Hi all

Just returned from my trip to Normandy. Drove 4373 km all in all. The first days me and my mate drove 700 km a day, and it were allright for the bum... The wifes on the other hand wasn't impressed :-)

The first day we drove to a biker camp in Germany called Willa Lövenhertz (Villa lionshart) and it were a great place to stay, a lot of bikers and a lot of german beer :-)

The nekst day we drove to Verdun, one of the big battlefields from WWI, and met with a brit called Ian who has a bike bed & breakfeast. He and his wife loves bikes, and Ian is very interrested in WWI & II. Ian therefore took us for a ride in the countryside to look at some of the sites and battlefields from the war. One of them the american cemetery, and the largest outside the US. 16800 americans is burried there. An very impressive sight ! It's a place to thank a lot of young men for their sacrifice so others could live on.

The next day we were off to Normandy. We lived in Saint Meré Eglise where the US Airborne had a huge landing, and the entire city was filled with tributes to the americans. Stayed there for 7 days before returning home.

While we were there we saw Point du hoc, Omaha beach, Utah Beach, Sword beach, Peagasus bridge, the american cemetery with 8000 amreicans burried and a lot of different bunkers with and without guns.
It's a special place to bee at these bunkers and imagening how the allies coped with this impossible task to take these beaches, and defeat the army of the third reich. But as history will know, they did. As you stand there one can't help to think that all of us owe a certain something special to all those young men who climed those hills back then in June 1944...

It's a interresting place, and there is a lot to see from WWII, but if one want's to see battlefields, fortresses and be somewhere which hasn't been ruined by way to many turists, then take a trip to Verdun!!!

The CBR was a absolut sweetheart in the trip. running lots of miles every day, with the wife and bagage on without making any complaints. In average it ran 17 km on each liter of gasoline, and never used any other kind of fluid.
My mates bike is a 1991 VFR also a great touring bike, wich ran spotless...

The Picture is of me, my CBR and a Sherman tank at the Omaha memorial.


[IMG]local://upfiles/8118/668DD168A0F04F2F85FD0F3AE183DD98.jpg[/IMG]

 

Sounds like an interesting trip! I could have considered a trip to France (am I right, Normandy is France isn´t it?), but I know no french and from what I have heard, they (frenchmen) are not willing to speak english, so I think I will stay in Scandinavia when my children are so grownup that me and the missus can leave them for a while...
Noe! Please tell me that you did only ride in jeans from where you stayed to the different places you visited and not on the long touring trips, you know that sweat can be washed away, but road rash cannot! Still, you can get road rash even from driving slow... Sorry if you think I´m whining, I´m only worried about you. Thanks for sharing your trip with us!

 

Nice to read.
Your bike must be in good condition since you even didn't have to pour some oil in.
BTW, what tyres did you use and how much did they wear?

 

The world is a funny place.
They use to make Sherman tanks down the road from where I live at the American Locomotive Company (ALCO) during the war. It's always funny to see one so far from home.
We ride BMW's and Japaneese bikes now, made by the fokes that those boys died fighting.
The French are French and will never change. I have been there a couple of times. The best thing to do when asking direction is to simply go 180 the other way, a simple fix.

 

Mikekop:
Yes Normandy is in France, and no the french don't like to speak english. Even in turisted place like Saint Meré Eglise where thousinds of americans come to visit every year can only a very few of them speak english, and if they do it's very very bad english! Germans on the other hand was a pleasent surprise. Every german I meet spoke a perfect english, and were all very kind to us, and the southern Germany is just soooo beautiful!!!
But a trip down to Ian in Verdun and WWI battlefields is highly recomended!!! I have his e-mail adress if anyone would like a nice trip to Verdun someday.

The jeans were only on when I drove to see the sites on the beaches. I know I should have been wearing my dainese trousers, but the heat was killing me
[sm=bustedsign.gif]You make me feel guilty

R1000:
I use Michelin Pilot Road. The front were old when i left home, at least 12000 km. they are completely wasted now. The rear had 1000 km on it before the trip. You can tell that there have been a lot of autobahn on the trip, but it's not bad and there is at least 5-6000 km in them before I need a change.
The oil level is precisely the same today (just measured it) as before the trip...

BTW sorry there isn't more pictures from the trip, but they are to large so they can't be oploaded to this page [:@]

 

Hello Noe thanks for sharing!!
Regarding the pictures, just shrink them to 800x600 it usually does the trick.

 

Thank's Noe for the information. I've had a feeling that they are great tyres for heavy bikes which has a strong apetite for tyres, now I now they will last by your info, and understand that they are a strong candidate even though they have been around for ages. I've read that they are top ranked in wet which is also important for touring and commuting. I'll soon getting Metzeler Roadtech Z6's on, but will keep this infromation as a reference.

 

good to hear about your trip, great photograph...

 

How do I do that ???
Can I do it on the computer or should I do it on the camera ?

Can it be done after I have taken the photograf, or should it have been done before I took it ?

Sorry about all the questions, but I'm all new in the world of digital cameras...

 

You could set the camera to lower resolutions, but you may not want that option since one often want to archive pictures with the highest quality from e.g. holidays. What you can do is to reduce the size afterwards and save the shrinked photo with a new name or in another catalogue on the computer. I guess you got some image editing program with the camera, which can be used to change sizes and other things. If not, search on the Internet for free picture size tools and similar expressions and you will soon find what you need. If you have some friend being a little bit into digital imaging he will help you very quick.

You could also drag the original picture into a Microsoft Word document, set the size there to any percentage you want, then drag it out to the desktop again and you will have a picture which is smaller and can be uploaded.