Moped on Tour

2010-12-20T17:24:00.000-08:00

Final update

2009-08-19T09:04:00.001-07:00

Dear Friends,

We are back in belgium. It's been a wonderful time, and we (eventually) never regretted the idea of getting on those mopeds and forfilling a more than 2700 km trip through the french country side. Because some of you were already begging to update, here it finally is, our last update from the trip. Hope you'll enjoy it. We did. For more stories or suggestions on do's and don'ts of the trip, you can always email us. We strongly recommend people to do it themselves, it's been wonderful, it is wonderful and if you have a little sence on adventure and you aren't anxious on have a doubtful future during your holidays, as in, not knowing where to sleep or what to eat. If your life motto has something to do with 'carpe diem' then this is a good idea. I'd rather stop this nonsense and let you enjoy our last update-movie.
Keep yourself together!
No kisses anymore to our moms, we've already seen them. Fortunately we are back shaved and showered. Chicks is (are) already satisfied and for the rest of you, we've made this compilation movie.

Cheers,

Pieter & Benne

Update... almost two weeks and holiday... great!

2009-08-13T06:42:00.000-07:00

Hi Folks,

We are in the Provence right now, some time no mopeds, a bit of resting and today the Great Climbing of the Tour de France's classic mountain: the Mont Ventoux. We've defeated him today with the three of us. Bob, Pieter and Ben decided to conquer the highest hill of the montains in the Provence and they succeeded. Bob and Pieter with a little more ease and less effort than Ben. I (Ben) think they arrived at the top with a dozen of stops with a time of at about 1h30. Ben left Juul behind in Malaucene and did it by bicycle in a bit more than 2h. (sorry Sara, but Ben improved his time with more than 1h30 compared to the last time). A little calve cramp and a lot of excitement has brought him to the top. Lucky for us, we did the rest of the trip on moped, because our fysical condition isn't that great, we should admit right now. Tomorrow, the holidays starts to end. We are going to start the retour to Belgium. For the moment, Shorty, our thruck driver hasn't got any work, so please, Belgian companies, make him to come to France, so we can put our mopeds in his truck and we don't have to do the whole trip again. On the other hand, there is time enough to do that trip, so we aren't scared to do that way, but you know, it's summer and comfort above everything.
We are now at a camping side near the river, with a swimmingpool, the good life... I have some pictures, but no camera with me, so alas, I'll upload them next time! I promise.

Keep yourself together there in rainy Belgium, or somewhere else in the world, we'll do the same!

Greatings to our moms and the rest (sorry, still not shaved), a huge kiss to chicks!

Cheers,

Pieter & Benne

ps: The Mont Ventoux is 21 km long and climbing over 1500 meters... But we are Belgians, you know, a bit sick of mind...

Update day X... Yes we can(nes)!!!

2009-08-10T03:39:00.000-07:00

Dear friends and other non-believers,

we did it!!! Nous sommes à cannes. We only needed ten days to complete this trip, ten days on the moped, ten days with short nights and long, hot or wet days. Ten days with more than 1350 km of driving through the beautiful countryside, the mountains, the valleys... splendid!

Fortunately, we have USB access this time, so here are some shots of our trip:

Day 3 in the rain... off road:

With our friends, Antonio and Laurent, who did us drive another 45 km to find a camping side.

For the next couple of days, we'll take some time off, to relax, to look around and see beautiful things, you know, holiday! And whether we come back on moped or not, that's still a question, but we'll figure it out in a fortnight :-).

See you guys soon,

A big hug for our moms, loads of kisses for chicks and a 'C U' for the rest!

Cheers,

Pieter & Benne

Update day 3-4-5-6-7

2009-08-06T01:05:00.000-07:00

Hello beeldbuiskinderen,

today, day 7 of our famous trip. We arrived last night in Bourg-en-Bresse. Unfortunately, this pc doesn't have any USB-connections, therefore, we can only speak. No pictures or movies today...

