Gerontious

If my friends could see me now - Sammy Davis Jr.

People from certain towns in Warwickshire are known to fall to the ground and start foaming at the mouth when they realise that some people.. Especially Northerners, have more disposable income than they do... This is especially prevalent in Tory run constituencies. Be kind.. Consider donating to their local food bank.

Quite right too. Brown sauce ftw.

One thing that all the regulars noticed... The food has definitely gone up a notch or two. It was already good, this year it was better. Improved in admittedly fairly minor ways... But as a package entire? It was already excellent value for money, this year it was exceptional. Which made up, somewhat, for the dire value of the £.

It wasnt schnapps.. it was genuine bonafide moonshine from Romania.. not the sort of thing one normally gets offered in the Uk by a hotelier.. but at this place all bets are off. On the tuesday the rest of us had a spiffing jaunt through the VulkanEifel.. up to the Ahr Valley. via the nurgle.. for a requested photo opportunity. a dietary assault of epic proportions which was followed by another.. (just for good measure) at an english owned cafe.. who did proper british cream teas.. the owner did a lot of complaining about he can no longer get PG Tips.. from his local supplier. which the germans thought was wonderfully rustic. and now sadly missed. but hey ho. the cake was extremely pleasant and its really a remarkable feat that room in stomachs was found for it. but hey ho.. Igloo went in search of cool gear... It had been a very hot day and the rest of us then wended our way via many twisty bits to the hotel hoping for something light and easily avoided for dinner... I had already said NO to sauerkraut. so.. avoiding that was already dealt with. And it was of course Schnitzel night.. something we have subjected ourselves to 5 times now.. schnitzel chips and salad... with a lot of sighing and all schnitzel demolished... as well as most of the chips and salad. it was a struggle. one of the many reasons for returning to this particular hotel year after year is its schnitzel.. amongst others. (free moonshine) The lovely Frau kruft.. the hoteliers wife, who learnt everything to know about the english language from watching subtitled soaps in her native Romanian.. plied us with hooch. and a chat. apparently we are the only english people they ever see.. aside from waifs and strays that have gone with us and returned solo.. and a couple of Americans last year.. the place has been devoid of brits. Apparently we were much missed last year.. when we had a break from the eifel and went to the south of france. But.. they were happy to see us again giving the place a smidge of international flair.. and increased beer sales. (they do very nice beer) we was all right wobbly that night. aside from goody two shoes bonio. obviously. (but his time was coming)

Seven seas of Rhye - Queen

Fig rolls... kept in the fridge.

Are we pretending we didn't stop for masses of cake and ice cream sundaes at about 4:30, then? Just to be clear on the matter. No regrets I have no idea what you are talking about.. you are obviously confused after too much faffing about with modern rear disc brakes. (it happens) Try faffing less.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Evas-Austrian-Cook-Book-Thorne/dp/1409217949

The look on his face was a picture. because the breakfast at our hotel is huge.. lunch is usually a fairly small affair. However on that day.. circumstances conspired against us. Lunch is nearly always a spur of the moment thing. More often than not an appropriate place appeasr as if by magic within minutes of deciding its 'lunch time'. But.. not on that day. It was getting later and later and we saw nothing until about 2pm when we stopped off for fuel and spotted this Cafe next door.. cafe/bistro. So.. I had a quick look and it was a "Biker Cafe'.. a first for us thats not a roadside cabin. This was a proper brick building.. Pic courtesy of google. with a fair number of bikes parked at the side and a load of bikers tucking in. The menu was fairly ordinary by local standards.. ballast rather than haute cuisine. but good enough and not expensive. Bonio ordered soup and tuna toasties.. and what arrived was a feed the 5,000 feast. just one of the toasties would have been enough, let alone 4. plus a gallon of soup and enough bread to feed a starving village. This at well past 2pm when the evening meal was going to be served up just a very short 4/5 hours later. And of the group.. Bonio is the lightest eater. (and drinker). The place seemed to think that 'getting your moneys worth' was the number one consideration and of the highest importance. And of course that day was Schnitzel day at the hotel.. the high point of the week. (sigh) But.. for me, its these randomly daft to the point of hysterically funny events that make these trips worthwhile.

