On my travels again

[Weka]

Nightmare is right. That's a good idea to get as much rest as you can.

[Suff]

Ok so where was I. Hmmm, on the bus writing the last post

So, I got 2 hours of sleep and arrived at brussels, called my friend and he came and let me into his garage.

Battery on the bike dead. My friend had brought his charger which would have been fine if I' had arrived on the train in the evening. But with 1 hour before I had to leave, no joy.

I stopped for a coffee and chat (least I could do) then bumped the bike again (bump starting a 1000cc bike is no picnic) and took off for Calais. I tried to inflate the tyres at the first garage but my bike needs an adapter to get the car inflators on and that was locked in a pocket which needed the ignition key to get at. So off to Calais on soft tyres.

The journey passed without incident. But I arrived too late for my train and they stuck me on the 09:30. Which I promptly ignored (you can do that on a bike) and took the next available train. Only problem with that was that I spent 1 hour getting through passport and found the trains were running 2 hours late. I was, by this time, running out of fuel and had to keep switching the engine off and bump starting the bike. My left knee is now on the casualty list.

My train didn't leave till after the MOT was due. I phoned Kent motorcycles and they were very, very good about it. fuelled the bike on arriving (bump start again, knee in agony), then headed for the bike shop.

The bike shop has a café and after agreeing that they would change the battery for me, I headed for food. The bike passed the MOT but it took a long time to get the bike back, they were charging the new battery (or you kill it like I did this morning).

In the meantime I received two texts from Eurotunnel. One to tell me not to get caught up with the trucks and another to tell me to check in early. Of course I was late because I arrived late and the work on the bike ran on. I had tried to change my time at the café but all trains were showing as sold out....

So, again, I got my ticket for god knows when and realised there was a 3 hour delay on the way back. So I just went straight round into the queue, didn't show my boarding slip and waited in the queue with all the others who were 4 trains ahead of me.

We got down to the train and I almost, but not quite, got on it. 'within 40 feet, tantalising but just not close enough. The train had a fault. 45 minutes later they cleared the fault and we loaded. 45 minutes after that we left. I'm on the train now.

In the café, after my success with busses, I booked a midnight FlixBus ticket to London for £16.50 and a Megabus Gold overnight ticket from London to Edinburgh (top bunk sleeping bed), for £49.

All I need to do now is get to Paris, find somewhere not too expensive to drop the bike off for a week that I can actually get to on Friday when I fly in and the French mess me about again, then get to the bus for London and wait half a day to get the Megabus.

At least the Paris bus is leaving from the same bus station as last night so I know where I'm going. So that won't be so bad.

I will arrive in Edinburgh bus station at 07:00 on Monday morning totally shattered and take the tram to the airport and get my other bike out of the parking and go to bed!!!!

Well that's the plan. I leave you to judge how well that's likely to go. Especially if the FlixBus is using the tunnel.... Just as well I arrive in London before 2pm and don't have to take another bus until midnight.

[TheOstrich]

Unbelievable, Suff ....

I envy your stamina!

[Suff]

Lost my entire previous post as my phone threw a paddy,

Ossie I'm not so sure about that. Perhaps if I had more stamina I might have trekked off the other side of the Gare Du Nord in Brussels to the street of houses with the red lights... instead of looking like a crumpled heap sitting on a concrete bench..

I dropped the bike off 30km outside Paris at a small town I'd worked at before. Then took the train into Paris. On checking my ticket closely I found I would be taking the same bus back to Brussels and changing there for the bus to London after a 3.5 hour wait at 4 in the Morning. Deja Vu.

I had a kebab meal at Paris Nord train station and took my time before heading to get some water and then onto the Metro to take the longest journey with the fewest changes I could to burn time before the bus arrived.

Bus was OK managed about 1 hour of sleep before the stifling heat in the bus woke me..

No toilets at the train station in Brussels open, at least the station was open. I took the metro to Midi and got an express breakfast in one of the hotels and used the toilets there.

Before getting the bus I booked a hotel near Victoria train station so I can get a shower and some sleep before the 11pm bus out.

However at the tunnel our Serbian driver was detained because he doesn't have a visa. So the backup driver who has never driven in the UK, is driving us with me sitting shotgun to give him a bit of help.

You couldn't make it up....

Only 2 people on the bus which was a blessing to allow me to sleep on the way to Calais.

[Suff]

Well I'm back.

The driver managed to crunch a rental van with his mirror about 500yds from Victoria coach station...

I got to the hotel, turned sideways to get into the room, threw everything on the floor, hit the shower and fell into bed. I set an alarm for 19:00 pm so I could look around for something to eat before the bus. Slept right through it and woke up at 21:30. Wound up with a burger king standing up at the station.

Bus was fine but only because it was half empty and I could move down to the lower bunk the booking site refused to sell me. Top bunks are too small for me. I didn't get a lot of sleep my left knee is now far too sore to be comfortable on anything smaller than a double bed.

Took the tram to the airport, got my bags soaked walking form the terminal to the bike and had an uneventful ride back. At least the Forth Bridge was not shut to bikes, that would have been the icing on the cake...

[saundra]

I Hope nobody asks if you had a good weekend when you go back to work
Still you did achieve what you ment to do

[Weka]

You should write a book about your travels

[Suff]

Mrs S keeps telling me I should write a book full stop. But, in the end, this life is enough just living it, without trying to add more.

Saundra, yes I really did achieve what I aimed for. It should have been so much easier. Flight to Paris, hour and a bit to get the train downstairs, sort the bike, short sleep, ride over and back, drop the bike in Paris, hotel at the airport for a night and fly back on Sunday on the cheapest flight.

Funnily enough it was cheaper this way though.

Glad to be back and I won't be doing anything like this again for a long time. I'm going to research registering the bike in France. Bikes in France have no MOT and you just pay the insurance which has the road tax on it. I've been reluctant so far because I tend to ride pretty fast and, up till this year, they did not forward speed camera tickets..

[molly]

Whew,what an adventure. My trip up was a breeze

The road surface on the Queensferry Road must be very uncomfortable on a bike suff…I take it you stick to the outside lane?

Beautiful day today so we are off for a wander along Princes Street