Here a few of my memories of our holiday in 2008. Thanks to Kenny for helping, and editing bits of the story :-)

In mid June 2008 five of us (Birgit,Ken,Seth,Emma and Goonz) headed off on a international hide and seek holiday (as we do :o)).Travelling with us we had two of the Caledonian Phoenix - Leather and Elaina, the lonely Highlander Duthie with his good lady Jude.

The journey started on Friday the 13^th June. Who the heck picked that date?! :o) Just before we arrived at the ferry port, Duthie bumped into my bike at a roundabout. He did not realise that I was still waiting for the car to pass, he thought I had pulled away already. (Look where you are going man. :o)) . No damage was done apart from the reflector was a bit squint. Good start into the holiday, eh? This was Duthie’s first trip abroad so he was very nervous about driving of the wrong side of the road. Even though we were still in England!!

On the continent our first stop was the MC Pegasus rally in Bedburg, Germany on Saturday.

  It is a very small traditional rally/party. As soon as we arrived on site, we got a crate of beer planted right in front of us. What a welcome!!!! The guys were really friendly and a good time and loads of drink had been had by all.

Piglet (aka John from Back Street Heroes ) and Elaine from the Weasel Stretchers (good name eh!), were already there nicely drunk.

I think we all were pretty hung over on the Sunday. That was the reason we only planned to do around 50ish miles on that day. I am not quite sure what happened but I think we had more then 50 miles on the clock when we arrived in Remagen? Seth, can you clarify this please :). Anyway, we quickly sorted out the hotel which was 3 miles down the road. We stayed there for 2 nights which gave us the opportunity to explore the remains of the famous Bridge of Remagen. We also got ferried across the Rhine to stroll through the beautiful old town of Linz. This was all done by foot (+ ferry), the bikes stayed at the hotel. I can still hear Leather saying “I don’t do walking” but hey – you have not been away with Pie Eaters ;-)

After Remagen we went to Idar-Oberstein, an old gemstone town. Don't know about you guys but I thought this was a great place. I loved the wee town and was more then impressed with the church built into the rock. I was also quite chuffed with myself having mastered the climb up the mountain up from the church to the castle ruins. Well done me, ha haa :o). The day we left we went on a "field excursion" exploring the gem stone mine, Europe's only accessible gemstone mine still open to public. Shame they did not have an English tour guide for you guys :(

Wednesday already so we moved towards Worms where we were going to meet up with a few more folk. The original plan was to stay in Speyer. We wanted to look for a hotel which could accommodate us for the Wednesday (9 people) plus have room for a additional 5 guys on the Thursday night. What a nightmare! We did arrive in Speyer but there was no hotel available which had the two night option we needed. There was a convention going on or something. God knows! There was a chance to stay in a hotel at the Technik museum (mental note - must go there sometime as it looked an interesting place!). Anyway, as we did not get the rooms we were looking for, we thought we would move on to a bigger town not too far away.

So, that was us on the way to Ludwigshaven/Mannheim. Got there, drove around a bit, stopped at the train station where we thought it would be easy to find a fair priced hotel with the option for the two nights (the hotel which was right next to us was 150 Euro per night. Ouch! No chance). Easy!?? Was it f**k...At least two hours was spent there, me phoning all the telephone numbers thrown at me by Kenny and Seth (Seth, get that phone of yours updated, lol!). Well, after a few hours of not getting anywhere and us getting tired (it was 9.30 pm already), we did go to the hotel Excelsior across the road. We had to bite the bullet paying Euro 90+ for a room as otherwise we would have probably ended up sleeping at the train station somewhere :o). After all the hassle and a long day, some of us did enjoy the Sky bar on the 17th floor (especially me, I had quite a few cocktails that night, lol :-))

Its now Thursday and more friends would join us later (Jock, Jimmy (Pie Eaters), and Annie, Chris and Dek from the Caledonian Phoenix).  We still had to sort out accommodation for the night so off we went to Worms. Getting a hotel for 14 people was actually surprisingly easy on that day. We stayed at the Hotel Römischer Kaiser, the owner was a nice man and he sorted a garage (and a half) for us so we could lock away our bikes. Once the hotel was sorted, we had plenty of time to explore the historic town. The rest of the gang joined us at around 8 pm ish. They had to travel a long way from the Ijmuiden ferry directly to Worms. Anyway, after we had some food and drink, we went to the pub next door to watch the Football where a crazy barman served us lots of drink and some lassies treated us as well (to drink that is). Turns out the Germans won the game beating Spain so we had the “pleasure” experiencing the Germans celebrating their football teams success. There was a never ending (well it felt like it :o)) car parade through the town. When this was finished a few went back to the hotel, others went away to explore the nightlife of Worms. One episode that will make history: Leather and whoever else was with him, phoned Elaina (who went back to the hotel to sleep) from a pub somewhere, asking for the name of the hotel we were staying in. Elaina had to go downstairs to look at the sign.  She told Leather the name of the Hotel is "Hotel Eingang". Which is obviously not the name of the hotel, but simply means “hotel entry”! Hearing that story the next day we were in hysterics :o). Don't know how the guys found the way back to the hotel in the end but all were safe and sound.

