Wednesday

I used my frequent Flyer miles to arrange a business class flight CVG to LGW. Without a doubt, this is the way to fly to Europe. I had lamb, wine and lobster tail on the flight. I arrived Thursday Morning and drug, carried and wrestled my gear bag on the tube to King’s Cross. That could be considered brave, noble or just stupid. I got there in time for the 9:30 train as everything was delayed that morning. I left an hour early and got to Darlington two hours later than my train should have arrived. Where is Thomas The Tank Engine, being very useful, when you need him?

Friday

I worked with Tony on web page stuff, sorted out his PC a bit. It is always nice to be able to sit and get adjusted on the first day or two of a trip. I was quite anxious about going I think, but this was also a business trip of sort also. While I was anxious, the days went by quickly and I slept very well at night. We stopped frequently throughout the day to eat and have tea. It was almost always in the garden which was nice as the temperature was great for this.

Saturday

Tony was intent on me getting the bike prepped for my departure. I assured him it was already to snap in place. However, his bags were not quite as deep as mine, so I had to work to get the stuff in the panniers a bit. Everything went on according to plan. TABS members came out for a BBQ. Several turned out and it was a beautiful day. They all were people I had heard of and had done several BikeShares. They all seemed genuinely happy with the access that TABS gave them to tour overseas. As usual for me, the people I meet in TABS are are great people and easy to talk to.

It all went by very quickly and Tony said it was time so I left for the ferry at Hull about 4:00 p.m. It took a little getting used to Tony’s BMW K100LT as it is larger and a bit taller in the saddle. Part of that is also down to riding on the left side of the road. That never feels completely normal, but you get back to your fundamental mental skills and pay attention. Overall the ride down to Hull was good. The traffic slowed things up a bit, but it was not too bad. I tried to rely more on common sense navigation and less on the tankbag map. As I cannot read it while I’m riding anymore it was more necessity, then innovation. The ferry looked brand new in and out. The parking arrangements for the bike were first rate. I had a nice dinner in the buffet and went out on deck to shoot video and try to wind down a bit. The ferry had Internet service so I e-mailed home and explored the boat.

Sunday

I got up early and headed over to the buffet to be first in line so I would have time to load up the bike. It all went pretty smoothly. Generally, at this point, everything seemed hurried and a bit of a hassle. Much of this was down to chasing deadlines for different forms of public transport. I worked very hard to just relax and go with the flow. I had intentionally set very limited goals for distances and things to see so that this wouldn’t turn into a mileage grind and no fun. The ride from the ferry past Rotterdam was good. The Dutch work very conscientiously to make even the most industrial objects look attractive and interesting. The Dutch had well designed bridges and large white power generating windmills that all added to the modern artistic look. The morning was cooler but still a bit stuffy. I stopped for gas after about an hour.

I headed off toward Arnhem to see the American Airborne and British cemetery from “Operation Market Garden.” It was a very quite place and very peaceful. I had started reading a book, Band of Brothers about the “E” Company American paratroopers. They jumped into this battle and lost several members of their company. The book added to the trip as I went to several of the places that they fought.

The home of my ancetors is Borculo, Gelderland, NL. I was supposed to meet with Hans Geerlig to talk about Borculo history. At the last minute Hans had to leave on holiday for the Friesland Province a couple of days early. So I decided to spend my time riding over to Geesteren and some of the local small roads and lanes to get more of a feel for the area. It was clear that Geesteren and Borculo are geographically very close. You no sooner left one and crossed the main road and you were in the other.

While I was riding the last 20 miles on the secondary roads people were out everywhere riding bicycles, walking, horseback riding, etc…It was getting pretty warm and the fairing on the K100LT didn’t help as it put a lot of engine heat back on me. Asi it would turn out, this was the beginning of one of the hottest summers ever in Europe. I went looking for the campgrounds listed in the area, but I didn’t really have any luck. The Berkel Palace had a room for 42 Euros per night. It was still early afternoon so I decided to check in, cool off and take a nap. I rode over to town to shoot some video and take some pictures.

I decided to skip the Watermolen Restaurant, as it was 55 Euros per meal. I went to the Muralt Restaurant, which is where Leslie, Kaitlyn and I ate in the past. They served up a great mahi-mahi dinner. I've never had a bad meal at this establishment. I walked around town for a few hours. I really explored a bit more than in the past. It was still very hot with no A/C at the Berkel palace. That night I went to arrange for inside storage of the K100LT which is standard operating procedure in Europe. While I was walking back I asked the Hotel manager how she pronounced the town name. She said the name and added, “…like you last name.” She added that a couple of years ago, they had a visit from a man and his daughter with the same name. I told her that it had been Kaitlyn and me. She laughed.

