Olivers Birthday Party

Simply great... Big thumbs up.

Thumbs Up

Anna giving the thumbs up...

Back At Poplar Farm

Sunny....!?
Sandy beaches....!?



Nope ~ this is good old Blighty and mugs of tea weather.

Plenty of fruit this year. Too much for mum and dad.







That would be some good cider there!

Waiting For The LX394 While The US of A Goes Pleite

Anna busily reading the latest news about the cash problems in the USA.

Afternoon Coffee & Cake

After all that hard work adapting the back protector, we decided to go for a coffee and sticky bun at the Höfli.

Sarah and Sarah looking as excited as ever... !?!

This happens when you try to make a self picture...

A nice one of Sarah and me.

Decisions, decisions...



But Sarah knew what she wanted - and no one was allowed to have any!

The filling gone... The rest left for whoever wanted it!

I found my salvation in an Ice Coffee...

While the wasps found theirs in the residues of coke a cola.

Alsace Weekend

Once again Anna had a fantastic idea to 'get-away'.
This time the goal was to explore the French Alsace area.



So Friday I got the Trophy ready for when she got back from work...
Then we were off!

Destination: Breisach am Rhein
Hotel: Non planned
This was to be an adventure!

We got there rather late - 8.00pm - but found a room at the Kaiserstühler Hof right in the middle of Breisach.



It's a very nice hotel, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it. The staff are very polite and welcoming, and their breakfast-buffet is simply perfect.


The next morning we were up early to a WONDERFUL breakfast before heading on over to France - Neuf-Brisach.
If you look in GOOGLE maps at this place it looks amazing.

But from the ground, you see nothing!
:-/




So, we moved on riding through Colmar and headed into the hills.
First coffee stop was at Metzeral where we saw a parade of Gypies.




After all that excitement, we decided to head for our first Ballon...



Then over a few Col's...



Then a few more Ballons...





Shortly after the Grand Ballon in direction Wittelsheim, we stopped at the Hartmannswillerkopf War Memorial Site. It's both impressive and eery... Definatly worth every chance you get to stop and have a look around.
It's a national monument of World War I for the fighting which took place in the trenches there.








From the Hartmannswillerkopf memorial, we rode down direction Wittelsheim then right onto Thann and over the Col du Hundsruck to Masevaux. From there we went right, up to our last Ballon of the day - finally - Ballon d'Alsace.




From Ballon d'Alsace we headed down to the flatter lands direction Altkirch and started to look for hotels...
GARMIN found a wonderful hotel: Auberge Sundgovienne just a few kilometers outside Altkirch. So we booked in and had a beer or three.



Then what could be more better than a day full of Ballons...?

FOOD!





On our third day - Sunday - we took an easy ride back going through Olten along the way to see Sarah.


All in all - around 600 km - and Anna's got the biking bug!
She's planning the next trip already...

:-)

Triumph Trophy SE

So Anna has decided...
It's a 'GO' for the Trophy!

Anna And The Trophy SE

It was decided that Anna and I go away for the long weekend.

"Lets try a motor bike tour" she said...

Well I didn't need to hear her say that twice!
So I rented the new Triumph Trophy SE for 4 days and started the packing.

Plan......!?
What plan!?

In the well spoken words of Freddie Mercury:
"Just get on ya bikes and ride..."

So day one saw us ride down to Livigno in Italy. This included an Alp pass or two!

Finally we arrived at the hotel Alexander and were warmly welcomed...

That evening involved some planning of the days ahead.

We ended up staying in Livigno for 2 days as it was so nice.

And finally back home.



The route:

Here's some statistics of the ride.


In the end we did 802 km!

An average speed of 49.6 km/h

And an average consumption of 3.9 ltr/100km!