InvictaMoto's Family Travels

These are the places that I have added to the weekend. I expect I have over-engineered it as I normally do, so there may be places that we can remove "on the hoof" if we are running out of time. I'll have the route for TomTom ITN and a .GPX copy available soon. Some links. Pals at Sheffield Park Ocean Villas - Auchonvillers really! Newfoundland Memorial Ulster Tower Tank Memorial / Australian Memorial Pozieres Pozieres British Cemetery / Memorial to the Missing Froissy-Dompierre Light Railway Historical Peronne Souvenir Francaise Rancourt

The date is confirmed as 4th and 5th July. We have decided to stay in the Central Anzac again. The hotel has come online on booking.com . At the time of writing rooms are going quickly but we have a few booked and held as the hotel has a pay later/free cancellation policy. I am still working on the route from last year, I did have a Part-Deux or "Deuxième partie" route done and dusted but an over vigilant IT department at work managed to lose my files as the virus software decided ITN files should be deleted!!! So far I have recovered the old itinerary from the TomTom and removed the places we went to in the Somme-Une. And this is what it looks like at the moment.  As we over engineered last time, this might be enough to keep us occupied!

It looks as though DFDS are axing routes all across Europe.   Firstly we knew that the LD Lines ferry to Spain had been chopped, then in the email exchange I had with them I found out that Tilbury to Gothenburg had gone too. Earlier I had a look on the public website and the only alternative for us in southern England, Harwich to Denmark was also finished. The options now are very limited thanks to this and Scandinavia is getting to be difficult to get to! Valhalla in  '15 is doomed. That's unless the propsoed Norwgian Seaways crossing to Bergen finally materialises and if Regina Lines actually gets off the ground next year.

Plan B is pretty much the stuff that Plan A is made of, except different.  We have decided to "see" more of the "must see" sights/sites so the five nights after Punta Gorda have taken on a different complexion. So instead of heading south we have decided to go to Orlando so we can visit Epcot and maybe one of the less thrill seeker parks and then across to Canaveral to have a day at the Kennedy Space Center.  Until I started entering the hotel locations and sights into Tyre I didn't realise that they aren't too far apart.  This year, the drive to Key West was out longest drive and that was from Weston near Fort Lauderdale. Half a day in both directions although that included stops to see the Dolphins and to eat. The longest run this time will be from the east to west coasts on the penultimate day, Port Canaveral to Clearwater Beach. Of course, plans are there to be changed...... Plan B

Back in 1991 on my first ever visit to Florida, one of the trips I made, with friend Carol Belcher from Burger King HQ, was made in her Ohio registered Toyota Corolla, and we went to Orlando, staying on International Drive and we did two theme parks, Universal Studios and Epcot. Not being a great scary ride fanatic, I thought Epcot was a really good day out.  So what better place to go and see what has changed. So accordingly, I have been onto my favourite booking.com and looked for reasonably priced hotel within east reach of Epcot that gets decent reviews.  Enter the Rodeway Inn Maingate. A chain motel looking place.  Booked for two nights to give us a whole day at Epcot or whatever else takes our fancy...... As usual it is "pay later, free cancellation" and meets my other requirements of being over 7/10 in the reviews and has free parking and wifi! Back of the net!

A few days and I have made another slight amendment.  This year the Mustang only proved to be a PITA as the boot (trunk) was only able to take a single large suitcase and the small hand luggage case, as long as you put it in by some sort of luggage contortionist way. On the way back to the airport and the day before, we had two cases and one had to go onto the back seat!  This wouldn't be a problem if we had a fixed apartment or hotel, as we have some days "on the road" maybe the Mustang isn't going to be the right vehicle. Head has to overrule the heart!   So it was back the travel sites to see that would be an alternative. Or take one case maybe? This year we had booked a Dodge Charger and then didn't need too much persuasion to trade up to the Mustang.  The Chargers we saw there looked pretty good and the Highway Patrol was using them too, although I doubt they had the box standard rental car model. So what to do? The two companies that came out th

So once the week in Punta Gorda comes to an end we have to decide what to do for the other 5 nights before the flight home. Currently we have started to look further down the Gulf Coast and so I have a booked a couple of nights near Naples. but the wanderlust to see more things has started to bite and although at the time of writing there are 221 days to go. Currently I have the Fairways Inn of Naples and Wyndham Garden in Fort Myers Beach that leave a single night to look at.......

