Woke up feeling pretty ruff.....Port does have a way of sneaking up and then kicking you in the head....No worries....I had no where to be...oh ya... I thin kI need to be at me train crossing for noon. So at a leisurely pace I tried to pry my eyelids open....only took about a half an hour shower....that used maybe about a whole two cups of water I think..... It was a small room...a small shower and not a lot of water came out of that tap. So after that refreshing exercise I felt rejuvenated ... sort of.... and stumbled down for breakfast. 
 
I am really missing eggs n bacon now....cold cuts n cheeses are nice....but I was wanting a full meal deal this morning. Ah well..... It was still good....and I took me time.....had a few coffees....forced some cobwebs out o me ears and meandered up to start packing.

Somewhere in that process I decided to double check me chunnel ticket....heh heh....hmmm it was not for noon....seems it was for 9:50......and it was about 8:40....and I was an hour and a half away....hmmmmm. Well...that was a quick pack up......and never got the bike loaded quicker.  Amazing what you can do when .... motivated...had a few socks dangling out of the panniers.....but..they needed some serious airing out anyways. As did I for that matter....said au revoir.....and I think I push started the bike as it was rolling after took a running jump on it.
  
Amiens was in the rear mirror pretty quick....and it was highway all the way to the chunnel so I set the cruise... a little faster than before....should get there a bit quicker....who knows might be close. Well it was a nice ride...got a lot of looks...think it was the socks flapping in the wind....not sure....then I looked at the gas gauge.....merdddddd.  the bike displays in miles and I have GPS set in kilometers....seems I have 5 km of wiggle mileage....hmmm what are the odds. Saw the gas station get closer....and closer.....and the start of slip to get in there......and I decided what th'ell.....and turned the music up instead. So I was passing a few bikes and cars then I looked in me mirrors seem I had started a bike gang.....I had 6 bikes in loose formation behind me, staggered. Seems I was point man lol.  The cars pull over pretty quick from the left lane but now.....they didn't even think of going into the lane. tick tock looked at the clock and it was 9:50.....and I had 20 mins to go....then the low fuel light lit up....sheesh it was going to be close. Let us see what happens as it is what it is.
 
I lowered the screen a little bit under the false hope it would make all the difference...at this point I wanted speed to be able to coast....I figured it had to be down hill at some point as it was a tunnel. Two yellow fuel bars....then one....no matter what the bike is.... no one....in their right mind trusts a bikes fuel gage...even if its BMW made. No one seems to have gotten it right yet. the I saw the sign to merge off....wahoooo I might pull it off. So me n my gang rolled in to Calais....and funny I was the only one getting on the train...so I was merging off the highway to the right and as they all went by they gave big waves. hmmm was it the Canadian flag... I am not sure...was kinda cool though.
  
Still got 5 miles of range according to the gauge...and there was the terminal....made it! Next hurdle...need a different train as I missed mine. This time...no person at the gate its a machine...ugh. It asks for my booking number and I punch it in....it came up with a real polite message saying that it was impossible to meet my itinerary as I was dumb ass late. so it offered me a new ticket two departures from mine and it punched out a letter "S" card. Whew least I had a ride...now I had no worries cept I needed enough gas to get on the train...and off and to the next station ....one prob at a time lol. So next I had to get into the French customs line....and it was long...so kept turning the bike off...saving gas.... they just waved me through...into another line of cars. They had a gaggle of about 20 border agents...with bomb sniffing kits and they were wiping down all the cars....me...they just waved through...socks n all. Then to the British customs....he was a cheery bloke....I asked him if it was much of a wait for the train...and he asked what letter I was I told him and he said I should be able to board.... off I went into the line. It is kind of idiot proof ....let me rephrase that...it is totally idiot proof. Arrows light up and tell you what lane to be in and where to turn, once in a lane...its made so you can't get out of it you just follow the cheese.
  
Well there was one car in front of me in the lane next....and it lit up with green arrows with a big left turn arrow....me too. He got to the end of the lane....and turned right. I was laughing my ass off....there was a guy all dressed in orange had to go running after him for fear he would drive in the tunnel...In my mirror it looked like he was driving in circles. I was now the last guy in line...and had to go up a hill.....then turn right down a big hill to the train...so I'm sitting at the top of the hill this line of cars in front of me and there are two bikes to the side.

