The sign at the beginning of the street said “Welcome to our Village”. Directly underneath was a 30 km/h speed limit warning. It felt a bit like somebody had just come up to me, hugged me, and then punched me in the face.

Don’t get me wrong, I am all for 30 km/h speed limits where they make sense (i.e. schools, public parks – and anywhere where my own kids might walk around) but when I’m on my motorcycle, the kids walking around are not mine, and I pass the seventh romantic tiny village on the same street with 50 km/h zones outside the tiny towns and a local bus not realizing that he’s allowed to go a whopping 20 km/h faster outside of the villages, the whole thing is starting to lose a bit of its novelty.

But let me start the way it is traditionally done - from the beginning:

I had 4 days available for a trip on my newly acquired BMW R1200 GS Adventure and had chosen iteneraries from a book I had received for christmas 2 years ago: ‘The 28 most beautiful motorcycle routes‘ (Dutch). Living in Belgium and having a limited amount of days available forced me to look in a relatively small radius and the 2 day-tours the book listed in the Netherlands were perfectly combinable with another day on Texel - an island living mostly of tourism off the Dutch coast - and a relaxed day to drive home again.

The book came with a CD-ROM including the ITN files needed to have your TomTom navigation system guide you along the routes. I combined these files with my custom made routes on Texel, the way home and of course the way to the starting point of the first day tour. (Watch this blog for a later article on planning routes with Google maps, some software and almost any navigation system.)

You can download the complete ITN file here and download an application called ITN Converter 1.63 (which is able to open the file on your computer and show it to you in combination with Google maps - just click on ‘Editor’ once you opened the file) here. In order to use the file in your navigation system it must be split up in three parts. These can be downloaded here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 (right-click and choose ‘Save Target As …’)

DAY 1

And so on Monday, 1 October 2007, I packed tent, sleeping bag, inflatable mattress and all the other usual suspects you would expect to find on a camping trip, on the back of the bike and left towards the starting point of the first day tour as it was described in my book. The tour starts in the tiny harbor (De Gevangenpoort) of a picturesque little town named Woudrichem (see image bleow left - click to enlarge.)

As you can see, the weather had not yet been informed that I was on the road and it was happily pouring rain onto the surfaces that were supposed to keep my tires from sliding out from under me. Now, the tour for day 1 concentrates mostly on water. You drive next to or over water at all times and in my case you also drive in water at the same time.

The route passed by ‘Kasteel Doornenburg’ in Doornenburg (see image below) and several small villages with small harbors featuring typical Dutch architecture:

After having visited a Supermarket for some bread and Dutch cheese I made my way to a so-called mini-camping I had found online a few days prior to leaving and had reserved a spot for my tent and bike. It turned out that reserving may have been overestimating the attraction the Netherlands have on tourists in October:

I was the only one on the camping place which I was content with. I put up the tent, blew up the inflatable mattress as hard as possible (a friend had suggested that anything less would result in back pain the next morning) and organized my clothes and food for the evening and night. Apart from a sight seeing ship passing by and making me an attraction sitting next to my tent reading, the evening and night passed by without events and I awoke without back pain but noticing that the mattress had lost a bit of air.

I packed everything up and with a blue sky greeting me, left towards wherever my navigation system would lead me …

DAY 2

The second day consisted mainly of good riding and short breaks. The day’s tour was about 385km long and took about 8 hours to complete. It lead me past villages with names like ‘Vijf huizen’ (which means ‘Five houses’ - guess how many houses the village was made up of) wondering what they would do if ever someone decided to build another house within the village limits. It also lead me on some very enjoyable roads and paths:

Above roads took me to the A7 (E22), a motorway of which 20km go straight through water with nothing but a gas station to stop at. On Google maps it looked like an interessting route but was a bit of an anit-climax I must say. It did result in yet another photo of my bike, though

click to enlarge

The time had come for me and my bike to embark on our first ferry trip together. I had never been on a ferry with a motorcycle and wasn’t quite sure how things were handled. I had read on a web site that as a biker you get provided with straps to secure the bike on the ferry on specific motorcycle parking spaces. Again, the whole thing wasn’t quite as exciting as I had expected - I was essentially treated like a car but was able to ride to the very front of the ferry on a ’side-track’ and consequently was able to ride off the ferry in front of most cars. No straps, no special parking space, no welcome committee or fanfare …

After having arrived on Texel there was nothing left but to find the camping place I had looked up online earlier. It was 17.30h by now and sun set started at about 19.00h. I wanted to get my tent up and things organized before dark. The camping place was called Loodsmansduin and is located in the dunes of south Texel. I set up my tent and unpacked my things for the second night. Also, for the second time I noticed that I had not thought of toilet paper. The day before I was able to get some from the camping place’s owner but was asked to leave it hanging in the toitel. This camping place’s reception had closed by now and I was lucky to find a German family that was kind enough to give me a role for free - at least I wouldn’t have to hold it through the night!

