It's a pain living in Jockland if you want to get to north western France. As you have never toured France it's easy to forget how big the place is.
It sure is..that's why I'd rather be doing the miles on the continent than riding to the south coast for a ferry
You have got 16 days, less 5 that you want to spend in Nice, with your wife. I make that 11 days spare. I am not sure how long it takes you to get to Hull / Newcastle and then how long the crossing is, I guess it is overnight?
Now upped it to 19 days, crossing is overnight
What do you plan for your return crossing home, back on the same ferry crossing?
doesn't need to be
I only ask as Scotland to Hull is what? Half a day? Plus the overnight = 1.5 days ish. Return trip the same, I assume = 3 days all in. That leaves you about 8 days, maybe nine maximum for your jaunt to the Normandy beaches, then across to Nice, back up to Benelux (possibly via Germany).
You will spend, say, half a day getting from the ferry port to Normandy and, to make it worthwhile, a
prefer 2 days hereday looking around as you want to see the beaches and the museums. Let's say you are therefore left with six and a half, maybe seven and a half days for the rest. You do want to avoid motorways though, so your average speed will drop quite significantly. Again, it's doable.
Now the questions, so we can help you best:
(a) Do my guestimates above look right? If not, correct them, no offence.
(b) What mileage do you want to do each day? Do you think 150 miles is a long way? That is not a rude question. I know people who think that it is, only because they only use their bike for hour jaunts within 50 miles of their house on the occasional Sunday.
my average day out up here is 300 miles, big miles don't bother me but I do want to see around, no use just hammering down fast roads?
(c) What time do you want to set off each morning and stop in the evening?
8am to 7pm
(d) Camping or hotels?
hotels / B&B to save carrying tents etc
(e) 'Safe' chain type hotels in the middle of major towns or happy in the countryside?
fine with either
(f) Do you want to stop for an hour for morning coffee, then lunch and another hour mid-afternoon? Do you want to stop to take pictures?
Def want stops, so average speed would be low
(g) Where do you want to go to in Germany and why? For instance, do you want to see Rhine castles, or the Porsche museum or, perhaps, the 'Ring? If so, that will take a day out on the way back.
Only ever been to major cities in Germany, thought it would be good to see small towns and rural areas, no real reason, don't care about the ring
Look forward to your news; then let's see what we can do.
In the meantime. To give you an idea of the distances and the rough direction, to take in the invasion beaches, Nice and the 'Ring here is something knocked up in two seconds using Mapsource. No great thought, just enough to get an idea of the rough shape / distance of a
possible route. It's about 2,100 miles. Probably longer if you want to hit some 'proper' motorbiking roads.
Thanks for that, have a Zumo and mapsource so will look at some miles planning
) Thornley & Stolzy, took your details with me but never got to pass your place, might be back in the autumn to see some bits I wanted to but missed
Well done P&O
