Friday 1st June. The day has come! We are off the the Isle of Man for the TT. After a night in Morecambe we rode the 8km to Heysham to board our ferry. We lined up patiently to check in and then lined up patiently again to ride on to the ferry. We left right on time at 11:45am with a capacity load of bikes, passengers and some cars.

Arrival on the Isle of Man was scheduled for 2:30pm but we were a bit early. Our accommodation for the next 8 nights is in a homestay in Douglas not far from Bradden Church. We have a lovely loft room with ensuite and large flat screen TV.

After unloading the bike we decided to get a bus into town for a wander around. The town seemed very quiet in comparison to the last two times we have been here considering racing starts on Saturday. After purchasing a couple of stickers, t-shirts and a few gifts we had dinner and headed back to our house in a taxi - all walked out! We met up with our friends Kerry and Andrew Lynch at the house and shared a couple of bottles of wine before dropping in to bed. Racing starts in the morning and the next blog will be about racing!

Because racing is only on every second day, that leaves plenty of time for other activities. Sunday is known as Mad Sunday. Traditionally this is where visitors to the island ride like there is no tomorrow - unfortunately for some, there never was a tomorrow as many tourists were killed riding above their skill level. Now the Mad Sunday featured event is the Simon Andrews Legacy Lap which is a very structured parade lap - today there were an estimated 11 000 bikes participating. The parade route follows the race circuit from Douglas up to Ramsey then over the Mountain Course back to Douglas. We joined the riders and slowly made our way down Bray Hill. As the ride progressed the bikes spread out and riding became easier until we got the mountain where the idiots decided to test their skills and frighten the life out of us normal riders. During the course of the ride we were overtaken by 2 different Groms (125cc) as well as every other bike on the road but we did manage to pass a 50cc scooter with two very large lads on board.

After the Parade Lap we rode out to Castletown, Port St Mary and Port Erin, all beautiful towns on the southern end of the island. We planned to get to the Port Erin pub in time to watch the MotoGP from Mugello. We found the pub but realised that we had misjudged the timing and only saw the final 4 laps -b*****! Good news though - Lorenzo won his first race on the Ducati - one more than Rossi ever won! After the race we rode out to Peel for fish and chips dinner - a great day!

Our second non-race day was Tuesday. We left the bike at home, posted some 'things' back to Felixstowe and then caught the steam train out to Port Erin. The train takes just over an hour and we thoroughly enjoyed the countryside views outside the windows and the company of our fellow passengers in our carriage. We wandered around Port Erin for an hour before returning to Douglas on the train - again, good company and lovely scenery. After a delicious dinner in The British Restaurant we caught the bus back to our house before an early night.

Thursday was a ride to a couple of places we wanted to visit. First was the headland overlooking Douglas - an amazing view from the top. We followed the coast around as far as we could and then retraced our path back to Douglas. We then joined the race circuit as far as Sulby where we turned off and rode up a back road to The Bungalow on top of the Mountain Course. The ride was great, sheep to watch out for, a couple of sharp switchbacks and beside a meandering stream almost all the way - glorious! After a coffee at the top we rode the Mountain Course back in to Douglas before returning to the house to do some washing.

Our non-race days have been really relaxing and enjoyable and the weather has been perfect. With the Senior TT Race tomorrow our stay on the Isle of Man is almost over. We head to Liverpool on Saturday for a few nights before catching the feery from Hull to Zeebruge to start our Scandinavian adventure.