Europe

I returned to Houston in the wee hours of Tuesday, the 19th, and can say that, while it was a great trip, it is always nice to be back home.
After Joe and I split up I headed across France to a port at Roscoff, France where I took a ferry to Cork, Ireland. While the ferry ride was 14 hours, it saves a channel crossing, a ride across England and a ferry ride from England to Ireland. From Cork I have to travel only about 15 miles to where my bike is stored.
The ride across France was nice except for my not realizing that, while I thought I had taken a loop around, my route took me through the center of Paris. At least it wasn’t rush hour.

My last full day was spent on the Normandy coast visiting the locations where the D-Day landings took place as well as memorials and grave sites.
While walking on the beach, at the Utah Beach memorial site, I heard a trumpet back at the memorial playing the national anthem. It was very moving and, unlike our so called “sports stars”, I turned toward the sound and placed my hand over my heart and sang the anthem (well, mouthed the words because I can’t sang). The trumpet player then finished with taps. As I said, it was a very moving moment knowing the sacrifices that so many had made on this spot.

One of the grave sites that I visited the next day on my way to Roscoff was outside of Saint-James, France which is about 80 miles south west of the beaches. I wanted to go there because I don’t think it gets nearly the number of visitors that the grave site at Omaha beach receives and I feel that those fallen heroes shouldn’t be forgotten. I have posted a link to a short video from my visit.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPM9lc8KR3qDljPEHJiJufWv_S60_koJs6PKsoEpn9Opf1BVXbezL7qEA9wRyvRlg/photo/AF1QipMPYhHz64BQgbobz2q6H8rpQz8Hgk6-Jhvayv4O?key=ZjFKTzZRU01PWXI0T1FFX0hscE5DSDE4ZDVIMlV3


I was amazed at the tidal movement at Roscoff, France. In the photo you can see all the boats sitting on the bottom. I went over by where the fishing boats are tied up and had lunch. By the time I finished lunch they were all floating once again.



Here’s the ferry I took back to Cork. It is more or less like the Lynchburg ferry in Houston….well maybe a bit larger holding 650 cars, many trucks and 2,400 passengers.

jfink said:

Join us for breakfast Tuesday. We will have plenty of stories to tell on each other; PLUS, I plan on bringing a guest from Scotland. Lot's of international flavor.

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Planning on it

CThrall said:

Working on post.

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CThrall said:

I returned to Houston in the wee hours of Tuesday, the 19th, and can say that, while it was a great trip, it is always nice to be back home.
After Joe and I split up I headed across France to a port at Roscoff, France where I took a ferry to Cork, Ireland. While the ferry ride was 14 hours, it saves a channel crossing, a ride across England and a ferry ride from England to Ireland. From Cork I have to travel only about 15 miles to where my bike is stored.
The ride across France was nice except for my not realizing that, while I thought I had taken a loop around, my route took me through the center of Paris. At least it wasn’t rush hour.

My last full day was spent on the Normandy coast visiting the locations where the D-Day landings took place as well as memorials and grave sites.
While walking on the beach, at the Utah Beach memorial site, I heard a trumpet back at the memorial playing the national anthem. It was very moving and, unlike our so called “sports stars”, I turned toward the sound and placed my hand over my heart and sang the anthem (well, mouthed the words because I can’t sang). The trumpet player then finished with taps. As I said, it was a very moving moment knowing the sacrifices that so many had made on this spot.

One of the grave sites that I visited the next day on my way to Roscoff was outside of Saint-James, France which is about 80 miles south west of the beaches. I wanted to go there because I don’t think it gets nearly the number of visitors that the grave site at Omaha beach receives and I feel that those fallen heroes shouldn’t be forgotten. I have posted a link to a short video from my visit.

https://photos.google.com/share/AF1QipPM9lc8KR3qDljPEHJiJufWv_S60_koJs6PKsoEpn9Opf1BVXbezL7qEA9wRyvRlg/photo/AF1QipMPYhHz64BQgbobz2q6H8rpQz8Hgk6-Jhvayv4O?key=ZjFKTzZRU01PWXI0T1FFX0hscE5DSDE4ZDVIMlV3


I was amazed at the tidal movement at Roscoff, France. In the photo you can see all the boats sitting on the bottom. I went over by where the fishing boats are tied up and had lunch. By the time I finished lunch they were all floating once again.

Here’s the ferry I took back to Cork. It is more or less like the Lynchburg ferry in Houston….well maybe a bit larger holding 650 cars, many trucks and 2,400 passengers.