The last couple of days has been hard, Pieter was a bit ill the day before yesterday because of a long daytrip and no food all day. Fortunately, there was a Quick in Dijon who gave us our daily unsaturated fats. But our mopeds are still driving and that's the success of this trip so far, 783kms we've done since we left Deerlijk-city.
We baptized our mopeds already and gave them the names Bob (Pieter's) and Juul (Ben's). It seems like by talking to them, they drive better... or we hope so.
Day 3 we arrived at the Lac du Der, thanks to our new friends Antonio and Laurent, who gave us a beer and a map for a camping site, which seemed a half hour drive, but was in fact 45 km away... Thank you very much!
Day 4, we decided to do a little less, Ben's moped didn't accelerate as it should be, so we needed to find a person who knew something about mopeds. In fact, we have to admit, we don't know anything, but are still learning every day... Moped was fixed in 5 seconds, jieha! And then we decided we were needy for some luxury. So we slept in a chalet, which was decorated in a Chinese style. The movie will show you more...
Day 5 with arrival in Dijon and all his moustard.
Day 6 in Bourg-en-Bresse, with a camping site, which is for the first time more crowded with French than with Dutch people.
The trip continues, the Alps are waiting for us, and Cannes is burning hot for the moment. We won't evaporate, we hope, so we are stopping quite a lot of time to have a drink... Everything for our health, as you can see ;-).

See you all later,
A big kiss for our moms, for chicks, and all the rest, no kisses today, because we haven't been shaved for a while... sorry, maybe next time.

cheers

Pieter & Benne

Update 1: day 1-2

2009-08-02T00:23:00.000-07:00

Jepla,

Finally, we're off, the mopeds did departed very fluidly in the first two hours of friday morning. But then... Pieter was convinced his moped could stand a nail. Nevertheless, the nail won, so we had a flat tire, and already a first delay of our trip. The border of France was still far far away. Fortunately, a nice tire-replacer was happy to repair the tire fully for free. Therefore some advertisement: go to 'Banden Claerhout te Avelgem' very nice service!! Again, the ambiance was there, we continued our road to enter Wallonie, have a great stop at a little bar somewhere in the middle of nowhere, where a truck driver tried to get us drunk, but we resisted... :-). An hour later, Pieter tried a bigger nail, but still his moped lost the battle. Two new holes and again a big delay and still we didn't reach the France border... After that a new problem arrived, now Pieter's moped didn't want to accelerate anymore. At an average of 7km/h, we would never reach Nice, even the Provence was far far away. The morality sunk to the bottom, we were thinking about giving up and go to dran(k)outer next week... But then, as a dissapearance of superman, there was a nice guy who wanted to repair the motor and then, we were back again on the road, heading to France. With the morality on 110%, we were flying on our mopeds to France and at night we sleep in Bellignies, just over the border on a camping site, with nice aged people who gave us food and drinks.

The second day, the weather was nice and our mopeds flew over the French roads, heading to Reims, we arrived in NeufChâtel-sur-aisne, where we booked a room to stay and just after that moment, a big shower started and it rained all night. Even now, it's still dripping a bit, that's why we have the time to type such a long text for you guys, at home. Today we're going to drive another 1000km if possible, but as well, it could be that there are a bit less km, if we see something we like to stay for a night...

See you next time, kisses to our moms, to chicks, and all the rest.

Cheers,

Pieter & Benne

on tour...

a little anecdote... already

2009-07-29T07:32:00.000-07:00

One of our mopeds has already been stolen, before we even left Belgium.

There has happened a little disaster early in July. One of the mopeds has got stolen on a local concert in Deerlijk-city. Lucky for us, Pieter has changed in a police inspector/detective and found the moped back within the week. Nothing was damaged, fortunately, even better, the mopeds have already survived their first adventure. Now they are really ready to conquer the roads ahead. The final countdown is started, the clock is ticking, Friday morning at 9am at Neunkirchenplein, a last salute and then we're off, only the sun and the compass (and maybe after a while some maps and nice people) will guide us to our destination... South! Where the sun shines, the birds sing and Pieter and I have their holidays... See you then!

Moped on Tour - August 2009

2009-07-17T09:04:00.000-07:00

What eventually started as a joke, became reality once we managed to work everything out. The concept is simple:
1) Buy yourself a moped (a piaggio, vespa or anything of that sort) which contains pedals if you're out of gasoline and with a maximum speed of 40 km/h.
2) Get the moped registered and insured
3) Convince your parents it isn't dangerous at all, plus the fact you need a little freedom before you start the serious life of a job and its responsibilities.
4) Get some money, a helmet, some clean cloths, a compass, a camera, a tent, a sleeping bag and a raincoat.
5) Off you go, to the south! No worries, the further you get, the hotter the sun will shine and the less you will be soaked by rain showers. Jieha!

You see, it isn't that hard to organize a holliday. Only fate will colour the adventure from now on.
Of course you can't start whitout a rehearse, so that's why we've been doing this little try-out. Just to check if the machine could manage a little trip... Hope you enjoy the pictures and movies!