My European Vacation this summer....

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Thanks to some shrewd investments this past year, I was finally able to take a vacation (my first ever REAL vacation in 42 years of working). One of my bucket list items was the big motorcycle race in the middle of the Irish Sea, the Isle of Man TT race. I have wanted to go to that race for over 15 years, and it finally happened. it is without a doubt the greatest race in the world (take that, Indy Racing League). A 37.5 mile course, ALL public roads, speeds in excess of 200mph in places, (lap average 130mph or more), and one of the biggest crowds ever at a single event. There are tons of places to watch along the course, many free, some grandstands and pubs (Creg Ny Baa being the most famous) and the riders are the most accessible and friendly of all motorsports. 20220611_145642.jpgAs you can see, shaving was not on my list whilst there....The rider on the right is Peter Hickman, who was having quite the year there, 4 Races won, and the fastest average lap time. I indulged myself with a nice new set of leathers, and as you can see I have a badge..I also joined the official Course Marshalls crew: 20220610_121339.jpg
The medics photobombed us, I didn't even notice until I uploaded the picture to my computer....this is at Creg Ny Baa, and here is shot of where I was standing, with bikes charging down that hill at around 130mph, slowing to 80 to make the corner... 20220610_150711.jpg

The weather was actually good by Manx standards, mid to upper 60's every day, a mix of overcast, sun, some wind and rain. The second race of this day (the Senior TT) was bumped to Saturday because of the rain that moved in shortly after this pic was taken.

Mere words cannot describe what I felt at the race...it was a full 10 days of total sensory overload, and the crash of emotions when it was over had me crying like a baby in my hotel. I have already booked my flights and hotels for next year...I came to the race on the last two days of practice and for next year I will be there the week before the race and two weeks after, to see more of the Isle. I will also be bringing my latest sport bike over so I will have more freedom to move about, but the Isle does have a great transit system (bus and electric trains) that covers the main parts of the Isle.

The Isle and the Manx people were both awesome, I have over 200 pictures and some videos just from the race, and over 100 more from Ireland. (I will put up some of Ireland pics in a later post in this thread.)

Oh, as for the food... three days before I was marshalling at Creg, I was enjoying my VIP ticket for the second day of races at the pub, with a balcony view of that same corner. The food provided was fantastic, including FRESH Manx lobster... (I was going to upload a pic, but the one I took of my plate there only had turkey on it, which was still awesome.)

To be continued.....

[John Eickhof]

i hadnt noticed the backboard and neck brace in the picture you sent me! is your adrenaline settling down to a crawl yet?

[Marcel Birgelen]

Thanks for sharing! You've choosen an interesting destination for your first vacation in almost half a century.

The Isle of Man TT is a pretty legendary motorcycle race, one of the most dangeous if not THE most dangerous in the world. I've had the pleasure of attending it once, in 2008, as one of our customers was an official sponsor back then... Great times, great people, great scenery... simpler times.

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If such a picture is accompanied by the remark that "the weather was good", you surely know it was taken on one of the British Isles.

So, you went on vacation for the first time in 42 years, but ended up working as a volunteer race marshal, but it was still a vacation? :P

Any plans to visit the mainland next time you make it all the way over the big pond?

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

John: You already know what I am up to next week, don't think the "a" levels will be down for a while.

Marcel: Thanks, and glad you got a chance to see it in person yourself. I was told by many there that the weather was exceptionally good this year, a break from the usual. in fact, my second marshal point (Race Day 1) was at Marown Church and the day was perfect: 20220604_104137.jpg 20220604_102730.jpg

And you are correct, it is the most dangerous race, and sadly this year we lost 5. Three in the sidecars and two solo bike racers.

I had the pleasure of meeting one of the solo rider's teams, they shared a lot of good stories about their racer, so it was a mix of sadness but mainly a lot of laughs as he was quite a character. The team owner's daughter told me that I would have gotten along great with him, as we share the same wicked humor.

Being on the marshals crew is great, we are all volunteers, but they do take great care of us and many vendors, pubs, some hotels and airlines all offer discounts to us. I did not feel like it was work, as we had some fun as a crew and got to see (and be part of) the race from some unique vantage points. And they are very flexible and accommodating with scheduling, as long as they have enough marshals to go around. (It takes over 600(!) marshals to cover the course.) There are also days off between races and practice days, so there is still time to see other sights.

