- Joined
- Oct 5, 2007
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- 4,886
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- Points
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- Location
- Alkmaar Netherlands
Finally got the routes finished on mapsource about 1900 on thursday evening,
On Friday morning I set off to meet Ronald at a local petrol station about 5 minutes late, luckily he wasn't too annoyed as he had turned up slightly late as well.
We had a lot of traffic around Amsterdam, so we just filtered through.
We met up with Tim & Frank at Hazeldonk West (on the Dutch/Belgium border) at the delicafe. We took the time to admire Tims new bike a GS1200.
I used a Throttle jockey (well something similar) to stop me getting cramp on the 4 hour ride to calais and I was well impressed.
At Calais we rode on to the ferry, after only a short wait.
On the ferry We rode our bikes into a sort of gully, which had a strap on each side which was attached to the bike by a guy from sea France, whilst you stayed sat on it. This seemed a good system but the bike placed between Tim and my bikes was not tightened down securely but luckily the owner noticed this and called back the man who strapped it down.
Well we started as we meant to go on, a healthy meal, well I had sausage and chips :BLAA:.
As we approached Dover we couldn't see anything as it was shrouded in a layer of mist.
We had to wait about 10 minutes for Mike to arrive as he was coming from Swindon and had been held up in traffic, as he had taken the scenic coastal route.
When he arrived we went up the hill to see the castle but we couldn't see anything through the mist, so we just carried on to Deal by which time it had cleared up.
We took a short walk to Walmer Castle from the car park, the former residence of the Duke of Wellington.
and then rode on to Deal castle.
took a ride around Sandwich, Richborough castle. I also did a bit of reminiscing taking a look at the now closed RAF Ash which is now a secure server site, we were politely told not to take any photos and to move on.
We also visited the old house I used to rent, in Ramsgate.
We then rode Via RAF Manston, unfortunately the spitfire and Hurricane memorial was shut. .
We then headed to Canterbury. Got parked up at Kipps Hostel in Canterbury, It was a very friendly, comfortable and cheap hostel, although we had a parking spot when we arrived but on Saturday we had to use the street parking.
After this we got freshened up and then went into town.
We went for the traditional British food, curry.:thumbup:
after a few drinks we headed back, hoping that the local pub would be still opened but alas, twas England, where the pubs shut early, so we just went to bed.
I'll post somemore tomorrow......
On Friday morning I set off to meet Ronald at a local petrol station about 5 minutes late, luckily he wasn't too annoyed as he had turned up slightly late as well.
We had a lot of traffic around Amsterdam, so we just filtered through.
We met up with Tim & Frank at Hazeldonk West (on the Dutch/Belgium border) at the delicafe. We took the time to admire Tims new bike a GS1200.
I used a Throttle jockey (well something similar) to stop me getting cramp on the 4 hour ride to calais and I was well impressed.
At Calais we rode on to the ferry, after only a short wait.
On the ferry We rode our bikes into a sort of gully, which had a strap on each side which was attached to the bike by a guy from sea France, whilst you stayed sat on it. This seemed a good system but the bike placed between Tim and my bikes was not tightened down securely but luckily the owner noticed this and called back the man who strapped it down.
Well we started as we meant to go on, a healthy meal, well I had sausage and chips :BLAA:.
As we approached Dover we couldn't see anything as it was shrouded in a layer of mist.
We had to wait about 10 minutes for Mike to arrive as he was coming from Swindon and had been held up in traffic, as he had taken the scenic coastal route.
When he arrived we went up the hill to see the castle but we couldn't see anything through the mist, so we just carried on to Deal by which time it had cleared up.
We took a short walk to Walmer Castle from the car park, the former residence of the Duke of Wellington.
and then rode on to Deal castle.
took a ride around Sandwich, Richborough castle. I also did a bit of reminiscing taking a look at the now closed RAF Ash which is now a secure server site, we were politely told not to take any photos and to move on.
We also visited the old house I used to rent, in Ramsgate.
We then rode Via RAF Manston, unfortunately the spitfire and Hurricane memorial was shut. .
We then headed to Canterbury. Got parked up at Kipps Hostel in Canterbury, It was a very friendly, comfortable and cheap hostel, although we had a parking spot when we arrived but on Saturday we had to use the street parking.
After this we got freshened up and then went into town.
We went for the traditional British food, curry.:thumbup:
after a few drinks we headed back, hoping that the local pub would be still opened but alas, twas England, where the pubs shut early, so we just went to bed.
I'll post somemore tomorrow......
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