.....So Monday night we got to Cherbourg in the German Love Bus.....Stopped in a little hotel for the night and first thing Tuesday morning we pushed the bike about half a mile to the port......Despite being two days early, Brittany Ferries let us on the next crossing so we pushed the bike onto the ferry and pushed it off the ferry at the other end into Poole!.....

....We had a lovely couple of days rest with my sister in Poole waiting for some clutch parts to be delivered then on Friday morning help came in the shape of Mike who rides the same kind of bike....Mike delivered us to Gary's, another enthusiast's place in Oxfordshire who fixed the bike.....

....We stopped there the night, and this morning headed for home!.....

....Yesterday woke early....We'd arrived at a campsite in Fismes the night before....Nobody was about so we had to break into the toilets....The first code we tried worked!....1234....The caretaker still hadn't arrived in the morning so we packed & jumped on the bike....With the clutch slipping, it didn't really want to move but 10 minutes down the road it picked up speed....I think we got to 50mph!....Anyway we pushed on all day ending up in Honfleur last night....It's very beautiful here but also very crowded with well dressed tourists....The kind of place that makes me feel very scruffy after 3 months on an MT with one spare set of smelly clothes!....

.....Anyway this morning the clutch finally died....The bike would no longer move!!!......

....So this afternoon with just over 100 miles to Cherbourg, I offered two German lads who were stopping on the same campsite, Paul & George some cash to take us and the bike to Cherbourg in the back of their van!...The van only had 3 seats so Ruth caught the train and I went with the bike....We're in a hotel in Cherbourg now and will push the bike to the ferry in the morning....hopefully!!
...Big Thanks to Paul & George....Thanks Guys!....

....Paul & George in the "Love Bus"....

...Friday was another beautiful sunshine day!....Started the day in Germany....Didn't get the best nights sleep!....The campsite was quiet enough in itself but when we chose it, we hadn't noticed the train track on the other side of the road!...Trains ran all night long!.....The morning was spent first meandering down the Mosel....Beautiful....Then we had about 30 miles of Autobahn before reaching Luxembourg....After a fattening lunch of ice-cream we headed for France.....But going up a hill, the chain broke!.....It was a reasonably quiet but fast moving road with barriers at the side so we unloaded the bike and I pushed it a few hundred yards to a parallel vinyard track only feet from where we had stopped.....It had broken on the link so I was able to fix it with a spare....Hopefully it will see us home!.....

....Repairing the chain in Luxembourg.....

...Saturday we woke up in Thionville in France.....We were on the road by 7:30 as the forecast was HOT....Heading for Reims, we stopped at an olde village coffee shop before visiting L'Ossuaire de Douaumont....My knowledge of European History had not prepared me for this monument...Standing in the centre of the Verdun Battlefield of WWI, it is the resting place of 140,000 unknown soldiers from the surrounding battlefield where close to 400,000 men lost their lives...It sits there like a vast tomb....Graves are still being laid outside....In the centre of the monument is a tower from which the surrounding battlefield can be viewed....

...Back on the bike in the scorching heat we got to Suippe for a fuel stop, a swim in the town pool and an ice cream or two (Lidl's only sell them in packs of 4)....

.....Big Big Big Thanks to Brittany Ferries who have given us free passage from Cherbourg to Poole next week.....We're very grateful....

....River Mosel in Germany....

.....After a day of starvation it was great to eat again.....Breakfast at Pension Colditz (no joke!) in Germany.....Yesterday was spent making up some miles on the Autobahn.....most of it was okay but sections were busy and it wasn't fun having to be in lane three of four being overtaken on both sides.....Today, after packing the tent wet after a night of thunder & lightening, we rode 100 miles on the autobahn to Koblenz by which time we'd had enough......we pulled into town and at a traffic lights we asked a chap on a scooter the way to the Rhine....."Follow me" he said and took us to the point where the Mosel joins the Rhine.....It was lovely and we took a cable car trip up over the river.....Afterwards we rode for 30 miles south west following the river Mosel.....It was a really lovely ride..........We stopped at a campsite, went for a swim in the river and planned our route for tomorrow....

.....After five nights staying with friends, we were starting to forget that we're on a journey so this morning we hit the road.....

....50 miles south and we reached Kutna Hora where we visited the Sedlec Ossuary....This is the church that Ewan & Charlie visited in Long Way Round.....It's the church that has been decorated with thousands of human bones.....It's quite an incredible place and I'm glad to have finally seen it in the flesh.....

.....Kutna Hora.....

.....Afterwards we started to head north towards Germany.....Today we rode about 120 miles and landed at a place called Terezin.....As we rode in, the place looked incredible....Amazing architecture.....It resembles a Napoleonic fortress with a huge moat surrounding it.....We soon found a hotel and then wandered down to visit the fort.....Although it was built at the end of the 18th century, it was unfortunately used by the Nazis in WWII mainly as a prison but also to commit atrocities.....It was a sad place to visit and is now a museum.....

....One of the fortress gates....

.....So afterwards, we visited the Motor Museum down the road and enjoyed the collection of cars, motorbikes and the obligatory London bus.....Outside were three guys travelling on vintage Jawa mopeds....

....I'd rather be riding an MT....

.....We're on our way home now, so tomorrow hopefully Germany.....

