Quit our jobs, sold our home and everything in it, gone riding...

[Lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/368.html

Goodbye Ireland! We had a great time!

The ferry from Dublin takes us across the North Channel, back to the UK. We're slowly unwinding our tour of the British Isles. It's a quick jaunt. In less than a couple of hours we're deposited on the shores of Holyhead, Wales. Wales! I checked and it's a new country!

The Welsh countryside. Not that much different from English pastures

I'll be honest, we didn't do any research about Wales. Don't know the history, don't know the culture, food, etc. We're kinda exhausted and we're just passing through. One thing that did catch my eye were all the road signs in the Welsh language. I tried to read the names out loud in my head: Llanllyfnl. Okaaay... and then: Llanfairpwllgwyngyll... My head snapped back as I still hadn't finished reading the sign when we rode past it. WHAAA...!?!

Surely someone in the Ministry of Transportation is playing a joke on all the tourists driving away from the ferry terminal.

Llanfairpwllgwyngyll! How do you even pronounce that?!? At least that name had some vowels in it - 20 letters, 3 vowels. I did some research and that's not even the weirdest name. Cwmystwyth. 10 letters, NO vowels. Bwlchgwyn. Ysbyty Ystwyth. Whadahek?

Did you know Superman had a Welsh super-villain?

After staring at some of these signs, I'm starting to see how the w's, y's and ll's replace the vowels. So the rest of this post will be written in Welsh.

Ww rydll ynwyrds ty llr nyxt dllstynwtyn.

 

[Lightcycle]

Our route takes us south through Snowdonia National Park, and we take a pit stop in the town of Beddgelert for lunch

Snowdonia is a popular place for vacationers to go hiking. It's based around the Snowdon mountain, so the roads around the area twist and wind around the geography of mountains and lakes.

The Brits love their dragons

Peter, peddlin' his wares

 

[Lightcycle]

Apart from dragons, Beddgelert is also known as the final resting place for Gelert, Llywelyn the Great, Prince of Gwynedd's faithful hound. It's a popular folk tale that's been retold in many other places, in other forms. Llywelyn came home to find his baby missing, and Gelert's mouth covered in blood. Assuming that his dog killed and ate his child, the prince slayed Gelert. Shortly after, he heard the cries of his baby under the crib, with the body of a dead wolf beside him.

It was Gelert that had battled the wolf and killed it, protecting his child.

Llywelyn was stricken with grief, and he buried his faithful hound here in the fields of Beddgelert, the name means, "Gelert's Grave". Prince Llywelyn never smiled again.

Neda is not smilng either, after reading Gelert's story, which is written on his grave

As dog-lovers, that was such a sad story to read!

In times of sadness, ice cream comes to the rescue. That was such a sad story, so...

And Neda is happy again! So onwards we go, further south into Wales.

 

[Lightcycle]

Along the way, I prepared Neda for our next stop over the intercom:

"Who are you?"
"The new Number Two."
"Who is Number One?"
"You are Number Six."
"I am not a number! I am a free man!"
"Ah hahah hahahahaha!!!!"

When I was a kid, I used to watch an old TV show called "The Prisoner". It was about a secret agent who was about to retire, when he was kidnapped and imprisoned on a secret island to figure out what he knew. He didn't know whether it was his own government who sent him there, or an enemy state. The whole series was about him trying to figure out who his captors were and how to escape the island.

My favorite part was the opening credits, which showed him being interrogated by the Number Two in charge, who was replaced almost every episode because our hero always got the better of him.

Neda's never seen the series, but she thought my recitation of the show's opening credits was hilarious. "Again!", she laughed over the intercom.

"I am not a number! I am a free man!"

"The Prisoner" was filmed in Portmeirion, on the western coast of Wales

When I first saw the series, I always thought that they had built these fantastically psychedelic, elaborate sets specifically for the show. But I found out later that it's a real village! After that, this place definitely went on the bucket list. The village charges quite an expensive entrance fee. But hey... bucket list item...