An official looking gal has both her arms up in the air and waving....thought might be at me...and she was pointing at the bikes...had to be me...so I rolled er to the side ....and right past all the cars to the waiting bikes. Apparently two hands in the air and the right one making a twist the throttle move is universal sign language for "Hey you on the bike...over here!". Did not know that....
 
So they let the bikes on last...its weird how you roll onto the train....but all three of us did the angle thing and hopped off. Wow...I lucked out....I seem to have skipped waiting for a train and got the next one out. Well turns out I met some cool folks, Susan from Oregon and Roger from ....Whithinshirefrominghamtonavonleewhelshrington .... I think .... I did sense it was definitely in England however. I think.....perhaps I got the spelling wrong. Either way, he was a cheery guy and was tickled pink to chat he had an older R1100 and seemed to have lost his riding partner that was suppose to be on the same train. They had just toured Auschwitz and Poland and said it was amazing (I made a note, it was the second time on this trip I heard Poland is a hoot). Susan, well get this gals....she was on a three month tour of Europe by herself on a bike, the deal was if she took a riding course her husband would buy her a bike...she did, and he did, and she left him at home to pay the bills and off she went. She was so loaded up she could barely get off the bike....first thing she said was I brought too much and I have not bought any shoes....really. She had been everywhere and had some breakdowns and some great adventures no problems anywhere and she only was helped wherever she stopped. Either way they were great and we spent the ride swapping war stories to the point that the crossing felt like it took 5 mins.... we all put our ear plugs back in...hopped on and got ready for the departure.
 
Getting off the train for us was easy...seems something happened at the front of the train that caused unloading to be paused so they actioned us to turn around and go out the back...easy on a bike....the cars were stuck.....we all waved and off we went...me with about a teaspoon of gas.....but fate smiled....off the train to a hill and on the other side....a gas station....whewwwww. Did I mention how easy it is to get gas here...credit cards work no stupid zip codes needed and you can still fill up first and then go inside to pay... WHATTTTTTttttttt. Crazy huh? My problem is I have no pounds and hardly anyone in England takes Euros, they are not in the Union...and proud of it.
 
Got gas...needed a destination now.....and a hotel....so I found a quiet corner off the road and hit the net. the Simm card I got is great...only 15 pounds and it has "all you can eat internet" calls and texts seem to be almost unlimited too. Its a "3" network card..only weird thing was it did not get internet in Belgium....not sure why but was not a big deal. The connection is faster than wifi I found ....jut could not tether...bit again no big deal. I wanted it for just this type of scenario...I needed to find a hotel....figured right in London would be cool. So found a reasonable priced one in Lancaster....I think...just by Hyde park. Booked it....done. Now I could just wander...no panic to get there.

 First thing on the list was "Battle of Britain" memorial. I knew it was close and as it is on the cliffs of Dover as a lot of the dogfights occurred in that airspace above. Little GPS beep boop bop and I was good to go and it was only like 15 minutes away...off I went. It was a nice short ride there and it was an upill climb so I knew I was on the cliffs of Dover but could not see them as was coming from the backside and a neat looking sign in the shape of a propeller marks the spot. I turned in and parked. History lesson time.....for those not in the know....Britain was saved from invasion in WWII by a very limited number of young fighter pilots. It was a period of about 3 months were the Germans were relentlessly going after the fighters that they had to go up 3, 4, or more sorties a day to fight them off. The losses were high for both sides and a fair number of folks do not know how close it was....The problem was that England was losing skilled pilots (being shot down and killed) at rate that they could not sustain....and they were at a tipping point. The pilots were worn out...and then one night a German bomber crew mistakenly bombed London...it was a mistake. Well...this caused Britain to get peed off....rightfully so....as to date they were mostly bombing the heck out of the airfields and bases. So they decided to do a small Berlin bombing night raid.
  
Wellllll, Adolf was taken aback...he hauled Goering (head of the Luftwaffe) into his office and read him the riot act....as no one was to be able get past the Luftwaffe....so he ordered a change in strategy ... this started the Blitz..the bombing of the cities...and not the airfields and bases....this one action although tragic for the civilians and the city of London, Coventry and numerous others saved the airforce from the war of attrition it was almost about to lose. The airforce got a needed breather....and it all culminated one August day called "Eagle Day"  

Goering wanted to give the a knockout punch...so he put almost everything he had into the air on a massive raid in the day time, but he did not know that they had more in reserve than he thought and they were all in he air when they came over the channel...and they clobbered the Luftwaffe. The end result....Hitler was forced to postpone the sea invasion....something that if occurred England would have had a challenge to say the least. To quote Churchill "never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few". Few words and such truth to them....Churchill was made to do speeches.
 
