Start of this journey
Saturday, May 23, 2015
This morning my alarmclock sounded at a quarter to seven.
I took a shower
and had a cup of coffee and a slice of bread and got ready for my trip.
Just when I was ready to go, I got a phonecall from my little granddaughter
Yara, who wanted to say goodbye before I left... sweet !
At eight o'clock, when Dick arrived on his BMW, I was ready to go and after
I kissed my wife goodbye we left on our way to the Czech Republic.
Ready to go !
The first part of the trip, from our village in the Netherlands to Huy in
Belgium, we used the freeway. On our way to Antwerp, My son in law, the
father of Yara, passed us on the freeway on his way to work in Belgium.
My son in law passed us on his way to work
Past Antwerp and Brussels, we used the freeway until a quarter past nine when
we got on a two lane road to Huy.
On the road to Huy
Fortunately the traffic in Huy was not to bad and without delay, we crossed the
bridge in the center of the town.
The bridge in Huy
After a small detour, caused by Dicks GPS we came back in Huy (but that was no
problem because it was a very scenery road that we enjoyed riding) and we got
on our way to Durbuy. In Durbuy, we had our first coffee stop.
On the road to Durbuy
Durbuy is a nice little town but unfortunately it also is a big tourist trap.
We both had a coffee and an piece of apple pie and payed almost ten euros each !
Drinking expensive coffee in Durbuy
At a few minutes past twelve, after almost twohundred and fifty kilometer, we stopped
at a small gas station and filled our tanks.
We filled our tanks at a small gas station
Fifteen minutes later we found a nice roadside cafe to get some French Fries. Very
nice and not very expensive, and we ate them outside with a view on our bikes.
Lunch time
The bikes were parked right in front of our table
At one o'clock, we crossed the border between Belgium and Luxembourg. You notice
the difference right away because the roads in Luxembourg are much better maintained.
Crossing the border
Via Clairvaux, we went to Vianden on beautiful roads through very nice scenery.
Beautiful road in Luxembourg
We had booked rooms in a hotel in Vianden but before you ride into the city center
you see the beautiful restored castle of Vianden on top of a hill.
The castle of Vianden
We arrived at the Hotel, Auberge du Chateau at two o'clock but one of our rooms was
not available yet so we wanted to use the free WiFi to book a hotel for tomorrow and then
go to Dick his sister and her husband, on a camping in Diekirch.
At Auberge du Chateau in Vianden
Unfortunately the WiFi in the hotel was to slow to use booking.com but the very friendly
owner of the hotel let me use his desktop computer to make the reservation.
Knowing we would have rooms to sleep in tomorrow, we left Vianden to ride to the camping
in Diekirch.
Dick's sister, her husband, Dick and I on the camping
After we had a few cups of coffee and cake, Dick's sister cooked a wonderful dinner for
us and at half past five, we left the camping to go back to the hotel in Vianden.
Riding back to Vianden
We had booked this hotel because they offered a garage for motorcycles. Unfortunately
this weekend there were so many bikers having a long weekend in Luxembourg, that the
garage was full and almost all other space that was available was filled with motorcycles
so we had to leave our bikes outside.
No garage space for our bikes
Shortly after we had arrived, a Dutch guy, Henny, arrived on a Yamaha Tenere, loaded with a lot
of luggage and two spare tires. I asked where he was going and he told us that he was on a four
month trip via Turkey, through Asia to Mongolia !
Later we had a beer together and chatted about our bikes and trips and he gave his weblog
address:
http://www.hennybroeders.waarbenjij.nu so I will try to follow his trip on the internet.
The next hotel we will go to is Hotel Grunwald, Am Bocksberg 80, in Ansbach in Germany.
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