Blogs from Hampshire, England, United Kingdom, Europe - page 5

So......7 weeks, 12 countries..... the holiday is coming to an end ? ? Back to the UK today for a couple of days then wing our way home. ? ✈️ ? England x2 France Spain Monaco Italy x3 Greece San Marino Austria Liechtenstein Switzerland Germany x2 Holland Got back to Uk with lovely sunshine, went to the Portsmouth dockyard museum to see the Mary Rose and Nelsons warship Victory. Nice. Time to Pack up for the last time, ready for the long trip home ? Thanks so much to Tony and Lynne for your hospitality and ferrying us around, really made our holiday great. Back to reality, oh no!!! ?... read more

It feels like we have done no preparation for this trip. Much of the kit is still packed and ready to throw back onto the bike. We aren't doing a big tour this time so no routes to plan. We just needed to agree and book a destination and set the dates. Oh and this time, we are going with friends, Ken and Briony. One significant piece of prep was to change the springs on the bike. Last trip was done with a leaking front fork. Although this didn't seriously affect the handling, the loss of oil meant the bike tended to wallow and dive under breaking. I decided I'd have a crack and fixing this myself... ok with a lot of help from Ken. As the forks were coming off I also thought it a ... read more

We weren’t too sure what Jean and Stella have planned for us today but the weather doesn’t look too bad for some sightseeing in the Portsmouth area. Breakfast done and we are off to the Portsmouth Historic Dockyard and with Stella driving we can sit back and be passengers. Like most large cities Portsmouth can be a problem to find a car park handy to where you are going so we travelled down to the Park and Ride and took a double decker bus down to the harbour where the bus stopped almost right outside the entrance. Portsmouth has had a long association of over 800 years with the Royal Navy although the days of the Navy needing all of the port for its facilities have passed and what they don’t need has been developed into ... read more

17:50 Wednesday 6thJuly 2016. Start my European adventure at the Hard, Portsmouth. Boarding the coach there was a lot of emotions flying around from both myself and the family members that came to see me off. I had already said my goodbyes to my dad as he is unable to travel the distance. I settle in on the coach to London Victoria Coach station. I could dribble on about the traffic and the annoying people on the bus but…….you know how it is. It seemed like no time at all and we had arrived. I collect the lightest rucksack ever packed (NOT) from the hold and make my way to the magical gate number 18 that’s going to transport me too far away lands. The check in was easy, Check name, given labels for bags and ... read more

The thing about motorcycle holidays is what to pack? The lack of space can be a real challenge. The essentials that come with riding tend to dictate everything. Your packing is more about riding clothes, spare gloves, wet weather suits etc. Even your boots are a problem. Normally there are the shoes you travel in plus a couple of extra pairs. Because you travel in your boots the, the extra pair(s) end up taking up a lot of space in your luggage. It gets even more interesting if you have a passenger. Fortunately the Tiger has big boxes and a good carrying capacity. Better yet, Julia is a realist and can pack light. It is fair to say we have over packed in the past. Especially if we have travelled to a destination for a week. ... read more