The Ramblin’ Men annual trip following on from last year’s Britain Bikes & Banter tour, for 2024 we go to The Black Forest visiting Arras and Nancy on the way, returning via Verdun and Arras. All three riding BMW GS 1250’s (one a GSA). Good weather, great fun; join us for the inevitable banter.
[Music] welcome to the rambling men European trip of [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] 20124 for those who have seen uh videos before we tend to go on a decent trip once a year and this year we’re off back to Europe last year we did Britain bikes and banter if anybody’s seen that year before we did the Alps this year we’re into Europe which we’ve done before but we’re off to uh France and then Germany and maybe up to Belgium I’m currently on my way to to meet up with pet Chell cheers and we are then heading down to the tunnel it is Friday of the bank holiday August weekend we had 40 mph winds at home in Birmingham which is not ideal a little bit concerning however they baited about 8:00 down to about 20 M an hour and thankfully they seem to have died off the forecast is looking good weatherwise which is excellent and um we are meeting up with Dino in Aris tonight looking forward to the trip and uh yeah So the plan is uh Aras night one then potentially nacy night two [Music] see where see where it takes us really but potentially up to Bon Bon Germany we may end up in Brugge we’re not sure we don’t know we’ll take it as it goes uh so stick along stay with us see what Antics we get up to how much chers gets bullied uh by meino um or reality is that the other way around I really know on board with this trip you may see or you may have already seen that I’ve got the chiggy A5 plug and play uh BMW version been lucky enough to get one of the last ones available in the country from a bike thing and he’ got 14 in stock I pick one up and by the time I’d finished talking to him the rest have gone they’re on back order apparently so we’ll be available in September early days I have to say Miss Impressions is this an excellent bit of Kit all the reviews that you may have seen seem to suggest they’re all true based upon what I’ve seen it’s uh very well made and it literally just links up to your phone phone links up to your helmet and you’ve got all the benefits of carplay was do at C cheers at 11: is what 10 past and Lally I’m 2 minutes away from where he lives so for me that’s not bad there we have Chas just returned from cricket Trafford feeling a little bit jaded apparently quite a few beers last night train was slightly delayed so for once I was here literally on time or for me it’s on time anyway CH was late so very enjoyable at this4 12 lovely little area chiz lives in obviously upset the neighbors for sale be nice let’s be friends today yeah but what happens when you say that well Norm we normally have a a period of friendship and but that period last you say something and then I react you throw a pebble I throw a stone you throw a stone I throw a rock you throw a rock I throw a boulder that’s what happens and then what happens when we meet up with Dean oh well oh oh oh oh oh look at me you’re going to love him in France What A pompous little he’s going to be it’s going to have so much fun for that okay Flex plus is the future man it’s the way forward isn’t it definitely the way forward what sandwich did you have Chas I got a little surprise for you now what did you have first though I didn’t enjoy the salmon salmon I had salmon cream cheese no not no that’s too sloppy for me it wasn’t sloppy that was even problem it was a bit dry actually oh I have to say the ham and cheese I had was a little bit dry oh that’s a shame cuz you got another one dos got two of those or maybe I can get away with my tuna sub crunch WRA there so that’s made my decision I will be having a tuna Crunch Wrap on the way over [Music] so we’ve now arrived in France and we’re now heading off to Holiday and Express at haris time is now oh 5 5:30 22° very pleasant sun is shining all good got a message from Dino to say he’s at the tunnel um waiting on a train he hasn’t gone flexi plus so I’m not sure what’s happened there whether there’s just been um we’ve got the last one before there’s a delay I’m not sure he won’t be too far behind us thank you so we’re just coming off into ARS now it is 646 and so seven and we’ got 1.7 miles to go and here comes the rain 21° but rain rain rain Sun just started so we’ve been a bit fortunate here din know will get it though behind if this carries on aass now if anybody’s been to a Rass before we’ve been a couple of times and it’s a typical French uh little village town um lovely little place beautiful Square lots of nice places to eat nice bars about 280 M today there we go Express [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it’s now 8:46 heading out uh from Aras which is a very pleasant night indeed we stayed in holidan Express which is typical holidan Express but actually it was very nice very clean very comfortable very welcome in nice bar had a nice breakfast in the town last night beautiful place very Lively lovely Cafe culture we had a fantastic meal in the heart of Aris food was excellent homecooked got to bed for a little night cap just after midnight woke up 7:30 this morning good night sleep Dean didn’t he only had about 4 hours was a wait till about 12 and 4 or 5 hours maybe anyway we’re on our way we’re on our way to Nori and we’ve booked an ivis budget in the middle of nori we are planning to uh blast up to a place called rthl re e t h e l I think kimoto route to take us into nor SE this is going to be interesting because we’ve not used caloto before and the idea is