Devall Travels

Day 5 - Dali Day Well, it was supposed to be Dali Day. We got up relatively early and breakfasted and then the battle of the GPS' started with both of us trying to make sure our GPS had the best route and could find the centre of Figueres! I led (as usual!) and we opted for a motorway run down into Spain, have the usual coffee break and then go into the Dali Museum. Part 1 accomplished but part two... err never happened. So for the second time we saw the outside and didn't get in. Last time back in 2001 it was closed for lunch, this time the queue to get in was about 300 yards and moving at about a yard every five minutes. It was over 90 degrees in the  Fahrenheit scale and the queue wasn't in the shade at all... Dali Museum & Theatre (N42.16096 E2.57587) Dali Theatre So after a drink outside a bar we buggered off on the next leg of the trip that would take us to Rosas/Roses for lunch and then the coast road back to France and then home. The GPS was set and off we went,...

Day 1 - Motorail Despite scare stories that P&O were charging a supplement on anyone arriving for the wrong boat, either early or late, we had no problems getting an earlier crossing with Steve and Bobby. The mini-group for this tour was Claire and myself on the GS, and Steve and Bobby (S&B) on the FJR1300. Although a Yamaha (!), I have read quite a bit on how this bike is a perfect tourer having luggage capacity as well as the means to get a shift on with its R1 derived engine. Steve has added a Melvyn seat and has changed the OEM panniers for larger Kappa items fitted with a QD kit to let him take it all off the bike, frames as well. Plus a PDA with Tom-Tom GPS software and their intercom. As for our side of things, I had the usual three box BMW luggage and Touratech tank bag. My only new toy was the Quest GPS I bought in June and that I was still getting to terms with. We had nicknamed her "Doris", but the voice she emits is more Joanna Lumley than Barbara Windsor,...

As I had to cancel our trip to Gouda a few days ago after months of planning, we were left with a Shuttle booking that I need to change before the Gouda trip, this Friday (the 6 th July) or lose the fare as a no-show. We both thought we'd like to go to Holland again. On the Gouda trip our chosen day out was to have been Amsterdam, so we decided to make this new trip to Amsterdam. It so happens that Arsenal are involved in the Amsterdam ArenA Tournament over the week of 2 nd and 4 th August, which fits in nicely when we want to get away. Although getting one of the 1800 (!) tickets allocated to Arsenal supporters may prove a problem as it is so close and the away ticket people get first bite at the cherry over us mere Gold members. Okay we have paid at least £885 for a season ticket this year. I've re-booked the Shuttle for 3rd August earlier than we were going with the Kent Centre to Gouda. This is purely so we can plough up the motorways to get to the hotel ASAP and then d...

The weekend was in fact just a night away and with Claire’s hairdressing appointment earlier than previously thought it meant we could have lunch before the booked Shuttle train on Saturday. I had planned routes to the Campanile at Evreux and also from there to Giverny. Claire is less trusting of “Doris” than I am and insisted we take a paper map as well. Not having been to Normandy for years and years meant I didn’t have one, so we left a little early and a stopped in the terminal building to buy one. On the approach there were signs to say that there were delays of up to 30 minutes following an “earlier incident”. On the auto check-in I chose to go on an earlier train and off we went. In the terminal building they started to call our train s we walked in and I saw the display change from wait to boarding on the monitors. We hurried round and joined the queue of cars, strangely, not sent to a lane of our own, as is the “norm” on the Shuttle, but in the line of cars. Knowing we’d get s...

Today started off badly. I dropped the bike exiting the petrol station in St Goar! Not anybody else's fault but mine. No real damage to us or the bike. Pride suffered the most with the bike getting scuffs to the plastic cylinder guard and to the right pannier. I simply lost balance making a U-turn out of the place onto the road. It was slightly downhill and an acute angle to turn onto the road.. foot down, nothing there and bingo; nought mph keel over. What is the secret to BMW mirrors? The right one is prone to loosening and spins about and as if by magic it fixes itself. But not today, over 200 miles before I managed to get it tight. This time I tugged up on it and turn it at the same time and it locked in place. How the heck do you get them off? Mine simply turn round and bloody round. Aaaagh. After 308 miles we arrived at Dunkerque for the 1600 ferry back to Dover. Holidays for 2006 nearly over. Once I have got all the pix sorted on the camera I'll add to the blogs for each...

A whole day on a cruise boat might sound a nightmare but in fact it was very relaxing to sit on deck before going to one of the saloons for a coffee and a cake. A chance to unwind and read a book. Rüdesheim was a bit touristy and the greatest gathering of our fellow countrymen we had seen since we got off the ferry over a week ago. There are also more Christmas shops than seems really necessary, one lured Claire into buying a small snow storm dome thingy complete with snowman! Back at the hostel we had a read and a second cake! Dinner to look forward to, then back to the hostel and start packing the panniers. Doris reckons it's about 285 miles to Dunkerque and the ferry is at 1600, so we need to be away pretty smartly after breakfast. Should be home in time for Corrie! One of the big successes has been the Lakeland vacuum bags. Apart from one losing the little slider that helps seal the zip end they have been tremendous - I wouldn't hesitate in recommend...

I had to get up in the night to check on the bike as it was parked on dirt...  As it had rained heavily for a few hours. In the end it was pitch dark and I had two disc locks to get off, then I could see f.a. and took in down outside the main entrance. When I came to shift it later in daylight, I found I was only about 2ft from nice firm tarmac!  Bugger! Today is boat trip day, 1020 from St Goar. Let's see how it turns out.