Had another look today to compare Alamo's rates and some of the other sites such as Travelsupermarket.com etc. and the rates seem to have changed magically overnight! Incredible I hear you cry, but no, don't titter (© Frankie Howerd).  I checked Fort Myers first to see if it was a cheaper site to Tampa and the Alamo rate for the Mustang (yes I know) came out at $631.50 for the fortnight including all the insurance stuff.... I was so surprised that I emailed them!  I asked them if there were any nasty surprises on collection! So that ought to be the car sorted!  The offer says "Ford Mustang or similar", The similar might be the Chrysler 200.  That looks to be pretty much a good alternative, but the Mustang is, well, a Mustang. Chrysler 200  

Looking for a car for the trip. Doesn't need to be the Mustang we had last time but something that can take two cases and be kinda comfortable. And American? This year we went with Alamo. The 16 days of the rental was about $850. So when I logged into my account with Alamo for the same weeks except on 15 days rental I naively thought something around that ball park. I hadn't expected the Mustang to come out at nearer $1100! They can swivel on that.  Why did I look for the Mustang considering paragraph one above? Only because a mundane Impala or similar was showing at over $800. My winter project will be to watch around for a better deal. Maybe one where they give a f*ck if their car breaks down.  AAA cover is extra. For the daily rate x 15 I can join the RAC in UK for a year at the highest level! Logging out, clearing cookies and then trying as a new customer is maybe a single solitary dollar more! Looks like

After breakfast on Sunday we decided to head south to the Baie de la Somme, and to Le Crotoy in particular. A couple of years ago we had a short visit there on the way back from Normandy. Although the obvious non-motorway route was to go down the D940 coast road to Le Touquet and Berck sur Mer, TomTom had other ideas and we ventured away from the coast into nowhere, or the hinterland between the N1 and the coast. In the end a road closure actually forced us back to the coast road in any case!  The first stop had actually been on the outskirts of St Leonard, the town that adjoins Boulogne. It was to fill the tank with refreshing French diesel. At €1.242 - litre I was saddened to only get €60 to fill up the pipe. There is a flap to stop overfilling. That price equates to about 98p a litre! At home at the local supermarket it is about 34p a litre more!!!! After eating out twice the day before we decided to have a picnic instead. The weather was good with temps around 22C and s

Way back in the spring we went to a free travel show at the Dover Ferry Terminal and as usual entered loads of competitions to win cruises and holiday. In the end we did get a lucky a free night at the Youth Hostel in Boulogne sur Mer. Over the last thirty or more years I have stayed at loads of hostels in mainland UK and across in Europe. Most have been really good and some average but none have been a let-down. In some places, they are really cheaper alternatives to hotels but you have to choose well. Also at the show was a small stand from Douai (pron. Doo-eye) in the Nord region of France. Although we had forgotten the leaflets and what they had to offer we decided to go and have a look. The run down from the Shuttle was pretty good and the Insignia cruised along without a hiccup. Douai though has little to offer! The tourist office furnished us with a map and we saw there were two trails and so we chose the shorted one, estimated at an hour, plus had a quick detour into t

After the late night we didn't get up too early. We had hardly unpacked and so we ended up back in the restaurant for another breakfast on the same bill as the half we'd had when we arrived. From there the weather had looked up a bit and we headed off with TomTom leading us along the coast through Bournemouth before we were free of the built up area. Along this section it seemed the main income stream would be from the speed cameras dotted all over the place and the intellectually subnormal speed limits to make sure that the income is high. The ride home was far less eventful than the ride down the week before.  The motorways not too busy, no more than a normal working day. We were home in good time and parked up at home in the early afternoon. Once again Döra had been the perfect bike. Comfortable two-up. Powerful enough and economical enough when needed. With the larger Kappa topcase and the OEM panniers there was enough luggage space for this length of tri

