Rosalie Marsh is a local author who has a number of books out on travel and personal development. SHe has kindly provided the following article for thebestof Wrexham. Enjoy! -
Having adopted Wrexham as my hometown many years ago, I can call myself a local author. As an unlikely person to be seen wearing a crash helmet and travelling on a motorbike – always being more suited to a big case with lots of shoes, fancy clothes, wash bag, hair bag, face bag etc. which stashed away in an aeroplane - I ended up writing about our travels. Sadly, we can no longer ride but we have lots of memories now enshrined in print and electronic form forever.
I have always wanted to travel and when ‘him indoors’ wanted a little bike again to tinker with I did a deal. I was used to bikes of various sizes littering the place and even suffered a carburettor in my brand new sink in my brand new house once – well he had to clean it somewhere and I suppose I must be thankful that he didn’t bring the bike into the front room but managed with the kitchen instead.
Now, I spotted my chance to travel through the countries we had flown over. The little bike got bigger and bigger. The Pan European bit the dust two months after purchase when I saw a big black Honda Gold Wing in Colwyn Bay Motorcycles. That was it!
‘Look at the luggage space,’ I said. ‘Ned’ as I came to call him in Just Us Two: Ned and Rosie’s Gold Wing Discovery thought he had died and gone to heaven.
‘Get signed up then,’ he said in a shocked voice. And so began our wonderful years of discovery, adventure, and fun. A middle-aged couple who had never toured abroad before.
Andorra was a testing time. We met up with a group of friends – most on Gold Wings – after our week in Lourdes in the Pyrénées. On the outskirts of Biarritz, a car cut us up and we almost lost it. The bike weighed half a ton when fully loaded. My camcorder came in handy to film the argument between the Frenchman and ‘Ned’. He soon scuttled off when he saw that. The snow-capped mountains on the French side of the Pyrénées look so pretty from Foix! Try riding in them though in dense cloud. It was scary . . .
Rosalie
Rosalie Marsh
Web: http:www.discover-rosalie.com
Rosalie’s Chatter: http://www.discover-rosalie.blogspot.com