Swiss Alps 2002

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6 months in the planning and our first trip abroad on 2 wheels. This was what happened...

The plan was to catch the overnight North Sea Ferry from Hull, England to Zeebruge in Belgium. Then travelling through Luxemburg & France arrive 540m later in Andermatt, Switzerland. That would leave us 4 full days to tour the Alpine passes before having to return home. Accommodation was arranged through Gottard Homes and comprised of an apartment for 8, so there would be plenty of room for the five of us.

A week before we were due to sail a North Sea ferry suffered an engine room fire off the Norfolk coast and had to be towed to port, nothing more was said on the news as the days passed but I rang P&O 2 days before our sailing, they said the Saturday sailing was going ahead as planned... no problem!

Saturday afternoon, just as Kid (Graham) was coming through the front door the phone rang... "P&O ferries here, Sorry but the tonight's sailing is cancelled, as the Captain is not happy with the boat after the engine room fire!" By way of compensation they were offering: any other crossing we wanted, a full refund of the cost of the ferry and any reasonable costs incurred PLUS another free trip abroad via the original route for free! As this started to sink in I started to calm down. Dover - Calais was offered as an alternative route to France, once there we would find accommodation for the night and pick our route up again in the morning, fine!

Urgent phone calls were made and we all meet up at the M62/A1 Jcn Pontefract services. From here it was a straight run down the A1 around London then on to Dover about 250m.

For this trip Donkey (David) was going on a Yamaha Tmax 500cc scooter, that's it between the two Beemers. It wasn't even run in yet having covered just 500m. Brave lad!

So the line up was,

• Patto:      BMW R1100RS

• Ebbo:      BMW R1100RT

• Richard:  BMW R1100RT

• Kid:         Yamaha FJ1200

• Donkey:  Yamaha Tmax

Patto, Kid & Richard. It was well dark by the time we reached Dover having stopped just twice en route. Here we are in the ferry port queuing for the ferry.

Once on board the ferry we were given light straps to tie the bikes down with cushions over the seat.

Then it was upstairs to the information desk, This is Richard, Ebbo & Patto trying to understand pidgin English directions to the Formula 1 hotel in Calais.

Well, we were on our way, and it wasn't costing anything! just time for a little drink (of Shandy, honest!)

Crossing time is just 70 mins, with a ferry leaving every 40 mins, so we soon found ourselves disembarking in Calais. But by now it was midnight, and had it not been for the Garmin GPS I would have been lost in minutes. As it was I easily followed the ring road around and found the Formula 1 hotel in the back streets. Unfortunately it was full and locked up for the night. After trying a couple of hotels nearby we got lucky and found the Cottage Hotel (multimap) where we obtained 2 rooms for 142 euros £89, that's en suite with breakfast. So with the bikes locked up at the front and safe under lights we settled down for the night, it was one in the morning...

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