The designer of Portmeirion, Sir Clough Williams-Ellis, based the village on towns on the Italian Riviera

What actually turned out was a strange caricature of an Italian Riviera town, disjointed pastel colours, anachronistic modern design and little flourishes that wouldn't look out of place on a gingerbread house. It totally fit the theme of a 60s psychedelic TV show.

I was surprised to see that the beach from The Prisoner was not a separate set. It's actually the shores of Portmeirion, just outside the village

In the TV show, people who try to escape the island are captured by "Rover", a huge bouncing white beach ball that pounces on the prisoners and traps them inside, to bring them back to the village.

So psychedelic! You have to watch it. It even sounds strange typing the above.

 

[Lightcycle]

A very strange prison, indeed

Like most 60s TV shows, the themes were about counter-culture, defying authority and surveillance, and mistrust of the government. But the one theme that resonated with me was the expression of individuality. These days, with all our identities being reduced to numbers - Social Insurance Numbers, Drivers License Numbers, Passport Numbers, The Prisoner struggled against the system, rejecting the number assigned to him upon imprisonment.

"I am not a number! I am a free man!"

Groovy. I'm hip to that.

(Ironically, we never learn what The Prisoner's real name is)

It was getting late, so we left the village of Portmeirion ("Be seeing you!") and headed straight east.

This was our destination road: The Cat and Fiddle Run

This is probably the most famous motorcycle road in England. It's also designated as the UK's most dangerous road because of all the motorcycle accidents here. The road surface is smooth, there are clear sightlines around most of the turns and there isn't a lot of traffic. But the scenery and the twisty tarmac tempts most riders to go much faster than their talents allow.

No danger for us, we've got our whole house and everything we own strapped to the back of our motorcycles. But that doesn't stop us from enjoying the rolling hills of the Cheshire Plains, as the sun slowly sets behind us.

It's nearly dark by the time we reach Buxton, at the end of the Cat and Fiddle road. It looks like a dry evening, so we check our maps to find a suitable campsite. There are a couple in town, but when we ride up to the gates, both of them are full for the evening.

Ugh. By the time we leave the second site, it's pitch black. No choice but to book a hotel.

This one was not too expensive. A last minute booking. Double the price of a campsite, but it's a roof over our heads.

Swanky-looking on the outside, but not that swanky inside the rooms...

This is us leaving the next morning.

 

[Lightcycle]

And then taking the roadways straight-shot down to our next stop, all the way to the southern coast of England. We're staying in the Black Hills, between Somerset and Devon. We've got an AirBnB booked, a small, secluded cottage out in the woods. But once again, we have troubles finding it on our GPS. We park our bikes outside where we think it is and I walk up and ring the doorbell. An angry old lady comes to the door and demands to know what we are doing on her front step.

"We're just trying to find this address, ma'am", I asked, pointing at the screen on my iPhone.
"I don't understand you. Wot language are you speaking?", she yelled at me.
"Um, I'm speaking English."
"That's no' any English oi've ever 'erd!"

Dahek? We're having a complete conversation and you're understanding me just fine!

I don't say this out loud. I just back away and we get back on our bikes to try to find the AirBnB on our own. She continued yelling at us from her front door as we rode away.

What a bizarre conversation. I'm not going to infer any kinds of overtones to this weird exchange. Honestly she sounded like she was just crazy...

Hey, we found our AirBnB!

To our relief, our hosts Leonora and David are totally sane and super-nice people. They welcome us to our cottage and over drinks, we talk about our journey. They are also travelers and it's obvious that they're running an AirBnB not to make money, but to meet other travelers. David is from the UK, and Leonora is from Colombia. When she found out we traveled through Latin America and learned Spanish along the way, she immediately turned off the English and we continued the evening en español. This totally endeared us to her and we felt like we were adopted right on the spot!

Oh man, at the end of the evening, my brain was so tired from trying to recall the español. Or maybe it was the wine...

Next morning, we head out to Neda's pick of the day

We each have our list of things we want to see in the UK. Mine are all based on TV shows. Neda likes nature. We're here in Lyme Regis, also known as the Jurassic Coast! It's foggy when we arrive in the morning, but the sun quickly burns off the mist as we walk through town to get to the beach.