we’ll plug in a rout caloto and share it with each other and see if that whole process works because we’ve had so much so many problems with garming historically in terms of trying to share routs and what have you as a standalone sat have IIT I’ve never had a problem these guys have I have had issues when we’ve tried to share routs let’s see how this caloto thing works not a lot to see here temperatur is 22° nice and warm Saturday just chilled out man chilled out beat you soon this as we go into rle have a little look see shuts down get the heat out Canal there areen oh that’s pretty very pretty large holidays in France is very nice electronic locks if I remember rightly I feel about that I think it’s pretty good to be honest my effort winding those locks when you’re on your holidays big cant [Applause] [Music] whereas um your wife is really spent some time getting your lyard you changed your mind now I put the video on haven’t you cuz you said two minutes ago that did you get your lanyard from some sort of Spanish Market yeah because it looks like a hot up Market piece of an artisan Craftsman would make small Spanish back street what do you make of that personally I think it looks Mar I think because I tugged him yeah he’s literally changed mid T right is that readable have you ever known him do that before he’s like a open book there is no there are no layers there’s no depth this is two-dimensional cheesy world to live in Shallow waters are always the warmest for very very shallow waters are always the warmest [Laughter] that’s very true welcome back so we just a quick update it’s now what 3:00 just gone 3:00 after on supicious lunch very strange lunch we ordered Bretta which i a lobed a picture on it’s between a pizza and a open ham sandwich and very odd anyway bit disappointing to be honest but we left rle and just lowed on to a lovely little stop off just a little Side Cafe taking on fluid as we are 31° so it is very warm we’ve been the caloto plan which we talked about earlier on whereby we sort of blast the first half and then on to n and and then take a caloto route when we plugged in the caloto route it actually wasn’t very much different to the normal route and importantly we need to be a na SE to see The Villa Arsenal game think I mentioned earlier I’m a villa fan if I haven’t I’m a villa fan chiz is a staunch Arsenal fan he goes pretty much every week to home games a season ticket bit of a grge game tonight so hopefully we’ll get on the TV somewhere in Nazi um so our plan is to get there about 5ish and at the moment it’s 4:30 but we’ll probably have another stop and take on fuel so the caloto route not different really to the Google Maps route purely because of the nature of the roads around here I mean the countryside is just never ending it’s just going on and on and on and on on this part of France really that’s beautiful lots of straight roads um so Coto can’t really add much on that I suppose we’re now coming into non uh heading towards the IIs Budget Hotel it is 4:45 uh we arrive in uh 8 minutes 3.9 km and it’s 34° so today we have done 233 miles today overall for the journey that brings us to 58 very good where’s that hotel €75 in na SE gets you this IIs Budget Hotel um it is clean it is functional you got a l in there you’ve got one of these pod shower things in here uh bed it comes complete with obviously 35° heat it’s own air conditioning um but there you go 75 you don’t get a key you get code so we’ve just thought of a reasonable idea after a few beers it might be useful there’s your sink might be useful to take a photo of your key code which we’ve all done just in case you never know so there you Qui shower change and we’re off to see the match hopefully with a bit of Lu see you later I I don’t know so here we are in the square of nor SE and din know y this is a a what UNESCO world heritage site another French square which got to say it’s pretty damn impressive very impressive [Music] [Applause] [Music] and if you didn’t know me you’d say oh hello what are we talking about CH that’s not fair that’s not fair we honestly we were just tapping into a scene here you may have closed the scene by doing that really yeah Glam oh no we’ve lost the moment I’ll I’ll turn it [Laughter] off incredible yeah [Laughter] [Music] like [Music] distracted by shiny light you think it’s a you think it’s a pub do you yeah oh I think that’s that’s a restaurant well let’s have a little look brazer through the art brazer same place brazer usion be have a okay it’s coming again front another another bed just so what passing shower pass a listen to the rain drop drop drop droping April show it’s going to do to the temperature day now 10° drop overnight so it’s going to go from 34 to 34 well 35 on your machine today yeah 2122 tomorrow okay so this is a good thing it’s a good thing V on tonight they lost 2 now you stop recording now oh that’s a shame so we have another rain shower absolutely torrential got to have a ring so turn it around so here we are here we are Sheltering for our lives 34° in non that’s great oh my God global warming what global warming never before no it’s good we’ve got one at home we’ve got one at home you got one at home yeah and what did you do with the stone then you want what you do with it well Stone heat the stone heats up yeah but where did you heat the stone in the the one we’ve got is there the heating element underneath the stone okay bit like the ones you get in the out great right so we got three types of potatoes yeah stick them in the middle cuz that’ be nice that’ be like a doen was the [Music]
2 Comments
Beer Fields
It was going so well until you got on the autoroute.