Albert Hjein brings back memories. It's been 15 years since I lived in the Netherlands :)

Thanks so much for the comments and encouragement, guys! Really great to have you along with us! :)

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/228.html

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It's a strange thing to glance at your GPS and see negative numbers for your elevation. But that's what you get when you're riding through the Netherlands. Or is it Holland? Dutchland?

We've pulled ourselves away from the Belgian Haven of Eva and Thomas' home and rode out into the warming European spring. The sun is shining and the sky is blue and for the first time in a while, it feels like we're finally ahead of the weather instead of being chased away by it.

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Riding past dams, dikes and levees of the Delta Works project

Being very flat, the Netherlands is not really a motorcycle destination. About 25% of Holland is below sea-level and more than half of the country is in danger of being flooded! There's been a long history of flood-control here, with the first dikes being built in the 9th century. For scenic reasons, we were advised to ride along the coast and through the Delta Works project in the south-west part of the country. It's basically a high-tech version of those first dikes, also helping to reclaim vast areas of land from the encroaching North Sea.

I was surprised to learn that this land reclamation is quite critical because the Netherlands is one of the most densely populated countries in the world by land mass. There are more people squeezed in here per square km than in India!

Accelerating the population is similar to accelerating a motorcycle. Except that you clump the Dutch instead...

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There are 35 people who live in this one windmill alone

Like other countries in this part of the world, I only knew a little bit about the Netherlands. I knew about the little boy who stuck his finger in the dike, and that everyone here smokes pot and wears wooden clogs. I didn't know why this place was also called Holland and why the official language was called Dutch, and not Hollandaise, or Netherlang.

I did know that there are a lot of windmills in the Netherlands.

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Hanging out with the windmills at Kinderdijk

Speaking of population density, the densest concentration of windmills is in the town of Kinderdijk, so we rode there to see them up close. I always thought windmills were used to grind grain or something similar. Boy, was I mistaken.

At Kinderdijk, 7 meters below sealevel, all sorts of flood-management techniques have been implemented throughout the centuries: dikes, sluices, etc., however these all proved ineffective against the ever-rising waters. In the 1700s nineteen windmills were constructed to help pump water away from the low-lying areas in Kinderdijk. A hundred years later, these windmills were supplanted by newer-technology steam pumps which were then converted to electrically powered ones in the 1900s.

Today, the nineteen windmills at Kinderdijk have been restored and mainly serve as a tourist attraction. They've been designated as a UNESCO site, so once again, we are on the Gringo Trail in Europe.

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These guys don't seem to mind all this water

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Windmill Cruise

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Believe it or not, these are Canada Geese!

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Back on the road, we pass by the Netherlands' Military Missile Defense silos

We're on our way to The Hague, about an hour south of Amsterdam. Mike and his wife, Bua are British ex-pats living here in the Netherlands. Mike's been in contact with me via the blog and has offered us a place to stay as we ride through which was super-nice of him. He was actually riding in Croatia last summer while we were in Pula, but our bikes hadn't arrived yet and we were still taking care of Neda's mom so we were unable to meet him.

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Our hosts in The Hague, Mike and Bua

Mike is quite the avid motorcycle traveler. We talked a lot about the places he had ridden to and he gave us some great tips on riding through Scandinavia, which is what we're looking forward to later on this summer. I loved hearing about the Netherlands from an ex-pat's viewpoint, since they often see things differently than people who have lived here their whole lives. Both Mike and Bua had interesting perspectives on life in Holland after moving here from England.

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Windmill at Keukenhof.

We happened to be in The Hague right around the time that the Keukenhof Gardens were open. Keukenhof is one of the world's largest flower gardens, it's in the city of Lisse just 40 minutes away from where we are staying. Neda *LOVES* flowers and Keukenhof is only open from mid-March to Mid-May so it was by luck that we were here at the perfect time to catch the flowers in bloom. Unfortunately Mike had to go to work, but Bua volunteered to take us.

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Indigenous peoples of the Netherlands

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Yellow flowers

There are over 7 million bulbs in bloom this year covering the 32 hectares at Keukenhof, with 800 varieties of Tulips all over the gardens. Neda was in heaven, reveling in the multitude of colours around her and literally stopping to smell the flowers and read all the informational signs next to them. I was going to label all these pictures with the proper names of the flowers, but I don't know anything about them... You're more than welcome to e-mail me and help me identify them! :)

I'm not so much into flowers, but they do make for great pictures. We're really happy that there are clear blue skies for us to walk around under!

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Some people take their photography very seriously!

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The gardens were very crowded for a weekday! More than a million people visit during the two-months they are open

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Red flower with yellow centre

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The bridal exhibit does big business here at Keukenhof. This was the Love Wall,
where visitors from all around the world can proclaim their love by writing on tags

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his pen is... what? Don't leave it hanging like that, Lotta...

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Big yellow flowers with small blue ones beside it. Also purple sticks.

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White flowers. And a yellow and black bee

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Need a windmill right here to help lower the water level under this bridge...

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More yellow, purple and blue flowers

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White and brown goat. Neda wearing a blue sweater.

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Yellow flower about to eat a smaller orange flower

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Love birds

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Blogs and clogs

:rofl: bunny fugger :clap:

:clap:
Had a good laugh at your flowers!
I felt exactly the same when I was there...

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/229.html

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Amsterdam is only about an hour away from the Hague, so we headed out for the morning. The sky has reverted back to its dull grey colour as we ride the highway to the capital city of the Netherlands.

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Scored some free parking at the old centre

We made a beeline straight to the old centre of Amsterdam, the part that everyone visits. Having never been here, I was very curious to see the place that not only legalized prostitution and marijuana, but put it on display in the stores on the main street. Our first impression: there sure are a lot of canals here...

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There are over 100 kms of canals in Amsterdam...

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... and tons of bridges. This is one of 1,500 bridges in the city
Amsterdam is often called the Venice of the North.

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Boats seem to be a good way to get around here. Any other mode of transportation in the Netherlands?

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Bicycles, of course!

Along with windmills, canals and tulips, Holland is known as the nation of bicyclists. About a third of the population list the bicycle as their primary mode of transport. We saw so many bicycles traveling around the city as well as locked up to railings that stretched along the sidewalks.

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Those not old enough for their own bicycle still trundled around on two wheels

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Also a horse-drawn carriage. For the tourists.

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The infamous red light district

I'd heard so much about the Red Light District but when we got there, we were so surprised at how not-seedy it seemed. Non-descript buildings housing sex shops and bawdy houses are only distinguished by garish signs and the scantily (if that) clad women behind the full-length windows tapping on the glass as you walk by.

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Just so you didn't know where you were, the lights in this area have red bulbs.

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Feeling spacey!

Another thing we had heard of was Coffee Houses. But coffee is not the main item on their menus... These are cafes where you can order marijuana from the menu, sit down and have a smoke or munch on a Space Cake. All out in the open! Coming from very repressed North America, it seemed so very strange!

But again, very un-seedy and normal-looking from the outside.

Amsterdam turned out to be quite a pretty place to walk around. At least during the day. We only spent a few hours there in the morning and headed back to The Hague in the afternoon.

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We wanted to try some native Dutch food: Herring Sandwiches!

In Holland, they love eating herring that's been salted and served raw. You can have it by itself or it's also eaten with raw onions and on a hot dog bun. This was delicious and cheap! They also say it's a great hangover cure.

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Mike prepares our transportation for the evening

Later on, we are told that we need to blend in with the Dutch, so we trade in our motorcycles for bicycles! Bua is taking us to visit the nearby village of Delft on two (non-motorized) wheels. Because bicycling is so ingrained in Dutch culture, all the streets have dedicated bicycle lanes that have their own markings that denote right-of-way - very important when crossing an intersection!

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It's a 40-minute ride to Delft and at all times during the ride there was always a canal by our side

I was not doing very well with all this exercise. Thank goodness Holland is so flat!!!

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Delft Town Hall

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Bua is very fit and waited frequently and patiently for us to catch our breaths

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Window shopping. No prostitutes or marijuana in these stores.

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Renovations to the Nieuwe Kerk (New Church) in Delft

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Bicycling in Delft

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What a beautiful town! Lots of canals and bridges like Amsterdam.

We thought Amsterdam was pretty, but Delft was even more charming. Mainly because it was less crowded and we were able to see more of it since we were on bicycles. What a great idea! Too bad the sun was setting as it was getting dark and cold, so we had to head back.

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As if the canals weren't enough to remind us we were in Holland, here's a windmill!

We thought that would be the end of our whirlwind tour of the area, but Mike insisted that we *HAD* to see The Hague. This wasn't on our radar at all, but when our host got back from work the next day, we all took the public transit into the downtown. We were glad we did because Wow, Holland has some very pretty towns and cities!

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The boardwalk in The Hague

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Some funky artwork. Perhaps the artist had visited a coffee house or two before designing these...

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It was still a bit early in the season, so not many people milling around in the beaches.

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The Hague at night, pretty cafes lined the street

So strange to call a city *The* Hague. And calling the country *The* Netherlands. However, now that we've been here, we've decided to rename it "The NedaLands". Smack-Lick!

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Statue of William I, Prince of Orange (is the new black)

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More The Hague at night

Mike and Bua showed us such a great time around Holland, we were very grateful. We're keeping this blog primarily as a record for us to remember all the great places we've visited, but we're so glad that others are not only following along with us, but often reach out to us to offer us a place to stay as well as show us around their part of the world.