At sea. Before the 3G signal faded last night I checked the booking in Poole. Actually the most expensive hotel of the entire holiday. A Holiday Inn in Poole. More expensive than both the Paradors!! Still, very convenient for the harbour late at night and has breakfast included and free wifi. The day started with Biscay playing to its famed bumpy self. The ship rolling in a decent swell. We got up late and set off for the restaurant for breakfast. Both of us are usually good sailors, but not now. At least Claire made it to breakfast! I returned to the cabin. I was very tom and dick! After a few hours the good weather arrived and stayed with us for ten or eleven hours until we were only a few hours out of Poole. Oh yes. After a whole holiday in the dry, it was drizzling.... Then bad news. An announcement that due to traffic in the harbour, we would be late docking by an hour. Instead it wasn't that bad and we eventually arrived about half an hour later. We had some chat with the oth

Not a bad night once the screaming brat closed down for the night. After two of the three S's were accomplished we went down to desayuno. It's included in the room rate. As we are both old we qualify for the "golden age" rate at the Parador that gives us a discount on the room rate of about 10%. Breakfast was a buffet. Plenty for everyone.  Views from the terrace. Sorting what goes in what bag not so simple! To save carrying loads what we need for the duration of the boat crossing and the hotel stop in Poole we needed one bag. Once sorted we loaded Döra and then checked out.  The Parador We reported the broken chair and I left a note and took pictures!! The broken chair The first planned stop was Potes on the edge of the Picos.  Today there was only one mountain pass, Puerto de Piedroluengas at 1355m. It is on the border between Palencia and Cantabria.  The descent on the northern

Only one more night left in Spain but the best part of two days. We didn't get up too early. The alarm was 0800 but as check out was 1200 and no breakfast in the hotel, thought we'd lie in and then pack and go. The first stop was the Bernabeu Stadium. Of course I went into the car park the wrong way, had to "off road" across some pavements to set Döra up for a photo session.  Stadio Santiago Bernebeu Stadio Santiago Bernebeu Stadio Santiago Bernebeu Stadio Santiago Bernebeu - don't ask about the orange character We still hadn't had breakfast, so after a few pix we set off again. TomTom took us around the entire stadium and through the car-park of a shopping complex and we saw a Musee del Jamón. Parked and a ham croissant and coffee later we were off to the second stop at Segovia. The route I planned took us over the Puerto de Navacerrado. It's over 1800 metres and progress was deadly. To cover today's long dis

Today we had a full day of sightseeing. It is not as hot as Toledo but still in the high 20's. Breakfast. We had a walk up Huertas again to the top and chose a cafe on the square. Croissant for Claire and porros for me. Porros are huge fat churros! I managed two of the four. Our sightseeing included El Corte Ingles, Museo de Jamon, Plaza Mayor, the market then down to the Royal Palace. Somehow we were out for six hours. We adopted the tapa style of eating and in the market, more a food place now than a real market,  we had some small fish tapa at €1 each. They all came on small pieces of toast. The "pulpo" was quite hard to eat, but the cod meat in a sauce was superb. On the way back to the hotel we called in the Carrefour. Fanta is €1 as well. Maybe the San Miguel is better value? After a siesta, we dressed, my chinos got their first outing! We had walked so far in the day we wanted somewhere local. In the end we had a gr

Time to leave Toledo and head firstly to Aranjuez and then to Madrid. Or rather firstly we would pack the bike and ride out of the old town via the steep streets. The streets are not simply cobbled but the surface is flint stones embedded in concrete. Not that easy on a large bike with luggage and two adults!   We made it and then ignored TomTom telling us to take the main road, instead we headed down the south bank of the Tajo to a couple of viewing spots. Roman Bridge The Alcazar View of the old town Dora and Claire The run to Aranjuez was on another autovia and it was only signposted just before the junction with Ocaña and Cuenca seemingly more important. We topped up with fuel at the first station. At €1.369 per litre the cheapest so far. The onboard temp gauge showed an air temp of 34.5℃. Who knows what it was when stopped. We had lunch at a café right by the old Royal Palace. It was open but simply too hot to go across.   Once on t

Firstly a trip up to the roof terrace to take in the view. Exceptional. Toledo Cathedral and Alcazar Alcazar de Toledo And then out to look for dinner. Ended walking miles, had a beer and tapas then more walking and eventually dinner near St Tomé. Tomorrow we are off to Madrid. So time for some packing and bed.  One last visit to the roof to find none of the buildings lit up.