Monday
Borculo, NL – Spa, BE

I went into town to take some pictures and stop by the store. I then turned on the helmet camera and headed south on the route toward Masstricht, which took me into the Germany for awhile. I finally felt like I was getting in tune with the bike and riding it with less effort. I stayed on the motorway passed Maastricht as I decided not to stay there. It was still warm and I wasn’t too motivated to battle traffic in the heat on Tony’s bike. I stopped at a service area for a sandwich and sorted out my map. I headed off toward Spa to find a place to camp for the night. This worked out well as I got into the area early enough to look around and see what my options were. I found a campground on the hill above Spa. It was a very friendly place and had some shade. The campground owner told me he was glad I was an American that was not on a Harley as he thought they were junk. Things were starting to cool off slightly which was nice. I got set up, looked around the campground and headed for the pay showers.

I walked into Spa for a quite dinner. The town looked a little run down on my ride through earlier. It turned out they were having a street-music festival called the "Francofolies". It was a great time. Street food vendors were everywhere and it was free for the most part. There was a guy with a karoke machine on top of a pink 1950s Cadillac singing love songs in French. It was a great place to wander around and people watch. The music was good and it was a great way to see an otherwise run down little village. I found an Internet café and it was very cheap to use. I had a little trouble figuring out their keyboard as the letters and characters weren’t exactly like they are in the U.S. I walked back up the looooong hill to the campground. It started to thunder and lightning off toward the east. Eventually it came the way of the "Burklow tent" as tradition would have it. If a Burklow puts a tent up, the rain comes down. It rained pretty hard for about 10 minutes and the tent did great. Later there was a large explosion. I figured it out to be fireworks. Lying in the tent in the Ardennes, with the fireworks going off, it was easy to visualize what it might have sounded like to be a foot soldier in WWII.

Tuesday
Spa, BE – Brugge, BE

I went back to Spa to a bakery for some pasteries. I rode a winding road over to Francorchamps and to the track. They were setting up for a 24 hour sports car event. The guy at the paddock gate was very nice and watched my helmet and jacket. I went over to the grandstand to see "The Turn in F-1"...Eau Rouge. It was something else. It was much taller and narrower than it looks in pictures and on TV. F1 drivers talk about going through Eau Rouge “flat.” After seeing it, that means something. I couldn’t find the museum and it was still a bit warm so I moved on. The area is beautiful for riding. I rode on to Brugge on the motorway moving with traffic around 85-90 mph for the entire distance. I think I enjoy hammering a bike down the motorway as much as I enjoy the site seeing. Brugge was a little hard to sort out. The town is a mixture of one-way streets and little to no parking. I went to the information desk at the train station. They arranged for a place for 50 Euros per night at the Hotel Montovani. It was quite a nice place within a good distance of Market Square. I cleaned up and walked to the square. I looked around a bit and had a dinner of mussels, fritjes and bread. It was nice to relax, walk around and see what there might be to see to explore.

Wednesday

I started off by going to the Coffee Link, which is a cyber café. It is the perfect place for e-mail, cappuccino, pastries, relaxing, reading or whatever you like. I wandered around a bit and took a canal ride it was picturesque, but a bit shorter than what you would get in Amsterdam. This was mainly due to some very low bridges. It turned out here there was no longer ferry service from Oostend to Dover. I decided to ride to Calais to the P&O terminal the next morning.

Thursday

On the ride to Calais from Brugge it rained most of the way. It was a nice ride as it was cooler than it had been. The fairing and my raingear made it very easy going. I arrived at Dover after about a one-hour ferry ride. It was cool at the port in Dover, which was welcomed. I had a very hard time finding gas after getting off of the ferry. The last time it seemed very easy. The motorway followed the white cliffs for awhile and then turned northwest toward London. I had a nice ride up to Brands Hatch. The trip so far had been very nice as I didn’t ride so late to get to my destinations. By getting to a town in the afternoon I didn’t feel like I had to rush to find a place and get things sorted out. Arrival at Brands Hatch was a pretty straight forward affair. I rode in, they directed me to the bike park. They had lockers for £10 where you could store helmets, jackets and other valuables. A guy in a van took me, and my gear, to the camping area. He thought I was from Canada and was very keen on me attending the race and having a good weekend. I have often found people are very proud of their country and want to make sure you have a good visit. The van driver was very specific about putting me next to some Belgians as he told me, “The Belgian are always nice folks lad.” I got to setting my tent up and setting up house for the next 3 days. I was looking forward to being in one place for a few days and just relaxing.