Thanks so much, Mike and Bua! :)

Glad your having a good time in Holland!

Hello
 

I hear we will finally meet our fellow Canadian bikers! Looking forward to seeing you in Tröllhattan on Tuesday. Sara

Wow! I've been following your journey for months now, and I just noticed that you are very very close to where I live! Also you were very close to my work too.

How do you like it here so far? There are some really great roads around the Keukenhof, except in tourist season.

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/230.html

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We're in need of some live entertainment, and instead of catching a show at the theatre or soccer match, our preferred format is motorcycle racing. And it just so happens that there is a World Superbike race in the Netherlands this weekend! In North America, WSBK only comes to California so I've never seen one live, just on TV, so I'm super excited to see all the racers in person!

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Rolde, our village where we're staying at

It's only a quick 2 hour ride from The Hague to Assen. We're staying a few kms away from the track at a campsite in a quaint little village called Rolde.

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It's been so long since we camped!

Our campsite is filled with seasonal residents who make this their summer home. We made friends with our neighbours and one afternoon, while we were standing around our bikes eating our lunch, the elderly Dutch couple across the way felt sorry for us that we had not packed any camping chairs and lent us a couple of theirs.

We were very thankful, but this ranks up there as one of our most "feel so homeless" moments... :(

Later on in the evening, we hung around the dining lodge typing away on our laptops and eating soup from the can. At around 8PM, all the residents from the campsite streamed in on their bicycles to join us. They were all senior citizens and this was their game night! Although they seemed to be engrossed in their board games and cards, we caught many of them giving us surreptitious glances, their curiousity being directed at this "homeless" non-Dutch couple who had ridden into their tiny Dutch town on their motorcycles.

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Some exotic sportbikes at the local restaurant in Rolde

There are a lot of sportbikes in the Netherlands! We made some observations about the differences in attire though. In North America, the sportbike uniform is normally a leather jacket, jeans and sneakers. In some parts of the Southern US, it's a wifebeater, shorts and flip-flops...

But there is a distinct sportbike "look" in the Netherlands that's very different from what we're used to. I used to read a lot of British Sportbike magazines while in Canada and I marveled at how much protection all the "blokes" riding around the British motorways wore, clad in their full leathers with their fanny packs (or "bum bag" as it's called over there) around their waist. It's the exact same culture here in Holland!

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This was our daily ride to and from the Assen TT Circuit through the village of Rolde

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Assen TT Circuit parking lot, our GSes stick out amongst all the sportbikes

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The Cathedral of Speed!

Assen is one of those fabled tracks - the MotoGP event here is like the Wimbledon of motorcycle racing. While other circuits have appeared and disappeared from the MotoGP calender throughout the years, there has always been a GP race here at the TT Circuit since the world championship started in 1949.

But why am I talking about MotoGP when this is World Superbikes? Because a normal MotoGP event at Assen typically draws 100,000 fans packed to the gills on the rafters and spilling onto the grass. By comparison, WSBK only draws around 30,000 people which makes it much easier and cheaper to get tickets!

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Practice sessions throughout Friday and Saturday

Unlike MotoGP, which is prototype racing, World Superbike is a production series which means you can buy the machines you see zooming around the racetrack at the local motorcycle store. That is, if you have €300,000 to spend on exotic Go-Fast-Parts to actually make it competitive...

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There are practice sessions on Friday and Saturday, so we spent those days walking around the outside of the 4.5 km track, taking pictures of the riders as they tuned their bikes for the circuit and the weather and track conditions. Neda doesn't watch WSBK at all, so the pre-race practices gave her a good "crash" course on who the top riders were and how to identify them based on their colours.

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I don't have €300,000 lying around, so this is the closest I can come to riding a Superbike around the Assen TT Circuit
Just like in real life, I was very slow around the track and crashed a few times...

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I downloaded the race later to see if there were pictures of us on the televised feed. There was!!! :)

What I like best about the WSBK series is that our tickets were general seating, which meant that we got to sit in the Grandstand - which we are never able to do at MotoGP races because $$$$$. Even walking around the track, there was a more relaxed attitude about access and security. It felt more like a track day than an international sporting event!

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Grandstand seating gave us a good view of all the pre-race activity

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Local Dutch rider Michael van der Mark has an indigenous Netherlander umbrella girl

Umbrella girls get a lot of flack from the feminists, but it really is a lot of hard work making sure your rider is shielded from the sun, all the while looking as beautiful as you can for the camera. I know this because:

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Frogger

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Leon Haslam (UK) is one of my favorite riders on the current grid. His dad Ron, who he's talking to, was a famous GP racer back in the day
Racing is a family affair - Leon's wife Ollie is his umbrella girl

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Pole-sitter Tom Sykes (UK) mentally preparing himself for Turn 1

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World Superbikes should really be called World SuperBrits. The top four riders in the championship are from the UK

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Intense concentration - seconds till the lights go out (race start)

Watching a motorcycle race live is a bit like watching a one-sided tennis match. Your head snaps from right to left as the racers zoom past you and then you wait a minute and a half for them to come around again. It's lucky we had a huge video screen in front of us to catch the rest of the action.

Still, there is nothing like hearing the roar of these 1,000cc race engines and smelling the race gas wafting through the air. There is a palpable excitement in the minutes leading up to the start of the race, and it was such a treat watching the circus of crew, umbrella girl and media activity on the grid.

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Local hero van der Mark is close to the front the entire race. The crowd is ecstatic!

Every time Michael van der Mark's white Honda came round the stadium, the crowd got up on their feet, yelled and threw their hands up in the air to cheer their local hero. It felt exactly like the Misano crowd in Italy last year cheering on Valentino Rossi. This is van der Mark's first year in WSBK so I didn't really follow his career before, but I found out he was last years World Supersport (600cc) champion. So it wasn't a surprise when he followed two Brits to the finish line, ending up in third. The celebrations at Assen were so boisterous, it was as if he had actually won the race!

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Jonathan Rea, another Brit, is currently dominating the 2015 season. Here he is crossing the finish line first

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JRay is milking his victory lap around the stadium

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Although JRay takes the top step in the podium ceremony...

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... the crowd cheers for this 22-year old youngster. He is the first Dutchman to ever stand on the podium
in the history of World Superbike championship. And to do so in Assen...?! Crazy!!

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Half-time event: Ducati stuntguy

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Such a great time at Assen!

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/231.html

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We're continuing our travels by cutting south-east across Germany, but we're going about it in an unconventional way by not passing through any major cities at all. We've traveled through and sight-seen a lot of large cities lately, and we're feeling burnt out on buildings, crowds and traffic. Neda is craving some nature and hiking, so she planned a non-urban route across Germany.

Along the way, I picked up some new German words from the signs on the road. "Ausfahrt" has now replaced "Smack-Lick" as my new favorite word to randomly say out loud. Ausfahrt! Am I just being juvenile or is that not the funniest word ever? Neda agrees with me and everytime we see the "Ausfahrt" sign, we snicker together over the intercom like little kids.

Ausfahrt! kikikiki!

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Ever since Neda emptied her tankbag of seashells, leaves, puppies and camels
she now has enough space to help me carry groceries.

Our first stop is to the Harz National Park where there's supposed to be some good hiking. Although it's half-way across Germany, this is Europe where the countries are small and the highways are fast. It only takes a couple of hours via the Autobahn to get there. The Autobahn between cities has no speed limit and the left lane is exclusively reserved for passing only. And passing happens at warp speeds! If you're only traveling in the impulse speed lane, you have to constantly check for Teutonic missiles being launched past your left shoulder or you'll get photon torpedoed by a Porsche, Mercedes or Audi.

Rammstein, Mr. Sulu!

We dropped out of the interstellar laneways of the Autobahn to a more sedate cruise around the densely forested Harz National Park. It's part of the Harz mountain range and the roads twist through its valleys passing through very quaint German towns. Most of the trees are still bare up here in the mountains where the temperatures dip to the single digits.

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But Spring is in imminent bloom up in the Harz mountain range

The boarding house that we are staying in is in a small town called Sankte Andreasburg and the landlord who greets us is a kind and elderly German man who doesn't speak any English at all. Thankfully Neda took German in high school. Unfortunately high school was a long time ago. Her German is about as bad as my French - just enough to get us booked into the room, but not enough to answer his questions about our BMW motorcycles.

From listening to her speak to the landlord, I did pick up another German phrase that she repeated quite often: "Sehr Gut!" which means "I kinda understand what you're saying to me"...

Neda went out for a hike but returned very shortly after remarking that the trails weren't very good. And I was tinkering around with a new video camera, so no pictures of our ride. :( Well at least I got some blogging done and the roads in and out of the Harz National Park were great. *And* it wasn't raining for once so we were able to enjoy the riding.

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A few Ausfahrts later, we are in south-western Germany

Our next stop is clear across the south-east of Germany, close to the Czech border. Believe it or not, I actually found a hiking trail for Neda. It's called the Malerweg and it's supposed to be one of the most scenic hiking trails in Germany. It's in a region called Saxon Switzerland, so we booked into an apartment in the area in a small town called Porschdorf.

Thankfully the owner here did speak English. Sehr Gut!

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Sehr Fud!

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Eine kleine schwein mit Nachtmusik

We've been eating nothing but groceries for a while now, so we decided to treat ourselves to a nice German meal. We ordered a dish down at the local pub called wildschweinbraten. It's German for wild roasted boar and after saying it out loud, for a second I thought about replacing it as my funniest German word. But no, Ausfahrt is still #1 and is also what you get after eating wildschweinbraten. Smack-Lick!

