Kiwi Dreams - Europe & Morocco 2014

Thank you so much for posting all that Eric, I never realised how young he was when he died, and he achieved so much.

I know that in Auckland (NZ) there is a school named after him

My first bike, an almost brand new 1979 Suzuki GS 750 was stolen in Caen while touring Normandie. While at the police station reporting the theft, I met two British WW II vets. They had been touring the cemeteries to visit with their fallen comrades, 35 years after D-day. Their bike, a Honda CB 400 f, had also been stolen that same night. :huh

Growing up in Denmark, Bruce was one of my childhood heroes. He died on my 11th birthday. Dan Gurney, himself a Prince among Men, speaks highly of him. Here's Bruce with Graham Hill, left, and Jim Clark, right. All Champions, all gone. Those cotton overalls didn't exactly hold a candle to the modern nomex suits. I wonder what the leather strap on Jim Clark's elbow is for?

I seem to have been riding all day today so was surprised to see that I had only done 400km. And about 100km of that was while I was sitting on 120km/hr on the motorway (speed limit is 130). KT does those speeds effortlessly and it was easy for the speed to creep up (120is my own limit).

Mo (the name for my Zumo GPS) took me on a very scenic route out of Le Havre. The route went over this bridge, pictures don't do it justice, it was %#^* high. I think as I get older my head for heights diminishes, I was NOT looking at the view. (Is this the bridge that was part of the teams times trial a few years ago for Le Tour where Lance Armstrong dropped his team and had to sit up and wait for them?)



Morning "medicine" Honfleur, a gorgeous little town



France tops the list for tourists numbers and with sites like Mont Saint Michel you can see why. I was impressed with the big car parks, free shuttle buses to and from etc



Unfortunately today there was just too many people trying to squeeze through the alleys. You could only go as fast as the person in front of you, and when that was a family with a stroller and (!) a dog, it was slow going. Patience isn't my strong suit so I got out of there early.



Two other points to mention.

I took the wrong exit off the motorway and managed to do a u turn on the ramp and ride back to the motorway and carry on (hopefully there is no ticket in the mail!)

If you live in Le Mans and were late home due to delays at the toll booth I must apologise. It doesn't matter how hard you force a 5 Euro note into the credit card slot if don't accept it (took me a while to notice the correct slot for bank bills)

Big day tomorrow - Le Mans race car (and bike?) museum and not far to ride to Tours

A trick for you : When riding the motorway, never choose an automated toll booth which makes you pay the car price. Choose a manned booth where you will pay much cheaper for the motorcycle price.

I wondered why it cost so much more today. From a distance how do you pick the manned ones?

Yellow symbol lane : subscription automatic magnetic field badge.
CB symbol middle lanes : pay with plastic (credit card).
Man symbol lane : pay with cash or plastic at a manned booth.

Is there a chance that there is no manned booth?

Edit - come to think of it, maybe that last toll had a sign above one of the booths for motorbikes?

I was reading a very cool book with my girl called "The Billionaires curse" or similar. They had MSM as the scene for all the action including the quicksand by the causeway. When we googled the image of it, it was how the author had perfectly described it.



It's on our dream trip list!

It is beautiful, you can see it from a long way out (quite flat by the coast) as you can see from this pic (note that I have copied Phreaky Phil's idea of arrows on mirrors to remind me, especially on the little lanes, what side of the road to be on!)



Time to zoom zoom, Le Mans race cars waiting in the museum!

Just found this. Itinerary looks amasing. Subscribed. Look forward to your updates :)


Sent from my GT-I9195 using Tapatalk

Yes inmates today I can offer pure petrol head pornography.

How gorgeous is this, 12 cylinder air cooled Porsche 917. It won the 24 hour race in 1971 and possibly still holds the record for distance covered.



There are too many cars there to mention them all, but one other that took my fancy and will take my sons, as we have both owned Rotary Mazdas, is the race winner from 1975, a Mazda rotary which is still the only Japanese manufacturer to have won the race.



Leaving the museum I headed to Mulsanne, The Mulsanne straight is possibly the fastest part of any race track in the world, Le Mans cars exceed 320 km/hr along it. It was strange riding on a public road with Armco both sides, catch fencing etc thinking that on race day cars would be going over 5 times my speed.

The other highlight of another wet day, yes my gloves are drying yet again, was the Chateau De Chenonceau, a beautiful place

excellent reporting Mike - you and Leanne (when she arrives) have a great time and travel safe - looks like you're having a great time so far.

What you using for connectivity - Macca's free wifi and an iPad or something else

Go well - S

Funny you should mention McDonalds Steve, I am sitting in one right now near Bordeaux (will be my first and last experience of French McDonalds).

