Featured France, Belgium, Germany 2024

Day 1
Well I left Lincolnshire this morning for an uneventful ride down to catch the train to France.As I was a bit early, the nice machine said, " would you like to get to France sooner rather than later ". Yes please. On the other side I was greeted with nice warm sunshine, something that has been sadly lacking in the UK this year. From the tunnel I made my way to the Orchard Dump Cemetery, to pay my respect to my Great Uncle William Henry Strows. Incidentally the only Strows killed in WW1.



Off then towards my 1st B&B https://www.airbnb.fr/rooms/11286364?source_impression_id=p3_1721903652_P360KVV8FwX3POk7 I booked mine with Bookings.com. It was Ok, I wouldn't rave about it, but it wasn't expensive, so not too much to complain about really. The breakfast was sparse if I'm honest as well. The bike did 332 miles today.

Day 2
I made my way to the 2nd stop and I was here for 4 nights https://www.hotel-schroeder.be/index.html I again booked this with Bookings.com
On the way here I passed quite a few tanks for the WW2 era including this beast of a Panzer. I spent about 30 mins here talking to a Dutch couple who were touring the area as well.



The weather today had been boiling, something I was more than happy about, I saw 32 degrees. At last summer's arrived, well it had in Belgium anyway.
Bike did 162 miles today.

Day 3
Well another cracking day, and the temperatures to match too. Today would be spent visiting the locations, made famous by the TV series, "Band of Brothers' .
I first visited the memorial to Pattern, which is right out of the way in a car park, you could easily miss it, if you weren't actually looking for it. Then onto my next stop which is the Sherman Tank and a memorial to General McAuliffe.

Next stop the Memorial to the nurses of Bastogne.

Moving onto the next memorial, the Tomb for the defence of Bastogne.

The next stop on the list was the Mardasson Memorial. This is an impressive monument to say the least. I didn't go into the museum as if I'm honest I didn't have the time, plus I've been in it before.

I then made my way down a dirt track( and I'm not kidding too, a DR 350 would have been a better option than my Thunderbird, but it was too late to turn back now ) to another memorial, The Easy Company war cross.

I met 3 Australians here, and we were having a good old chin way, for about 30 mins or so, before

 

I moved on to what is a bone of contention for some. This is the site where the men lived, and died in horrific circumstances. " Bois Jacques Foxholes 101st easy company." You have to pay to walk around where hell was on earth for these guy's. Now I can understand that by fencing this off to protect what must be to some, a sacred site, but I think it's a bit much to ask for 20 Euros to walk around what is in real terms a forest, which is a shadow of what it was really like. A tough one really, one local guide is not impressed by the charging to go into see it. You can see the foxholes at the side of the road. I then made my way to La Roche En Ardennes. This is a beautiful little town, and well worth a visit if you're in the area. Plus there were loads of bikes there to look at too, so what's not to like. I parked up and noticed a giant Ice Cream cone, as it was in the mid 30's, it seemed daft not to indulge oneself in a lovely ice cream, which I did just that.


Well after about an hour I decided to move to the next thing I wanted to see, which was the Cascade de Coo. https://www.cascades-de-coo.be/ This is an impressive waterfall, OK it's no Niagara, but don't pass by it if you're in the area, free bike parking too.

Well onto my next stop which was the King Tiger Tank. http://www.december44.com/en/tiger-213.htm
This thing was enormous. I couldn't get over just how big it was, no wonder the Sherman Tanks went up when this thing came round the corner.

From here to the next memorial, which was the site of the Malmedy massacre.
https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/the-malmedy-massacre
It's here that more than 80 American Soldiers were murdered by the SS.





The field above, is where they believe that the massacre took place.
From here back to base, the Thunderbird had done 161 miles today, and as I wasn't going too fast, I was getting 66 miles to the gallon.

 

Day 4
Woke up to yet another stunning day, this time I'm off to the Café Hubraum, it's a café north east of Cologne, I'd been before, but it was closed, so why not try again. Well I went via Cologne, as I wanted to get a few pictures of the Cathedral,
having got my pictures off I went to the café.
It's a great place to stop and have something to eat. I asked if it was possible to buy a cup, the young lad said he didn't know, so anyway after I sat down to tuck into some traditional German food, the young lad came back and said that the owner was so impressed that I came over from England to visit his café, he just gave me a brand new cup.
I was gobsmacked, I was more than happy to buy one, but he wouldn't have. Bikers are the same all over the world, good honest down to earth people. I think I spent about 3 hours here, just enjoying the glorious weather, and the bikes coming and going. I then made my way home via Bonn and the German Autobahn. All good fun. The Thunderbird did 192 miles today.