We're told that the boar that we ordered was local to this area, in fact he was just running around the forest outside the other day. Things are done so traditionally here, I'm sure the boar was killed by bow and arrow!

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I love that you can order beer in 1 Liter mugs!

Our love affair with dark European beer continues. Eibauer beer is brewed in the town of Eibau, just 50 kms east of here. We are having quite the authentic local cuisine!

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Walking around town after a couple of liters of Eubauer

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Very quaint buildings in Porschdorf

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A very special number...

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More colourful buildings in town

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Outside our apartment, a kitten contemplates his fud

It's such a peaceful environment and a huge change of pace from the all the cities we've been visiting. We're starting to feel a bit more relaxed and we feel a lot more rejuvenated for travel.

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Tree house amongst all the pretty flowers

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Pretty countryside of the Saxon-Switzerland National Park

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Saxon-Switzerland is atop some rocky and fissured canyon landscape

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An example of the sandstone formations that dot the countryside

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Village of Rathen in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains

The Malerweg hiking trail is 112 kms long, too ambitious even for Neda to complete in a day. It's broken up into 8 daily stages and we're staying at one of the more scenic stages, near the Elbe Sandstone Mountains. The hike takes us through the nearby village of Rathen.

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Rathen

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We don't stay too long in town, but head straight for the peculiar rock formations

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The hike takes us up into the mountains to an overlook with a great view of the Elbe River below

The Malerweg is also called the Painters' Way because in the 18th century, it was a popular pilgrimage for artists to undertake so that they could paint the beautiful landscape.

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Purdy

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The Bastei is the most well-known feature of the Malerweg

The Bastei is a rock formation that towers 194 meters above the Elbe River and is the picture that comes up most often if you Google "Malerweg". There was a wooden bridge built across the rocks in 1824, but that was later replaced by an ornate bridge made of the same sandstone that makes up the Bastei. The Bastei bridge is now as famous as the Bastei rock formations and is a popular draw for tourists, even if they are not hikers. That would be people like me...

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Neda is super-happy for this nature break in our urban schedule

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Sandstone mountains in the light of the setting sun

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Beautiful Bastei Bridge

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I spent a few minutes chatting up this bird

I got a chance over the last few days to play around with the action camera that Sena sent us. It's called the Prism and it came standard with just about every mount you could need to attach it to your motorcycle. I only affixed a couple of mounts as a test, but will probably add more when I figure out some good shooting angles.

One feature I really like about the Prism is that it's remotely controlled via the Sena S20 communicator, so you can turn on/off the camera, start/stop videos and cycle through shooting modes all through the communicator, and the voice confirmations inform you when the camera is on and whether the video has started or stopped so you don't have to try to look at any lights on the camera while riding to figure this out. I'll do a more thorough review of the Prism when I've gotten a chance to put it through its paces.

This entire video was shot using the Prism. Thanks Sena!

Here's the video:

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/232.html

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Just a three-hour ride north of us lies Berlin, which has been on both of our bucket lists for a long time. The city holds a special attraction for Neda and I for different reasons.

I remember watching the Berlin Wall fall on TV in 1989. It happened right about the time that the self-absorption of my youth was also falling away and I was becoming more aware of the world outside of me. Even at that age I understood the significance of that event.

But really, Berlin interested me because that's where U2 recorded their Achtung Baby! album shortly after the wall fell. They were my favorite band at the time and their last album was a critical disaster. They traveled to this German city that was in the midst of reinventing itself to perhaps catch a bit of its zeitgeist. When Achtung Baby! came out I didn't stop playing it for months. It was such a departure from their old sound, I often wondered what they found in post-Wall Berlin that transformed and rejuvenated them.

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Riding by Checkpoint C (or Checkpoint Charlie as it's popularly known)

After the wall fell, Berlin also underwent it's own transformation. During the Cold War, Checkpoint Charlie was one of the most well-known border crossings between East and West Germany. Over time, the Eastern side of the checkpoint became more and more heavily secured with barricades and watchtowers. By contrast, the Allies continued to keep the simple shed that still stands to this day as a monument of sorts.

However, as we rode by it, the shed is now engulfed by modern-day Berlin. Busy buildings full of shops and stores and office buildings surround it and the road that once funneled soldiers, spies and defectors across the border is now one of Berlin's busiest intersections.

Very cool riding past it though!

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When the wall went up, Potsdamer Platz was divided into two. What used to be a busy intersection became a wasteland, the eastern side full of barb wire and watchtowers overlooking a "kill zone" used to pick off East Berliners trying to escape to the west. This is what it looks like today!

Berlin is so shiny and brand new. It's incongruous with the Berlin I had remembered from my youth: the old-world grey communist society peering enviously at the west through breaks in the wall.

Of course the city had changed, it's been over 25 years since the wall fell. We went searching for the Berlin I remembered. Fortunately the one thing I could count on was that the RideDOT.com rains had followed us and I was able to take some photos of old monuments in the rain that approximated what I remembered of Berlin circa 1989.

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Brandenburg Gate

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Soviet War Memorial at Tiergarten Park

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Berlin cityscape, famous TV broadcast tower on the left. There's a revolving restaurant at the top just like our CN Tower in Toronto

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This street was in the U2 video "Stay (Far Away, So Close)"

Right about the time the wall fell, I also got interested in artsy foreign films. One that really stood out for me was "Der Himmel Uber Berlin" which was a fantastic allegory of the relationship between East and West Berlin. It was made two years before the Berlin Wall crumbled and in the movie, the East Germans were cast in the role of angels, who were unseen by the mortals (West Germans) although their presence was felt.

The film was about one angel's desire to become mortal and fall in love, and experience things like hunger, humour, music and art. It followed his journey to break through the wall separating angels and humans.

ooooh, deep.

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Berlin Victory Column, one of my must-sees in Berlin

Anyway, the Victory Column figured prominently in the movie, being the perch from which one of the angels peers over Berlin and the mortal world. Because it was filmed in black and white, I had no idea the statue was such a brilliant gold. So I had to leave these pictures in colour.

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Angel overlooking Berlin

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One thing the movie didn't show was this fantastic tiling at the base of the column

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Looking up at der himmel uber Berlin

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Another thing the movie didn't show was this cool art installation in the tunnels under the column.
Cameras record your silhouette and recreate it in pixels in front of you. Cool!

It may seem silly, but the Victory Column was one of my highlights of our trip to Berlin, partly because I was a fan of the film but mainly because it was one thing that hadn't changed from my memories of it so long ago.

Speaking of which, Hollywood did a remake of "Der Himmel Uber Berlin". They took out everything that was good about the movie and turned it into an insipid romance called "City of Angels". Grrr..

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Ich bin ein Pfannkuchen!

Two years after the Soviets erected the wall, JFK came to Berlin and gave his famous speech proclaiming, "Ich bin ein Berliner!". Some of his detractors made fun of him pointing out that a Berliner is a nickname for a German jelly-filled pastry called a Pfannkuchen. But Kennedy had it right all along. They only call it a Berliner *outside* of Berlin.

We downed a couple of Pfannkuchen in memory of JFK.

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An exhibit at Potsdamer Platz shows the type of barriers erected as a precursor to the Berlin Wall

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Neda reads up on the history of the wall

My fascination with Berlin is purely because I'm such a culture junkie. Neda's interest in this city is much more personal. The crumbling of the Berlin Wall was the epicentre of a huge social, cultural and economic change in Europe. As East Germany abandoned the communist system and embraced western values, a ripple effect spread across all the Eastern Bloc countries.

Neda was born in Yugoslavia. The echoes of the fall of the Berlin Wall fractured her country into many pieces, and Croatia rose from the rubble of communism. All of her childhood memories of Yugoslavia have been under this system of government, as she moved to Canada shortly after the war ended. So this trip to Berlin was a way of visiting the origin of where all this social change started.

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A line of bricks running down the centre of Potsdamer Platz denotes where the wall once stood

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Holocaust Memorial - 2,711 slabs of concrete rise up out of the ground like raised tombs to remember the murdered Jews of Europe

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All the pedestrian traffic lights east of the Berlin Wall feature the Ampelmann, which was introduced to East Berlin in 1961

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Ampelmann is a uniquely East Berlin symbol. Wearing his little East German hat, he has become a bit of a nostalgic rallying point

In addition to art installations like above, there are now stores selling Ampelmann T-shirts, stickers and other merchandise, cashing in on his popularity. You know, just like the communists would have done...

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Another East Berlin symbol - the Trabant

The first time I ever saw a Trabant was hanging 50 feet above the stage of a U2 concert. It was angled nose-down, with it's headlights shining down on the band like a spotlight: ZooTV. Regularly topping automotive lists as one of the world's worst cars ever made, the Trabant was an East German monstrosity that originally could not be bought from a showroom. East Germans had to order one and wait for them to be built and shipped to them.

When the wall fell, jubilant East Berliners drove their Trabants across the border and they've been inextricably linked to the city and that seminal event ever since. Today, Trabants serve much the same duty as old 1950s Fords and Chevys do in Cuba - as taxis and city tour vehicles...

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Very little remains of the original Berlin Wall. We rode out to a piece of it called the East Side Gallery

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East Side Gallery

The East Side Gallery is a 1.3km stretch of the original Berlin Wall that features 105 works of art painted on the east side of the wall in 1990. There are so many great paintings here, but I've picked only a handful of them that really spoke to me.