So yes on the wifi here, otherwise I am staying in bed and breakfasts (check out www.airbnb.com, good value accommodation and it is really good staying with the locals in what has been some very old houses) and so far they have all had wifi.

Yes this time next week Leanne will be here, definitely looking forward to that!

Regards

Kiwi Mike

Tonight I am in Libourne, it is the wine making capital of this part if France.

This morning started with rain but I am glad to say I have finished with dry gloves.

Francis (whose bed in breakfast I stayed in) gave me a couple of suggestions for places to stop on the way out of Tours. It worked well as it kept me away, for most of the day, from toll roads. A couple of pictures today.

These are from the town of Azay Le Rideau, there is another wonderful chateau there. Old cobble stones are interesting to ride on in the wet.



My gloves strategically placed to dry while I visit the bakery for morning tea



Tomorrow off to Spain with some detours to look at the wine region of Bordeaux. I have been surprised at how beautiful France is, the Loire Valley in particular is stunning, with great scenery and roads to ride.

Nice work Y1 cool report

Enjoying the report, thankyou. Also have a soft spot for the old Wankel engine! Bought my Dads RX2 off him years ago- a real minter. Unfortunately it was like my Kawasaki 750 H2 and was incapable of passing a petrol station without a visit. Your report has me hanging out for our trip to Europe next year.

Nice, I had an RX3 coupe, boy did that drink the fuel when towing a trailer with 3 bikes on. Love to have it now though.

Kiwi mike

Slept well last night after a couple of glasses of red, thank you Armand!

Had a nice ride through hectares and hectares of grape vines on the way to St Emillion. From my "expert" eye next year's vintage is going to be a classic



After some nice windy roads found I ended up on the motorway with the GPS telling me 185 km to the next turn :-(

I detoured into Biaritz to see where the beautiful people go to play. Luckily, or unluckily, not the nicest of days for them to be out. It is a nice town though.



Finding where my bnb was in San Sebastián was a bit of a mission. Apologies to those people I held up at the lights, yes I do accept I was in the wrong lane and that you had a green light but my light was still red so I couldn't move (I also missed the turn off to San Sebastián, I had to go an extra 6 kms)

I walked into town and decided to treat myself with a rum and coke. That did cause a few problems when I told the bar man I wanted them both in the SAME glass. Man could he pour the rum, I was afraid there would be no room for the coke. After drinking it I was glad I walked there and didn't need to ride home



Finally as this is a bike site, a couple if pics of bikes I saw in town.

A Gas Gas super motard, check out the slick rear tyre, how much fun would that be in the wet?



Finally a couple of Africa Twins, I went past three coming into town so not sure why so many of them are here?



A day off the bike tomorrow, time to do some chores and get some exercise.

Kiwi Mike

Hello Mike.If you have Time i would like to advise to visit Sintra and the Palacio da pena http://www.parquesdesintra.pt/en/parks-and-monuments/park-and-national-palace-of-pena/
Is a 30 minute ride from Lisbon. Just take the IC19 road.

In Lisbon also a good place to visit and Eat is "Pasteis de Belem"
http://www.pasteisdebelem.pt/en.html


On your way from Lisbon to Faro i advise to ride the pay tollroad A2 Highway (A2 - Auto Estrada do Sul) and exit in Grandola( around 100km from Lisbon) and then ride on national Road to Algarve, ( and save some money on toll) because from "Aguas de Moura" to "Alcacer do Sal" the road is not very good and is worst from "Alcacer do Sal" to "Grandola" because the roots of trees grow up and broke the tarmac. The tarmac is full of holes and cracks. After " Grandola" the national road is good, almost no traffic.
In "Canal Caveira" Police like to install speed radar, so always below 50km/h.


In the Algarve national road 125 (EN125) is a dangerous and full of traffic road. Now with the begining of summer is full of rentalcars, shuttlebus and crazy locals. Be carefull with u-turns and overtakes. Also this road passes within the citys instead around them, so traffic can be even move heavy.


You can use the A22 best know as Via do Infante, but beware is a paid tollroad, but without tollbooth. I will look for more info about foreign veicules using the A22 - Via do Infante. (I have a electronic device called "Via Verde" in my car for paying tollroad and in my bike i dont use the A22 or any other Highways. I like to ride national roads).

In Portugal is Ok and tolerate to motorcycles go beetween cars on a traffic lane (when cars are stop) but dont expect to car drivers to move for you to pass if the gap is small. Dont horn or anything. You will problaby end blocked between two cars. Just wait a bit untill traffic starts to move , and then just go.


Have a nice ride and ride safe. I hope you enjoy your trip and like even more Portugal.