Day 6 Semmering

Up early and breakfast for 7. Tried to get on the road for 730 but filling up was time consuming due to the fancy card machine at the pumps, ok once you have been shown how it works. So 800 it is and onto the A35 again heading for Austria but first is a flying visit to Lichtenstein. Not much to say about this as it is only a couple of villages for us and they are still waking up. Innsbruck is the first target and 150km towards the lighter skies. We stop on the east side at a services and check the map,  there is a choice so we go vis Kitzbuhel and down to Bruck. It seems we met the lunchtime rush at Kitz and with the temp at 24c this did not appear to be good timing however the lights were for us and we were quickly back on a country road.

The next 25km were slow, few places to overtake and heavy traffic coming the other way. Villages led into each other and we climbed to a col and a nice twisty decent on the east side.

The gps was doing ok but sometimes the voice is slow to update the route especially when there are quick changes to the route. this happened twice with the 2nd being the worse. Only 60km to go and we took a slip road to the right which then curved round and a choice of 3 routes, non with road numbers , only names that did not mean anything. The voice said "keep right, keep right" which I did only 5 secs later to be told  " take left, take left" Doh!

No option now, a Peage and a very long tunnel,10 miles or so and very hot at 28c, now heading south and the gps says now arriving at 1830 as opposed to 1745. There is a mass picture being taken at 1830, will we make it in time? The re-route goes back north up another valley and we are on the S6 again and meet several other Pans going our way. They shoot past so there is only one thing to do and that is join in at the back. The next 30km really fly by and we get to the hotel at 1825 and are marshalled to the car park in plenty of time. So 425 miles done, it's been a long day.

The evening begins with a welcome address from the organising club and the local mayor. An Austrian group in lederhosen strike up and the buffet is open. Food is excellent, my choice is garlic soup with chives, pork with sour kraut and dumplings and apple strudel to finish... Oh and cheese and biscuits, yes I was hungry.

Day 5

The Honda shop had received a key but not the full month one that has the chip in the end. So option b was taken to get key cut and use old chipped end taped on to get bike going. This worked though I didn't need to tape them together. It's a long story but we still had to get the key cut somewhere else but fortunately all this took place within a 4 mile radius of the campsite.

 So 1400 we are off on the road again. Temp v hot at 27c but as we get down to the edge of the Vosge mountains it cools a bit. Scenic run through the hills tho stuck behind some artics for a while but not long before we are on the A35 heading for Basel.

Border guards are out on the road and we get shown where to park so we can buy our Vingette, Swiss road tax. Maps checked again and we are off heading south for Luzern. It's not long before we are in tunnels and lots of them too, but up ahead skies are looking dark.

We enter a long tunnel and we are doing 60mph and it takes some 5 mins to get out the other side which strangely seems to be nightfall at only 530pm. Soon there are flashes of light above but no thunder but not for long. 15 mins later we are in a downpour in the dark with lightning silhouetting the jagged skyline momentarily. Progress is slow now and we decide to find a hotel as it is not going to be fun pitching a tent in a downpour.

We miss a turning and have to carry on for a further 9km but luck is on our side and we find a nice hotel in Walenstadt. It's 9pm and a hot shower and cool beer are required. Next it's a good sleep and an early start tomorrow for the last leg to Semmering.

Days 1 to 4

Day1 was wet and windy. Not a nice run down to Oxford. This was piqued by being charged at the M6 toll as a big vehicle due to the 2 cars that came in right close behind me. So 6.50 instead of 2.80. Thanks guys. Later that evening had a temporary fright when could not find my wallet. Last time saw it was at ....Toll. Worst thoughts go through mind and think i have lost it on the M40 somewhere. Thankfully i found it.

Day2 only 150 miles but took 4 hours , filtering through miles of queues on M25. But made chunnel in plenty time. V quick run to france on train and no passport checks at all v strange. Great run down to near Arras.

Day3 Beautiful drive to Arras just 20 mins from campsite to a military cemetary so Colin could pay his respects to an uncle who was critically wounded there. Lovely countryside which made it hard to believe the scenes that took place in 1917.
Back to the autoroute and another 300km down the road. Feeling very pleased with our progress we treated ourselves to a beer from the site fridge. It must have been getting the army knife out of the glovebox that did for the ignition key though this was not realised at the time. Two hours later trying to get my headtorch out of the same box i discovered i had a stubby key on my keyring.

Fortunately having the knife out of the box i was able to extract the broken end of the key. Next get address of local honda dealer.

Day4 Go to dealer who is very helpful but no blank key in stock. Takes 24hrs to get one so today we have a day off in Nancy. Did the tourist bits- Cathedral (said some prayers) and also the Hotel de Ville square, ok we had a beer taking in the view. Lots of walking and a good meal in a street off the square. So tomorrow we hope our prayers are answered and a key awaits at Mr Honda. more soon.

The Day Before.

Its friday and its packing day. Its a major job to not take things but I do have more room than on the C2C cycle ride earlier this year.
The main concern has been the weather for tomorrow however I am pleased to see things have improved a lot since yesterday. I think we'll aim to leave a bit later than planned so that we should miss a lot of the rain in the manchester area.
I did get out on the bike again today to give the tyres a bit more of a scrub as they have only done 10 miles since fitting.
The final jobs tonight are loading up all the routes from the PC onto the microsd card and also some new music.
So thats it, the fun begins tomorrow.

Two days to go and the ToDo list is finally ticked. Just the small matter of packing and then leaving things out when there is no space left.
Been getting the routes from the Tour site and making sure they load onto the GPS. There is a choice of runs on both the saturday and sunday, a long one and a not so long one so depending how you feel (or how your butt feels probably) you can choose on the day. Still to load the routes we are taking to get to and from Semmering. Colin has picked some places to aim for but we are flexible with most of the travel days to allow for weather etc.
The bike is serviced and new tyres fitted as probably going to be 3000+ miles in the two weeks. Our plan is to go via the Chunnel at Folkestone, staying the first night near Arras about 1 hour south of Calais. From there we are aiming for Switzerland, possibly Italy, then Austria.
The forecast is looking a tad damp for saturday so off to check the wet suit now!