Week off. Not sure what to do

[PTF]

Wife has told me that if i want to take Mon-Wed off work next week, she's happy for me to "go and do something" for the week.

Only, i'm not sure what i fancy doing.

First thought was to jump on the bike and head down into France. Rent a place for a few nights to use as a base, then explore some WW2 stuff like the Atlantic Wall and D-day beaches.

But how easy would that be with a motorbike? Not sure i'd fancy walking around bunkers, etc wearing bike boots and a textile suit, carrying my lid. So mulling over driving instead, but that seems a bit lame!

Other thought was to just head off on the bike and see how far i can get in 1 week. See if i can take in southern France, Italy, Slovenia, Poland, Germany, etc in a big loop.

Thoughts welcome

[PTF]

East midlands, so potential to get either far north to scotland, or could make it down to dover in a few hrs. Or take a hull ferry.

North France coast appeals, but it's not exactly going to be warm! In fact it's forecasted to be raining a bit mid next week.

[PTF]

You make a good point about COVID. Need a pass to go abroad. Just got the NHS app and looks like it could take 7 days to get the pass through.

So will probably have to be in the UK then.

NC500??

[PTF]

Cheers for all of the advice. I decided to make the most of the week, given i had a green light from my other half.

So jumped into jet2 and booked the cheapest/best-ish place i could find that flights that were fairly sensibly timed.

I'm in Lanzarote!

I hired a CB500X yesterday and took myself off around the island. 230km in about 6 hrs, covering most of it.

Here until monday. Scuba diving tomorrow. Been snorkelling today. Out on the lash last night, which was incredibly messy, so didn't surface until about 11, then back to bed.

I may rent that bike again and do a similar route but anti clockwise this time.

Pics to follow

[PTF]

Out to El Golfo first. On the west coast. Quick coffee here.





The road out to there runs close to the national park and is simply breathtaking. It cuts through some old lava flows, flanked by old volcanos, so feels like nowhere else i've ever been to!

[PTF]

Then back out to the road heading north, running past the entrance to the national park. It's not free, and you can't drive around it but they do bus tours. Didn't fancy that but simply riding near it gave me a pretty good idea of what it's like.

[PTF]

[PTF]

Heading north to La Santa. Lots of nice villages and stunning coast

[PTF]

The north west is very hilly. Here i'm heading north still, with a view of the altitude to come!

[PTF]

After quite a lot of riding i arrived at the top, with a stunning view back over the south of Lanzarote, with a complete view over the neighbouring island, which took my breath away.

Lots and lots of tight hairpins up as well as down. Stunning roads, amazing views all around

[PTF]

Then headed back south. The roads are all like this. Billiard table smooth, well signposted, and quiet.

[PTF]

Who knew Mars had a petrol station!

[PTF]

Last few shots of things that caught my eye. You could honestly kid yourself that you've left Earth.

[PTF]

The bike had done 125,000km. A few rattles if gassing it, but the roads aren't the kind you'd want to be going fast on anyway. They're smooth and quiet, but i didn't want to attract any attention.

The dampers were knackered, so it bounced over any speed humps or crossings. Quite funny.

Brakes caught me out. They're crap! My S1000 stops effortlessly, whereas this needed a proper handful!

230km done.

And i spent about 10 euros on fuel, which was a surprise. It only used 2 bars on the fuel gauge! Those CB500s are incredibly efficient.

Bike hire was 68€ plus 5€ for jacket, which was a nice cool mesh type. Didn't feel hot all day.

I took some jeans and my summer gloves and just wore trainers as i was packing light.

So all in it cost about €85 for the day.

Tempted to book again and take the ferry over to Fuerteventura, but trying to keep costs down a bit.

2€ per pint is helping...

Edited by PTF on Thursday 2nd June 20:24

[PTF]

Scuba diving on Friday. First time. Was amazing.

About €135 for 2x dives and some pictures. Took about 4 hrs, with about an hour in total under water.

Will be doing this again!!

[PTF]

Took the passenger ferry to Fuerteventura yesterday to see an old friend John than i used to race Caterhams with. He lives there now and has a fairly popular youtube channel about the island (see JP in Fuerteventura).

Lunch with them with a little bit of a tour, then ferry back again.

Blimey it's so cheap over here!! €2.75 each way for the 30 min bus ride to the port, then €20 each way for the ferry between the islands. So €45.50 in total.