InvictaMoto's Family Travels

With the Shuttle booked for 1136 we arrived about an hour in advance and checked in. "Here we go". Disruption caused by a train being taken out of service. Three an hour.  Work it out  In the end we rolled out at 1305. What a superb service. That meant we were late in France. Late for lunch. In the end we stopped for a coffee and a sandwich at St Eloi services on the A25 just before the exit where we would head towards Poperinge and first stop at the B&B in Vlamertinge - B&B Pottebreker -  http://www.bbpottebreker.be We arrived before 4pm but the owners were there and showed us to the room. Modern and clean. We dropped off the luggage and headed for Ypres (Ieper) and the special events for the Menen Gate ceremony. After wandering about trying to get a bank with an ATM we finally found a viewpoint of the screens as we hadn't been lucky in any of the ballots. We saw the ceremony on the screen. The bands marching ...

Ideally we should be dressed in suits for the occasion but after several days of torrential rain the area is likely to be almost as wet and therefore muddy as it was in 1917. However, as we are going to the remembrance ceremony I don't think we need to get as embroiled in the mud as they did back then. So it looks as though we we will take clothese that are more suitable for wet and muddy conditions.

The Royal British Legion have created a pin for the centenary. I bought a couple from a poppy seller recently.

By sheer fluke I went onto the Sunrail site to show someone at work how convenient it would be and that's when I noticed the "not weekends" banner.  I'd not seen it before! With all the talk of pollution in the world having a light rail system that doesn't work at weekends and holidays seems like a very bad idea.  As I said that I pursed my lips and paused for effect.  :) So it was back to the drawing board. Parking! In the end I got onto the City of Orlando local government site and found the parking they control. I had emailed a while back as to book online it needed a US address and phone number, or at at least one that would wedge into the pre-formatted boxes on the web page. They suggested using the resort address and phone.  So I have. MasterCard seems to have accepted my new temporary Kissimmee address. In the end it was $11 and I have a pdf with a ticket to print out and put in the car window. The route from the hotel and then back to the ...

The e-tickets arrived in the inbox on Saturday morning.  I had a quick look through and sent them to the printer to make sure we have the hard copy available for the day. I need to get my suit out this week and make sure that it is cleaned and pressed. Given that the battle one hundred years ago was renowned for the sea of mud that aided the massive casualty list,  we need to be ready for inclement weather. So I will take shoes able to resist. Of course what can be carried is limited. But a waterproof coat is essential. If only I had bought the "dude" boots to ride the bike. They look like ankle boots with a light brogue pattern but are motorcycle quality and waterproof. What the guys in the trenches would have given for even simple water resistance. The tickets don't mention a seating area for Claire. With her hip problem standing I'd difficult. I forgot to tell them that with my heart still under performing that I too could do with a seat. ...

Is it that long ago? Another tale from the photobox archive. A year before I was made redundant for the second time and things were good. I had a job I liked and we set off for Spain. This was a two bike job. My Suzuki Cavalcade LX  and my partner at the time, Audrey,  on her own Yamaha  XJ900F.  We rode down through Spain after a trip on the Motorail. We had a large tent with us and camped in Cordoba and as it was way too hot in Sevilla we chose a hotel. Our next camping was at Tarifa. It was here that we thought about a quick trip to Tangier.  Although the ferry goes from Tarifa we bought a ticket from Algeciras to Ceuta. The cost for the bike was pence.  We booked one - the Yamaha! The Cavalcade stayed tucked away and locked up in the tent. Out of sight. Algeciras is a much bigger port and the ferry was packed. Mostly with Moroccan's in large vans also packed to the gunwales and on the rooves. Ceuta is still a Spanish enclave on ...

Rome. The Eternal City. Claire and I went on a short break from an offer in the Daily Telegraph. We flew into an airport way to the south of the city and then actually had to pay for their bus into the city. It dropped us off alongside Termini station. Already forewarned with Claire's Dad being robbed by a cab driver a few weeks before, we were equipped with stash wallets inside our jeans. Luckily the thieves were elsewhere when we arrived. Our hotel was not far away and within walking distance.  For the next few days we were on foot most of the time with the occasional bus or team trip. "Typrewriter" and Trevi Fountain  We ate locally most evenings at the same restaurant where there were few tourists or at least English tourists.  Great value and very friendly staff and locals. The only fly in the ointment was as we waited for the bus back to Ciampino a lady had her handbag stolen. I guess we were lucky given the amount of street crime!! T...

