This was written last night...
Today was a mistake, from start to finish. I'd toyed with the idea of going straight home from Prague or of going back to Austria and coming back via the Alps. Somehow I decided that going to Amsterdam for a night, via Northern Germany, would be a good idea as it would mean I'd done a loop (of sorts). But the drive was terrible. I left Toni at 08:30 this morning and rode Over 900km through crappy traffic, dead ends (the GPS didn't know that some roads haven't yet been built), along brick-lined tracks, over a river on a ferry, and into the hell the is Amsterdam. I can't even remember why I thought this would be a good idea.
The river crossing!!!
(The silly GPS said 1.6 km to Ferry, which I presumed was a German town or village. But it actually was a ferry across a small river. The roads to and from the river were bascially dirt tracks with some bricks thrown on top. First gear all the way in the searing heat.. so BMW... if you're reading this, lend me a GS1200 Adventure for my next trip!).
It turns out that there was a national holiday on Thursday (in Holland, possibly around Europe), and subsequently every man and his dog is in Amsterdam for a long weekend. The only accommodation I could find was business class in a 5* hotel (the Hotel de L'Europe) in the center. The doorman walked up to me to ask me to move my bike, and then offered to help me out when I showed him my reservation. This place was so posh even the maids were scowling at me, although I was covered in sweat and wearing the same clothes I'd been wearing for the previous 3 weeks ;-)
This all sounds quite neat, but it goes completely against the essence of the trip. The adventure should be about discovery, and while there's nothing wrong with luxury it needs to be in the correct context. I've been to Amsterdam a few times before and it's great in the right context. In the same way that a stag do wouldn't really work in a quiet mountain hotel on the Polish/Czech border, a bike trip doesn't work by taking in Amsterdam.
But anyways, it was a good endurance day - it took around eleven and a half hours to get there, plus another hour to sort the hotel - very tiring!
Tomorrow I plan to eat breakfast, pack the bike, and go home - the place I wish I'd been tonight. It's a long ride but is split with the ferry crossing, and I can't wait. Then I'll have Sunday off to clean the bike and recuperate, and then I can start planning the next trip, sans Amsterdam!
The ride home!
I'm back in Droitwich, England :-)
Today was another long slog but was made easy by knowing that I didn't have to find accommodation and prepare a trip for tomorrow. The day started with a buzz on the door - the maid was letting me know my copy of the Times was hanging in a bag on my door - but it's not the same when someone delivers to paper to you. I eat breakfast, packed the bike and set off - the GPS programmed for Calais.
Here's me this morning...
And as a comparison, here's me three weeks ago in Germany...
The beard has grown and, I think, I look a little more tired. On the way to Calais I decided to try the Eurotunnel, having not been on it with the bike. And so it was that 40 minutes after leaving France I was back in England. It took me roughly 8 hours to get from the hotel in Amsterdam to home - not a bad day's work.
On the Eurotunnel train...
Final thoughts
Around 5 or 6 days or go I was asking Toni whether she'd fancy doing a longer trip - around the world, or to Africa or Russia or ex-Yugoslavia or Sweden/Norway. But it then occurred to me, and this may seem obvious, that to do such a trip requires a particular sort of desire. On Horizons Unlimited, amongst other traveler's web sites, you can read about people who work for a few years and then quit work, sell the house and car and dog, buy a couple of bikes and set off to travel the world. One or two years later, when they get back, they get jobs and a house and another dog and start saving and planning for the next trip. I don't believe that seeing the world is the primary objective. Rather, I think that traveling itself is the goal. Most people can take a nice holiday here and there and see many nice places, drink good wine, meet friendly people and experience difference cultures. But if that was all that was required for fulfillment then why not use a car, which will take more belongings, or do more 1-2 week holidays flying from place to place. No - I believe that traveling by motorcycle lies at the heart of the motivation. The particular destinations allow the traveler to set his objectives from day to day, to set goals to achieve and places to see. But on a motorcycle the journey is the adventure. There isn't really a final destination (in terms of a town, city or country).
So if was to travel further and longer why would I do it...? For the reasons mentioned above - because traveling is the adventure. It probably won't matter if I go to Scotland or more-Eastern Europe or Asia, etc. As long as there's a rough plan in place, a bike to take me, some good company, the possibility of an English newspaper, at least one beer per day, and plenty of fine, dry, smooth and twisty roads, I'll be up for it.
On that note, I'll say adieu, and leave you with my overall route map and travel stats.
Thanks for reading,
Jon.
- Total distance: 4,984 km (3,096 miles)
- Average speed: 92 kph (57 mph)
- Maximum speed: 168kph (104 mph) not too bad for for around 400kg of man and machine, and I wasn't trying to max it out!
- Hours spent in motion on the bike: 60.75.
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