 

Day 5
Well off today to another biker café, this time the Biker Ranch in Eiffel https://biker-ranch-eifel.de/ I'd been here a few times before, on my way back to the Hook of Holland, but had never really taken the time to have a ride around the area, so this time I thought I'd put the right. I got to the café at about 11.30 and had an ice cream. I'd already planned a 53 mile loop from the café, which should see me return just in time for din din's. The countryside around this area is just jaw droppingly beautiful, and if you're in the area, then don't miss it, you'll not be disappointed. Well 2 and a bit hours later I returned to the café to fill my stomach with German Schnitzel, and a sauce that I've forgotten the name of, along with the obligatory French Fries, and a weak beer, well 20% beer and 80% lemonade. It all went down a treat. I waited a while before making my way back to base, where a Banana Split was the order of the evening.

 

Day 6
Time to move west today I stayed at this hotel https://www.hollemeersch.be/hotel/



It had everything I needed. The ride here was uneventful and not many. In the evening I made my way to the Menin Gate for the 20.00hrs ceremony.
Now I'd challenge anybody not to fill up when the buglers get going, talk about an emotional ceremony. Don't miss this if you're in the area. Sadly the gate is completely covered, as there is ongoing restoration work. But this has to be done so future generations will hopefully pay the respects that this place, and all the names on it rightly deserves.

Then off to Black Watch Corner then home for the night.

 

Day 7
Today my 1st stop was to the site of the Wormhoudt massacre. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wormhoudt_massacre


This is quite out of the way, and it's not very well signposted, but if you google it, you'll find the location easy enough. There were only 2 other people there, and it was a windy day. I couldn't help thinking that this was the last place that they were ever to see before they were just murdered.
I then made my way to Hill 62, better known as Sanctuary Wood
http://www.hill62trenches.be/nl

This is a very interesting place to visit. You just can't imagine what it must have been like, and the death and destruction that went on here. It was with that in mind that 2 coach loads of English kids turned up and thought it would be a great way to show respect, by screaming at the tops of their heads and running around, as if it were a bloody playground. The teachers weren't much better, then they all had a group screaming video done by the teachers. I was a pratt I should have said something.
Fortunately the finishing school for morons moved on, and a sense of calm returned.

 

I then made my way to the memorial, which is just a short ride up the road, I could have walked it if I'm honest. Then onto the Sanctuary wood cemetery, http://www.wo1.be/en/db-items/sanctuary-wood-cemetery then onto Tyne cot cemetery, it's hard to imagine that they're over 11000 soldiers laid to rest here.
https://www.cwgc.org/visit-us/find-cemeteries-memorials/cemetery-details/53300/tyne-cot-cemetery/

 

Then onto Canada Gate. This was the final part of my trip, as tomorrow I'd be making my way home. Only did 77 miles today, but it was a long day taking the time to visit these sites.

Day 8
Home time. I left the hotel again, in glorious weather and made my way to the tunnel, I was booked in on the 13.10 train, but thought that I might be able to get an earlier train if I were lucky. Anyway about 1hr 45 mins later and I was at the Euro tunnel, brilliant. I began by entering all the details into the nice machine, who knew me personally ( Amazing ) Then the boarding card was printed out, and I was good to go, or so I thought. Now in over 40 years of going to Europe, I've never had a problem until now. The bike's battery had decided that it had had enough of life and went to visit the great battery heaven in the sky. Bollocks, what a time to die. That was it, nothing happened at all, so I pushed the bike through the open barrier, and looked around for some big guys to help me bump start the beast. Well long story short, and with the help of some great Dutch bikers, they helped me bump start the old girl, and off I went. I did stop before we got off the train completely to shake their hands and say a big thank you to them all. So all that was to do was to complete the 200 mile ride without stalling or turning the engine off to fill her up twice. Both of which were achieved without drama, about 4 hrs later.
The bike did 276 miles that day, with an overall distance covered of 1557 miles.
I had a great tip, and enjoyed every minute of it.
Here is a link to a few more pictures I took along the way. There's also a 20 min video, with my awful voice for you to enjoy.
France, Belgium Germany 2024

 

You're most welcome Dav, I was filling up when the last post was played, and I don't mind admitting it.

 

Just a few pictures when I went a few years ago now.

 

That's the thing. I was really pissed off, and walking away from them, I should have stopped being pissed off, engaged my brain cell, and said something. Total disrespect.