The food (it was in Belgium) at the motorway service is great and very affordable. proper food, often cooked while you wait. and if thats the case its delivered to your table. It has absolutely nothing in common with British motorway services which seem to be all about extracting as much money as possible as the price of a loo stop. There is a charge to use the Loo in Belgium... but the price is then discounted from anything you buy. food or anything from the shop. I bought a 1.5 lite bottle of Fanta at the shop.. with the loo ticket it cost me €1. Its my strategy to stop every 40 miles or so.. the longest leg on the motorway is 65 miles. This is because i find it hugely boring.. but also these frequent stops help those with smaller tank ranges do the distance without stressing about running short. it works well. A long day just a little less tiring. So when we get off the motorway and head across country on proper roads we're not already worn out. The entire ride from the Tunnel is about 265 miles.. with the last 80 being just great.

yes. it do.

up a bit. down a bit. left a bit. FIRE !!

I tested an NC750X DCT a few months ago and thought it was great fun. to call it an automatic isn't exactly fair as you can bypass the automatic.. and change gears manually. but you use a control on the handlebars rather than your foot. The automatic function is all about fuel economy.. that is all its for. Im 6'5. 6'7 in my boots and I found it a great fit, the bike is rather larger in real life than you would guess from photos. I reckon its perfectly suited for what I do, which is pootling around during the year and a week abroad every September. I was so impressed by the way the DCT works... Im also considering road testing the new Africa Twin with DCT. Its not just a commuter.. it would also make a great tourer. just add full luggage from you manufacturer of choice... fill the under-seat tank. use the fake 'tank' to store anything you need close to hand and off you trot.. feeling smug with your 80mpg 750. So.. the DCT is all about saving fuel and money which makes for a very good commuter. and can easily be bypassed, when you want to 'play'. Its different.. but Honda seems to have made a very good job of it, and have found it has been popular to the extent its going to be optional across the range. (I believe). Its most definitely not a scooter masquerading as a motorcycle.

Im sure I must have lost at least 20% liver function due to excessive alcohol. and gained an inch due to excessive consumption of bread and froop. definitely need to find a retailer of froop. my mornings will never be the same again without it. 2048 miles door to door. A great week.. only marred by the Channel Tunnel deciding to have an in-tunnel breakdown on our return day.. very fortunately we were not on that train. just suffered the consequences. But.. this group of guys are great. pragmatic and stoical. We discovered more new roads than you can shake an 8 foot wide tractor at. explored the Hunsruck, south of the Mosel. used our rainy day to escape into France and I took the opportunity to see with my own eyes the Douaumont Ossuary. One of the saddest places on earth. But an amazing structure nonetheless. One of the guys went inside.. I couldn't bear it. On the ride back.. more sad moments as we passed through villages that no longer exist... except as a collection of craters and the usual entering and leaving signs you would see at any village in France. These were dead though.. wiped off the face of the map. Last day was great though.. we finally did Matts road. Last time it was closed.. so this time it was perfect with new tarmac for almost its entire length. I had a great week and oddly enough the chicken strips on my old tractor seem to have vanished for some reason I fail to understand. And Bungle was an absolute trooper.. though he got rather more than he bargained for I reckon. maybe... perhaps. He did a lot of grinning though.

I should add that those last two photos in no way represent a fish supper.

