Thursday 4 September 2014

A stolen day out on the bike

It can be difficult sometimes to justify taking a day off work in the middle of the week just to ride the motorbike in the sunshine, so my justification was..…I needed to see if my new bolt-on screen spoiler would reduce wind noise on motorways. And I needed to visit Durbuy, a town in Belgium that declares itself to be the smallest city in the world, using a route that also took in Reinhardstein castle and lots of wriggly roads. The real reason of course was that I was jealous of Sonja’s recent rides in the Black Forest; the Belgian Ardennes is the closest area to me that has similar winding roads. Plus the bike will have to go back to England soon as the dark mornings & evenings will soon be upon us.

...well I was on a Triumph!

some kind of art in a field
An early start saw me blast down the autoroute past Antwerp and Brussels in the early morning fog, by the time I reached Namur the sun was breaking through; I had a nice breakfast there and then with the satnav set to ‘winding roads’ proceeded to enjoy the picturesque drive across to the city of Durbuy.

Durbuy chateau
An internet search before I set off had shown the only vegetarian restaurant in the area was just outside the town, this turned-out to be in the grounds of a castle now used by the Hari Krishna group for retreats, with delicious vegan meals in a tranquil setting and very friendly people, so even though I wasn’t really hungry I sat down to a pleasant meal in the sunshine.


Hare Krishna castle
Lunch!
After an hours break I set off again on those twisty roads, in no time I was in yet another picturesque village where a coffee and frites were enjoyed in the sun, then following my pre-planned route I headed north to begin the trip home, although somehow the satnav took me south into Luxembourg – a bonus really as the roads are lovely there. Just outside Antwerp I re-joined the autoroute for the final blast home. I got home a tired but happy bunny – 2 tanks of petrol, 540 kms and about a million bends – bliss!
Medieval fortified farmhouse
Oh and the spoiler didn’t make the noise and buffeting any worse, but I can’t say it made it better.






5 comments:

  1. Any excuse is a good excuse to ride as long as the sun is shining and there is no snow on the roads. Sounds like you had a great road trip with a delightful lunch. Too bad the wind screen didn't make much difference.

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  2. Costar lady - it was a good day. I'm becoming resigned to the fact that these adventure bikes with the upright screen are all noisy, guess it's just something I'll have to live with. Or swap for a BMW RT. There's a thought!

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  3. Sorry - Vstar lady, predictive script got the better of me!

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    1. No prob...but I'm a much better supporting actress than co-star =D

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  4. I don't know many adventure riders that are happy with their windscreen noise. They all seem to be noisy and/or buffet.

    Riding through the countryside on a sunny day is the perfect excuse to take a day off midweek. It looks like a wonderful day and brilliant to find vegan food at a castle too.

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