DAY 3

The next morning I got up at 7.00h and took a ride to Oudeschild harbor where all of the ships leave on ‘Robbentochten’ - to watch the seals off the coast of Texel. I spent some time choosing which tour I wanted to go on and decided on a ship called ‘Texel 44′ which would leave at 10.30h for a two hour tour.

I drove back to the camping place to register at the reception which had been closed at my arrival the day before, drove back to the harbor, had some breakfast at a pub and waited another 45 minutes … to be told that the ship wasn’t leaving today because only three people had bought tickets. In the mean time all other ships had left.

It had started raining while I was waiting for the ship not to leave but I still wanted to explore the island. I had plotted an approximate route across the island to pass by the most important sights and so now loaded the tour in my navigation system and had it lead me to a motocross club I (again) had found online while planning this trip. It was deserted:

So was the area around the lighthouse:

It was time to go and see seals after all. There was an animal protection center on the island called ‘Ecomare‘ and if I couldn’t see seals out in their natural environment I wanted to at least see one or two being protected. All of the animals in the center had been either babies that had not been able to connect with their families or would not have survived by themselves:

The roads on the island were a biking dream and had the weather been better I would have spent all day just cruising along amogst dunes, trees and meadows:

click to enlarge

But the weather wasn’t any better. So, I decided to spend the rest of the day in my tent reading. After a few hours of reading (it had become dark outside and I was using my flashlight to see) I noticed that my mattress had lost a bit of air and decided to pump it up to a level that would allow the mattress to loose some air during the night and still not be too soft to cause me back pain - that wasn’t the best idea I had ever had … the mattress blew at ‘7′ when I wanted to pump 10 more times with my foot pump. A rip that no tape or glue would ever fix had appeared and I now understood why this particular model was sold for €11,75.

Since it was too late to find any store that would sell anything I might be able to sleep on I had a decision to make out of four choices: Sleep without anything to soften the ground (not a good idea for my back) - Ask the Germans I had asked for toilet paper for a bed (not likely) - Find a youth hostel to sleep at (I was not in the mood to start driving around cluelessly at this time) - Try to catch the last ferry to the mainland and take a relaxed ride home since that was the plan for the next day anyway. I went for the last choice, packed my stuff in record time (I wasn’t sure when the last ferry would leave the island) and headed for the harbor.

As I turned off the engine to wait for the ferry to load I could see the prior ferry leaving. The information sign stated that I was an hour early for departure - at least I hadn’t missed the last ferry. Not many others were waiting … or actually on the ferry.

click to enlarge

I was home at 1.30h, took a shower and fell into bed. Even though the trip had been cut short by a night, it was very enjoyable and I would recommend it to anyone while suggesting to make sure to go when the weather is going to be stable and sunny.

Now, this is exciting stuff! Didn’t you always wonder which bike I rode at 16? Or at 31? Well, obviously the answer to this question is an emphatic ‘NO’ - I’ll tell you anyway.

I was 17 and couldn’t wait to take over my brother’s old ride - a red Yamaha DT50 - at the time the coolest bike I had ever known. Not that I knew any other bikes.I simply thought that since my brother owned the bike, it must be cool. Here’s a picture of the bike in black (I wasn’t able to find a red one and have never taken a photo of my own bike):

However, this was not my first bike. Before taking over the coolest ride on the block I had inherited my sister’s bike. I know, I know - it’s not quite as cool to get your sister’s bike as it is to get your brother’s, but it was still a thousand times better than not having a bike at all. My sister was riding a Yamha FS 1 (also 50cc):

The DT50 was a very nice ride and opening the exhaust up took it too nearly 100 km/h. Parents and police avoided, this bike was with me until I got my first car at 18 (a red Ford Fiesta my sister used to drive). I was hooked, but quite a few years were to pass before I would be able to ride another two-wheeler …

… to be continued

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As you can read on the top left in the sidebar, this blog is going to be about motorcycles and me. This may and will include tour reports, equipment reviews, opinions on bikes or books on bikes, tour guides, etc (you get the picture) - Anyway, hope you enjoy what you read and come back from time to time to see what’s new.