The marshals do have some huge responsibilities, including spectator control, course cleanup, accident response, advanced first aid, signalling (with flags) and more. We are in fact granted the same authority as a police constable and some spectators have learned that the hard way. (Luckily at my three posts this year no such incidents or even crashes happened.) That said, the marshal I spoke to (on my very first day in Douglas IOM in fact) DID caution me about the very real risks marshals face. Thankfully the Association offers up excellent insurance coverage at no cost, including illness, even if I am off duty.

I do plan on hitting the mainlands at some point, if not next summer (I plan on getting out of Dublin this next time and seeing the REAL Ireland) but future trips include Scotland, New Zealand, Italy (Sicily to be more precise) and Germany. Possibly Australia, Denmark and even your part of the world too. It will all depend on how things work out for me financially, as I am kinda retired right now.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Wow, hard to believe it's been over two years now. It feels like forever...

I did not get to return to the Isle or the UK yet, had some serious setbacks financially and some health issues. But the return trip is still on the table for whenever I can get the money set aside to be able to enjoy it without worrying about money. Thankfully I will be getting my retirement benefits this month, including a modest payment from IATSE that I was just contacted about.

I mentioned posting some more pics from Ireland, and will follow up this post as I need to resize the images to meet the forum's limit. Consider this the teaser then. Stay tuned.

[Leo Enticknap]

I went back to England, with my wife and son for the first time, for Christmas 2023. Even in the single decade I'd been gone, London and the Midlands had changed very significantly, and for me, not in a good way. Reconnecting with relatives was absolutely great, and that alone made what was a major financial and logistical challenge (we came dangerously close to excess baggage fees with the crap just for one child - how anyone does long haul travel with two or three, I'm buggered if I know!) worthwhile. But offsetting the positive memories of family reunions (especially my son getting to meet my aunt, who passed away a few months later) were the negative ones of 20mph speed limits (try sticking to those in a manual transmission rental car - constant changing between second and third until your left ankle and elbow hurt like hell), TV news broadcasts that assumed that the viewer had a mental age of 10 (even Radio 4 has dumbed down a lot), the constant dark and damp, etc. etc.

I think what summed it up for me was the Christmas Eve outing we made to see the Charles Dickens House museum (my wife is a Dickens obsessive), and encountering an enormous dead rat on the pavement/sidewalk on Guilford Street, walking back to Russell Square tube (which my son wanted to see, thanks to its starring role in the movie Death Line). That simply wouldn't have been there in the London I grew up in. By the time we left, on New Year's Eve, I couldn't wait to be back in SoCal.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Ok, got some of the pics resized, so here goes:

These first two are of Grange Castle, a ruin of one of the smaller castles in Ireland. In the area of South Dublin, here's some info from the webs:

Grange Castle lies between Clondalkin and Lucan villages in the midst of the business park that bears its name. It was built in the mid to late 1500s, and remodelled around 1750 by the addition of a two-bay two-storey domestic wing. It was lived in until the late 1980s.Mar 9, 2020

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Another shot:

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And in the city of Dublin, here's Dublin Castle. They still hold official meetings there. I took the tour, and we went to the lower levels. Not only is there an active stream below (sadly I was too in awe to take any pictures) but as I was actually touching the stone walls, I was overwhelmed by the idea that I was touching the same wall that hundreds of years before I was even born, I was in the same space, touching walls that Kings, Knights, servants and enemies of the kingdom had touched, in the same spaces. it was very emotional and gets to me today as I am writing this.

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Note the crests carved into the wood.

This next was a racer, Matt Stevenson, and I taken the day after I videoed his near-crash at Creg Ny Baa, I emailed the video to him. He ran wide into the corner at around 100mph, and came withing an inch of hitting the foam barriers seen in my pics. (Filmed from the balcony on my VIP day at Creg). He was another example of the nice riders I met there.

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As you can tell, I was still a bit jet lagged that day.

[Tony Bandiera Jr]

Here's the video of the close call Matt had at Creg Ny Baa, it happens at the 6:30 mark. This was the race I watched from the balcony of the Pub on my VIP pass. (And the same corner I marshaled at later in the event.)