Day Two: Thursday 24th May
Zeebrugge,
Belgium to Dijon, France
Distance: 365
miles / 588 km
Song for
today: Darshan (The Road To Graceland): David Sylvian & Robert Fripp
We were up
bright and early this morning. The ship is now on European time and we've
managed to mislay an hour overnight. Despite our misgivings of yesterday, all the
bikes survived the trip in one piece.
The plan for today
is to cover the whole distance to Dijon in stages of about 100 miles or so to
allow for sufficient fuel and rest stops along the way. All being well we
should make our hotel in Dijon in about five or six hours.
The Three Amigos |
The first
thing worth a mention is that the weather is unexpectedly pleasant and it's
time to dig out the sunglasses while packing the waterproofs away for the time
being.
Gareth is master of minimilism. See how little luggage is on the middle bike. |
The trip
passed without incident, although the last hour or so was a bit of a strain as
our old joints complained about the forced inactivity.
The Hotel
Kyriad, which Norrie had booked over the interweb, was conveniently located
right in the heart of Dijon and had an underground car park where the bikes
should be safe for the duration of our stay. A lot better than parking on the
streets.
The only real
problem that we encountered was right at the death. When we reached the town
centre we encountered a lot of roadworks. This caused merry hell for our
sat-navs which were frantically trying to find alternatives routes through the
disruption and the new one-way system. The good folk of Dijon are having a tram
network installed in their town, and the best of luck to them. I work in
Edinburgh and the Council’s disastrous attempt to install a tram system there
is well documented. At least we saw some trams actually running, if only to
test the tracks.
Anyway, we
settled in and, as the long day had taken a lot out of us, did nothing more
exciting that night than have a couple of drinks and something to eat before
turning in for the night.
Because of you, I just spent hours on youtube! Actually it was fun seeing what Fripp has been up to. I'm a fan of King Crimson.Also watched a bunch of Adrian Belew clips. His bands are always interesting as well. Now, I see I'll be spending some time looking at your bike travel pics.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad that I could jog your memory.
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