We left Aix-les-Bains in bright sunlight and 32°C and 571km later we arrived in Luxembourg having endured an absolute deluge (and the temperatures falling to 22°C).
The weather forecast was good for our homeward trip the next day. Another cheeky upgrade to the room in our hotel, the Sofitel Luxembourg Le Grand Ducal, which was lovely, and as for dinner, well that was excellent stuff washed down with a bottle of Luxembourgoise wine.
We were meant to be staying in Grenoble after a long trip along the Route Napoleon. Sadly, neither happened:
Firstly, the hotel emailed us before we left saying that there had been a lot of motorcycle thefts from their car park, so they were no longer accepting bookings from travellers with motorbikes…
Secondly, as there was an oil leak from the right hand side cylinder head rocker cover, we weren’t sure if the RT would make it, so we wanted to stay on the major roads in case we needed to pull over and get collected.
and a lovely glass of wine (plus some flavoured water at reception).
The battered and bruised RT made it with no real issues as well, which was a bonus.
Fabulous dinner (and wine) at the hotel.
The next day was planned to be a longer day heading to Luxembourg via Switzerland so a two stop strategy ws in place to refuel us and to top up the RT’s oil.
A relatively short day was planned and that turned out to be a very hot 275km and one crash: a road sweeper doing a left and taking us out.
There was some damage to the RT: both cylinder heads as it hit the sweeper on one side and the floor on the other. I couldn’t avoid the sweeper as there was too much high road furniture on the left. so down we went. And with all the luggage it took four of us to haul it back up onto two wheels.
I was completely unscathed as I pretty much just stepped off, but Alison got her ankle pressed a bit by the rear footpeg (pushing on her boots). She’s obviously not used to this crashing malarkey! But at least we apparently achieved a lean angle of 66º on that side…
It was then that the SOS button might have been useful, but of course that hasn’t worked since very early on with the ownership and BMW were taking way too long to release a fix for it.
So we continued on to Cannes and after more 38ºC temperatures and crawling traffic all the way along the seafront, we stopped at our booked hotel, the JW Marriott Cannes where just one night cost us over €1,150! . When I booked it, I had included instructions that we would be arriving on a motorcycle and to ask them to make sure we had a reserved parking space in the car park underneath the hotel. When we arrived and parked up outside the front next to a Ferrari and a Bugatti, I asked how to get to their car park and was told I wasn’t allowed to. No motorcycles allowed there, apparently! They instead said I should use a public car park a kilometre or so away or take my chance parking on the road nearby. And then they made us wait over an hour for our room to be made available.
The original plan was to have a long day in the saddle, heading up to the Milau Bridge and the Gorges du Tarn, but herself was beginning to flag a bit, so I instead set a course along some nice-ish roads from Banyuls-sur-Mer to Castillon-du-Gard in Provence, where we were due to stay at the delightful La Vieux Castillon.
Le Vieux Castillon
This was the hotel that Channel 4’s First Dates show had used for their summer holidays the first few series of First Dates Hotel before they moved to one in Italy, I think?
Anyway after a very hot day – 38°C – we reached 1,175km and were ready for a rest day the following day.
By the time we reached the hotel, it was still 32°C at the pool. They let me leave the RT outside Reception which was a weight off my mind. And yes, it’s a fabulous hotel, every bit as good as we had hoped.
We had booked their gastronomic package, but sadly the restaurant was closed the two night we were actually booked in for, having shifted the dates. So for our first night we enjoyed a lighter meal from the bar menu.
The next day was a rest day, so we spent it mainly by the pool, although we did go for a wander around the streets of Castillon-du-Gard.
Dinner was at Joio Restaurant nearby which is managed by the chef at the hotel and opens when he’s not working at Le Vieux Castillon. We ate their signature starter and main and a couple of cheeky glasses of wine. Very reasonably priced too as well as delicious.
