Motorbike trip to UK and Europe July/August 2018

Kms today 303 Kms to date 2,308 We had a slow start to the day due to our late night carousing the night before. We left at 10:30 and I was leading the way having bought a map. Alan hadn't worked out how to put way points into the GPS yet and his GPS was routing us along motorways instead of the twisty R roads. I had to stop and check the map occasionally but the Irish roadsigns were very good which made it easy. We had a nice lunch in Nenagh before using a new motorway briefly to bypass Limerick. We arrived at Davids house at 4:30 after a bit of help from Mabel at the end. David was still having his lunch as is his wont, but we prevailed on him to get the roast lamb on in time for our dinner at a reasonable hour. Roast lamb dinner - at a reasonable hour! After our roast we set off for a walk along the beach and watched the sun set over Malin Head. Malin Head What could they possibly be discussing?? Look what I found. We came back for a dessert of local rasp...

Kms today 325 Kms to date 2,005 We had a good nights sleep in the cottage and Alan managed to avoid more carnage to his head. Alan set off for PRONI to copy the account of Dad's trip to Turkey 1964 and I headed off to visit Trevor McMahon an old school friend. We met up at PRONI and the security guard helped us use the scanner which speeded up the process. Alan will convert it to text so he can send it out to the family. We then rode out of Belfast to our cousin Joyce's house in Lisburn for scones, a cup of tea and a chat. Joyce and Harry with "Fang".  After that we headed for Roscommon where we were staying with Michele Coffey and Hugh Fearon, an old friend of mine. Our stay was contingent on me cooking a Paella with ingredients supplied by Michele. We were coming back from the pub to cook tea when Morag arrived in her hire car showing much better navigation skills than Mabel, Alan's GPS! We sat down to a feed of Paella and copious bottles of wine pro...

Kms today 104 Kms todate 1,680 Left the house at 9.30am to get to the Titanic exhibition by 11am. We took our bikes as Morag was going on to stay with friends afterwards. There was a light rain falling when we left so we donned our wet weather gear. We got to the Titanic quarter in plenty of time and parked under the exhibition building. We had tickets for everything, Titanic Discovery, Titanic Experience, the Nomadic tour and a free photo!!! This the original drawing office and is now part of the Titanic hotel. Morag and Alan outside the Titanic exhibition (in the rain). It took all day but was very good. The Titanic Experience had plenty of visuals. A scale model of the Titanic The chief  designer/engineer was William Andrews who went to my old school, the Royal Belfast Academical Institution or Inst as it was commonly known. He was held in high regard by both management and workers. He wanted enough lifeboats to carry all the passengers but Ismay from the White ...

Kms today 112 Kms to date 1,576 Helen Taylor the wife of an old school friend Brian Taylor called this morning in response to my email yesterday. I arranged to visit her in Helens Bay at midday. Brian died in 2012. As I had plenty of time I went for a walk to Quentin Castle along the bay from the house. It was originally built by DeCourcy in 1145 but has been through quite a few iterations since then. It is privately owned now and used for weddings and conferences. The front gate was open so I strolled down the drive and took a few pictures. It has great location right on the headland. Entrance to Quentin Castle. A gorgon carved from a tree trunk near the entrance. Looking towards the castle from the side garden. Looking down the side garden away from the castle. I walked back to the house and jumped on my motorbike for the ride to Helens Bay. It only took 45mins. Helen was there with a new "friend" Wilson who went to my high school at the same time ...

Kms today 272 Kms to date 1,464 This morning I managed to bang my head again!!! Colin put some skin repair ointment on the wound plus mucho band-aids. He cooked up a big breakfast and we did some washing using the machine hidden in one of the sheds. After we hung it out we set off to Ballymoney to see the Joey Dunlop memorial. For the unitiated Joey Dunlop was a famous Irish road racer who died in a road race in Estonia in 2000. Colin used to watch him in his early days racing in Northern Ireland before he hit the big time. Colin with his idol Joey Dunlop.  We also visited the Joey Dunlop bar at the railway station.   Inside the bar there are a couple of Joey's bikes in display cabinets. Honda NSR 250cc. Honda RC30 Joey Dunlop corner at the Isle of Man.  We had lunch at Molly's down the street. It was recommended by one of the locals at Joey's bar, probably a shareholder!! The tomato soup was magic. After lunch we headed east over the hills...

Kms today 240 Kms to date 1,192 We only had three hours riding to Cairnryan to catch the ferry to Belfast. It is the 12th July and for those not initiated in the customs of Northern Ireland today is the day the Protestants go marching and antagonise the Catholics. Most clear thinking people get out of town for this event except our two trusty bikers. Margaret made us a fantastic breakfast to get us on our way. Colin, Margaret and Ian just before we left. Ian had given us some ideas on a route that avoided the motorways and included a bit of scenery. We had lunch in the bakery in Maybole on the way and arrived at the ferry in plenty of time. Bikes safely strapped down on ferry to Belfast. We arrived in Belfast on time at 5.45pm and took off for Portaferry. I don't recognise the roads in Belfast anymore but luckily Mabel does and she got us there around 7pm. On the way we were held up with a 12th march in Kircubbin a little country town near Po...

Kms today = 392 Cumulative kms = 952 Ian gave us a slap up breakfast before we headed to motorway and Hawick in Scotland. We took the mandatory photos at the border. The ubiquitous piper plying his trade at the border. We had lunch in Selkirk in the main square. Our lunch venue in trendy Selkirk. After lunch we took all the back roads to Bathgate near Edinburgh where our cousin Ian and his wife Margaret live. The roads made for some interesting riding as they were pretty windy and narrow. They live out in the wilds but luckily they are located right on their postcode. We arrived around 3pm and were made very welcome. Margaret and Ian our generous hosts. Margaret made a fantastic lasagne dinner with plenty of wine. After dinner we watched England get beaten 2-1 by Croatia in the semi-final of the world cup. We stayed up late shooting the breeze.