Terry and Sooz's Travels: Friday, July 14, 2023

I'm catching up after a few days. This past Monday the 10th we left Berlin, me feeling on the mend but Sooz caught what I had and was not feeling great. We rode to Hannover, Germany where we stayed Monday night. Tuesday we crossed through the Netherlands ending in Antwerp, Belgium for the night. Wednesday we rode to Calais, France where we had a great lunch, boarded the ferry to Dover, England, and stayed the night there. Last night and tonight we are staying in Reading, England. Tomorrow, we ride to stay the night in Bristol, England.

Sooz is feeling much better, which is great. It has been very windy since leaving Berlin with temps in the upper 60s to low 80s. The last few days have been a bit of a whirlwind after Berlin and mostly going from point to point, not much to write about and few pictures.

The ferry ride was uneventful, which is good, but also very windy. I was a bit concerned I might get motion sickness, but we ended up meeting a couple of teachers from England who were chaperoning a group of middle school students, and talked with them for most of the 1.5 hour trip across the Straight of Dover. One of the teachers was a motorcycle rider with 2 bikes in the garage and wanted to hear about our adventures. Her friend was a retired teacher who knew a lot about England and Wales so filled us in on recommended areas to visit. Pulling into the Dover port, we were able to see the White Cliffs of Dover.

Our son Max and his girlfriend Ash are going to join us Sunday for several days in Cardiff, Wales. We are really looking forward to that, and I think they are too.

I was able to schedule the GS to be serviced while we are in Cardiff with Max and Ash. That should work out well since we won't be riding when they are with us. It has been a real challenge scheduling the bike to be serviced. The earliest I could get the work done at the BMW shop was August 15 and that was in an out of the way shop. Every other shop I contacted said nothing was available until mid-September, which is too late. The shop in Cardiff is not a BMW shop but they were recommended by the (booked up) BMW shop there. The GS just clicked over 60k miles and needs new tires, brakes and oil/filter change. I am very happy to say, that the GS has been running great.

This is our new motorcycle buddy who was fascinated by our the GS. He was not scared at all and did not even blink when I started it up. His Mom was watching nervously just outside the picture, but approved.

We get a notice like this on our phones everytime we enter a new country. Our T-Mobile contract includes a good international service plan.

I ordered a steak from a French restaurant in Calais called CÔTE À CÔTE. Sooz had a salad and we shared the dessert below. We just stumbled on the place and it did not look like much from the road, but the food was excellent.