England to Belgium | Road Trip Part 1

England to Belgium | Road Trip Part 1

good morning I’m heading off again this time off to Belgium because there’s a a new biker hangout in xand Hoven Belgium and they are stocking our libertatia tool rolls so I’m going to take over a couple of extra straps for them check out a Belgium biker hangout and I’ve only got a one-way ticket first stop today I’m going to head over to the port of DOA get the ferry to Cal then ride over to zandhoven which is about 250 mi from here exactly almost exactly actually I just looked on Google Maps East right in that direction from there I don’t know I’ve only got a couple of days away I think but I quite like the idea of heading 3 hours south from xand Hoven to Luxembourg so I’ll just see where the wind takes me I’ll take you along with me of course I’m packing Ultra ultra light I’ve already booked accommodation and I’ll show you that later I was extremely pleasantly surprised by this accommodation so I’m excited to show you that and all I’m taking two pan is nothing else I’m not taking any of the extra luxuries like extra shoes nope simple strip back calm I’m even in plenty of time today this is going to be a nice relaxing trip I’ve got an hour an hour until I leave that’s how relaxing everything is going to be on this trip so well let’s get started even though I’ve got loads of time it’s just nice to do everything in my stride I’m not even going to have a coffee now because I’m saving that for the ferry ride [Music] this was so easy to pack for 5 minutes genuinely that’s all I took two paniers filming gear in that one clothes and sponge bag in that one on the back couple of waterproofs top and bottom in case there’s a downpour which there may well be delock to lock the bike I fitted my quadlock charger to The Handlebar so I can charge my phone as I go and yesterday I just gave it a quick clean Monica helped me and I also gave the chain a bit of a Lube as well so we are good set to go the bike’s got a full tank of fuel and we’ve got or I’ve got 1 hour and 20 minutes to the coast [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] cut Corners where do you go [Music] breaking [Music] bers what a [Music] know follow your heart what do you [Music] say figh Darkness till break a day the heart and the P changeing Sur like a red on and blue skies what do we know we were so very young [Music] [Music] [Music] falling clover look what you’ve [Music] got changing colors you will be jacket and instructed by a crew member on how to effortlessly making all of you feel motion I love it when that happens I rode over to the ferry and without even putting my feet down the team from Irish fairies just beckoned me over and get me on an earlier Ferry I didn’t even have a chance to put my feet down I’m only meant to be heading off on my Ferry at 2:15 but it’s now only 1:15 and I think you may be able to make that out I’m already only about half an hour away from France so I’ve saved I’m sure at least an hour and a half these Irish fairies I’ve used a couple of them before but this one more so than any other ferry that I’ve used for the Crossing from DOA to Cali it is the most industrial style stripped Back to Basics ferry that I have ever been on on this route so much so that I got out of the car deck climbed up the stairs and I thought I must have made a wrong turn and I I must have been in the the employee section of the ship because you don’t get to a a nice fancy Reception Area nothing’s polished it’s all stripped Back to Basics to keep the experience as keenly priced as possible so I very nearly had to turn back until I saw a sign saying Club level or something like that so I decided just to follow the sign and luckily it took me to the restaurant and bar area but even the restaurant area is the smallest restaurant area that I I have ever seen on one of these ships I think they cut back on any of the luxuries as much as they possibly can for Irish fairies to make it as well priced as it possibly can be and it is extremely well priced £41 for this Crossing booked yesterday and you can take your pick from an unlimited amount morning afternoon or evening so from a budget point of view it’s brilliant but if you want those extra little bits of luxury for example a slightly better meal nicer Lounge areas to chill more L things like that you’re probably better off going with another company luckily for me I think I’m heading away from the clouds now England’s now covered in clouds but ahead of me there France looks like it’s quite nice and blue [Music] welcome to France I as soon as I got here I pulled over right here to check the exact hotel address to type it into my satnav I’m heading to zandhoven and because my attention to detail is so poor I didn’t realize that the hotel I booked this this morning is actually in antp not xan Hoven which is an hour away from where I really want to be I think I just typed in xan Hoven and picked the first hotel and of course booking.com often just sends you random hotels in the rough area not specifically in the town so I’m not