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Communism, where all property and means of production are owned by the common, as opposed to the individual...

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I really like this one

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And of course, an Angel one

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A helping hand

Between 1961 and 1989, eighty people died while trying to cross from East Germany to West Germany. Before the wall was fully formed, East Berliners would regularly escape to the west via the west-ward facing windows of buildings that were right on the border. As the Soviets boarded up the lower-level windows, escapees lowered themselves via ropes or sheets, some of them died falling from higher stories.

Later on, when the wall was fully erected, many more were killed by snipers at the watchtowers aiming at them as they crossed a specially built "kill-zone" that was lit up by floodlights at all hours of the night.

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The west-side of the Wall is covered in graffiti.

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What the heck are all these blue pipes all over Berlin?

While walking around the city, we saw blue and pink water pipes snaking all over the city. After some Internet-sleuthing, I discovered that these pipes are actually linked to the naming of the city. A lot of people think Berlin is named after the German word for "Bear", which is also on the city's coat of arms. But the etymology of the word comes from an old Slavic word, "berl" which means "Swamp".

Berlin is built on low-lying marshlands, literally it's a swamp. When buildings are constructed in Berlin, they use pipes to pump the water out of the construction site so they can put in the foundation. They've painted them all sorts of pastel colours to pretty it up, but these pipes are indirectly linked to the naming of the city! Neat, eh?

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The divide between East and West. Cherry blossom trees in the background in West Germany

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Neda has to investigate the cherry blossoms, so I have to as well...

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Trying out some German Wurst!

We rolled our motorcycles up on the sidewalk and nervously looked out for policemen as we chomped down on our currywurst. We were later told that this was not the best place to eat currywurst (true!) and that we didn't have to worry about getting ticketed as bikers get a free pass and can park just about anywhere they like in Berlin (sweet!).

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Another must-see on the list: BMW Motorrad Plant in Berlin

Even though the main headquarters for BMW is in Munich, the motorcycle factory is located in Berlin. So we *HAD* to visit the birthplace of our bikes. We weren't allowed to take any pictures of the plant, except for the showroom, but it was a fascinating tour where we got to see them assemble all sorts of bikes and see them get tested before they're shipped out.

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Tim was our guide through the BMW Motorrad Plant

After the tour, he saw us hop on our Canadian-plated bikes. After finding out about our trip, he asked to take a picture with us and e-mailed us a copy! Great guy!

The fall of the Berlin Wall was one of most important historical events that happened in our time. We both have memories of it and were impacted in different ways by it. It was such a nostalgia trip riding and walking through the city and we both thoroughly enjoyed it!

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/233.html

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We're heading south again, zig-zagging our way through Central Europe. The weather here is sunny, however it's still cold as the summer struggles to wrest control from a stubborn spring.

New country today! This is the first time both of us have ever been in Poland. However, to avoid our last embarrassing moment with Portuguese, we research the language before crossing the border, keeping a cheat sheet of common phrases on our smartphone. Most important one: "Dziękuję" which means "Thank You" and is pronounced nothing like it looks. How do you get "Jen-koo-yeh" from "Dziękuję"? Polish is not phonetical at all.

*ugh* This is going to cause us some problems...

The scenery when crossing from Germany to Poland doesn't change at all since we are on the Autobahn - lots of trees. But you can tell that Poland is not as affluent as Germany, the roads are slightly worse for wear and the small towns that we pass through lack that very self-aware care-to-attention that the pristine German towns possess.

Neda is still on a mission to spend as much time in nature, and she's got a place picked out in southern Poland. Looking on the GPS, our path takes us through a large urban centre called Wrocław. Not knowing how to pronounce this, we kept referring to it as "Rock-Claw" over the communicators. What a cool name for a city! Rock-Claw! Sounds like a super-villain.

One thing we didn't research was the conversion rate for Euros -> Złoty. There are tons of exchange places close to the German/Polish border, some that look dodgier than others, and we don't know if we're getting ripped off when we stop at a diner to change money and grab some lunch. Neda ordered cabbage rolls and I ordered some Polish goulash. At least the food here is much cheaper than Germany! And delicious too!

We're not going to be losing any weight here in Poland...

As we sat in the diner listening to the other patrons and the Polish TV softly playing in the background, Neda turns to me wide-eyed and exclaims, "Hey! I understand some words!" Seems Polish is slightly similar to Croatian. Cool! Language duties have officially been handed over to her! :) As long as we don't have to read anything out loud, we should be fine.

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Our hotel. Or close to it...

Our hotel in Wrocław is in an industrial neighbourhood, it's not a bad hotel, but the parking lot is next to a building that's been abandoned for quite a while and made a cool looking picture. When we checked in, we asked the receptionist how to properly pronounce Rock-Claw. She told us: "Vrot-Suave". What? That's nothing like how it's written! So glad we didn't butcher the name of her city in front of her.

I replied, "Jen-koo-yeh" and when she smiled back at us, I didn't feel like such a Tarzan after all. Although I probably said it wrong...

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Big celebrations happening in town

We're just passing through Rock-Claw (I like our version better), but we decided to check out the city centre before we left. To our surprise, it was quite busy. But it was apparent that there was some kind of huge celebration today. We parked (for free, I *LOVE* Europe!) and followed the crowds to the city square. Our first impressions of Poland across the German border were a bit misinformed, Rock-Claw was such a pretty place! Multi-coloured buildings formed a backdrop as processions of soldiers and marching bands paraded through the square. Almost everyone was waving a Polish flag as they gathered to watch the celebrations.

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Polish flag convention

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Marching band

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Tuba Shakur

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Different flag design

It turns out that we were in town for Polish Flag Day, which is celebrated every May 2nd. There are two versions of the official flag, one with just the plain white and red stripes and another one which has the coat of arms in the field of white. Flag Day is quite important for Poles, they've lost and won their independence four times throughout the country's history.

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Town Hall at Rynek (City Square)

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Ever since entering Poland, I was looking forward to trying the pierogi! OMG SO GOOD!!!!

You can stuff a pierogi with any kind of filling, typically it has cheese and mushrooms, and there are also dessert pierogi with fruit inside. Obviously I opt for the meat version. Fried, of course!

Definitely not losing any weight in Poland...

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Bearded men are a common subject of Polish folk art, both the Jewish version and the Lord of the Rings kind

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Pretty colours!

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Even the motorcycles here celebrate Flag Day

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Polish hobbit

After a nice morning in Rock-Claw, we head south to Neda's intended destination - the Tatra Mountains. She had read that there are some great hikes there. As we climb higher on our bikes, the weather gets colder and much wetter. The Polish roads are all lined with billboards and advertisements that make the natural landscape seem a bit gaudier.

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Tatra Mountains ahead. I guess they pay for their roads through advertisements.

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We arrive in Zakopane, a Polish alpine resort town

Zakopane lies at the foot of Mount Giewont and is a popular place in the winter for alpine sports, and in the summer for hiking. We are kind of in-between seasons and Neda finds a fantastically luxurious hotel that just opened up and since it was low season, we got an amazing discount so we're going to stay here for a few days.

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My man-cave for a few days

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Neda goes hiking while I hibernate

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Neda is loving the nature!

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The Tatra Mountains form a natural border between Poland and Slovakia and offers hikers amazing scenery

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I join Neda back in town for a walk around Zakopane

While the big city of Wrocław offered up a modern-day version of Poland, Zakopane was filled with fantastic wooden buildings from the mid-1900s when the population here started to grow.

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Polish guest-house

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Walking around the suburbs of Zakopane

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We totally got suckered into buying Oscypek from this little old Polish woman

Oscypek is a smoked cheese made from salted goat cheese that's made exclusively in the Tatra mountains. From the small shack where she was selling the large bricks of Oscypek, we thought this little old Polish lady made these by hand back in her farm. Then we walked around town a bit more and noticed they were selling these same "Zakopane"-branded brickettes everywhere.

We totally overpaid for the "cute old Polish woman" factor... :)

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These were sooooo delicious

Turns out Neda is not allergic to this kind of cheese. We bought a couple of bricks of Oscypek, one to eat and one to give to our friends that we are seeing later as house-warming gifts. But they were too good. We finished them both... :( No will-power.

So not going to lose any weight in Poland...

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The Ural Mountain range is not close to Poland at all...
But here's a Ural motorcycle in the Zakopane market. Boxer engines rule!

Didn't read up for a few weeks and all of a sudden it seems we entirely missed your passing through Leuven. Even worse, you were staying about 3 miles from where we live! doh

From your photo's it seems though that your hosts showed you the most beautiful places, so I'm glad that you had a nice time here!

Next time you pass by, let us know! :thumbup1:

Just caught up again.

Did you come across the Curry Dog in Berlin? Amazing what happens when you shake yellow curry powder over a ketchup covered hot dog.

Polish is a phonetic language. Some symbols change the expected sounds and the W is pronounced like a V, and ....... a whole more, but it is a phonetic language.

David-owski

Kyrgyzstan
 

Have enjoyed your R/R from the start. Will you make it to Kyrgyzstan?