There was hardly anyone here and it is an unusual memorial...on to p of a cliff.... it if looked at from above is a propeller.....but you need to look at it from above to see it all.....It is quiet and there is a memorial wall and a very cool statue that reflect the typical pilot...young...and anxious...and waiting to go....looking to the east. I took some pics and red the memorials...and went to the edge of the cliff to take a look and it was something to see. You are quite a ways up and I think.....this is the same spot war time films were made of ships being bombed by the Germans....as I seemed to recognize some land marks...kinda cool. Again....this is where history happened...to me...that is so cool to experience and really is hard to put into words. so...I sat sown and just looked into the distance of the English Channel...it was a bit hazy so could not see Calais, France...it is not that far away....and can be seen when its clear...but the way the sun was hitting the water looked pretty cool. I decided time to move on.
 
Where to next....well...might as well go to Dover I thought....hopped on the steed and off I went.... and it was not long before I saw a sign for a pub on the cliffs of Dover...duhhhh.....quick turn and found myself sitting in a cool pub. Asked if it was too early for a pint...the locals laughed and said its never to early.....so I asked for a pint of local ale....and sat down and ordered some grub too. Dammmm I have yet to not like a beer here.... So I was topped up....checked out the view...and off I went. I ended up in the Cliffs of Dover park.....very cool I thought and free for motorbikes lol. Off I went, found a spot to start a trek hopped off and commenced to hiking the cliffs. they really are quite spectacular....and give a heck of a view and they are quite high. The paths follow the cliff so I wandered along them and discovered that they seem to have an annoying fly that tends to hover around you...no matter I swatted em away and commenced me tour. At some point...I found a chalk cliff I could access....so I did...and carved into it....a message .... a private one....that I hope stands the test of time. I also managed to chip off a bit of the Dover cliffs...and put it in me pocket..for me collection.after a bit .....it was time to go....
 
Where to next.....what the heck.....Dover......I hear it has a castle.....found it pretty easy....and rock star parking yet again...paid the entrance fee.....and commenced to start wondering.. It is quite the castle....huge and what a view from the keep. I almost got lost in there .... so many passages and stairways.. seems King Richard II....liked a little walking. I walked arount the castle and then the keep and wow.....is it ever cool and big..Dover castle was a very important castle back when. Either way...I wandered around found the tunnls and the cannons and soooooo much walking....omg....so much walking......did I mention I am having surgery on my knees in a few days...tramadal was me buddy for sure....
After what it seems like 10,000 kilometers of walking....don't get me wrong....I was having a blast but my knees were not....I wandered all over that castle....up hill and down dale...wow..history is cool!.
 
So I found me bike eventually...hopped on....and decided it was time to go. I figured I might as well head to London.....LOL....well me hotel was near Hyde park....OMG........I actually ended up driving though the business district of freaking London at freaking rush hour!!!!!!!! that took some serious concentration...and I thing I made the BBC news as there were briefcases flying through the air by the time I was done. So many suits wandering around ya well I owned that part of London by the time I went through.....heck I might of made BBC news...LOL.....well eventually I found me hotel...and let me say...that was not easy. So much filtering....and narrow lanes. I am now the filtering champion hands down bar none.

Okay when it comes to the hotel LOL this was the smallest room I have ever seen and I blame the Dutch....the whole staff was Dutch....they must love stepping outside to change their mind and they must truly love Ikea. Either way...I found a place for everything...it was a challenge..but I did it...and smiled after. I seriously needed a drink...great thing about London...never far from a pub...found one...and the beer was great.....I decide....after 1 or 10 beers....time to eat....stood up...promptly decided to sit down and order dinner their...through me slurring I managed to order food....and I think it was good....burped...staggered...found me lil comfy cubby hold....managed to get undressed.....almost had to step out on the balcony...would have been weird but at this point I did not give a crap. I basically did a face plant. I think I talked to the Beatles in me dreams....they were cool I think I was on Abbey road.....