Start mileage 56,700, End mileage 58,157 =1457 miles Charlie, Clive, Neil Tried to book the 4th July off, but no luck, so went for an early start. Got up at 00:15, Holly not impressed as she was in mid snore. Rode the bike to work, found the truck had been moved to Thurrock RDC to avoid fuel protesters. Navigator was closed, so I went to Esso West London.
I pulled into the entrance to find the protestors had beat me to it, so I spun the artic round in the bus garage just before the entrance, one of the idiots jumped out in front of the truck, unfortunately missed him. Went to tesco superstore at Ashford to await developments, we ended up with about 8 tankers there.
Eventually, after a few hours, we were told to return to the yard, Navigator was now open. so I just had time to pre-load the truck for the next driver, and dump it in the yard at about 12:30, and get on the bike. The M20 was being used to stack trucks due to ferry closures and chunnel problems, met up with Neil and Clive at the last services before the tunnel, then after a few diversions, managed to join the queue and worked our way to the train.
After a bit of a damp ride, we arrived at our hotel Campanile in Gent, Belgium at 21:36, there was no food available, so we ate their supply of spicy pringles, and had some beers. Next morning, we set off at 07:32, as we had a 460 mile ride ahead of us. Clive and Neil had a couple of loo/coffee breaks, and eventually stopped for lunch at one of the motorway service areas, where I had a delicious Currywurst. We arrived at Colditz at 17:52. Neil was wet through, Clive's gloves had disintegrated, and my boots were damp.
Neil managed to get us sorted with a meal in the castle, chicken nuggetts and various meats, then after a good sleep in the bunk room. we had a tour planned for the next day with Steffi.
looking down a vertical tunnel
The glider in the attic
During the tour, Neil's phone started playing "The Dambuster's" theme tune, much to the amusement of the british tourists, Steffi didn't see the significance!
After the 2 hour tour, it was into the gift shop for bike stickers, etc, we wandered into town to look for food
The only cafe we found had a choice of cakes or tomato soup, so soup it was, Back to the castle, then Clive and Neil had another go at finding food, and I went out on the bike to Lidl, The chaps found an Italian restaurant for the evening meal, which seemed to be the only place open in the whole of Colditz, so after a few beers, we were happy.
Next morning in the rain we set off for Suhl car and bike museum, on the way there, we were all running short of fuel, with no sign of a petrol station, and I had Neil and Clive hovering near my back tyre incase they ran out and needed my emergency 6.6 litre fuel can. (If they had ran out, I was going to pretend not to notice, so I could use it myself!)
They even had a wooden Harley
Next we headed to our hotel in Fulda, the weather was absolutely horrible through the mountains, on the high bridges, the wind would try and blast you off the edge, at one point me and Neil went sideways then I looked in my mirror to see clive at a 45 degree angle leaning into the wind, but headed sideways to the bridge edge with a long drop below. Fortunately, after the wind had realised it had given Clive a "brown trouser" moment, it let him back onto the carriageway. A bit later on, my GS went onto one cylinder, either a faulty plug, or rain had got in, so about 4 minutes later and a plug change, it was all systems go again.
The restaurant at the hotel was closed, so we went into town and found a good one. Next morning the wind had dropped a bit, but was still pissing down, so we headed to our hotel in Mons. The hotel was ok, but the food was microwaved frozen curry with lots of vegetables mixed in, it didn't stay down for long, I thought my innard's were going to be outard's. Anyway, next morning we headed to the channel Tunnel and home.
Fantastic trip, great company, and thanks to Neil for organising the trip