Mac

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/234.html

https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map234-L.jpg

In our rush to get to the good hiking in the Tatra Mountains, we noticed that we had bypassed Krakow and the area around it. So we're doubling back and staying in town for a few days to do some sightseeing. We're getting hip to the Polish alphabet and we're substituting our Ws for Vs now. Off to see Krakov! (although we're still not doing it entirely right. It sounds closer to Crack-Ooof)

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Beautiful Wawel (Vavel) Cathedral, right on the banks of the Wisla (Vistula) River

We're booked an AirBnB apartment right downtown and our host Paulina drives us around town and points out some highlights of things we should see. She also takes us out for lunch and shows us some yummy Polish food to try out.

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Paulina has battered chicken filled with butter and cream, it's called kotlet de volaille or Chicken Kiev, or Chicken Cordon Bleu

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Around the neighbourhood where we are staying

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Jewish quarter in Krakow

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Roaming Catholic Nun

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Walking around the old city of Krakow

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Taking a horseride through the cobblestone streets of old Krakow

Krakow is nice, but we're using it mainly as a base as we take a day trip to Auschwitz. Our trip to Central Europe is becoming a WWII tour. Auschwitz is the German name for the Polish town of Oswiecim, about an hour west of the city. The former concentration camp is now a museum, and is surrounded by modern Poland. A huge supermarket sits 250m from the front gates.

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The lies the Nazis told to the prisoners of Auschwitz. A sign atop the entrance of the death-camp reads: "Work will set you free"

We opted to take the guided tour of Auschwitz and we were glad that we did. Although there are informational signs scattered throughout the grounds and there is quite a lot of history detailed inside the bunkhouses that are now converted to museums, the tour guide that we had gave a lot of chilling background information that made the horrors that much more vivid.

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Electrically charged barbed wire all over the place was a grim reminder of how trapped people felt when they first arrived

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Watchtower ominously lurks in the background, sirens and snipers on the lookout for escapees

Jews from all over Europe were told that they were merely being deported. They did not know that a train to Auschwitz was a one-way trip. Very few prisoners escaped Auschwitz, the villagers who lived in Oswiecim were told that they would also be imprisoned for helping any escapees. But there were a few people who got away, and the stories they told which revealed the secret deathcamps in Auschwitz eventually led to some European countries like Hungary stopping the "deportation" of their Jewish population, saving hundreds of thousands of lives.

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Inside the museum were items from "deportees" which were confiscated by the Nazis

The prisoners being taken to Auschwitz were told to take all their belonging with them. This was a pretense to have them come willingly if they thought they were merely being deported, as opposed to being sent to their deaths. When they arrived, all their possessions were confiscated, the valuables stolen and the rest thrown into large piles. These piles of possessions gave an indication to just how many people were killed in Auschwitz. It is estimated that at least 2 million people died in Auschwitz with speculation that the number is closer to 4 million.

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A large pile of discarded shoes, a lot of childrens' sizes.

There was also a pile of human hair which were initially shorn off the prisoners to prevent the spread of lice, but also later to manufacture products made of human hair. Tests reveal that the hair had traces of hydrogen cyanide. They were cut off the prisoners after they had been gassed to death. We were asked not to take pictures of the hair out of respect for the dead.

That was not something I wanted to take a picture of.

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A bus took us on the second part of the tour, a secondary camp built a few kms away to house more prisoners than Auschwitz could handle. This was the site of many movies made about Auschwitz. The initial unloading of "deportees" were done here. Up to 75% of prisoners unboarding were deemed unfit to work at the camps and were put to death immediately. This made estimating the total number killed difficult because these people were never identified or recorded by the Nazis.

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Infamous unloading point at Birkenau

Birkenau was where the crematoriums were located. When the war was drawing to a close, the Nazis tried to destroy the gas chambers and crematoriums because they knew they would be judged by history. They knew what they were doing were wrong. So many people were complicit not just in running these death camps, but in the design and construction of such efficient killing apparatus. To move so many prisoners through a machine that could murder and dispose of them in such high numbers. And each cog in that machine, were they all monsters? Or did they go home every evening to sit at dinner with their wives, their sons and daughters, tell them stories before they were tucked into bed, stories that probably had very little to do with gassing millions of human beings and burning their bodies to hide the evidence.

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I don't believe in spiritual resonance or psychic energy. I read about the people's accounts of how they felt negative energy walking around Auschwitz with skepticism. It was a beautiful summer's day in South Poland when we visited the death camp. There are flowers blooming in the fields where prisoners waited their turn to be put to death by poisonous gas. But exiting the museum into that incongruous sun-soaked daylight, not one person in our tour group could speak or smile for quite some time.

Very sobering. Thanks for sharing Gene :thumbup1:

Thank you all for your comments, we really appreciate all the encouragement!

That might be very soon! We'll let you know.

Is that the same as currywurst? Because we love that!

We would like to, yes!

The work will set you free slogan is still repeated unfortunately

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/235.html

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And we're doubling back and heading south again, through Zakopane once more and into Slovakia. New country today!

If it seems like we have no idea where we're going, it's actually because we have no idea where we're going. We make a pitstop in Zakopane to pick up more of that smoked sheep cheese that we like so much. We bought some before since we are going to meet some friends later on and we wanted to give them a gift, but unfortunately we ate their present so now we have to buy replacements. Where can I hide this so we don't eat it?

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Back through the Tatra mountains

The Tatras are a crescent-shaped mountain range that form a natural border between Poland and Slovakia. We've never been to Slovakia before so we didn't really know much about it except that I'm always getting it mixed up with Slovenia. Neda not so much as Slovenians were her neighbours growing up in Croatia.

Just like there was a noticeable change in affluence going from Germany to Poland, there was another such step-down heading in Slovakia. We had gotten used to being in Poland for the last week and a half and we were already acclimatized to the standard of living and the conditions there - it wasn't bad at all. But crossing over now, the roads were definitely not as well maintained in Slovakia and the border towns that lined the roads as we rode in reminded Neda a little of her hometown from the communist era.

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Greeting all the Weekend Warriors out in force

A lot of local riders with PL and SK plates were out enjoying this beautiful early summer day. So nice to see green and blue for a change, and not grey, white and brown! We crossed over on a weekend, and our left hands were tired from all the waving we had to do to all the passing motorcycles! :)

Our map above is not entirely accurate, we spent a whole day in the Tatras exploring all the little roads around the Low Tatras National Park (Národný park Nízke Tatry). Our rough path is below minus some other smaller roads that didn't show up here. Check out the topography! Lots of twisty roads in between all those cracks and crevices. We love riding mountain roads!

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A short video clip from our Sena Prism Action Camera:

We stayed in a tiny town right in the heart of the mountains called Vysna Boca. The old man who ran the place spoke only Slovakian, but once again, Neda was able to put her Croatian to good use, communicating with common Slavic words. So useful traveling with a Universal Translator!

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Beautiful scenery in the park

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One of the reasons why I love traveling is to try out all the local dishes!

Because the cost of living is cheaper in Slovakia, we were able to gorge ourselves on Slovakian food without breaking the bank. We stopped at a roadside diner and only paid a couple of Euros for some traditional food. Neda ordered bryndzové halušky, which are small potato-dough dumplings covered with sheep cheese. I had Bryndzove pirohy which are the Slovakian version of piergies covered with the same cheese and some bacon bits sprinkled on top. So yummy!

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Riding through one of the larger towns in Slovakia

After we finished playing in the park, we decided to head down to Budapest in Hungary, which was just a couple of hours away. Never been to Hungary before, so why not?

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Hugarian Parliament Building

I had no idea Budapest was such a pretty city! Also crossing the country border between Slovakia and Budapest, we were climbing back up the stairs of affluence once again. It really is noticeable when you are crossing borders every other day. Although Hungary is in the EU, they still haven't converted to the Euro yet. We withdrew some Forint, the local currency, but realized that every place took credit cards, so it was unnecessary.

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We rented an apartment in an old building downtown

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Walking around Budapest. Vegan restaurant... skip!

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Fisherman's Bastion

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Matthias Church in front of the Fisherman's Bastion overlooking the Danube River

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Above the Danube

The are two halves to Budapest separated by the Danube River: Buda is the western side and is more hilly, Pest is on the eastern bank of the river and is more flat.

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The Parliament building (Országház) is protected by uniformed guards

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On the Parliament grounds, there are other guards doing some intense choreography

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Stone "Chain Bridge" connecting Buda and Pest, rebuilt in 1947 after the original was blown up by the Germans during WWII

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St Anne's Church

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Central Market Hall

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Inside of Central Market Hall

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Stuff you can buy inside Central Market Hall

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Dohany St. Synagogue

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We called up our friend Barna, who lived in Toronto but moved to Budapest a few years ago

I met Barna when we first started riding, he was a crazy motorcyclist who spent more time with his front wheel in the air than on the ground. Out of all the motorcycles he's every owned, I don't believe he has ever changed his front tire, ever... :) When he met us, he showed us his new motorcycle, while wheelying down the downtown streets of Budapest! Nothing has changed!

It's been awhile since we've seen him, but it was great to catch up and see what he's been doing. He took us to a Hungarian restaurant and helped us order some traditional dishes. He told us a bit about living in Budapest. We were so curious about the language, it sounded so foreign, not Slavic at all. Turns out Hungarian is a Uralic language, and is in the same family as Finnish and Estonian. Huh!

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Man, were we Hungary! We Finnished all our food!

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After dinner, we rode up to a scenic overlook where we could catch the city at dusk
and see all the lights of Budapest turn on for the evening along the Danube

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Finally a picture of the two of us! Thanks Barna!

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/236.html

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We're getting a bit burnt out and tired of sightseeing and traveling. Again.

