InvictaMoto's Family Travels

My list of things to do before we go is one less item shorter after today. ESTA/VISA -check Travel Insurance - check Apartments booked - check Flights booked - check Hotel night before fly - check Hotel in Miami - check TomTom sorted - check Airport parking - check Car Rental in FL -  I have decided to have a look at getting some routes planned to get from airport to hotel and to and from the different resorts that we are staying in. With the TomTom maps getting bloated again there wasn't enough internal storage to get the UK & Europe maps and the USA maps on together.  So I had to buy a new micro SD camera for the Canon 1100D and then I could use the 32gb from there in the TomTom.  The new one was 64GB that should mean a few thousand pix!  The counter on the top of the camera body stops at 9999. The last time I tried it the whole unit froze but this time it simply asked to format the card and it works.  I deleted the USA maps from internal and re-

We finally arrived about 2010 local time. A total of 10 hours on the road with a few short breaks. This was from home admittedly via Reggie's kennels. Traffic horrific from Antwerp to about Amersfoort. It took 55 minutes to get around Antwerp on their ring road. F*** knows how long through the middle!! Plus Belgian drivers are terrible. No signals. No lane discipline and absolutely shite at undertaking all the time. As for the Dutch. FFS. Booked in the hotel and had a comfort break and the dinner and a few beers. Very nice. Bed at 2245. posted from Bloggeroid

All change. Some small changes to the overnight stays have required a change to the routing.  The Parador de Gredos has been changed to another hotel nearer the main route between Madrid and Extremadura. The changes are really to make the trip a little smoother. This routeing is set to avoid toll roads and highways. As usual I have used Tyre to create the routing. Tyre  Route - avoiding highway & toll routing

So with the car-hire dilemma sorted.  I went for the no-excess plan instead of the low rate and potential hassle route of the cheap hire and massive insurance risk. So back to the route.  As usual I have used Tyre to plan a route between the various stops and the airport. Having this in the TomTom doesn't preclude from going off-piste to look at things in the Rough Guide or on the hoof.   I know there are people that think that a paper map is all you need and technology only ruins the trip. Good luck to them.  Finding a hotel in a huge city and arriving right outside the front door is preferable to riding around for hours.  I have done both other the last 40 years of touring and believe me. The TomTom way is way preferable. So this is the base route: Anti-clockwise at the top from the airport to the Parador de Gredos and then clockwise around the Extremadura cities. There will be some autostrada as well.  Not all of it on ordinary highways.  I can set the

Sadly the lack of wifi for most of the trip meant I was unable to keep posting and so instead here's a summary and a few pictures will be added later. Day 1 Part 2 In the end they loaded us on a train and then announced that it had a problem and was being fixed? Why you have to ask do they load a train that has problems? In the end we arrived in France 75 minutes later than planned. That meant that we missed lunch and instead carried on a bit further. We stopped at Baie de la Somme again and Reggie had a walk about and his usual widdle stops and we had a coffee. Progress along the Paris avoidance route was successful but it was gone 7pm before we rolled up at the Campanile near Orléans.  In time to check in and give Reggie his late dinner before he and us went for ours. We opted for the buffet and Reggie lay under the table. Amazingly dog friendly.  Day 2 Up and away quite early after breakfast.  The plan to fill the t