I had always known that my Kawasaki ZZR1200 would not be a suitable bike to use on an RTW trip and although I had planned to change it, I had not really decided on what bike that should be nor when I should change it, so in July 2019 I made the decision that the time was now right to change my bike.
As during my RTW trip I necessarily had planned to cover a lot of miles, the fuel that I would use would be a significant part of my daily expenditure, therefore low fuel consumption would be a very important factor in whatever bike that I chose. Ease of maintenance and repair were the next most important factors on my list of requirements, closely followed by being a bike light enough for me to pick up unassisted. After doing a lot of research and reading a lot of reviews I decided that the Royal Enfield Himalayan was the one that I though most suited my needs as an RTW bike. So in August 2019 I decided to return to the UK and to buy one.
I left Krakow in early morning sunshine and headed generally North West passing through the cities of Katowice and Wroclaw on the way to the German border which I crossed around 11 0’clock in the morning. It was motorway all the way so covering distance was very easy for my soon departed ZZR1200, only stopping for fuel and coffee by late afternoon I had reached the town of Kassel which is about half way between Leipzig and Dusseldorf in Germany. Once in the city I got sorted out with a hotel near the centre for about 40 Euros and after showering I went out for a walk. It had been a number of years since I had stayed in Germany and the first thing that I noticed was that the main square was full of refugees from the Middle East, all sitting about in the square, doing nothing. The second thing that I noticed was the litter, it was everywhere.
I sat for a while in a cafe having a coffee and cigar for my evening meal and I watched the people around me. None of the refugees went anywhere or did anything, they just sat about talking to each other in languages other than German. One positive note was that near to my hotel I saw an old BMW bike from the 1970’s parked near to my bike. As is my want, I like to take photos old bikes like this.
The following morning I left Kassel early and hit the motorways again. I rode through the German border near to Essen and in to the Netherlands, past Eindhoven and on in to Belgium, passing Antwerp to my destination for the evening, Dunkirk if France. Once again after getting settled in to my hotel I ventured out for a stroll around the town and again I found the town to be full of refugees, who again seemed to be just hanging about and not doing anything in particular. Again as I was walking about I saw an old bike that I needed to photograph, this time is was a Russian made Ural combination which I was told by the owner dated back to the 1930’s.
The next morning I set off for the Eurotunnel in Calais and by 9 o’clock in the morning I was riding off the train and on to the motorway to Folkestone. An hour or two later, I said my farewells to my Kawasaki ZZR1200 and part exchanged it for an 18 month old 2018 model Royal Enfield Himalayan, with just over 2,000 miles on the clock, which I then rode up to Glasgow (see next post) to await my registration document arriving from the DVLA.
As a way of explaining the naming of my future posts, I have decided that I shall name them relative to the day number of my Round The World (RTW) that each post refers to. So, as my next post will refer to my first journey on my new bike and the start of my RTW trip on it, that post will be called Day 1. Thereafter, I shall only use this naming system for days during which I am actually doing any travelling on my bike, and any other posts that I may make whilst I am stopped for a period of time, or if I feel the need for a rant about something, I shall name as appropriate for that content.