Paging the Euro travelers

I planned his route in 3 mins and took about 10 mins to knock up the google
map.

I had a quick peruse of hotel availability etc for my[1] trip in Sept. The
Brittany Fastcat from Cherbourg to Poole filled up[2] inbetween my 1st look
and rechecking a few days later. I'm on the Cherbourg to Portsmouth one
now, costing £20 more.

Hotels: it seems the 1st week of Sept is still a busy time in France and
some of the better value hotels in places like Annecy are full already. So,
I've used http://www.booking.com/ to prebook rooms on where I think I will
be. Excellent website, no need to prepay and you can cancel the rooms if
you change your mind.

[1] most of the rooms I've booked are twins if Cab decides to join me but
they can be altered easily if we go elsewhere or rain moves in
[2] I think they can only take 15 bikes per trip

 

I cba to plan routes. Last summer the plan was San Marino, Corsica,
Andorra, Spain, Portugal. The year before, it was a clockwise lap of
California. Beyond that, I look at maps in the morning and see which
way the wind blows. Often, I get to a crossroads, stop and say, hmm,
let's try _that_ direction instead. It works for me.

 

You don't have a child on the pillion, do you?

 

When you live in Wales, you can cheer yourself up in winter by planning
summer trips, looking at photos of places you have been or wish to visit
e.g. see the photos of Lake Garda posted earlier that elicited a response
from gyp about wanting to go now.

For my trip, I have 3 points in France where I need to be on specific dates
to meet other people. Some planning is required to ensure I keep to that
schedule whilst covering some scenic routes on the days inbetween. The
three points are in Alsace, Lot & Normandy so there is some distance
between them

 

What if he had? A 14 year old can cope easily with some uncertainty.
I am with Thomas on this one- I always prefer winging it to making
reservations in advance. I've never had to sleep under the stars and
always had fun playing it by ear. YMMV.

Be flexible and take it as it comes. I hate having to push hard to
get somewhere just because I've planned to be there in advance, and
I can't imagine doing it for multiple nights days in advance, as I
never know where I'll be stopping for the night most days before
mid-afternoon. Obviously this isn't a hard & fast rule, "destinations"
need to be booked in advance, some ferries etc., but in between those
fixed points it's more fun to dial back the planning, for me.

 

Winging it has it's plus points for me. I quite enjoy being slightly
disorganised on holiday because my working life is bit regimented.

The return trip from Malta was totally unorganised. I'd booked
campsites but ditched the tent in Civitavecchia almost as soon as I got
off the ferry. From there on it was ride, look at stuff and then find a
cheap hotel, which was made harder by my satnav mount not charging the
unit so I couldn't access hotel info on that. I got home ok, with no
dramas and I always found somewhere affordable to stay.


--
Lozzo
Versys 650 Inter-Continental Hyperbolistic Missile , CBR600F-W racebike
in the making, TS250C, RD400F (somewhere)
BMW E46 318iSE (it's a car, not one of those 2-wheeled pieces of shite
they churn out)

 

Not that I know of. A child would be easier to deal with than a full
grown woman, though. Women tend to want a say in things.

 

To be honest, I could easily do the same and when my plan was get there
in 2 or 3 days max then that's what I'd do, but as we've decided to take
a little longer, take it easier and see stuff on the way I'd like to
take time to look through the advice of the seasoned travellers.

Don't worry, it won't take 5 months to plan, but I do want to look at
the suggestions and see what fits together best

 

I think if anything this is me doing the opposite; my natural tendency
when I get across the channel is to push hard and get as far as I can.

By selecting and prebooking stopping points it will force me to take it
easier and not cram too many miles into the day.

Thinking about it though, if I'm pushing hard I also like to have the
stops planned so I don't have the problem of finding somewhere to stay
when it's late and I'm tired.

I suspect this is my inner project manager making sure that I'm organised

 

I'm the opposite. The quality/location/price balance of the hotels in
which we stay is an important factor, and the sort of places we like
can get booked up well in advance. Different strokes, innit.

 

It can be, except I don't find it so when the only reason is that I
pre-booked a place somewhere that is no better than some other place
(or perhaps worse) that I could just drop into along the way. Most
of the really interesting places I've found to stay tend to be ones
that don't have internet booking facilities and yet they are clean
and functional and friendly.

And cheap.

 

Yours, by a couple of inches. So your bike's a fat **** too!

 

just saw a post on UKGSer that gives a route to get from the Black Forest
towards the Brenner/Timmelsjoch passes into Italy, which avoid the traffic
congestion you are likely to get around Lake Constance.

[google map link] http://bit.ly/gK8IcY - the Alpinestars ASBisti creamed
their pants over the Stanzach to Berwang via Namlos section at the eastern
end.

 

Curses!

 

Alpinestars ASBisti? Is that for dyslexics who put their feet down to
slow down but do so quite effectively?

Certainly looks quite wiggly.

 

No. They hadn't been given the O by then

wiggles are quite good as long as there aren't too many of them stacked
upon each other like a plate of poppadoms.

 

Is that the bit where we got into a spot of bother?

 

When you say spot of bother..?

 

no - the 2 days of freedom in Austria before you went to Bad
Wurttemberg. The interesting road with fog and cows in the middle of the
road. Worse than encounterng ginge on the brakes half way through a
bend.

one with Klaus & the Italian totty, the other with the entire
Alpinestars crowd

 

Blimey, that is bad