Tag: Normandy

The Long Ride South (part 1: France)

by blacridere

I need to get to Leon in North Western Spain to meet with a colleague. The route I broadly have in my head involves stopping in Nantes and Bordeaux in France and then in Vitoria-Gasteiz on the other side of the border and the Pyrenees, before a merciful 300km to Leon to get there with enough time to freshen up before meeting with my colleague. I’m not entirely confident that I’ll manage it all, but as the old saying goes, “eyes fear, hands do”. 

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D Week

by blacridere

“D Day”, (or “J Jour” as it’s known in France)  when the Allies opened the Second Front in 1944 and the largest military operation in history, has been documented in countless books, treatises and films, including such epics as ‘The Longest Day’ and ‘Saving Private Ryan’. It’d be pointless me trying to recount the sequence of events which occurred in early June 1944, as so much scholarship and popular culture is far more informative than anything I as an amateur could commit to this page. 

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Normandy Landing

by blacridere

The crossing is surprisingly quick. I sit next to Jez and we chat a bit before he goes on deck to be in the fresh air. The Trtl neck support device works impressively well and I manage a few hours’ relatively uninterrupted sleep, with earplugs in and wearing shades to make it feel darker, although my seat is facing away from the window anyway. On waking I drink another coffee and then the announcement comes on the ship’s PA that we are ready to dock.

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Forever Delayed

by blacridere

My first long distance motorcycle ride in 2018 was epic by my own standards, but not at all so by the standards of someone like Ted Simon. It was certainly much less epic by the standards of Nick Sanders who had circumnavigated the world on a motorcycle nine times, on one occasion doing so on a Yamaha R1 (a 1000cc sportsbike) in nineteen days. Still, for me the post journey funk lasted a number of months, just as Ted had warned. The ennui was interrupted now and then by some event or other, including the Alexandra Palace Motorcycle Show where I met Nick in person for the first time.

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