Walking through the coastal town of Lyme Regis

Neda heard that you can find fossils on the beach. And there's nothing she likes better than picking up rocks and small dogs and stuffing them into her tankbag!

 

[Lightcycle]

The beach at Lyme Regis is called The Cobb

I watch as she paces up and down the beach, staring at the ground looking for fossils. No luck. We see a guy walk past us with a small pick and hammer and a bucket of black rocks. They look like fossils. We ask him where he found them. He told us we were in the wrong spot - there's nothing on the beach - but to walk a few hundred meters towards the cliffs just outside of town.

Okay!

He also recommended we purchase a pick and hammer from in town to go fossil hunting. We thanked him for his advice, but we didn't want to spend the money and then have to carry around a pick and hammer for the rest of our trip.

The real Jurassic Coast!

Everyone around us is carrying the little hammers that they tap against the cliff walls and the large rocks on the ground, looking to crack open a piece of Jurassic history.

Neda does it the cave-man way, bashing rock on rock.

 

[Lightcycle]

Look what she discovered!!!

Actually, she just found them lying on the ground. Her cave-man skills didn't turn up anything but a couple of sore arms.

Not to be outdone, I show her my find!

Actually, Neda found this one too. I'm just posing with it.

These are super-cool! Obviously we can't take the large pieces with us, but Neda saves a few for her tankbag. She's got rocks, leaves and small animals from all over the world in that thing. It must be like the TARDIS: bigger on the inside...

Even without the fossils, the Jurassic Coast is a beautiful place to visit

 

[Lightcycle]

Back in town, we grab some lunch. We see that the tourism department is capitalizing on the fossil trade

Outside the bakery, having a Cornish Pasty

The Cornish Pasty is a baked pastry filled with mince meat, onion and potato and is the national dish of Cornwall, on the southern tip of the UK, not too far from where we are. It was on the list of things to eat that my cousin in London recommended. Delicious!

However, we are on our way out of Britain, and we've got to find a way to shed the UK spare tire we're carrying around our waists!

Our next stop on the final farewell leg of England, a little campsite just outside of:

 

[Lightcycle]

Stonehenge!!!

We're zigging and zagging all over southern England now, on our way out. Stonehenge is my pick on the list of things to see. Not because it's got any archaeological or cultural significance. It's because I first saw it on an episode of "In Search Of...", a sci-fi documentary series about alien visitations, paranormal activity, and generally kooky pseudo-science. I was enthralled with that show. And it was hosted by Mr. Spock!

Stonehenge is located in Salisbury and it's far from being isolated

Like most ancient monuments, it's now being crowded in by urban creep. You can see Stonehenge from the roadway in the background. A few years ago, you could walk right up to the stones, but due to vandalism and wear, the stones are roped off and you can only walk around the perimeter.

Mr. Spock said that the stones in Stonehenge line up with other sacred sites in the UK and around the world, like the Great Pyramids of Egypt. The type of stones are not found in Salisbury and were carried hundreds of miles to be placed here to harness mystical, magical energies. But for what purpose? Dun-dun-DAAAAH!

Although not explicitly stated, he seemed to imply alien forces at work. Which is both totally cool and highly logical.

"Quoth the Raven, Nevermore. Nevermore."

I don't know why I'm quoting Edgar Allan Poe. It just seemed like a creepy thing to put in there...

Clouds part above mystical Stonehenge to welcome our alien overlords!

 

[Jayv]

You actually paid the 17 quid to see them?

 

[jc100]

That Llanfairpwlgwn name was actually truncated...the full name is, I think, the second longest place name in the world after the one in New Zealand. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanfairpwllgwyngyll

 

[Robbo]

This hangs in my kitchen.

Btw, I really enjoy reading your posts. Makes me want to head over there for a holiday .