In those far off days before they invented the digital camera,  you may recall we had something called "film". It came in a variety of sizes. 35mm and an assortment of cassette type systems made for the amateur  - 110 and 126 being the most popular. Usually the films were taken to your local chemist (drug store for my North American cousins) or posted to Kodak or another company, such as Truprint or Bonusprint. It also came back from the processor in an envelope containing the film itself,  the negative for prints,  and the prints themselves. A week later the excitement built and unless you were the kind of guy that could get your pictures on the front of Time, then disappointment soon followed. Another format was called "slides". These were positive images at 35mm in a card or plastic surround.  A whole industry built up around equipment to enable the photographer to bore the arse off their visitors with a "slide show...

Google is a marvellous thing. So after much googling I ended up asking a friend that went a few weeks ago for tips. Her daughter is a travel agent or was, and she gave me some links to check out and then I saw the prices.  A two day Disney ticket came out at £189!! Each. Whilst I liked the idea of a visit to a park, paying that kind of money to stand in lines for hours to get on a ride and then repeat at the next one seems too ridiculous. Another link took me to a site to get entrance tickets to Kennedy.  The official site is $50 each for the day. The link was £29 or about $35 at the current exchange rate. Booked. I saw on Facebook that the Ace Cafe in London had some franchises opening up in Beijing, Barcelona and Orlando , so I guess that might be a drive out one day too. Plus the almost obligatory HD shop! I can't say that I have been a great fan of the Ace in London, but have been there a few times since it re-opened.  It's become a tourist haunt...

Have had an email confirming that we have got seating tickets for the main event at Tyne Cot. The tickets themselves haven't arrived. It's still two and a half weeks away though. I've been planning a few routes to get to the hotel and then across to Zonnebeke to park the car and look around the museum. The event the night before in Ypres itself means that we will check in the B&B and our hosts will get us a cab into town.  Getting one back will prove possibly more complex.

After a few days of looking and exchanging emails with a travel agent we have booked.  But not with her.   The Cunard cruise on Queen Victoria sails from Southampton on August 3rd. A Friday.  A further examination revealed very few Norway sailings for August.  But P&O have one on the 4th.  Much better. Both are for seven days with slightly different ports in Norway.  We have been to Stavanger and Bergen before but didn't have much time to look about. Hopefully, in Bergen we'll dock in the city port,  Bergen Havn,   rather than way out in the industrial point and lose time waiting for coaches into the centre.

Hardly a Shakespearean conundrum but one for us.  Further enthused (read jealousy on my behalf) by my brother. Neill, and his mate Patrick being there as I write on their Scandinavian Tour, Claire suggested another cruise. She has wanted to go on another one and although I was a little hesitant before, I really enjoyed the Fjord Cruise with Saga. So we started the Google hunt. Where else? When we were in Stavanger in 2013 we were joined by the behemoth that was Cunard's Queen Elizabeth. A ship that dwarfed the smaller more intimate Saga vessel.   With the Council changing our employment rights so that we have to take the majority of our holidays in school holidays, and meaning that we now get lumbered with higher holiday prices from hotels to transport, the search parameters were more restrictive. We have found a cruise to Norway in August 2018 . It's aboard the QE sister ship Queen Victoria. Another floating city hotel. ...

"How can you go to Orlando and not go to Disney?"  A frequent question when I say that although we love Florida we haven't been to Orlando before and don't really enjoy theme parks.   That's not strictly true. I have been to Orlando before, back in 1991. Back then a friend and I drove up from Miami and stayed in a hotel on International Drive for a couple of nights in December.  We did Epcot and Universal Studios.  I have photos somewhere!   On the way back we called in at what was then called "Spaceport USA", at Kennedy Space Center .   We didn't have much time and had to be back in Miami so Carol could go to work the next day. I really enjoyed Epcot. Okay, you got to ride about but none of the high jinx of the other parks and none of the queues. Plus the fireworks at night are fantastic. So this year. On the top of my list are Epcot and Kennedy. I'll start the ticket hunt soon. Not wanting a 14-day family ticket seems to be a ...

The problem as I see it is the large area around the stadium that it closed.  There seems to be ample parking and apparently you can book in advance.  I have tried all the links and none of them seem to work. Then I saw a link for the Sunrail system. It looks like that would suit us alright.  There looks to be a lot of parking at one of the terminals and then it is two stops and a ten minute walk to  the stadium. The train journey is $2 each way and about 11 minutes.   As kick off is at 4pm we need to be there in good time and with so many food outlets there is plenty of opportunity to have lunch between the hotel and the parking.  The drive will be about half an hour if we avoid the toll roads. After the game it's back to the station car park and off to the resort we are staying in. At last a plan seems to be coming together. I contacted the resort as the game kicks off at the same time that resort check-in opens. They can check us in a...