From the beaches of Normandy

 

I was driving down the country lanes in Wales when I went around a curve and was greeted by this scene.

 

I'm loving Wales. It is hilly and curvy and absolutely beautiful. I can't much understand the people, even though they are obviously speaking English, but everyone I meet is as friendly as my old Grandpa Sam.

I camped up on a cliff at a very nice campground and watched the sun set into the Irish Sea.  It was a gorgeous place to spend the night after my supper of stew and lettuce salad

 

It was just as pretty in the morning. An oatmeal breakfast and time to get back on the road.

 



One of the beautiful national parks in Wales is the Brecon Beacons. I road through this with my wife on our bicycles years ago, and what a difficult ride it was. I'm glad to have 650 cc's of power under me this time.

Part of these hills is open range for Welsh ponies and sheep. I didn't see any of the ponies, but the sheep are everywhere.

What do you think of this windmill. Someone lives in it. Won't see many of these in Wales.

Around noon I was back in England in the town of Portsmouth.

From here I want to take the ferry to Le Havre, France. It doesn't leave until 11 pm though. Gotta find some way to kill about 10 hours.

I decided to visit the docks. There are some fine old sailing ships docked here. I just love sailing ships.

This next ship if the HMS Victory. Do you know the story of this ship? It was Admiral Nelson's flagship, and it was on it the Nelson was shot and killed by an enemy rifleman at the Battle of Trafalgar. That is a famous battle; one of the most important in naval history.

I had a good time exploring the Victory. I learned a few things. For example, did you know that the "Seat of Easement" (the Toilet) was always at the head or the ship, and that it emptied into canvas tubes that carried the wastes down to the ocean.

This is a "monkey". Its job is to hold cannon balls.  I asked if they were ever made of brass, but I found out only the army used monkeys made of brass.

The army stacked their cannon balls on the brass monkey in a pyramid shape. You might be interested in knowing that brass shrinks when it gets cold. When it was cold enough, and the brass shrank enough, the cannon balls would fall off the monkey. Thus the saying:------ (You thought it was something else, didn't you. Be honest now.

 

Finally it was time to head for the ferry to France. There were dozens of motorcycle riders there.

 

 

We all took our motorcycles into the deepest bowels of the ship. And then we climbed up and up to the lounge area. There were some reclining chairs up there, but it was sure hard getting much sleep. It was fun talking with the other motorcycle riders though.









The ferry got to France at 8 am the next morning. I headed down along the coast of Normandy. DDay was exactly 69 years ago today.

First though, before looking at WWII scenes, I had to take a picture of two of some scenes in Normandy.

You have to be hard-hearted if the scenes of DDay do not bring a tear to your eye. Especially the cemeteries.

I am dead tired from lack of sleep, so I am going to crawl into my tiny tent and get some sleep. Tomorrow I think I will head toward the south of France. Lots of things down that-a-way I've never seen. Lourdes, for example. Until next time then---

Ron

 



Riding through the Snowdon National Park in Wales.

It has been a while since I posted last. It is hard finding wifi. I usually search out McDonald "restaurants" because they all have wifi, but McDonald's are not very numerous along the small roads and tiny towns I usually try driving through.

In my last post I talked about how much I enjoyed the Horizon's Unlimited meeting I went to. I am really glad I signed up for it. I met motorcycle riders from all over the world, and went to sessions chaired by riders who have been the most remote and interesting places.

Bob and John here were camped right next to me. They had set up under an enormous Chestnut tree. We shared this picnic table. They seem to understand the joy of these tables in the UK. I never see them at all elsewhere in Europe.

I don't remember what this session was all about. They were all good though, so I am sure I enjoyed this one.



 



There were a lot of vendors, too. I bought some luggage straps I had been looking for.

What do you think of this RV. It should certainly be able to go over about any road in the world (If you can afford the gas to run it).

 







I liked this Land Rover better. The couple who own it had just driven it back from Cape Town, South Africa. I asked why the lions didn't just jump up on it and eat them up while they were sleeping in the tent on top.  They assured me lions just won't do that. Hum!

 

IN between a session on motorcycle maintenance and a session on emergency medical treatment, I decided to visit the Road Kill Grill. Their motto was: "You kill it; we cook it". They had a rabbit skinning contest, which I decided not to enter. They had a bunch of beautiful ring-necked pheasants lying there (Did you know they have pheasants in England? I didn't.). I decided you would not really appreciate a picture of dead birds, no matter how pretty. Sorry ;-)

 

Look at all these well traveled motorcycles. The smallest was a Honda C90. The kid that owned it had bought it in southeast Asia, ridden it home, and then went to the Arctic Circle through Norway in January.  He is a little crazy, but he was very entertaining.

 

 



This is one well traveled pup. She rides in this basket everywhere. Too cute for words.

 



When Horizons Unlimited was over, I decided to explore some parts of the UK I've never been to. I rode north and west into the Peak District. It sure was pretty up there. It was Sunday; the sun was shining; the temperature perfect; and there were motorcycles, bicycles and hikers everywhere. These British certainly like to get out and enjoy nature when they have a rare sunny day.

I looked for some slow children, but I couldn't find any. They were all riding their bikes very fast or out hiking.

 

I did find a slow duck, though. :-)

 







I never ever know where my GPS is going to take me, and I seldom have more than the vaguest idea where I am. In this picture, my GPS was taking me down a single-track farm road. Gotta be careful going around curves. Never know when you might meet someone coming the other way.

 

Notice the hedgerow. I love these things. Every so often a pheasant or a tiny hedgehog will run out of them. Sure don't want  to run over one of those cute guys.

 



There are stone walls like this everywhere. Do you know where the stones came from? They came from generations of fathers and their sons removing them from their fields by hand. Back breaking!!

 

A typical village: maybe 10 houses and tiny little lanes. What do people do for entertainment? Just work?

I stopped to take a picture of three cute little lambs, but they came running right up to me like I was the strangest thing they had seen all day. I couldn't get far enough away from them to take their picture. Mamma Ewe here was a little more stand-offish. Come back here you ba-a-a-d lambs!







The sheep get all mixed up in the fields, so how does a sheep rancher know which one is his? You brand them, of course, with spray paint.

 

Oh you take the blue lambs and I'll take the red ones, and I'll be in Scotland before you.

 

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

I found a beautiful place to camp last night. Ann and Brian (pronounced Bree-un) were there and kept me entertained. Brian is Welsh and was just chock full of interesting knowledge about history and the Welsh language. I'm not sure who the lady on the bike was. She was riding by and I invited her to be in our picture.

 





Brian there on the left.

And Ann

I had to take this picture of a British phone booth for my youngest daughter, Victoria.  She watches a tv series about a guy who travels around the universe in a phone booth.  So this is for you, Victoria.

 







I've been riding in the mountains of Snowdonia, Wales, all day. They are really high and rugged. No wonder the English were never able to catch the Welsh. The Welsh are fiercely independent still to this day.

 

These Welsh mountains are the highest in the UK other than the highlands of Scotland, in case you are interest in such things.



For any US farmers who are following this blog, here is a typical UK farm.

 



A final picture of the mountains of Snowdonia (and of one grizzled looking mountain man).

 

I think I have about used up my wifi time, so gotta go find a campsite for tonight.

 

More later,

Ron