 

[Lightcycle]

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/369.html

It's been six weeks since we last left London to tour the British Isles and it's been such a wonderful leg of our trip - rounding the top of the Scottish Highlands, island hopping from the Isle of Man to Ireland, then meandering down the Wild Atlantic West Coast. But now we're super-exhausted from traveling.

We brace ourselves for re-entry, the thick, congested urban atmosphere slowing our crafts' descent. Ugh, the traffic. We tiptoe between stopped cars, our wide panniers prevent us from lane splitting with any amount of confidence. I forgot how bad it was. At least the weather is sunny!

Getting off the roads to grab some nosh

We are coming into London from the west, and the Ace Cafe just happens to be on the western outskirts of the city. There's a symmetry in stopping here, because this is the first place we visited when we first stepped foot in the UK and now it will be one of the last!

It's the middle of the day during a work week, so the parking lot is empty. We don't have to fight vintage cars for a parking spot.

Food in the UK has been spectacularly unhealthy for us. So we have vowed to eat better.

But not just yet...

In the UK, I've discovered that everything tastes just a little bit better with mushy peas.

 

[Lightcycle]

As we leave the Ace Cafe, Nick, a fellow rider from Italy spots our license plates and we chat a bit

If people we meet along the way show interest in our trip, I normally hand them a business card with our blog and contact information on it. Later on that evening, I find this picture sitting in my inbox! Grazie Mille, Nicola!

Staying with my aunt and uncle while in London

My cousin is in the middle of moving to Scotland, so we're now staying with my aunt Jennifer and uncle James for a couple of days.

It is just not sufficient to say that they are wonderful hosts. They've raised three kids of their own, but my aunt and uncle have played the role of den mother and father for the extended family for decades. The post-secondary education system in Malaysia is neither good, nor very well-recognized internationally, so nearly all of my cousins have studied abroad, attending universities and colleges in Australia and the UK (and Canada). And the cousins who do study in London automatically have a mom and dad away from home.

I think it's a role they feel very comfortable with. We sit in their kitchen one morning and my aunt is cooking a hearty English breakfast for us, and it just feels so homey!

Later on that evening, they take us out for dinner and my aunt regales us with tales of my dad when he was a young man. Fascinating stuff!

Spending our last night in London out on the town. This part of the city is known as the West End

The West End is also known as TheatreLand, with over forty theatres in the district. One of them is The Queen's Theatre.

 

[Lightcycle]

Inside the Queen's Theatre!

Neda has always wanted to see Les Misérables, which is one of her favorite plays. She's listened to the soundtrack a million times, seen the movie, and the play was set to come to Toronto in 2013, but we had already left on our trip by then. But now that we're in London...!

Neda was super-stoked! This was high on her bucket list, it made me very happy to see her so excited.

Les Mis was not actually #1 on her bucket list. She wanted to see the new Harry Potter play, "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child". The grand opening was in London three months ago. She thought we'd just swoop into town, go online and pick up a couple of tickets.

So I went online and checked. Sorry, Neda. There's an 18-month wait for tickets...!

At least Les Mis has been running for 32 years (longest running play in the West End), much easier to get tickets for that!

Spilling out onto the streets of Piccadilly Circus after the show, we were both humming, "I dreamed a dream in times gone by..."

So... many people have complained that in all the riding videos I've taken, looking through my windscreen is like looking through a glass of muddy water. A very thick glass.

Ta-DAH! My cousin's partner works at BMW and got me this new windscreen at cost. Thanks Martin!

We said our final farewells to my family in London and headed out back on the road.

 

[Lightcycle]

Trying to find the tickets for our Eurotunnel reservation to take us back under the English Channel

Neda and I get separated on the train! The doors close between our bikes

When we exit the train at Calais, France, we follow the line of vehicles out into the roadway. We have to drive on the right-hand-side now! Six months in SE Asia riding on the left, then three months in Eastern Europe on the right, after that, two months in the British Isles on the left, now we're back on the right... Ugh, our brains are so confused!

 

[Lightcycle]

It's only a couple of hours on the highway and we arrive at our next stop (No, not Arches National Park):

Visiting our very good friends, Thomas and Eva in Belgium!