It's been about a month of riding around Central Europe and we've seen a lot of stuff, I think we need to take a breather as well as take some time to digest everything. Over the last three years, we've met a lot of fellow travelers and a lot of them live in Germany, so what we've planned for the next week or so is just hop around the country and visit all of our Deutsche freunde who we haven't seen in a while.

On the way there, we booked an AirBnb place in Slany in the Czech Republic with the intention of riding into Prague (about 45 minutes away) to see the city, but everyday we found an excuse just to be lazy. Travel fatigue has set in big-time. I don't think we would have appreciated it, so we'll leave it for another time. When our booking ran out, we hopped on our bikes and headed west on the highway towards Germany.

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Happy times somewhere in the Czech Republic. Leaving Slany on the way to Germany.

It's another nice riding day, and we were doing good mileage so far. But then about 50 kms away from the border, I notice Neda's bike in my mirror slowing down. I tap on the communicator and she yells, "I think my chain broke!"

Oh no.

Her bike is rapidly disappearing in my mirrors so with my four-ways on, I pull over as quickly as I can to the side of the highway. Neda pulls in the clutch and manages to maintain enough inertia to coast to a stop behind me.

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Something we should have Czeched much earlier...

So many thoughts are running through my mind at this point:

1. I feel very responsible for this. At our the last service in Belgium, we had neglected to put on a new chain because I wanted to save money and I thought this chain would last a few thousand kms more. I was wrong and now this would cost time + money.

Ever since coming to Europe, everything is so expensive here (compared to Latin America where we came from) and I've become frugal to the point of irrationality. The bikes are not just the main mode of transportation for this trip, they *are the reason* for the trip and should have been the #1 priority regardless of cost and I forgot this fact.

2. We need to start cancelling appointments. We were going to meet Colleen and Dan in Germany tomorrow as they were riding back from a motorcycle meet and we could intercept them on their way back home to Switzerland. Obviously we're not going to make it. Depending on how quickly we can get a new chain for Neda's bike, we might or might not be able to see some of our other friends later on.

Seems like everytime we start to make plans, they always fall through. I think we are allergic to calendars...

3. We have no SIM chip in our smartphones. Trying to keep costs low, we just use Skype over free Wi-Fi wherever we're staying. But now we can't call anyone. And who would we call? We'd also need a data plan to look up who could help us. More €€€... Is it worth the money to always have that safety line? Right now it seems so...

So here we are, one bike stranded on the highway between towns, 18-wheelers are moving over to the passing lane to give us room on the narrow shoulder while we figure out our next move.

It would make sense for Neda to hop on my bike and ride off looking for help, given that she speaks a Slavic language and can get by better than I can. But she doesn't feel comfortable riding my tall, overloaded 600lb behemoth. For a brief instant, in my mind I was back at the BMW dealership in Toronto over three years ago when I was planning to trade in this R1200GS for a smaller F800GS. Common sense said to take two similar bikes for parts interchange and also Neda would also be more comfortable riding an 800GS than the 1200 if she needed to. Like now...

4. But I was stubborn because I really liked my Big Pig.

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Contemplating what to do at the side of the road

So there was no other option. I hopped on my bike and rode on down the highway to find the next town and look for help. I punched in "Closest Auto Services" on my GPS knowing that they probably didn't service motorcycles, but they could probably tell me where I could find a moto shop. The GPS led me to the town of Nýřany, just a couple of kms down the highway.

I navigate through the quiet streets of this small Czech town and end up at the locked gates of the auto shop. They looked to be closed on Saturdays. Now what?

I looked around to try to find some help. In the driveway at the house next door to the auto shop, an older gentleman was getting off his scooter and walking to his front door. I rode up to him to ask for assistance. "Do you speak English?", he shook his head in reply. Ugh.

I don't know what to do. I consider thanking him and taking off to find someone else to help us, but the man kindly told me to wait as he went inside his house. A few moments later, he came out with his wife. She didn't speak English at all either. Oh how I wished Neda was here! But his wife did call up their daughter on the phone. She lived in Prague but *she* spoke English. So I explained to her what our situation was. She relayed this information to her parents and they looked up the number for the local tow truck so they could call one for us.

I thanked her daughter on the phone and let her go. Her parents dialed the tow truck company for me and over the phone I gave them Neda's GPS location, but they also wanted a cell phone number to guarantee that someone would be there at the co-ordinates and not stiff them. I didn't have a SIM chip (see #3 above). The Czech couple graciously gave the tow truck people their own phone number, trusting that this stranger wouldn't leave them hanging for the bill.

I had been in their driveway for over 45 minutes at that point and I don't how it happened, but I suddenly realized that I was speaking to them using what little Croatian I picked up overhearing Neda talk to her family and friends over all these years. Maybe it was the charades and sign language as well, but I was able to communicate well enough to them, *and* I understood some Czech words as they spoke to me. I was so excited! Neda would have been so proud of me if she were there!

I thanked them profusely and jumped on the bike to wait for the tow truck with Neda. I could not get over how friendly, helpful and trusting this Czech couple were. I felt so much gratitude!

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When I pulled up behind Neda's bike on the highway, I saw that she had made a friend

Lenka also rides motorcycles (same model as Neda's bike) and when she saw her stranded on the side of the highway, she stopped to see if she could help. She lived pretty far away, but told us that she could get her trailer and come back to give us a tow. Wow, that was so gracious of her, but I told her we had already called for one. She then offered us a place to stay if we were passing by her place, but unfortunately we were not going that way. We took down her information in case we were going to be around here again, which we just might in the future. It would have been fun talking bikes and travel with her.

She was *sooooo* nice! Based on all the Czech people I've met so far, they must all be the nicest people on Earth! All of them!!!

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Not long after Lenka left the tow truck came and proceeded to put Neda's bike on the bed. We communicated mainly to the driver's girlfriend who spoke English and acted as a translator. They asked us where we wanted to take the bike. Lenka had told us that she used to get her BMW motorcycle serviced in Pilsen, about 15 kms away from us, so that's where we decided to go, Neda in the truck and me following behind them on my bike.

We got to the BMW dealership and it was already closed, but peering through the window I noticed no motorcycles on the showroom floor. After a bit of checking, we found out that they stopped selling and servicing motorcycles recently. Now what were we going to do?

Our tow truck driver told us that he had a friend in a neighbouring town who was a motorcycle mechanic and that he was open on Saturdays. That sounded good to us, so off we went. The town was almost back to the spot where Neda broke down. There were a whole lot of bikes in the mechanic's lot but he told us that as soon as he ordered the parts and received them, he would start working on Neda's bike. Cool. But he said he could only order the parts on Monday, and they would probably arrive on Tuesday morning, which would be the earliest he could work on them.

Well, that meant we would need to cancel our plans with our German friends. Our tow truck driver helped us find a budget hotel back in Pilsen and even drove Neda back to the city. They did *A LOT* of driving for us that day. In addition, they arranged for the mechanic to pick her up on Tuesday. And the total charge for all this towing, chauffeuring and organizing for the day: €30!

I know how much gas costs and the mileage they did the whole day plus the time they spent working on all of this, it was obvious they were giving us a *huge* discount. Neda told me later that she bonded with the tow truck driver's girlfriend while in the truck, so I think they felt bad for us and wanted to help out.

Confirmed: Czech people *are* the nicest people on Earth!

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As promised, on Tuesday afternoon it's all fixed

We were back on the road! Whohoo! But first, I wanted to thank the Czech couple who helped us call the tow truck, so we bought them a gift and rode back to their house to properly show our gratitude. And also Neda got a chance to meet these nice people.

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Děkuji!!! Josef & Ivana and their grand-daughter.

You know, although it made our lives a bit more complicated for these past few days, sometimes it's these small setbacks that pull you out of a routine (even if that routine is riding motorcycles around the world), and expose you to the kindness of strangers, who despite not sharing a common language, still want to do everything in their power to help you out.

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/237.html

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Our little adventure with Neda's chain has derailed our plans to spend time in Germany. Instead, we are headed back to the RideDOT.com European headquarters in Leuven, Belgium, and back to the company of our good friends Eva and Thomas.

My brother is getting married, so we're flying back to Toronto for a short bit. Thomas' sister, Karolien has generously offered to store our bikes in her garage while we are away. We're so thankful for her and her family's efforts to help us out. We've been the recipients of so much goodwill and support, getting to know these people has really been the high-point of our travels.

In other news, remember that video that we shot in Belgium a while back? Well, here it is! How exciting!

This thread is the reason I love motorcycles and travelling. I've probably missed it, but when are you guys headed to the UK?

Cool video! I've been looking forward to seeing it.
Interesting to hear you too - now I can imagine your real voices in the writing :thumbup1:

Really nice video! I recognized moest of the roads too :)
Does this mean we missed you passing through Leuven again?

Unfortunately our blog is very far behind, so all these events are a few months behind. We had missed you already the first time you invited us! :)

We'd like to see our friends in Leuven again later on this year, if we're coming by, we'll let you know.

We had plans to see the UK this summer, even went so far as to reserve a spot on the Isle of Man ferry for the TT. We had to book the tickets so far in advance, when my brother announced his wedding for this summer, we had to give up our spot on the ferry as well as the rest of our British Isles tour.

We don't really do well with plans, so although we are not looking at going to the UK anytime soon, things always change.

Any plans for Asia? or sticking to Europe?

Congrats on the video Gene & Neda.......most excellent :thumbup1:

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/238.html

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Toronto is busy with people and traffic jams, expensive food and even more expensive housing. It seems to have changed quite a lot in the time that we've been gone. We don't really like it.