Click to expand...

That's it? That's all you got? Come on Man! Your pictures are awfully big! Must be that apple phone.

By the way, I must have done a pretty good job of hiding the diesel situation among all the other story tellin', because I mentioned it yesterday to some folks who were following along and none of them remember seeing it. So whatever you write, don't mention it ... shhhhhh

When we crossed into Finland from Sweden going to Nordkapp, we stopped at a hotel that looked decent on Google. Unfortunately, it was closed. So we decided to stop for dinner across the street at a burger joint and regroup. The owner, a young lady, spoke "some" English. We asked if she knew of a place to stay for the night and she said that they had "cabins". And we took one.

The cabins were actually pretty nice, except no black out curtains. For those of you who have been up north during the summer, you know it is like daylight all night and black out curtains are VERY important if you intend to get some good sleep. I slept ok, but not like I do at "night time" here in Texas.


Then there was this funny little interchange of conversation about dinner. Chuck wanted a Burger and a Malt. Something we take for granted here in the States. When he asked, the cook and the owner just looked at each other. After a little while I could see the source of the confusion, below is a picture of the sign outside. "Majat" means cabin, in their language and "Burger" means ... well ... Burger.

jfink said:

That's it? That's all you got? Come on Man! Your pictures are awfully big! Must be that apple phone.

By the way, I must have done a pretty good job of hiding the diesel situation among all the other story tellin', because I mentioned it yesterday to some folks who were following along and none of them remember seeing it. So whatever you write, don't mention it ... shhhhhh

Click to expand...

I don’t take many photos because they are so big that my phone gets too heavy to carry around. And I will not say anything else about the fact that we had joked about the diesel thing before it happened. Mum’s the word.

"Burger joints" in Finland? How Europe has changed! I remember going to McDonald's in Germany in the 70s. The buns were like German Brotchen, and the burger meat, while good, didn't taste anything like a burger. It was a learning experience for them, I suppose. But since all Europeans now seem to rent either Harleys or motorhomes & vacation in the US, I suppose they've got American fast food down pat by now.

tshelfer said:

"Burger joints" in Finland? How Europe has changed! I remember going to McDonald's in Germany in the 70s. The buns were like German Brotchen, and the burger meat, while good, didn't taste anything like a burger. It was a learning experience for them, I suppose. But since all Europeans now seem to rent either Harleys or motorhomes & vacation in the US, I suppose they've got American fast food down pat by now.

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Well, at least the mom and pop shops are still working on the burger thing. We had a few burgers, because the cuisine is, basically; whatever you can find, the further north you get. Over there, a good burger had about as much stuff as they could cram into it. I couldn't wait to get back to have a burger without the kitchen sink.

There were a lot of bikes over there, including Harley's. Tons and tons of BMWs. Quite a few smaller Hondas and scooters. Being a big KTM rider myself, I didn't see a lot of KTMs, although Austria is only a few hundred kilometers away.

But the big hit was ... my Goldwing. First because it is just so massive and second because it had Texas plates. I guess they don't see many of either of those. At a hotel in Finland a tour bus stopped with a bunch of Japanese and they could not stop taking pictures of the Wing. I really didn't know what the draw was?

At the airport in Frankfurt, I had an "original" frankfurter. They asked me if I wanted it on "brotchen" or American bread. Wanting to taste the "true" flavor of Europe, I chose brotchen. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE brotchen, absolutely love it, since I was a little kid. But on a "hot dog", well something just wasn't right? If they ever ask, choose the American bread.

Great stuff. I like the anecdote about the Texas weather. Almost thought you were going to say, IT'S ON, and Clint Eastwood type things would happen.

Thanks for the great report!

StromXTc said:

Great stuff. I like the anecdote about the Texas weather. Almost thought you were going to say, IT'S ON, and Clint Eastwood type things would happen.

Thanks for the great report!

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You are welcome! I have started the next installment here.

Funny, but after we started talking, they turned out to be good guys. They just didn't realize who was around them. The guy who did most the talking was a German, living in Atlanta for the past 19 years. The company he worked for was a German faucet company having a conference there in the hotel. His wife (a US citizen) worked in Plano. Apparently, that is what made him the expert on Texas. I usually don't get overly offended in someone else's country about anything said, but I think they could tell I was a little annoyed.

I guess I could have tried the ".. do you feel lucky .. " thing out, but it didn't come to me. Hahaha

DON'T MESS WITH TEXAS