It's only been a year since they visited us in Thailand, but we've missed them so much!

We're spending the weekend with them, and it's a good thing that we've been to Leuven a few times before, so there's no great need to go out sightseeing. Because all we want to do is relax, hang out and catch up with them. Every time we visit their place, their renovations come along a bit further. Eva shows us their new wall decoration: The National Parks of the US. They've fallen in love with the vast North American wilderness! Having been on the continent for the last couple of years, I can see why. It's so different than anything you can find in Europe.

Thomas and Eva are vegetarians, so it was quite a change coming from our steady diet of saturated animal fats in the UK to super-healthy plant-material-food-stuff in Belgium.

We also take some time to run some errands. We've been to Leuven so often that I have a favorite barber just down the street that I go to get my hair cut. Thomas decides to try out my barber as well, getting his beard professionally trimmed. He is so happy with the way it turned out, that he's going to go all the time now. Me, not so much because this time, they cut it a bit too short for my liking.

All weekend long, Thomas, Eva and Neda poke fun at my too-short hair. Mainly the fact that I don't like my too-short hair. Because that's what friends are for.

Eva is learning how to play the ukulele! I pluck out a few notes on the couch

One afternoon, Thomas and Eva leave us to attend a family birthday party. So they trusted us to look after their apartment while they were gone.

We PMed them while they were at the party. Thomas is not amused...

Oh, it's so awesome to hang out with them again!

 

[Lightcycle]

After a too-short weekend with our friends, two lone bikers exit a garage in Leuven, back out onto the European roadways

Keep right. Keep right. Keep right.

Winter is coming. So like single-celled organisms that respond to stimuli, we instinctively head south, away from the impending cold. But also because of White Walkers.

Along the way we have another friend in Basel, Switzerland we want to visit, but since she has cats... we book into an AirBnB just 30 minutes away across the border just outside of a small town in France called Mulhouse.

The AirBnB is run by a German couple. They have SIX KIDS!

We found out that the reason they live in France is because they have decided to home-school their children, and back in Germany, home-schooling is illegal. So to escape prosecution (and persecution of sorts), they emigrated to Mulhouse, which is also right across the border from Germany as well, so they are not too far away from their friends and family back home.

There's a certain stigma attached to home-schooling. The stereotype is that it raises socially awkward kids, not having been exposed to other children their own age. But living with this German family for a couple of days, I could see that this is not the case at all. This tiny community outside Mulhouse is actually a German exclave. All of the neighbours are Germans and they've also escaped to France to home-school their kids. Every day, all the neighbourhood kids get structured time together in the local playground down the street to socialize, like recess at school. It was all very methodical.

The house is littered with books, the walls lined with educational posters. These parents take their children's schooling very seriously and I get the sense that they want their kids to have a better education than what the state would provide them. Socialization included. Every year, their kids would take a German standardized test to ensure that they met (and probably exceeded) the government guidelines.

Our stay here has really opened my eyes up to home-schooling and erased a lot of my preconceptions.

And their kids are cute!

Five girls, aged 3 to 9, and a little baby boy. I realized that the AirBnB is not just a business to help raise money. It's also further socialization for these little girls. When the mother found out that we were traveling the world, she asked if I would provide a geography lesson for the kids. I was delighted to, showing all the places we had been to on our laptop and showing them our pictures. And when I saw they had a piano in the living room, I gave the eldest daughter a short piano lesson!

The girls found us very amusing. Initially, they would peep shyly around the corner and giggle when Neda was in the kitchen cooking, but by the second day, they were actively helping her make the meals, chattering away in German.

Such a great experience! It was very educational for me, just to see a slice of the world that's normally hidden away.

When our AirBnB host saw our motorcycles, she suggested a great, twisty road nearby up in the mountains

 

[Lightcycle]

Cows watch us on our day ride through the Grand Ballon mountains, 15 minutes outside of Mulhouse

Switchback! Grand Ballon in French means a round-topped mountain. There's an observatory at the top of the summit of the Ballon.

We go for a short hike near the summit, you can see all the twisty roads below