Devall Travels

David Robinson, one of The Meldrews, asked if we could add another stop into the itinerary at Grove Town Cemetery.   It was easy enough to locate and I was able to add it to Sunday's run westward from Amiens towards Peronne. The satnav files have been changed and uploaded to The Meldrews Facebook page -  http://www.facebook.com/groups/617633098315813/

I have been thinking about becoming more adventurous. After all you only live once, unlike what the James Bond movie franchise would have you believe. At the end of this year I will be 60. I'd love to do a long bike ride somewhere, have an adventure. I have looked at quite a few sites with organised tours, and have yet to reconcile how two people on one bike pay the same as two people on two bikes! To rent a bike through UK agents comes out at about $150 a day depending on the season. A car is about $40!!! So time to think. Adventure or safety of a car! - Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone5S

Changed the URL of the "Florida!" blog to https://devalltravel.blogspot.co.uk/  as plans are afoot to extend our trips beyond the Sunshine State's border. More on that as it happens.

An email arrived from British Airways to make me an offer apparently couldn't refuse.  No, nothing to do with a horse's head in the bed or anything, but a chance to pre-book the seats on the flights to and from Tampa. This was before Christmas and so I logged in and checked the seats.  There were only two in economy not available.  So I thought I'd set a reminder in my diary and come back later.  The reminder pinged up on my phone at the weekend and I had a look. Nearly all the plane now unavailable and loads of single seats.  Shock!  So I decided to invest a few more beer tokens and book us two seats next to each other; near the loo but not too near as to have people standing next to us in the queue! As I have just renewed my passport I need to enter all the advanced passenger info as well. Takes a few minutes and generates a few emails from BA, all stored in the ever increasing folder in my Yahoo email account. The new passport is the one...

These are the places that I have added to the weekend. I expect I have over-engineered it as I normally do, so there may be places that we can remove "on the hoof" if we are running out of time. I'll have the route for TomTom ITN and a .GPX copy available soon. Some links. Pals at Sheffield Park Ocean Villas - Auchonvillers really! Newfoundland Memorial Ulster Tower Tank Memorial / Australian Memorial Pozieres Pozieres British Cemetery / Memorial to the Missing Froissy-Dompierre Light Railway Historical Peronne Souvenir Francaise Rancourt

The date is confirmed as 4th and 5th July. We have decided to stay in the Central Anzac again. The hotel has come online on booking.com . At the time of writing rooms are going quickly but we have a few booked and held as the hotel has a pay later/free cancellation policy. I am still working on the route from last year, I did have a Part-Deux or "Deuxième partie" route done and dusted but an over vigilant IT department at work managed to lose my files as the virus software decided ITN files should be deleted!!! So far I have recovered the old itinerary from the TomTom and removed the places we went to in the Somme-Une. And this is what it looks like at the moment.  As we over engineered last time, this might be enough to keep us occupied!

It looks as though DFDS are axing routes all across Europe.   Firstly we knew that the LD Lines ferry to Spain had been chopped, then in the email exchange I had with them I found out that Tilbury to Gothenburg had gone too. Earlier I had a look on the public website and the only alternative for us in southern England, Harwich to Denmark was also finished. The options now are very limited thanks to this and Scandinavia is getting to be difficult to get to! Valhalla in  '15 is doomed. That's unless the propsoed Norwgian Seaways crossing to Bergen finally materialises and if Regina Lines actually gets off the ground next year.