. Had we been a few minutes later, the swarm of deutsche Beemers, Hondas, Harleys and a Moto Guzzi would have forced us out onto the streets. The Biker-Hotel zum Baren was real find and justified why it’s a good idea to wing the accommodation every so often. If you’re thinking of visiting that part of Germany try www. baeren-neustadt.de. Highly recommended, with good food, beer and Schnapps (as we discovered later that night).

Day 7
Destination Luxembourg. We left Neustadt in the rain and decided that the motorways would be preferable to the country roads as the rain became heavier. Bob’s sat-nav decided that it really didn’t want to play, and was convinced that Luxembourg did not exist! So, it was back to good old maps, sextants and Keith’s sense of direction. At the next coffee stop it slowly dawned on Bob that maybe he hadn’t loaded Luxembourg into the machine to start with! But, all was well and we trooped into Luxembourg and found the hotel with little problem (apart from the rain!). We taxied into the town later that evening and dined in the Restaurant Notre Dame.

Day 8
Left Luxembourg, still a bit wet, heading for Belgium but taking a detour to Verdun; site of one of the bloodiest battles of World War One. Millions of German and French troops lost their lives scrapping over control of the River Meuse crossing. It was quite breathtaking, and the climb to the top of the memorial took Bob’s breath away in more ways than one! He couldn’t wait to get back down for a smoke.

We spent a good few hours in Verdun – well worth a visit for anyone passing that way. Back came the rain for the final 130 miles to Mons and the traditional last night session. We couldn’t resist the bar advertising 170 beers for sale and we all decided to have steak to eat. 400g Super Steaks no less. The waiter seemed amused when we tried to tell him how we wanted our steaks cooked… his reply was “You’ve not been here before, have you...”. All became clear when slabs of granite (at 450 degrees C) arrived with lumps of raw steak sizzling on them! Do it yourself the way you like it!

The steaks were wonderful, the beer (Kwak) was tasty (8%) and the wine flowed. The Grand Marnier also flowed – all over the crepes for pudding. Couldn’t waste that eh?

Day 9
Homeward bound. A few thick heads in the morning but at least the weather was better. Any chances of some last minute shopping for presents rapidly disappeared as we realised it was Sunday and, unlike the UK, everything was shut. So, we set off for Calais and nearly paid the penalty of not refuelling when we could… the automatic ‘card only’ filling station at Leclerc in Bailleuil refused to accept any of our plastic. We would probably still be there if it wasn’t for the kind-hearted Frenchman who allowed us to use his credit card, in exchange for cash, to fill up the bikes. Crisis averted, it was back on the road and finally reached Calais at about 2:15pm. A short trip through the tunnel, a blast up the UK motorways to Cambridgeshire and the end of the holiday.