Out of Spain into France. So that was the Atlantic Ocean over to the Mediterranean Sea then. And goodbye Spain, hello France. 910km so far, riding the BMW R1250RT along the N-260 (and others) from La Seu d’Urgell in the Spanish Pyrenees to Banyuls-sur-Mer on the French coast. We also diverted up to ride the infamous Gorges de Galamus.
Once we got to our hotel and parked up – after the BMW Connected app decided we should approach it from a footpath above – we checked in to our room.
Côté Thalasso Banyuls-sur-Mer
I have no idea what that clicking is in the video, and no, I didn’t mean the old biddy walking down the corridor…
Food at the Côté Thalasso Banyuls-sur-Mer exceeded expectations; the tasting menu was superb with the beef and dauphinois potatoes a high point before this dessert. A lovely local red wine too.
So Banyuls-sur-Mer was better than expected and they were kind enough to let us keep the RT parked outside reception where they could keep an eye on it. We decided to pin it to win it to get to our next stay, but first we explored the harbour.
June 2024 was interesting with a week’s holiday and a continuation of FulGaz’s challenge over the course of the year, the FulGaz Ironman Sprint Series which I had started a couple of months ago.
The holiday was our first long distance trip on the BMW R 1250 RT taking it back to its birthplace at the Berlin factory (and a couple of nights binging at the Hotel Adlon Kempinski. Sadly the main gym was being refurbished so the temporary one was less than brilliant; all a matter of timing.
Then home to celebrate Fathers’ Day … and two weeks of diarrhoea (and counting) thanks to some food poisoning ? the Ball & Wicket (hence the full week gap whilst I was unable to do anything much at all).
Anyway, here are June’s stats:
June 2024 Stats
Activities: 25 Distance: 301.38 km Time: 16:33:55 Calories: 12,432
Turning to my weight, at the end of May I weighed 83.4kg and at the end of June I weighed 81.9kg, which is down 1.5kg. During That Week, I managed to lose 3.1kg and spent a lot of time on the toilet…
The first major overseas trip planned for the RT was to its birthplace: the BMW Motorradwerk in Berlin.
I knew this was going to be a pretty boring trip as my past experience of Northern France has always been that it’s the area you have to ride or drive through to get to the interesting bits, which is why this July’s trip starts with a ferry down to Spain…
Anyway, I checked the Michelin maps I’ve got for that trip and saw that I could actually have some ‘scenic’ stuff in Belgium on the way (given that I’d planned a two stop strategy on the way to Berlin, two nights in Berlin itself, and then one stop on the way back in the Netherlands.
So at around 6am on Sunday 9th June it was off to LeShuttle at Folkestone for our fixed time trip out. On the way there, the truly irritating BMW Connected app had frozen on the A3 but fortunately I knew I was using the M25 and turned off in time, rather than continuing as the app was pretending to tell me. As we arrived to check in, I realised that I’d left my wallet at home so I’d have to try to pay for everything with Apple Pay on my Apple Watch or iPhone 15 Pro…
It froze a couple of times in France and Belgium which meant we had to go a slightly different route towards Liege than I’d planned, and threw my trust in the app off even more. I can see why some other owners have given up and ditched it altogether in favour of a mounted Garmin one (which also has the added bonus of showing “safety” cameras). Why BMW don’t let us use Apple CarPlay is beyond me.
Still, at least I got a bit of footage in Dinant in Belgium, which was indeed scenic:
We stopped along the way in a lovely little town called Florennes for a salad for lunch.
RT parked up in Florennes
We got to the Mercure at Liege and checked in, asking if we could book a table in the restaurant. “No,” they said, “it’s not open on Sundays”. Well that’s not what it says on their website! We decided to get a drink in the bar anyway, but again, we were told that’s also closed on Sundays. We weren’t best pleased… We did, however, find a little Italian restaurant nearby where we could eat.