actually going tonight to where I thought I was going I’m going to antp not xan Hoven antp also has a low emission Zone and to be able to drive into low emission zones which are popping up all over Europe you have to register your vehicle to the best of my knowledge before travel so I’ve just had a panic situation thinking have I booked a hotel in the middle of antp where I’m not actually allowed to take my bike luckily from what I’ve seen it looks like motorcycles are exempt ridiculously lucky so I can go into ANP to the best of my knowledge no worries at all about any of this low emission Zone ticket stuff whatever you need and ride freely so to the best of my knowledge looking on Google Maps I think I’m staying somewhere in the middle of antp it’s 3 hours away from here I think for today I think I’ll probably just smash out the motorways because it’s about 3:00 and I want to get there have a little Wonder around town and grab a B to this is it the proper bit of the road trip begins [Music] [Music] than glass stop off before I get to antp filled up the bike with fuel everything going perfectly I didn’t expect this this is a really nice surprise I haven’t stopped off once for toll road I haven’t got to one page Booth had to get my credit card out or anything like that I haven’t paid one cent in Road charges I expected by this point I’d have had to stop off at least three times so that’s a very nice surprise a couple of days ago for my weekly party Tuesday at dos I was reading out a story from a Turkish Rider and he’s fairly recently passed his test and he had just got back from his first big road trip and he said after you done his first road trip it’s it’s almost like an addiction you immediately start planning your next adventure and I I completely get it it’s that feeling of Adventure the open road it’s completely adct Ive not knowing where you’re going to spend tomorrow night not knowing what Adventures you’re going to have tomorrow not even really knowing where you’re going to be or go the next day it’s an amazing feeling and even the mundane stuff like this I’m in a a fairly standard Belgian service station and for the locals this is just completely normal it’s nothing remotely interesting but for me it’s new it’s exciting it’s interesting just got to soak in all of those little bits that for all of the locals it’s it’s nothing at all but for me yeah everything’s new and exciting I love that about Adventure it may be July but it’s quite cold and I’ve got a feeling the rain’s coming so I’m going to put on an extra layer and then finish off the last 40 minutes of today’s ride so [Music] [Music] m [Music] this is incredible may think I’m being sarcastic but I’m not I am in the heart of ANP literally could not be more Central and it looks like a a lovely town city and this is £41 a night I yes it’s extremely basic the carpet hasn’t been changed probably in 20 years everything is as basic as you could get but for £41 in a city center when in England when I was looking for campsites I was looking at between 30 and 35s a night for a campsite when for just6 pound a night more I can get a perfectly decent hotel room right in the heart of a city with restaurants cafes within 100 m of me I’ll grab the camera and show you RIT of this this is phenomenal value right if I put the tripod on the side and I’ll start just from outside you can kind of get an idea of the Simplicity of the hotel room 9007 you come into this extremely dated quite stained carpet I guess it’s a little bit like a prison cell but with carpets bed on the side but everything perfectly clean little reading like there I’ve even got a cboard I cannot get over the value TV mirror little table with a phone to do my business calls in the morning extremely clean and perfectly well appointed bathroom and I may be wrong I think I think this is the station here my bike is parked just out of sight down there I asked if I can leave it there she said she’s not sure about bikes so I may just push it next to her post somewhere in town but look brush over the stains there that’s fine 440 cannot go wrong right I’ll go and move the bike I’ll take her into town with me show you a bit of antp and then I’ll grab a bite to eat and wrap it up [Music] [Music] you know [Music] okay I’m off to wagger mamas for dinner so I wrap it up there thank you so much everyone for watching day one of this trip have a brilliant weekall and I’ll see you all in the next one [Music] [Music]

For the first day of my euro trip, I head off from London, catch the ferry from Dover on the south coast of England, over to Calais in France., and on to Belgium.
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Locations:

Dover to Calais ferry
Overnight: Antwerp, Belgium

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Music:

Dawn, Dawn, Dawn – A Gentle Invitation
Staffan Carlen – Changes Like a Chameleon
Hatamitsunami – Like a Bird
Victor Lundberg – A Nomad’s Journey
Rebecca Mardal – Aesthetic Echoes in Motion
We Dream of Eden – Morning Mist

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