Last time, I had just arrived back home in Somerset. I spent a week with Mum, catching up with friends in the area and taking Beaky up to Bristol for a well-deserved 6k service (although closer to 8k on the mileage!).
From here, I left to meet up with friends in Petersfield on the way to the Eurostar, catching u with James, Gemma and little Reuben.
The Eurostar crossing was as fast and efficient as before, and I passed the 30 minutes chatting to some other bikers heading to Italy.
A quick run through northern France into Belgium, and finally arrived at Trish and Neiks. I spent a few days here, catching up on news and playing Settlers of Catan and enjoying the local beers. Great fun!
One place I wanted to visit whilst in the area was Waterloo - I hadn't realised how close it was, and it made an easy day trip from Deinze.
The battlefield has a pretty good tourist centre, which explains the background to events, and runs a bus tour around the site. Having watched Sharpe, it was interesting to see a slightly less -UK bias on events!
View across to the Lion's Mound from the East, along the British lines.
Close up of the Lion's Mound.
On the way back to Deinze from Waterloo, I wanted to stop at the Atomium, as last year I hadn't gone inside.
Where's Beaky?
A better view of Mini-Europe...without Beaky.
Good to see an A380!
A few familiar sights from the UK...
Time to move on again, this time to Halsteren again and a stay at Theo and Sarid's. I spent a few days here, catching up on news and playing
I also had a chance to meet up with Lily in Zaltbommel again - just so the Hobblings didn't start to feel left out.
Whilst in Haslteren I explored the coast to the west, and also the De Biesbosch National Park. Very, very flat land as expected, and a chance for Beaky to have her first boat ride on the ferry across to Dordrecht.
The lure of Settlers of Catan games was strong, and so I stopped at Deinze before beginning the journey home.
A quick stop on the way through Luxembourg for a photo - not enough time to explore on this trip.
I stopped for the night at Luneville in France and found a little camping ground near the Chateau de Luneville. First night in the tent on this trip, and yup, you guessed it - thunderstorms overnight. The tent held up well, and everything stayed dry, although Beaky was looking soggy in the morning. A quick breakfast in the local patisserie, and on the road again.
Neik had recommended the town of Riquewihr in France as worth visiting, so I aimed for here on the way south. Well worth the visit, and a nice place for lunch.
Next stop...Switzerland! Crossing the border at Basel, it transpired I needed a vignette to use the toll roads. Since I had entered on one of these (and a man with a gun was insistent...) I ended up shelling out €30 on this, despite not really wanting it. Next time, I'll plan the route to avoid needing one.
The other thing not helping my mood at this point was the rain. It was like riding through Wales. Nice views, I think. Hard to tell with heavy rain and a low cloud base. I decided I needed somewhere warmer and drier than the tent, and checked into a hotel in Lucerne.
Next morning the rain had eased a little, and I was able to see something of Lake Lucerne (although the rain meant no photos!)
My original plan was to head east to Lichtenstein, and cross into Austria just to say I'd been there. With the rain as it was, and with a planned stop in Geneva I decided to leave that for another time. Instead, there were two places I did want to visit - Altdorf and Meiringen.
I decided to head over to Altdorf first (Warhammer players will understand why), and found a little town with the famous William Tell statue. I'd forgotten this was where the story was from, obviously the RNG in me was telling me something.
Looking at the map and plotting a route to Meiringen I decided the wiggly road across the Sustenstrasse looked far more interesting than the autoroute back to Lucerne and around.
"Interesting". Right.
In terms of a gnarly road over a mountain pass, it was great fun. I was even ready for the drop in temperature (having planned something like this whilst in Switzerland) and had a few warmer clothes to put on under the jacket.
As I climbed up, I found some amazing views of snow covered mountains. Snow? Yup. In August.
What I hadn't reckoned was that the temperature would drop to -3 degrees and that the rain would turn to heavy snow. This was a little more than I was prepared for, and wiping the snow build-up from the visor whilst winding around narrow roads with minimal markings or barriers on a mountain was tense.
I was also starting to get cold.
Bloody cold!
Luckily I crossed over the pass without incident, but was not able to find somewhere to stop until I reached Meiringen and stumbled into a cafe looking pretty miserable.
Once I warmed up I was ready for the reason I came here - Reichenbach Falls. This is the location for Sherlock Holmes fight with Professor Moriarty, in The Final Problem.
To reach them there is a little funicular railway, and as we climbed up the mountain, the falls appeared out of the rain.
The falls themselves - the location of the fight is said to be to the right, about halfway up. Yeah, right!
Onward again...this time to Geneva and another Hobbling. Nadine had offered to have me stay over on the way past, so I found her flat just out of town but over the border in France. She and a friend took me to a Swiss restaurant for fondue - very nice!
My final day, and the longest stretch yet. 420 miles from Geneva to Toulouse.
I left at 10am, expecting the trip to take about six hours (well, a little more with fuel stops etc).
Unfortunately Beaky had other ideas.
A problem with the remote sensor on the key fob meant that every time I stopped, it was a while before the system decided to accept the key and allow me to continue.
To cut a long story short, we limped home and I arrived home close to midnight.
Still, not to let a downer like that spoil the trip - it was great and so much fun to catch up with a variety of friends old and new.
Total distance covered was around 3,500 miles.
Map of my route:
View Larger Map
Post script:
Beaky's electrical problem resolved itself after the battery drained overnight (the lights would stay on even with the key removed!), and BMW were unable to find a fault. Apparently some fuel stations have a device that somehow upsets the security chip in the key. A ccolleague at work had seen a similar problem, although for her the problem goes as soon as the bike is pushed away from the pumps!
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