Next journey took us to Hary's rally (or rather summer party).

  The BC Country Riders held their rally at the edge of a small forest. Arriving on Friday afternoon we were welcomed not just by the club but also by Elaine and Piglet who were already on site since the morning. Later on the crowd was joined by Animal (who lives in France) and on Saturday Charlie and Claire arrived. On Friday we easily outnumbered the Germans on site :o). The rally was small and quite traditional. Not much happening on Friday apart from lots of drinks, fun and frolic. On Saturday some of us took the train to Stuttgart where we did some shopping in the different bike shops. It was scorching hot and Kenny and Jude did not cope well with this. Both have been sick on the train. Oh dear. Anyway, later that night, being back on the site, we again started the usual "we.are.on.a.rally.lets.drink.session" ;-). There was a "loudest exhaust" contest which was won by Piglets bike. Seth was not too happy that there were quite a few bikes louder then his (Hi Jimmy) so he took the end can off his bike and re-entered the competition, lol. Of course this did not count for the competition but seemed to please the boys with their toys :o). All together we got quite a few awards. Piglet got "loudest bike" and "longest presence on site" as he arrived on Friday morning. Duthie got furthest travelled. The FBPECS got one award for biggest club (members) and also club with most combined mileage. Great stuff! Not to forget that it was Kenny's birthday so he slaughtered a birthday cake :o).

The Saturday night was brilliant and lots of fun had been had by all. I think we left quite an impression on the guys over there. When we left on Sunday morning Oli, one of the BC CR club members said we were all "crazy" - in a nice way :o). And that he will come to Scotland on his holiday next year to see us. Aawwwhh .

Hary joined us on Sunday for the rest of our holiday. We parted from Jock who went to Norway (Crazy man), Piglet and Elaine went their own way as did Claire and Charlie.

Off we went to the Black Forest. The Hotel Rebstock was already booked. Nice to have a hotel room with a shower and a good bed, that's what you need after a rally. The owner emptied the hotel garage for us so that we could store the bikes safely. Very nice! They also flew the Scottish Flag for us. How’s that for hospitality and making guests feel welcome!                            

Buckie Mick and his son Ian met up with us on Sunday afternoon. We did not do much on the Sunday but rested and had a few drinks. Most of us were in their beds early. On Monday the Caledonian Phoenix crew decided to have a little tour on their own and took the bikes out. Not so experienced travelling continental roads, this nearly ended in a disaster. Chris was crossing a road, but as he was looking in the wrong direction, he did not see a massive lorry. So he pulled out and only realised his mistake at the last second. He hit the brakes but as he was already leaning the bike to turn, he obviously dropped the bike (being already on the lane where the lorry was approaching). His fellow riders still do not understand how the lorry managed to dodge Chris and the bike. Well, Chris surely keeps his guardian angel busy :o).

Our lot walked down to Triberg, which was about 3 km away (see, the word "walking" appears quite a few times in the report :o)). On the way we passed the world biggest cuckoo clock.

We explored Triberg, which is a touristy place with plenty of shops. Wood carved stuff is one of the big sellers apart from the famous clocks (unfortunately there was no chance to carry some of that stuff back home on the bike). Oh sorry, are you bored yet...? :o)

Next morning, rain, fog. After a whole week of sunshine. Well, looked like we were going to need waterproofs for the next journey which took us through France to Luxembourg. How wrong we were. As soon as we were loading the bikes the sun came out and it was as scorching hot as it had been since day 2.

 After driving a while through the beautiful area of the Black Forest, we eventually crossed over the border to France where we stopped for a coffee and a snack. First the waitress seemed nice, however, she then got a bit stressed with all the orders she had to take. We were not impressed with the food. Few chips and a burger that was still raw in the middle. Sausages were cheap hot dog thingies. Oh well, thank god we did not stay in France but only drove through. The toll roads in France were another thing. Kenny was not impressed at all, after we had to pass two places where we had to pay.

I went all huffy as we stopped about three times on that motorway when the only thing I wanted was to get to Luxembourg, get a hotel and relax. I just wanted to get out of that tiring and exhausting heat. Aaaargh, ARE WE THERE YET??? Hary was leading and once we got off the motorway, there were actually nice and twisty roads for the rest of the journey. It was a really long day and it took us about 8 hours for a 230 mile trip. We were shattered. 

