Retirement trip - days 1 and 2

 Day 1

Day 1 of my holiday wasn't without some problems. I set out at 9:00 this morning for the 450 mile/700km ride to the ferry at Portsmouth. This will be the longest day's ride of the trip, so it was best to get it over with at the beginning. The trip started out well on a cool but sunny morning (10C) and by mid morning it had got up to 20C. Everything went well until just past Birmingham when my sat nav screen went blank. I stopped and tried to restart it but it remained blank. I had buy a map and made my way by what was the easiest but shortest or quickest route. This added at least 50 miles/80km and 2 hours to the journey. Eventually got to Portsmouth with a couple of hours to spare, got something to eat, them made my way to the port.

This is the route I should have taken, mine was a bit longer!

You have to be at the port an hour and a half before sailing, so there is plenty of hanging around to do. Then we went through the strictest security I've ever been through (and I've been to East Germany) with all vehicles being searched. It was the first time I'd ever had the luggage on my bike opened, had a Swiss Army knife scrutinised, and had to show the prescription for my medication.

Eventually we were allowed on board and the crew tied down our bikes.

I then made my way up to my very nice cabin.

Hopefully everything gets easier after this!

Day 2

Woke up after a very pleasant Channel crossing. The Channel was very calm but I was woken up a couple of times by the noise of the engines. A quick shower then breakfast and it was time to make my way down to the car deck and collect my bike. Passing through French passport control was fairly quick, though I had my passport stamped for the first time since I was in East Germany in 1983. This is due to UK citizens being restricted to 90 days in Schengen area countries in each 6 month period. Thanks, Brexit!

It was another overcast morning of about 10C and I headed off towards my day's destination, Le Mans. Inexplicably, my sat nav seemed to have started working again - it never really switched off so I assume it completely flattened its battery overnight and reset itself. When I recharged it it seems to work correctly and continued working all day. It was asking for a software update, so I'll arrange that when I have time.

I took a route that took in as many back roads and small villages as possible and stopped at the village of Ste-Mere-Eglise, which was famous for an incident that took place in the early hours of D-Day when a US paratrooper was trapped on the church tower. Link

The town centre has a lot of things commemorating its wartime liberation with a museum, some monuments, and the faces of US troops who died there displayed on lampposts. 

I shot a bit of video but didn't use my usual camera, hence its a bit shaky and the sound a bit noisy.

I carried on and passed this interesting sign at a motocross circuit.

As I was riding along the weather was getting warmer and I saw about 27C at one point. By this time I was riding with just a t-shirt under my jacket, airvents opened, and sunglasses and coolest gloves on. It was great weather for riding in and a good sign of things to come.

I got to Le Mans and visited the famous motor racing circuit. Unfortunately, the museum, full of racing cars and bikes, was closed (it reopens next week!), but there were a couple of racing cars in glass cases outside. I had a ride round the 'road circuit', public roads used for racing, and it's frightening to think how fast the cars go on what are 'normal' public roads, albeit with runouts and raised kerbs.

My hotel was only a short distance away, that is where I'm writing this from. It's nice enough but nothing special and there is a really nice lake across the road.