Europe 2023

European Tour of Beer: Mark, David and Richard take three weeks to travel to Romania and back, taking in 15 countries in the process. Focussing on war history and motor racing across France, Belgium, Germany and Poland, meeting up with friends in Brasov - Romania before heading back through the Alps to England during July 2023.

Day 1: 372mi, 8 hours: London, England, France and The Ardenne, Belgium

With a toast to Romania with Romanian liqueur, Mark and David had an early night with the alarms set for 3:30am. Rich meanwhile was setting his for 2:30am as he was leaving from Hampshire. Saturday dawned clear and sunny and we were on the road by 4:30am, flipping a coin as to who would ride which bike, then b-lining it for Folkestone to catch the Chunnel to France. We missed our scheduled train due to a large group of bikes ahead of us taking up all the bike space available; but Rich in the BMW was delayed at duty free so missed the train as well. All good as we rolled onto the next train 30 minutes later.

Under the English Channel and deposited in France, quick brain calibration to ride on the other side of the road, we set our nav for The Coupole, a WWII Nazi rocket launch site, well worth a visit. Afterwards we had a very french lunch at a bistro called L'Auberge de Mussent before heading across country to Chimay.

Chimay holds historic road racing and the pits and starting line are easily accessible so Mark and David took a look around before meeting Rich for an afternoon refreshment in the town square.

One last stretch took us through the beautiful resort town of Spa and our accommodation for the night at les Refuges du Chalet, arrive at 8pm. We had an al fresco BBQ with the supplies we had picked up on the way and toasted to a wonderful first day of the trip.