The next day was a bit of a wet one as we headed towards Hameln (or “Hamelin” where the Pied Piper hung out. I’d booked us into the Hotel Stadt Hameln and frankly didn’t expect much, but the room was large and comfortable and the restaurant was absolutely outstanding. We also wandered into the old town to see if we could get some cash out on Alison’s Supplemental American Express Platinum Card, but sadly that service isn’t offered any longer. This meant we had no cash for tipping.
The Klim Latitude and Altitude clothing, our Alpinestars short boots and our gloves had all performed brilliantly keeping us dry as a bone, and with the heated seats, grips and waistcoats we’d been warm as well.
We then headed on to Berlin and two nights at the outstanding Hotel Adlon Kempinski at the Brandenburg Gate. I could definitely get used to champagne and caviar for breakfast every day! At least we could use their temporary gym – the normal one is being renovated – to burn some of the calories off.
We also visited the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe; very poignant.
On the Wednesday after brunch we went off to BMW Motorradwerk for an extended factory tour in English … except the English-speaking guide couldn’t do it, so the German one press-ganged a Polish(?) tourist into translating for him, which sort of worked but was a tad unsatisfactory.
Thursday morning after a workout and brunch we headed off to Eindhoven, seeing 207km/h or 129mph on the autobahns. Well that was irritating! One minute, you’re on an unrestricted stretch of dual carriageway in Germany and the next moment it’s the same road in the Netherlands with a 100km/h speed limit! The next morning was the same when we left the Netherlands and hit Belgium: the same road but now with a 120km/h speed limit.
The Park Plaza in Eindhoven was again comfortable after a really long ride but it featured the slowest lift in the world ever!
After breakfast we packed and headed back to Calais and then on to home. We’d booked flexiplus on LeShuttle so after ordeal by UK Border Agency as usual – including the jobsworth insisting we took off our crash helmets for no reason at all – we had lunch in the lounge before getting on the next train back to the UK and home by mid-afternoon on Friday: four countries in one day!
So yes: 1,418 miles with a maximum speed of 129mph and still averaging 47.8mpg for the trip.
At the last minute I’d added a Kriega US-40 Rackpack for our shoes and heated vests to go in, fixed to the frame and rack and sitting on the top of the top case (plus we had the top case and pannier liner bags to use).
So, May 2024 was a continuation of FulGaz’s challenge over the course of the year, the FulGaz Ironman Sprint Series which I had started last month.
There was also a quick work trip to Madrid working long days, but with the chance of hitting our boutique hotel’s gym … which was utterly shite with only a prehistoric treadmill to use. This had the potentially lethal feature of speeding up and slowing down randomly, coupled with a worn surface which made it like running on ice … and then there was the abrupt emergency full stop shortly after I’d started going full tilt. Nice…
So, here are May’s stats:
May 2024 Stats
Activities: 33 Distance: 425.73 km Time: 19:32:24 Calories: 17,398
Turning to my weight, at the end of April I weighed 85.0kg and at the end of May I weighed 83.4kg, which is down 1.6kg. Today, I’m down again to 83.2kg.
April 2024 was a continuation of March’s heavy workload, but there was also my birthday as well as a new challenge over the course of the year, the FulGaz Ironman Sprint Series which I signed up to. Looking at the stats, I did work out longer and harder, which is a good thing.
So, here are April’s stats:
April 2024 Stats
Activities: 31 Distance: 505.79 km Time: 22:02:43 Calories: 20,205
Turning to my weight, at the end of March I was 84.3kg (the same as this morning, 1 May), and at the end of April I weighed 85.0kg, so up 0.7kg. I’m not too concerned, given today I’m back at 84.3kg and my weight has been up and down like a whore’s drawers!
You can also see a new feature in the stats which is that a blood pressure reading has been taken. This is because our blood pressure monitors have only allowed to take manual readings which we can then manually add to Apple Health, but there’s no way to automatically import them into Connect. And then I got a promotional email from Garmin about their Index BPM Smart Blood Pressure Monitor and it was a no-brainer to get it ordered.
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