Leaving London behind we headed south to Golden Cross, not a very touristy area but very important to us. We were visiting Nellie and Eric Davis, the 91 and 94-year-old aunt and uncle of our brother-in-law, Michael Reilly. We have been visiting them each time we come to the UK since 1982, this is our 9th visit! We always spend our time with them talking about family and our travels, drinking wine and generally catching up. This visit was no exception.

Next was a visit with more family in Southampton, Betty and Ciggy Hughes. Betty is Greg's cousin and they have been on our visit list since 2007. More wine was consumed with a lovely dinner with their son, Darren and his partner Gemma and another friend, Pat.

After leaving Southampton on our drive north we stopped in at the Ace Café for a visit. This is a favourite haunt of bikers of all types - a bit like the Outpost Café but with greasier food! This day was Italian Bike Day and we wandered through the lines of Ducati's, Laverda's and MV Augustas. Our favourite was a replica of Casey Stoner's MotoGP winning Ducati. It did feel strange not to be on our bike for this visit but was still worth the stop.

We stayed the night in the Travelodge in Ipswich, as we have many times before when collecting our bike. We had a view of the marina just across the road. This hotel is great value at 24 pounds for the night. Bike pick up is scheduled for 9:00 in the morning.

Arrival at the new shipping depot was busy. We were the first to arrive at 8:15am (yes we were a bit early) but were soon joined by several other riders and pillions eager to get on their way. It took about 2 hours to get organised. Greg concentrated on making sure the bike was ready, reconnecting the battery and setting up the GPS - the bike started first time. Kerrie unpacked the bubble wrapped panniers and top box and secured clothing and equipment in the proper places. Suitcases were labelled and left ready to be picked up on our return to drop off the bike in June. By 10:45 we were on the road. The only hiccup was connecting the communication system - we had forgotten how! We dropped our hire car off and found a place to sit for a while and work out the headsets.

Our first ride was only about an hour along beautiful English country roads. We are catching the ferry from Harwich to the Hook of Holland but not until 11pm although we can board the ferry 3 hours earlier at 8pm. We found a Morrisons supermarket with a café and set up to await our departure.

We are finally off on our 6-week bike adventure through Europe, next stop - Cologne.