We do like our friends though. We miss them so much and they make it all worthwhile. They fill the short time that we're here in the city. We're invited to lunches and dinners, and we see two, sometimes three different sets of friends every day. All the time eating, talking, eating, laughing. And eating. My waistline is expanding and I've already given my tuxedo measurements to my brother months ago for his upcoming wedding. I wish now that they had a draw-string pants option...

"Where are you guys from?", "How did you get your bikes here?", "How long have you been traveling?", asked nobody to us the entire time we're here. Our friends don't want to hang out with Neda and Gene comma world travelers. They call us up and want to hang out with Neda and Gene period. Neda and Gene, the same two people who left them three years ago. Nice.

Neda goes to Yoga classes. I jam with my old band. I even try learning the cello. It's very nice.

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There's always room for cello!

We revel in everyone's company and catch up with each others lives. The last time we visited Toronto, only 12 months had passed in our travels. We'd observed no discernible change back then in the people and the city that we had left behind. But now, the trajectory of their lives had progressed much further, those paths yielding new jobs, new weddings, new cars, new houses, new human beings that didn't exist back then who are now walking and talking around us!

We used to travel on similar, parallel trajectories before our trip. But now comparing their lives to ours, it feels like that tangent, that fork that we took three years ago has led us further and further away from the direction that life normally moves here. We don't notice it at all while we're on the road, but this Divergence is so much more evident when we can see it in stark contrast to the echo outline of where our path would have led.

Being back here now is like putting on clothes you haven't worn in a long time. It feels so familiar, but yet it doesn't fit quite right. Probably because of all those damn lunches and dinners. Thanks a lot, guys... :)

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My little brother Nick and his bride Diana, on their wedding day!

Our family hopped in a car and drove across the border. A little road trip to Illinois where my brother and his bride-to-be live. This wedding is yet another reminder that the lives that are connected to us are constantly in motion while we are away.

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I am very honoured to be standing beside my brother while he says his wedding vows

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Remember that needlepoint that Neda was working on in Europe? It's a wedding gift for Nick and Diana!
2 months in the making in 10 different countries!

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I can't remember the last time I wore a suit!

Neda and I spent our third anniversary of our trip with our old family and our new family in the United States. It was a fitting way to celebrate, to still be on the road somehow.

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I was in the wedding party, so Neda took over photographing duties!

Our hectic schedule continued in Toronto. We've been corresponding with a few travelers who have contacted us through the blog and they were going to be in the area, so we made plans to meet up.

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Where else, but at the most Canadian of motorcycle rendez-vous spots: Tim Hortons!

Stephanie left her life in Rhode Island behind in May 2014,just up and sold everything. See, we're not the only crazy ones! She's been traveling all across the US ever since on her Vespa scooter. She's dipped into Baja Califonia, Mexico and now she's crossed into Canada so we're giving her a friendly Canuck welcome. On this leg, she's traveling with her friend Davide. He's got his own motorcycle, but you wouldn't know it from the picture above.

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And then another traveler from the US meets up with us!

Brent is from Virginia, and he's on a 12-day tour up to Canada, which you can read about here Loving Living Adventuring | Brent's RTW on a Motorcycle: 2016-2017. When he heard we were in Toronto, he made a special pit-stop to see us on his way to Ottawa. We're overjoyed that so many people took time out of their travels just to hang out with us. We hogged a table at the Timmy's and chatted for what seemed like hours about travel, logistics and life on two wheels.

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Stephanie gives us a sneak peek at future blog entries

I've been reading Stephanie's blog for a while. Because she's an illustrator by trade, she accentuates all her blog entries with a cartoon about her trip. She's done one for every single day she's been on the road, over a year's worth of drawings! So neat! You can check out her blog here: 250cc Superhero.

We've met a lot of "digital nomads" on our travels - people with jobs that are location-independent, and are able to continue working while traveling. We've met accountants, translators, web programmers etc., but Stephanie is the first two-wheeled digital nomad we've met.

As we were all saying our farewells in the Tim Hortons parking lot, a lady in a car was backing out and almost ran over Stephanie on her scooter! OMG, I would have felt so bad inviting her to Canada and then having her long journey end right here!

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Brent says goodbye as he continues his trip

There is a tribe out there. The people in this tribe don't all live in one place. Though they may be scattered all over the world, they all share a dream of wandering across the face of it, discovering all the beautiful and wondrous things in it. Once in a while you will meet another member of your tribe. You'll recognize them by the far-away look in their eyes and their restless disposition. And you will talk and exchange stories and inspire each other to dream of new places to visit, new people to greet and new things to experience.

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Over 70 people fought their way through horrendous Toronto rush hour to hear us talk about our trip, they made us feel so special!

Our friend Ehren asked us to do a presentation about our travels. He organized the venue at the local BMW dealership and we were so amazed at the turnout! Some people in the audience traveled great distances just to attend our talk. I think we only had an hour scheduled, but we stayed for over two hours because everyone had so many questions. Thanks to everyone who came out that day! We had a lot of fun meeting everyone and reliving and sharing our stories with you!

Also a big thank you to all the people who read our blog, who have sent us an e-mail, a PM, written a note to us or commented online.

Thank you for being a part of our tribe.

[And now, back to our regularly scheduled travels!]

Thanks!

We would like to go to Asia, yes! Not sure when that will happen though, still a lot of Europe left to see!

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/239.html

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The plane from Toronto landed at Brussels airport - it felt like sliding into home plate.

We had sprinted around the world these last few weeks, the dates and schedules that we had to touch like the bases on a baseball diamond. And all of it had to fit inside this fleeting European summer. So now we're back on our own timetable but we're still exhausted. Our time spent in Toronto was too brief and hectic and now there are all these places we want to see that will be covered in snow in a few short months. And we're spent already...

After a brief train and bus ride back to Leuven, we let ourselves into Thomas and Eva's apartment while they were still at work (we didn't break in, they gave us a key!) and I slept the whole day, trying to burn off the jetlag but still woke up like a zombie when our friends arrived from work that evening. So much harder flying east than going west! At least with a motorcycle, the time zone shifts are gradual...

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We brought back some Canadian maple syrup so Thomas made us all some pancakes!

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In Leuven, every Friday in July is Beleuvenissen!

Beleuvenissen is a musical and cultural festival in the streets of Leuven. I hadn't taken any pictures of any indigenous Belgian people, so Eva and Thomas thought this might be a best opportunity to find a few. We wandered through the crowded city streets listening to live music on several stages, stopping for ice cream and then found this mobile bandstand.

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Yes! Blue collar workers.

On the weekend, we stopped by Thomas' sister's house to see if our bikes still ran. Unlike every other time we go visit Toronto, we were smart enough to disconnect the batteries this time before we left, which Thomas had diligently kept topped up in our absence. Hopefully, now we wouldn't have to rush around trying to find new batteries for our motorcycles...

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Neda reinstalls her battery. A nervous push of the starter button and *VROOOM* IT'S ALIVE!!!! :)

We celebrated with a nice farewell dinner that Karolien and her husband Kristof cooked for us. They were so generous and friendly, we even got to meet Thomas and Karolien's mom, and we can see where they got it from!

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Thank you Karolien and Kristof for letting our bikes sleep at your place!

We weren't really dressed for the cool Belgian evening and we were shivering on the ride back to Eva and Thomas' place, but inside we were feeling very warm and fuzzy from the all the helpfulness and hospitality we've received.

I had one goal to accomplish while we were in Belgium getting ready for the next leg of our trip: Overcome my jetlag. This I failed at spectacularly, regularly climbing into bed around the same time as when Eva and Thomas were waking up to go to work.

On day we were supposed to leave, I think I only got an hour or two of sleep. Our departure time slipped later and later. Thankfully the days are long and the sun sets fairly late...

It was a bit of a sad goodbye for us, riding away from our temporary home in Belgium, because we're not sure when we'll see our very good friends again. I hope sooner than later.

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So a funny thing happened on the way to Germany...

We took the highway from Leuven to Northern Germany. Not very exciting, so no pictures. But my odometer did tick over 200,000 kms along the way! We've been through a lot together, this old girl and I. And also my motorcycle as well... :D

[Hides from Neda]

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Bernd and Katharina invited us to stay with them in Germany

We're just hopping from host to host all over Europe! I'm getting more used to accepting the kindness of strangers. I was brought up to be very self-sufficient and not to rely too much on other people, but this trip has taught me that there is a benefit to staying in other people's houses for free and eating all of their food... :)

But honestly, we gain so much when spending time with the locals, not just having a tour guide but also getting an understanding of the national and regional differences in attitudes, customs and their unique perspectives ie. trash-talking all those Big City Know-It-All Bavarians in the south! :)

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Bernd and Katharina live just outside of Bremen, so they drove us in one day for a tour

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Walking around the historic centre of Bremen

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This is Bremen's claim to fame, you can see the spots where millions of tourists have rubbed the statue (ew)

Funny what a town can become well known for. The Town Musicians of Bremen are a Brothers Grimm fairy tale about four animals who outlive their usefulness and are cast out out of their home. They journey together to Bremen with the idea of becoming musicians. Along the way find a cottage being robbed by thieves. They surprise the robbers with a loud noise which makes them flee the cottage, but the next day, the thieves send one of them in to investigate. After being attacked by the animals, he later runs out of the cottage exclaiming:

"Ah, there is a horrible witch sitting in the house, who spat on me and scratched my face with her long claws (the cat). And by the door stands a man with a knife, who stabbed me in the leg (the dog). And in the yard there lies a black monster, who beat me with a wooden club (the donkey). And above, upon the roof, sits the judge, who called out (the rooster), bring the rogue here to me. So I got away as well as I could."