Its fantastic.. "sublime" doesn't even come close. The entire area that we have at our disposal (excluding Luxembourg) is about 3,000 square miles, north and south of the River Mosel. Low Mountains, deep cut valleys. wide open plateau. Old volcanos.. many of which have eroded down to almost perfectly circular lakes. Tiny little villages.. and only a very few moderately sized towns and one small city. And most importantly (for us) its to all intents and purposes empty.. traffic is few and far between. Over the 5 days we saw 2 police cars and that was an extraordinarily high number compared to previous years. Not once were we stuck in traffic. No filtering skills required. The roads are 80% perfect.. the other 20% about equal to the second best roads here. So, many are velvet smooth and perfectly laid out for fast riding. Stopping places are common and normally come complete with a picnic area and a great view. Another biker who doesn't wave.. is an exception. Cars generally slow down and indicate 'right' as a signal for you to pass. Nobody.. not any restaurant or cafe or anything like that, raises even the slightest eyebrow when a load of bikers turn up and sit down. If all you want is a coffee.. or a beer, (they do truly fantastic alcohol free wheat beer) that is never a problem.. in fact nothing is a problem or too much trouble. Some signal "Biker Welcome" but many do not and they make you welcome anyway. More than happy to provide food.. even if the restaurant is to all intents and purposes closed, getting ready for a private party. As one place was. They still fed us. There is only one negative at this time of year.. and that is the relatively large number of road closures. The summer season is over and the locals make good use of this gap of good weather and light traffic to upgrade roads. and they don't simply resurface. They relay them from scratch.. completely removing the old road surface down to the base rock and laying the new tarmac on a new base layer. They do it properly. So a road will be closed and there will be a diversion.. sometimes a really quite long one, but more often than not this diversion is worth the ride and in fact a fair few of them have been noted for the next time as they were even better than the intended route. There is a reason we go back to this area. year after year. its the best riding within an easy days ride of Calais. I have talked about the Eifel. but.. Luxembourg (away from the city) is even better, far better.. on another level. So good in fact that one day we arrived at the border with Belgium on a very minor back road. And the transition was stark. from great tarmac to a river of gravel... loose chippings. so awful that after a group rant about Belgian "roads from hell" we turned around and went back into a bikers paradise.

I couldn't give a damn.. text is purely used to transmit ideas.. and if the fella has problems with that then I for one am prepared to ignore his mistakes. The ideas he is trying to get across are not difficult to understand unless you make it difficult. or insist on pointing it out. as if there is some desperate importance that everything be 'just so'. its being a twat for the sake of it. you should try working with people who have difficulties. you might end up just a tad more charitable.

No it isn't.. its a rubber covering, typically inflated or surrounding an inflated inner tube, placed round a wheel to form a soft contact with the road. This has been misspelled by a fella who is known by now to not be the best at written english... a fact that some of us recognise and are perfectly fine with. But.. that some of you use as an excuse to get just a little bit pedantic and superior. An excuse that you seem to almost relish.

Generally - no. they dont. but.. as with anything there are exceptions. worse case scenario is that the bike itself has to be modified to the point that the sidecar is a permanent fixture. Best case.. bolt on and off. but that assumes the bike either has.. or can have fitted easily and relatively unobtrusively appropriate fixing points. Im not sure about the law.. but I would want lights fitted at the rear.. regardless. So that would mean fiddling with the bikes electrics too.

No.. to be honest nobody asked. though I did remind them at the start of the week that we could go either Thursday or Friday - when it would be open. We passed it on Tuesday.. and stopped for a photo. which will be posted sooner or later. And that was it. Very much a riding holiday this time round.. with only one 'spur of the moment' destination... when early morning rain forced us to chase the dry weather southwards into northern France and we went to Verdun. Gee Esses? one or two.

No fight here.. Im still laughing too much about the rather silly idea that somehow SETI was turned off.. a 'few' years ago. 1993.. a little more than a few years ago. NASA withdrew. because some American lawmakers don't believe in the value of science. but SETI just carried on. most of the hardware it uses is owned and run by Universities.. which have nothing to do with NASA or the US Government.

The idea is ludicrous. in fact its not even that.. its just plain dumb.

That link means joining a site based in Guensey just to look at images, If the bike is in Guernsey then any UK buyer should be made aware that they may have to pay import duty. VAT and registration fees.

Excallent...as places go, it might be dull, but that hardly matters. It still has huge significance.