On Our Way

Following several games of hide and seek involving Ross’s keys, specs, cargo net, keys, phone, keys, wallet and finally specs and keys, we left  Edinburgh.  We had just been treated to a shower of rain, during which Ross protected his whoopy cushion with an old pair of overalls and the pillion’s seat got wet. Where is Walter Raleigh when you need him? It was a very blustery run to Newcastle, or North Shields to be more precise.

We boarded the ferry uneventfully. It was a DIY job to tie the bike down . It took a bit of ingenuity to get the ratchets to work to secure the bike. And then even more ingenuity to get off the car deck. So far so good. Very few of the anticipated rowdy Geordies on the ferry, just some Dutch dudes most of who were in bed by 9!

Day one.

After following one of the said Dutch dudes on the boat I landed up at the wrong end of boat pointing towards the dock not the land! That is where the U turns started!!

Heading southwards in the vague direction of Bonn, things worked out reasonably well until Morna had the bright idea of not using the Motorways.  Now in principle that sounds a simple correction until you try and get a GPS to change a pre-programmed route. That is where the U turns continued!!

So… a trip through a filling station swiftly followed by a trip through  a car sales lot, followed by a high speed trip up the wrong side of the road (ooops!) meant that the non motorway element of trip  got canned and normal high speed service was resumed..

Now here is where it really got worse.. Gladys the sat-nav and Morna decided to have a huge fight on the Autobahn, fuffing and spitting ensued, meanwhile the bike pilot remained cool calm and collected arriving at the destination of Konigsbourg about 20 minutes behind schedule.

Good news though on arrival our accommodation was shut, eventual  persuasion by Morna that we were legit  allowed to owner to announce he had given the keys to the old soaks that had arrived from Harwich earlier… Result!

So… down into the local village for a fill up of decent nosh/beer and a follow up of carry out of grog from the local petrol station. Seems that the pubs are shut in Germany on Sundays…

Concerns though about stamina of the party since some members retired to their beds at 21.00 which was 20.00 back home!!! FLWCs.

Monday… south to Stuttgart.. Motorway half way then it’s a roads until we get home (more or less)