2013 Europe Tour: Gatwick back to Remscheid Germany

We've have a great time since we met up with our friends Werner and Claudia after they flew in from Cancun, Mexico. So here's the update on what we've been up to...

We left the B&B after a restful one night stay, slept in and had a nice British breakfast. About 12:00 we headed the short 20 mins ride out to the camping place that Werner and I had decided we'd meet at. I had booked the site via the internet (only time in the UK we did this). And all was well when we arrived. With booking the site I had read that you might be upset by the constant aircraft on approach and departures from Gatwick International Airport. But for Steve it was fun to watch the planes come and go.

He could see the different airlines and aircraft at about 300m - 400m (I guess) as they made landing approaches (at about 11 kms to the airport). Got to see the different final check lists in operation from external to the aircraft. ie we noticed all the the BA planes would have there landing gear deployed as they went over head, but others would not get the gear down until (maybe) a km or 2 from our location.

Some washing to air and dry.

Sad rear TKC80, new boots later on.

Deb chill'in, reading up on France...

Cider! with light lunch. I had Pear, got this one for Deb.

Bottom's UP!

About 20:00 Claudia and Werner had arrived, weary from the long flight (not direct). After they setup their tent and sorted out their bits & pieces, we walked about 1/2 km down the road to the local pub for some 'refreshments' and a meal. Of course a few hours and long discussions and story's about the (normal ?) problems of shipping bikes out and into other countries ensued into the night.

Next day I took Werner to the Gatwick International freight area, and with some tooing and froing he sorted out the re-import of their bikes back into the EU. Quite simple in the end, and after I pillioned Claudia over there they were ready to bring their bikes back to the camp site with a days rest and sorting gear was the plan for today.

[ To read more about Werner and Claudia's 7 year world tour open this link ]

Friday 23rd August, morning we were all packed after a heavy dew (for us Desert Aussies any dew is heavy, the UK had HEAVY dew everywhere!). Which means a few hours each morning drying (as best you can) tents.

We had booked a ferry crossing to Cherburg, France from Portsmouth for Sunday morning. We wanted to get close to this departure point a few days early. We had been told that as the coming Monday was a "bank holiday" (ie 3 day weekend) the roads close to London would be heavily congested with traffic by early afternoon. Also the camp site we were in was fully booked for the weekend, and the aircraft traffic excitement had started to wear off ...

We headed to a camp site near Chichester, but with Werner taking command of my GPS (His had died on their 18 months in South America). We enjoyed many C and D roads for this leg !! (ie single lane farm roads). We've discovered where the saying ‘ & the kitchen sink’ came from….when the Brit’s go camping, they take everything & the kitchen sink. Out comes the tables & chairs, bbq’s, we even saw a little wooden coffee table set up with a table cloth!!!

At another camp site we met a couple of English women with their kids - we think they were on a weekend without the husbands.....they got their kids to ask Deb & Claudia if they could help with putting up the tents...We claimed we were busy getting our dinner sorted. Earlier in the day Steve was asked to fix a push bike for one of their kids. Then the next morning they had trouble getting one of their cars to start.....Yep, flat battery - Stephen can you help? As we were leaving to go off sightseeing could we return the jumper leads they had borrowed! We also noticed on our return there were 2 or 3 blow up mattresses left in a pile. We reckon these girls won't be back camping for sometime?! If ever!!

We had thought of getting over to see the sights of Stonehenge, but several things stopped this.

1. the 15 pound per person price + parking,

2. heavy road traffic,

3. A few locals said why bother, you get a better view on the Web as there are now barriers in place to prevent any close observation of the work.

Solved, we camped, collected food, wine and beer instead.

Sunday we headed to the ferry terminal with enough time for any navigation 'events' and arrived well in time to get something to eat and a tea or coffee breakfast.

No going up to meet the captain on this voyage...

Grey and wet was the crossing.

Boat was not full, the mid and upper inside decks were only 1/2 full.

Once we arrived later in the afternoon at the ferry terminal in Cherbourg, we drove around looking for a place to have a coffee and search for a grocery store. As it was Sunday, most shops were shut. We did eventually find a shop open to purchase some food. We stayed at a camping place down on the Peninsula...When in France remember to BYO toilet paper!!!! It is not supplied. But they are better than the UK camping sites we used. More facility's like we're used to. Despite the lack of dunny paper we like the French camp sites.

We continued to head south along the Atlantic coast to near St Marlo. We had decided to see the Mont Saint Michel island as while we did not visit the similar island near Penzance in the UK they share some history. So after some confusion about the new parking arrangements near this big tourist site, we left to find a camp site deciding that a full days visit of St Michel would be worthwhile. We were glad we did spend the extra time camping as walking the steps of the village was quite warm, even warmer if we had our riding gear on. We paid for 2 days camping close to the Mont (about 3.6kms) and set about getting dinner (Werner the chef and his two fuel burners!)

An example of our feast each night.

Next day we were sight seeing:-

Walking through the village

Le Mont Saint Michel all lit up.

Our next part of the journey took us to view these D-Day Landings at Utah & Omaha Beaches in the Normandy Region. We then went & had lunch by a church which was made famous by an American Parachutist - John Steele who had the misfortune of landing on the side of the church where his chute was entangled around a church spire. We stayed another night in France at a camp site, then it was onto Belgium & Luxembourg.

You can see the parachute hanging from the church.

On the beach

Thousands

(Many thanks to Claudia & Werner for the copy of their photos)

Belgium, we took many back roads cruising through France back into Belgium. We planned to camp at a Belgium camp site, but several things made this not transpire. One was the most expensive camping site we had come across & the guy asking us whether we were rowdy bikers!!!! Another problem was Claudia's bike battery failing, so with 200 kms to get to Remscheid we decided to ride on. First stop for a coffee at the Cafe Hubraum, in Remscheid.