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Greg and Kerrie's travels
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Location Date Oceania 1498604400 North America 1476226800 Europe 
1443826800 Asia 1428274800 -
Location Date UK 1443826800 Netherlands 1440284400 Poland 1440198000 Germany 1439766000 France 1437865200 Italy 1436828400 Greece 1428534000 Czech Republic 1371942000 Slovakia 1371682800 Austria 1371596400 Slovenia 1371250800 Turkey 1310079600 Belgium
1309129200 Isle Of Man 1306623600 Spain 1304550000 Andorra 1304290800 Switzerland 1303686000 - Mons
Monday 27.06.2011 - we ate breakfast with Darren and Phil and then bid them farewell. They were heading south to Austria to ride some mountain passes whilst we were returning to the UK. They have been good riding mates on and off for the last three months. Ride safe guys.
The weather forcaste was for hot weather. European architecture does not allow for hot weather that's for sure. Most hotels do not have airconditioning and most have windows that only slightly open, if your lucky. As for fans, forget it!
We were also stuck with our winter riding gear, no summer jackets and jeans here! With this in mind we decided to split the 500 km ride to Calais to catch the Eurotunnel into two days of about 250 km each. We have found after 12 weeks of riding in the USA in 2009 summer months that the heat just wears you down.
This put us in the Belgium town of Mons for the night. Mons is famous as the site of the first battle of WW1 of the British Expeditionary Force. They lost and were forced to withdrawn handing the city to the Germans who held it right up to the end of the War.
We selected the Infotel hotel which was a two minute walk from the centre of town, being the typical European 14th century market square set up. We figured we would get to the hotel early afternoon, put the P-D away and then walk to the square to check it out. Good plan but we didn't follow it through. We were so hot that we just veggied in our room until late afternoon.
Our room was big; well long anyway. Long enough for an indoor cricket pitch. Nicely furnished too, but no bloody aircon! Just two windows that luckily could be opened wide to allow some sort of airflow. Surprise, surprise - our room had a pedestal fan. It got a good flogging all night, standing at the foot of our bed.
When we did venture out away from our lovely pedestal fan it was still sticking hot. We just managed the 2 minute walk to the market square, checked out the scooter boys and found an AIRCONDITIONED restaurant in which to eat. No contest when it came to choosing because no other place had aircon!
We noticed a group of 'alternate' life style people aka weirdos, sitting away from the main crowd and surrounded by a small pack of dogs. These people were not begging and therefore not Romany (gypsies), but appeared to be layabouts living on the dole or European equivalent. The world is the same all over.
After eating a fine meal and drinking cold beer we left the beautiful aircon behind and sat in the shade (it was about 8.30 pm!) and people watched for about 20 minutes. It was then back to the hotel and the wonderfully cool fan!
The weather forcaste was for hot weather. European architecture does not allow for hot weather that's for sure. Most hotels do not have airconditioning and most have windows that only slightly open, if your lucky. As for fans, forget it!
We were also stuck with our winter riding gear, no summer jackets and jeans here! With this in mind we decided to split the 500 km ride to Calais to catch the Eurotunnel into two days of about 250 km each. We have found after 12 weeks of riding in the USA in 2009 summer months that the heat just wears you down.
This put us in the Belgium town of Mons for the night. Mons is famous as the site of the first battle of WW1 of the British Expeditionary Force. They lost and were forced to withdrawn handing the city to the Germans who held it right up to the end of the War.
We selected the Infotel hotel which was a two minute walk from the centre of town, being the typical European 14th century market square set up. We figured we would get to the hotel early afternoon, put the P-D away and then walk to the square to check it out. Good plan but we didn't follow it through. We were so hot that we just veggied in our room until late afternoon.
Our room was big; well long anyway. Long enough for an indoor cricket pitch. Nicely furnished too, but no bloody aircon! Just two windows that luckily could be opened wide to allow some sort of airflow. Surprise, surprise - our room had a pedestal fan. It got a good flogging all night, standing at the foot of our bed.
When we did venture out away from our lovely pedestal fan it was still sticking hot. We just managed the 2 minute walk to the market square, checked out the scooter boys and found an AIRCONDITIONED restaurant in which to eat. No contest when it came to choosing because no other place had aircon!
We noticed a group of 'alternate' life style people aka weirdos, sitting away from the main crowd and surrounded by a small pack of dogs. These people were not begging and therefore not Romany (gypsies), but appeared to be layabouts living on the dole or European equivalent. The world is the same all over.
After eating a fine meal and drinking cold beer we left the beautiful aircon behind and sat in the shade (it was about 8.30 pm!) and people watched for about 20 minutes. It was then back to the hotel and the wonderfully cool fan!
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