I noticed two guys with a grill hanging out. I wasn’t sure about my tickets and how things were setup at the track. We started chatting, they shared the food on the grill and we got along great. Their names were Lee and Darin. It was great to get to chat with some people after a week of solitude and riding. The fact that they were true motorcycle nuts didn’t hurt.

Lee and Paul had set up the tents for all of their friends that were scheduled to ride in over the next few hours. It became clear later that evening that getting the grill going and the beer out took a little precedent over good tent rigging. John and Donna got in after dark and by then the weather had gone bad with rain and some wind. From the start John started needling Lee and Darin about the job they did setting up their tent, while Lee and Darin dished it right back. I decided to help setup which was a great way to break the ice and meet new friends. We settled in for an evening of chat and war stories. I laughed so much my face started to hurt.

The more I chatted with my new friends the more I understood what an event like this was all about. They estimated there would be between 100,000 and 120,000 spectators on race day. The organizers seemed to have a pretty good plan. There was a “Bike Park” security cameras, portable showers, plenty of vending available and this was Thursday. There was even a large tent set up which was run by a British grocery chain. The beauty was I didn’t have to touch the bike, mess with traffic. All I had to do was enjoy the event. Brands Hatch has a lot of history to it and I spent a lot of time just walking around enjoying being at such a place with a rich motor sport history. There was the “Paragon” which was a pub right outside of the grandstands. It had loud music, beer of course and a lot of people watching potential.

Friday

Friday started out with a steady drizzle. I didn’t care as I had my rain gear and it wasn’t pouring down. I started out by walking over to the gang where I proceeded to cook their breakfast. They seemed to like the idea and their cuisine demands were pretty easy to meet.

It was great to get back to a weekend of race watching. I wandered around trying to get a feel for the track, where to watch and learning the riders. You forget how much TV helps you follow the action. I truly enjoyed getting to see the Foggy-Petronas bikes.

The gang all chatted about who was going to do what Friday night. I heard some mumbling about the track and a lot of laughing and grinning. As it turned out, we were going on a special covert operation that night. The mission was to take the fold up kick scooters they had brought, sneak on to the track and do a lap. I then asked what was involved in getting out of jail in this country. We went over to the turn 2 area. I told them I had noticed a place by the corner worker’s station where they could get through the fence. The track security unit was lapping the track in a Land Rover Discovery. They looked for their window of opportunity and off they went. They went around Druids turn and down the hill. All we could see were shadowy figures gliding through the night followed by fearful screams as they gained speed going down the hill. Shortly after that we heard the sound of crashing scooters and then silence. I turned to one of their buddies and asked what their “rescue policy” was amongst their group. He said if they get hurt and security shows up, screw’em! Everyone is on their own! They all made it back in about twenty minutes. During that time we saw security out with bright handheld searchlights, dogs barking and various shadows moving in the dark. Lee decided to give it one more go down the hill from turn two toward turn one. He took off down the hill and the scooter picked up speed very quickly. Keeping with the night’s events, we saw a few sparks, shadowy feet and arms flailing in the air followed by painful noises. The security Land Rover returned as Lee dove behind the guardrail. His first plan was to run back up the hill. That lasted about ten strides until he was winded. He opted for hiding out.

Saturday

Saturday started out very nice. It turned out to be just the opposite of Friday. The day was spectacular until it started raining about 4:30 during the WSB Super Pole and didn’t let up. The wind also kicked up. In spite of our best efforts the canopy didn’t survive.

I hung out in the tent all night with the gang. We had moved everything into the big tent to cook. This began to smoked us out, but it was better than standing in the rain. So it became a night of conversation, war stories, tea, beers, cakes and more beers. I also learned what “Bubble and squeak” is. It was a nasty evening weather wise, but we made lemonade out of lemons.

Sunday

Over 100,000 people usually show up. They were still pouring in as I left. I packed up, pointed the K100LT north to Tony's and did about 225 miles in 4.5 hours. I treatd myself to a ride through the Yorkshire Moors to re-trace my 1995 trip. It was a great road with great views. I can't wait to go back!