Europe 2018 (a catalogue of disasters) - Part 2

SS2
Jul 12, 2018
2 min read

DAY 5

So suitably refreshed with a cold shower and hearty breakfast on the bar’s riverside terrace we were off again. Back up through Belgium cutting across the corner of Germany and into the Netherlands to the city of Heerlen where we’d planned on staying at Indenhof. A Biker hotel / campsite. They were shut! Only open weekends apparently. Ooops. However the owner was there washing a bike down and said we were cool to stay as long as we didn’t mind the bar not being open. That’ll do for us, it's on the edge of the city so that was no worries. Indenhof is a real cool place for bikers. Quite a few gorgeous race bikes scattered around in the pub and judging by the amount of trophies it's a real family love. Anyhow, the ten minute (45 the way we went) walk into the centre saw us in a pretty town square with bars and café’s all around and a pleasant evening was spent people watching before coming across an Irish bar. Oh hell! Turned into a bit of a late one that, with (most of) us still sitting eating pizza outside the bar at 1.30a.m. Bit concerning as well that the taxi driver didn’t need us to tell him where we were staying. He’d seen us come in……Spooky, the hills (no hills it’s Holland) have eyes.

DAY 6

Last haul (unfortunately) up the motorway to Amsterdam today, once raggy heads were showered away. By now I think everyone was just hoping that nothing else was gonna break. It was a pretty uneventful run, in fact it was us old buggers going into limp mode this time, with aches and cramps aplenty. After the usual nightmare run into Amsterdam Red Light District it was a real pleasure to get settled into Excalibur to chill out for a couple of hours before heading for the ferry. Still one my all time favourite bars anywhere. Then that was pretty much that. The expected shenanigans on the boat didn’t really occur, whether that was because we’d over indulged the night before, or the bottles of wine with our umpteen course meal had ruined us I dunno. Still it was a nice relaxing end to our jollies, and no hangovers for the last leg home. WooHoo!

To sum up then 1 Victory with Knackered gearbox, 1 leaky Triumph Sprint, 1 Crash damaged Thunderbird, 1 leaky Fat Bob and 1 crippled one, a Rocket with an iffy battery, A Tiger with a disco oil light and Aidan's Deuce the only one that just got on with it. FFS, you've gotta larf innit..

Where next I wonder?