Well. As is now the norm we set off in waterproofs. Waterproof over trousers and Hood Kevlar lined jeans do not make for happy motoring pleasure. Betty Swollocks within minutes.  At least on the positive side Doris has got over last week's problem of losing the sats every ten minutes. And so she led up from Switzerland into Germany. Swiss petrol was reputed to be cheap, but the fill up I did just before the border was 118 cents a litre. So about 55p a litre. No wonder their so many American cars about with Swiss plates. Once in Germany we hit the motorways. Getting to St Goar was more important than scenic touring!  One small detour was forced on us when I chose the wrong Rüdesheim from the two options that Doris had in her city finder. I had a 50-50 chance and chose wrong. In mitigation I have to say that both were about the same miles from where I created the via point AND are the only two in the entire Atlantic base maps and 16 miles apart! As a result we added ...

The entire trip has been like the search for shangri-la; the sunshine is just the other side of the mountain, when you get there it's.... Well you know! Today it was sunny straight off. On the road from Merano it was dire. Traffic and lots of it. Being a weekend it turned out to be the last weekend of the school holidays for Swiss and German kids, and they were making their way home Claire and Baloo in Bormio Once on the road up to the Stelvio through Prato it was better. There were a few twats about who seemed to enjoy cutting up other bikes as well as the cars. Sadly the two that cut across me as I was halfway around a tight turn were on 1200 GS's. So they were faster than me, but at the end of the day they were arseholes no matter what they rode. Stelvio Umbrail After a wurst and a beer and a bit of sheltering from a shower, we set off taking in the Umbrail and into Switzerland. I was enjoying the almost deserted 8 miles to Santa Maria un...

Between breakfast and of setting foot outside to load the panniers onto the bike it had rained. Sheepskins soaked through so it was waterproofs on (and off all day). Passo Falzarego Once on the main 100 road from Lienz to Italy it was hard going with trucks, motorhomes and bloody caravans and the last two along with tourist coaches set the tone for the day. We did manage some passes I hadn't done before like the Valparola and Costalunga before we cut our day short at 1630, and according to Doris there were still two hours (at least!) to go to the Stelvio and our eventual overnight in Switzerland. From the Pordoi pass it poured down making the 20 plus hairpins down to Canazei slippery and hard work given the tailgating and pillocks pulling out giving you hardly any chance or many options. Claire at the Pordoi After 134.4 miles we called it a day and stopped in Nova Levante at the Engel "Wellness Hotel".  We had no idea if we would be let in. Drip...

There was only one goal for today and that was the Grossglockner and the two side attractions, Edelweisspitze and the Glacier. After a very slow procession across country we got to the Grossglockner. The trip took us around the Hallstatter See and on small roads clagged with trucks and motorhomes. As it was a working day we would have better off retracing our steps from the day before and going via Schladming and Radstatt. Unfortunately it was also the last weekday of the local school holidays in Austria and Germany and many people decided to cause a massive road block. Ironically to avoid the weekend's massive roadblock! Once again we had to slip on waterproofs as it began to rain a little. On the way up to the tolls we stopped for a spot of lunch at the side of the road and watched the bikes going up towards the tolls and those that had done it and were coming back. Bikes of every sort, some fast but most taking it steady. For most of the way from the toll booths we followed behi...

Today was supposed to be a run about so I could show Claire Schloß Moosham where the Waßerbüffel Club have their Austrian rally, usually at the end of May. In the end it was a 175 mile round trip that included the Radstatter Tauern and Twenger passes before Moosham, and the Sölk afterwards. We had lunch at Moosham, dining on exploding bratwurst. They must have been the most fat filled I have ever seen, almost lethal as the stream of hot fat sprayed about 6 inches. A defence mechanism? Like the infamous Scottish "Haggis" these beasts are known to fight back. Finding the Sölk Pass proved quite complicated as Doris refused to route that way. She did manage to lead us along a 10 mile gravel road and then lost interest. In the end Mr Michelin's map 730 sorted it out before we rejoined the roundabout route that Doris thought we should be on. After a late siesta we togged up and rode to the Grundlsee for dinner - more schwein! Early to bed as we have to...

"Up and at 'em" could have become our motto. Not! We seemed to be last in to breakfast; a trick we have learned helps us make a few extra rolls to eat for lunch. First stop the tourist office at Grundlsee to find out about the boat trip. At 1145 we set sail for Grossl and were tucking in to soup with liver dumplings 38 minutes later in the Gasthof Hofmann and back on the boat back at 1250! The second lake of the day was the Hallstatter See. The run took us over a pass of a mere 690m above sea level, hardly worth mentioning! Hallstat is very touristy but still very nice and pleasant, but hardly anywhere to park a bike. In the end we left the GS in a supermarket car park after buying a few things to eat with the rolls. We ate by the lakeside and shared our lunch with some swans. Plans to go down a salt mine were put on hold as it was by now good 1700. Home and a beer beckoned. What will tomorrow bring? We have another full day. At least the weather was okay today. Only a s...

On our walk into Aussee earlier, we saw a poster for a grand firework party in nearby Altaussee, so after read of our books in the sun we had a ride out there. Firstly dinner, ate too much and felt too pogged to walk, but set off anyway 'zum see'. After a long walk we decided to get the bike for when it was all over. Parking was easy, the coppers waved us by all their posts and we parked up by the lake. Some people were buying tickets but didn't seem to worry we hadn't got one. We joined a load of others on a pontoon on the lake. The display took ages to start but when it did it had a microlight flying in darkness trailing three trails of fireworks. After a long lull we went and sat on a picnic table to wait for what appeared to be people to climb to the top of the surrounding mountains. By then we went back to the bike for a quick getaway. As we set off the fireworks crashed into life. Blimey, they were loud and we seemed to be at Ground 0.1! In th...