......After a blissful much needed good nights sleep at Hotel Eroplan in Rosnov, we pushed on the 170 miles or so to our friend's Gabi & Franta, who own a lovely shack near Jicin....On the way we bumped into Paul at a motorcycle shop in Olomouc.....We were buying brake pads, he was admiring the bike.....He comes to the UK each year in Enduro vintage class.....He reckoned that the Rotax 350 was one of the finest engines ever built!.....fair play!...

....Our friend's shack in Czech....

The 170 miles were pretty tough,....the highway was boring so we went slower on back roads and turned the 170 miles into 190 miles....Although Czech seems a laid back, tidy place, the drivers seem to overtake you closer than anywhere else on this trip.....Some are just plain dangerous...
....It's great to be with friends again,......Thursday was spent building a deck with Franta outside the shack and yesterday was spent by a local lake, swimming & kayaking.....Today we've headed into town, minus the luggage to bed in the new brake pads and have a nice drive.....It's scorching once again!.....
....It's time to start heading home soon!......

......Sunday morning rode to Zakopane....It was quite a tough slow road into the mountains....Helped make up our mind not to cross the Alps.....Despite the ride to Nordkapp, we've hardly encountered any steep hills on this trip......The first time I was here was nearly 20 years ago......Back then it was a really quiet sleepy ski resort with a handful of Russian traders doing their business on the market...I think I was last here four years ago but I'm shocked how the town has changed since my last visit.....I know it was getting commercial but it now has a Tesco, at least two McDonalds and sadly the centre now has the feel of Blackpool....There are now so many cars here......So Monday we escaped the hoards and headed deep into the National Park....

....The campsite in Zakopane was great.....The chef is Scottish and makes a great Schnitzel & chips & salad which has become my current staple diet washed down with beer.....On Monday night three Germans turned up, two on Russian sidecar outfits and a 150cc MZ.....the guy on the MZ loved the MT, had never seen one before and is now smitten!......They had arrived via Slovakia and suggested some good roads for us.....

.....So after some heavy nighttime rain, we headed West firstly for Slovakia....It threatened rain at first but turned very hot again as the day progressed.....We've not had much of sleep this last week and Ruth was getting very sleepy on the back of the bike......We stopped just short of the Czech border for Ruth to have a snooze.....Sadly her snooze was cut short by the village drunk who started giving her directions to the nearest hospital.....I meanwhile visited the motorcycle breakers there, run by a guy in a wheelchair, to see what spare parts were to be had.....He did have an Aprilia 350 crammed in amongst the XR's & the KLR's & the Teneres.....

....no guns, no ice creams!....

.....It felt a bit wrong just driving through Slovakia and not contributing to their economy but we were soon in the Czech Republic......We landed in Roznov mid afternoon and found an inexpensive hotel......Only 170 miles to our friends place in Czech......

...Thursday rode to Krakow.....150 miles.....10 miles to go, a wasp stung me on my neck whilst negotiating a junction....had to wait about half a miunte to pull over Before I could pull the bugger out....

...Didn't sleep well Thursday night....This time down to toothache.....Decided to find a dentist and get it pulled.....So found one online....There website made them look like the cast of a TV medical drama show so off we went....Soon had an X-ray and a quote for the work....Went off to get some cash....and was back in the chair by 11am....This is no exaggeration....5 hours later I was released from the chair having had Root Canal work....
....The anaesthetic is just wearing off....

....Woke up this morning without the usual toothach.....just jaw ache from having my mouth held opened with a wedge for 5 hours yesterday.....Did a bit of maintenance on the bike....or more to the point, we bled the brakes ready for the the mountains.....

.....Afterwards, we headed into Krakow to see the sights......We went up to Wawel Castle and visited the cathedral where many of the old Kings & Queens of Poland are buried.....We climbed the bell tower to see Sigmund's Bell......



....After a couple of beers we headed into the jewish quarter for a wander before drinking and eating a little more.....Just having a look at the map thinking about the next few days....We're off to see some friends in the Czech Republic but not sure whether to visit Zakopane in the Tatra mountains first....It's only about 60 miles south of here.....

.....Stayed in Vilnius for two nights.....We were tourists for the day!...It was scorching hot.....We visited a holy relic.....I drank some beer in the shade......Saw a bit of the Olympic Opening Ceremony on TV.....Wandered around the Old Town.....It's a very beautiful city.....

...part of the holy relic...

.....Then on Sunday we got up early......5am....The bike was packed and we were on the road before 6am.....destination Augustow in Poland 135 miles away......We were there by about 10am, and had the tent up on a campsite (£2) next to a crystal clear lake by 11am....Spent the day being holidaymakers.....swimming, then going to the bar, swimming, then going to the bar......until the scorchio weather stopped and the thunderstorm came......By the morning we were the only campers left!......

...Changing money at the Polish border...

..We were on the road again by 6am but it was not quiet Sunday!....Instead it was Lorry Monday.....We're sort of on the way to Krakow but we've veered off to the east to Bialowieza on the border of Belarus where Ruth is keen to see the Bialowieski National Park......It is one of the last remaining areas of Primeval Forest in Europe and is also home to bison...although so far I have only seen large plastic ones adorning the bars and cafes of the district.....

...Lots of Storks nests on the road...