Girvan Harbour

Stopped for a break and had the special of chips and gravy and a pot of tea in the local at the harbour. No tourists here. 

Wigtown

In Wigtown -Scotland's book capital tonight after a day of rain. Was a bit longer than expected as had to detour because of an accident. Been for a walk and had a look around. Mikes found us another cute spot to stay as the weathers ordinary. 

The new Maxine

The new Maxine is waiting for us in Canberra. 

Features double side doors and an extra metre in length. Has a high roof and the new 3 litre engine with 6spd auto clutch transmission. Can't wait to start pimping 

Day 9- Beautiful, horrible, cold, warm

We had a slow pack up from Loch Ness after a great hike to the local falls. After we left the campground on the quiet side of the lick we eventually joined to main road. It was pit street. After battling through the popular areas we finally made it to beautiful open country again. Stunning cold and windy. Very challenging riding. Dangerous. Took us 3-1/2 hours riding to cover not much more than 200 kms for the day. As it rained all day we were too wet to camp. We found this fantastic guest house on the Clyde river near Glasgow.  What a spot 

From our bedroom window

Loch Ness camping

Highland ride

Day 8- The highlands

Lisa was well enough to travel today so we packed up and headed for the highlands. The weather was perfect. The riding was extremely challenging but super fun. The roads are so narrow that sometimes cars have to backup to a pass bay. The high country was a postcard. We navigated for hours through tine back roads and finally popped out at Loch Ness. We are camped beside the loch at a small campground. The camp hosts have been to bathurst. Everyone want to see the bike and talk to us about our trip. It's kinda cool. 

Photos to come. Internet too bad to upload 

--

Regards,

Mike

Mike Coates

mikecoatesy@gmail.com

+61418650318

Day 7- Lisa got sick

A couple of cold days in the saddle and Lisa got a cold. Poor thing was a mess so we stayed in Aberdeen for a recovery day. It was tinged with some sadness as a mother and her son drowned at the beach where we were walking. 

This was a little dock community. So beautiful and well kept. The houses were tiny. Hobbit size. 

Day 6- more castles?

Mikey's English summer happy face 

With the weather supposed to change today we decided to get the miles done early. We are headed towards Aberdeen on the east coast. The highlight of my day will be crossing the forth bridge. I can tick that off. 

Then we headed for our daily castle fix. We came across a blocked road from a bad accident and Gertie took us off road to get around the traffic. We then went through a series of fantastic back farm lanes to get across to the coast and eventually to dunnobar castle

We finished the day with a navigation goatfuck in Aberdeen before finding a place to stay just as the rain started. We haven't camped yet. Lisa is a bit sick. Hopefully tomorrow we can camp beside Loch Ness 

Cutest couple

Look how cute these two are. Hope we're still riding scooters around at the same age. 

Day 5- surviving the North Sea

Well the North Sea was actually just a mill pond. Got to see some oil rigs which was cool. We got off the ferry at Newcastle around 10am and had a coffee in s great little Geordie fishing village. We then spent the day sculking up the coast towards Scotland. For me it was a fulfilment of a lifelong dream to experience the English countryside and coast in summer. It was mind blowing. 

We made it to a Beautiful village about 30ks south of Edinburgh. 

Day 4- hitting the road

After the obligatory Roman ruins morning walk and Molto coffee's we packed Gertie and headed off. We dropped in on TLM and checked out the museum and new bikes.

We got on the road proper at around midday. We took a long circuitous route through the countryside that included a huge lock crossing and a short ferry ride

Crossing on the ferry

We made the ferry with minutes to spare

We had to tie Gertie down ourselves. Bit

worried about what the North Sea might serve up. 

Wind farm in the North Sea 

Day 3- unpacking the bike

Most of the other bike owners arrived today as a group. Teo organised a bus from the airport and they picked us up on the way to the warehouse. It's was lovely to see Teo. We had 24 bikes to uncrate and build 

It's was quite a job. Especially as some people had removed front wheels brakes etc. 

Most people were helpful 

Here is Brian installing a front wheel. Girls Brian takes all those beautiful photos of the boy's and made the videos. 

My body weight came in handy keeping this front wheel off the ground. 

Here is Gertrude 

She arrived in perfect condition and because we packed her so well she was ready to roll in no time. Once all the bikes were together we put some fuel in them checked the tyres and everyone headed back to Nijmegen. After they all left Teo and Jan took us to see the bikes waiting for import. 5 of them are ours

Here is Hercules. He is going to be a fantastic project the bike is very honed. In fact they all are. The Galletto scooter ( named "rooster") is particularly good. So is the 500 racer. Lisa's Lario 650 is in great original condition. Her name is Lara. 

We headed of to town on busy roads and freeway. It was a bit nerve wracking being on the right hand side of the road but all went well. 

We had a quiet cuppa with Jan and Teo after dinner. We will see them again in a couple of weeks. They are starting to pack the container with all the import bikes. 

Tomorrow we leave for the ferry to the UK

Day 2. - travel to Nijmegen

After a fantastic nights sleep we went for an early morning walk in the suburbs looking for good coffee. Great success. 

Then we spent some time sorting our phones out. We bought Sims yesterday and they weren't working properly. Everything is in Dutch so it was all Dutch to me. Eventually we got both of them registered via internet and working well. We should be able to use them now for the whole trip. 

We decided to taxi to the train station as 2 trams during peak hour would have been a bit much for old people. We managed to buy a train ticket for Nijmegen and all went well. The 1-1/2 hour trip through the Dutch countryside was beautiful. When we got off the train we immediately bumped into Andy Hawks. He was on the same train. 

After check in we walked into town for the afternoon. Nijmegen is the oldest town in Holland. It is 2000 years old. We went to the cathedral. It was magnificent. The town is a treasure. Much more relaxed than Amsterdam. Today we walked 16km. 

Tomorrow we go and unpack Gertrude. 

This was the gelato guy following the Pokemon go kids around. Always a new marketing idea somewhere. 

Where is repunzel?

O week at Uni on bikes

Pokemon ?

These people are all playing Pokemon Go. Every single one of them is looking at their phone. Bizarre 

On the way to Nijmegen.

We are catching the train to Nijmegen to collect our beloved Gertrude. This is the bike park area at the train station 

Amsterdam street walk

Amsterdam Canal ride in syle

Tesler Taxi in Amsterdam

Day 1- Amsterdam

The second leg of the flight from Honk Kong to Amsterdam was a breeze. 20mg of Valium and they had to wake me up to land. Getting through customs and immigration was a breeze. First order of the day was Espresso.

Second order of business was getting into Amsterdam. Couldn't decide on train or Tesler

Checkout the speed

We had all day to kill so we headed for Town. I wasnt ready for how many bicycles there were. And the Canals were superb.

Seems like a great Sunday thing to do.