Finally we arrived in Vianden, Luxembourg. Stops at a car park to sort out accommodation, booked the hotel, finally I can relax! What a day. Once settled, we did not go anywhere but stayed in the hotel, had a meal and lots of drinks (what’s new :o)). And it was Duthie’s birthday so he had even more drinks then the rest of us. As far as I know there were Jägermeisters, Feiglinge, local Schnapps and other drinks involved…. Duthie could not remember a thing so must have been a good one :o)

Lots of things to do on Wednesday – chair lift, city train, visiting the castle... Not for a few from the Caledonian Phoenix. Annie, Dek and Chris left in the morning, their ferry back home was on the Thursday. They wanted to break up the rest of their journey and wanted to go to the Toerstop for their last night. Well, they did not get far. An hour after they left Leather got a call from them – Dek had a puncture and they needed to stop at the road side to fix it. Eventually we heard the puncture was fixed and the crew was back on the road. So far so good.

Back to us: A few of the gang are suffering from fear of height but ALL went on the chair lift (having a beer or two before hand, ha haaa). Brave you :o) . It was pishing down so we got a wee bit wet.

When the fog lifted we had a fantastic view on the castle in the sky and the surroundings but at times it felt we were trapped in a big fluffy and wet cloud. The way down was even scarier (according to Kenny) as then you could actually see how steep it was!

Off the chair lift onto the city train. The thingy was called Benni and took us for a wee tour through Luxembourg.

While we were on the train we saw Claire and Charlie arriving (they stayed in a different hotel though). As said, international hide and seek, lol.

During a stop, we got approached by the driver of the city train. He got a phone call from the hotel manager who was a bit concerned that one of the bikes (mine) was leaking petrol. This was the end of the sightseeing tour for me, Kenny and Jim. We went back to the hotel to sort this. The rest of the gang went up to see the castle. Back in the hotel Kenny fixed my bike. The airbox was full with petrol. Holes had to be pierced into the airbox to drain it. About a gallon of petrol got drained onto the street (which is pretty much illegal and could have cost us an arm and a leg if we would have been caught doing this)! That was the bikes good average fuel consumption screwed. Oh well. Kenny found the problem being the petrol tap. The diaphragm was stuck, must have been from the scorching heat the day before. Thanks to Kenny for fixing my bike :).

…wish it would be that easy ;-)

While we were putting the bike back together, the rest of the gang arrived back at the hotel. Leather reported he got a call from Dek. He yet had another puncture in his tyre and they had to stop again!!! 2 different punctures within 30 miles. How unlucky can you get? So the three of them did not get to the Tourstop as planned but instead went to Maastricht for their last night. Finally the end of disasters for the three? Not yet: When they went to the ferry port on Thursday, Dek managed to drive into Annie’s bike. She came off and suffered a few bruises. Not good! Come on guys, concentrate! Especially when you are abroad :o)

Not much else happened that evening. It was the day of the football match Germany v Turkey. We were hoping on Turkey to win as we thought we would go to the Turkish shop then and claim free Kebab’s, lol

Thursday morning, nearly the end of our holiday. Gosh, that was quick. We went on the country roads to Aachen. Very nice and twisty roads and a change from driving on motorways. Quick visit to the bike shops Louis and Polo in Aachen before the two groups split up for the day. Me, Kenny and Jim went to see my family while the rest of the gang went to the Tourstop in Holland. See ya tomorrow :o)

The last couple of days we stayed at the Toerstop . On Saturday a few went across the border for a wee trip and to visit the bike shops. Some stayed back to watch the Moto GP then went to the next village called Horst. There was a pub selling 60 different beers. Heaven :o) . Saturday night – Second Dave. A celebration of 15 years Pie Eaters with a few gusts. No nonsense party, no band, no silly games. Just a get together of some Pie Eaters and a few friends.

Sunday, back to the ferry port. We thought if we are there early we can board early. OK, that did not work out then. A couple of hours we spent on the quay waiting to get on the boat…. Very annoying. We could have stayed in the village for a few refreshing drinks before going on the boat. Well, we live and learn...

On the ferry we threw our last Euros together (what was left over after paying an absolute fortune for a burger and chips) to buy a few drinks and enjoyed the entertainment on board. 

Monday morning, back in the country. After having two hassle free weeks being abroad, we bumped into a knob at the petrol station. He nearly got a fit as my bike was parked very close to the air & water area and the guy could not reach the tyres of his oh so beloved BMW.  He was giving us dogs abuse instead of just asking if we can move the bike?

Well, that’s my holiday story. I truly enjoyed every single day (more or less ;-)) and I think everybody who was there had a great time. Looking forward to the next adventure