The robbers never return and the animals live happily ever after in the cottage.

What I find funny about the Town Musicians of Bremen is that in the story, they never actually become musicians. And also they never do make it to Bremen.

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But there are statues everywhere in town dedicated to them...

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The golden plaqued entrance to Böttcherstraße

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Böttcherstraße is a narrow street in a part of the historic centre of Bremen that is well known for its brick architecture

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More narrow streets in Bremen in the Schnoor Quarter

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The Schnoor Quarter is Bremen's oldest district, dating back to the 15th century

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Lots of quaint stores and cafes in the cobblestoned alleyways of the Schnoor Quarter

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Back at home, Bernd's friend Klaus and his partner Ela pay us a visit on their cool bikes

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Triumphs everywhere!

Bernd has a special fondness for Triumph motorcycles. In addition to Klaus and Ela's vintage-style Trumpets parked out front, our GSes shared garage space with Bernd's Tiger and Speed Triple.

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We visit Klaus at his shop

Klaus and Bernd are planning an off-road motorcycle trip in Romania at the end of the summer. Klaus is preparing a Triumph Thruxton especially for this trip.

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Bernd and Klaus go over the Thruxton build

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Over dinner Bernd introduces us to his favorite German brew and that's when the deep conversations started!
At least they seemed pretty deep at the time... :)

Bernd is always quick with a smile and a joke! He really made us feel at home in his place and it was nice getting to know him and Katharina over the last few days.

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Our hosts keep chickens in their yard, and Neda had fun feeding them! Or maybe she was in pain, can't really tell...

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Thanks Bernd and Katharina for all the wonderful hospitality!

The open road is calling out to us! Time to ride!

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/240.html

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It's always exciting to visit a new country!

Today we're riding into Denmark. We know nothing about Denmark. Neda says, "I think it's a kingdom". I thought it was a state, and that there was something rotten there. And also there are pastries that are named after the people. But other than that, nada.

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Passing through Hamburg, we visit Neda's high-school friend Tamara

It's going to be a long ambitious riding day today, partly because we've planned to stop in nearby Hamburg to have lunch with Neda's high school friend Tamara. I left the girls alone to chat and ducked into a grocery store to stock up on supplies for our northern leg of our journey. We had heard that Scandinavia is very expensive so I'm trying to cram my topcase full of inexpensive, non-perishable items, but Germany isn't exactly cheap by North American standards either.

The value of the Canadian peso has plummeted vs the Euro since the beginning of the year, and it's reflected in every credit card statement as we've tried to adhere to a strict Euro budget and still the Canadian cost has increased by almost 20%!

Which makes it the *perfect* time to go riding in the most expensive place in Europe... :(

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Riding across the bridge to the German island of Fehmarn

It's perfect riding weather, about 20C and the sun is out. It's very rare that we feel like we're in the right place at the right time, but I think we're timing our Scandinavia trip perfectly!

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Quickest way to get from Germany to Denmark is to take a ferry

To save some time, we're crossing the narrow strait between Puttgarden, Germany to Rodby, Denmark. It's a 45 minute ferry ride and at €47 each, it's more expensive than gas to ride around the long way. So I purposely don't do the mental conversion rate while handing my credit card at the terminal. Sticking my head in the Scandinavia.

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Trying to catch a quick snooze on the ferry before arriving in Denmark

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We're in Denmark! New country!

It's been a while since we've ridden into a new country. because all the countries in Scandinavia are in the EU, it feels a bit anti-climactic not having to get our passports stamped and filling in vehicle importation papers, but we always look forward to spotting the differences between each new place and where we've been. I radio Neda and asked her of her first impressions of Denmark. She replied, "There's a lot of blonde people here"...

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More cost-cutting measures - Copenhagen campsite

We've been very spoiled the last few months, being hosted by friends and family and staying at the odd AirBnB place, but we're going to make a conscious effort to camp all the time since the weather is so nice.

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Cooking on our new stove

We've been thinking of getting a camp stove for a long time now and after seeing Andy and Ellen's Jetboil and reading up on it, we figured this was the best option for us. Neda cooks oatmeal and brews herself tea every morning, and we can make pasta, rice, couscous, soups and stews with it. This has quickly become one of Neda's favorite pieces of gear that we carry!

Our collapsible bowls also make for good frisbees. But I don't think Neda approves...

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Boat tours along the Christenhavns Kanal, the spiral-topped building of the Børsen (Stock exchange) in the background

Copenhagen isn't actually a destination, we're merely passing through to ride onwards to more northernly countries, but since we're here, we ride into town for the day to quickly check it out.

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Famous Copenhagen building, the Christiansborg Palace

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Hanging out by the canals

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Copenhagen rider enjoying the nice weather

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300-year old buildings now house restaurants and stores

We didn't do our food planning right and had to stop into a fast food place to grab a quick sandwich (ScandWich?) while walking downtown. If Central European prices are about 1.5X higher than Canada, then Denmark is easily twice as expensive. No more eating out anymore.

On a positive note, *everyone* speaks English here, so we don't feel too bad about not brushing up on our Danish before coming here. I found out later than Scandinavia is defined as the countries that share a common heritage and language, namely Danish, Norwegian and Swedish. But not Finnish because as we found out in Hungary, Finnish is a Uralic language. So interesting that stuff we learned in Hungary is now helping us understand Scandinavia!

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Canals everywhere!

We didn't really know anything about Copenhagen before coming here, so I was surprised at how extensive the canal system here is. King Christian IV was so impressed with Amsterdam that he employed Dutch architects to recreate the system of canals within Copenhagen's walls.

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Nyhavn waterfront is Copenhagen's most famous tourist site, lined with colorful 17th and 18th century townhouses

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Danish enjoying a sunny day outside

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The plastic dome is called the Dome of Vision. Inside is a climate-controlled botanical garden and it's also used to hold events like concerts, exhibitions and lectures

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Statue of Neptune outside of the Stock Exchange

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Walking back to the bikes, last look at the Christenhaven Kanal

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Getting ready to hit the road

We're leaving later and later in the day. Sunset tonight in Copenhagen is at 10:45PM, but it's never perfectly dark outside because the shallow path of the sun means it's always lurking just beneath the horizon all night long. Since I'm a night owl, this suits my Circadian Rhythm perfectly and I feel so spoiled being able to wake up at 10AM, starting our travels in the afternoon and not having to feel like we're burning precious daylight!!!

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Goodbye Copenhagen!

So Denmark, you really weren't that rotten after all!Despite the high costs, we're feeling pretty pumped about exploring Scandinavia! What else is next?

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/241.html

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We left Denmark on a ferry going from Helsingør, DK (just north of Copenhagen) to Helsingborg, Sweden. Looking back at the map, there seemed to be a long bridge just outside Copenhagen that led to Malmö, but our GPSes picked the shorter route via the ferry. It turns out the 8 km long Øresund Bridge has a €25 toll, which is more expensive than the €21 ferry. So just by chance, we got the cheaper and shorter route!

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Boarding the ferry at Helsingør. I love the funny-looking letter ø. It looks like a zero.
No idea how it's actually pronounced, but it's more fun saying Helsing-Zeroar!

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Hanging out on the Heingsør ferry with my R12ØØGS møtørcycle. Cøøl!

On the ferry, we saw tons of people lugging cases of beer on the ferry to Sweden. We found out later that while Sweden is generally cheaper than Denmark, one of the few things that cost less in Denmark is beer. A bottle of beer costs almost three times more in Sweden than Denmark!!! So strange!

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That's Sweden over there, land of expensive beer.

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The ferry lets us off in Helsingborg. One of the first things we see is the Helsingborg Castle (on the right).

We rode along the western coast of Sweden, along the Kattegat Sea, which is the bay of the North Sea bounded by Denmark, Sweden and Norway. We are on a bit of a schedule because we are having a mini motorcycle traveler meeting in Trollhättan, about 3 hours north of Helsingborg.

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Are we in Sweden... or Northern Ontario...?

I didn't take a lot of pictures on our ride up the coastline. Mostly because I was leading, but mainly because the boreal forest here is so reminiscent of Northern Ontario that there didn't seem to be anything new or exciting to take pictures of. What completed the illusion are the large exposed sections of rocks that we ride pass, obviously dynamited to make way for the road, just like back home.

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The rocks here are part of the Fennoscandian Shield, the mineral makeup of which is similar to the Canadian Shield in Ontario

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By comparison, this is a picture of Lake Superior National Park in Ontario taken on one of our trips a few years ago. So similar!

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Hi Ho! We are meeting friends, old and new! Picture by Orvar

Just outside of Trollhättan, we saw a couple of motorcyclists on an overpass waving at us. We knew Sara and Daniel from World Wide Ride were meeting us here, but these guys were only on a single blue bike that wasn't familiar looking. But being friendly Canadian bikers, we waved to them anyway.

The motorcyclists caught up to us by the time we got into town. It was our friend Swedish friend, Orvar on his newly painted blue R1200GS and Sara was in the passenger seat taking pictures and videos of us!

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Pulling up into Orvar's house. Picture by Orvar

We met Orvar on the Stahlratte, on our second sailing from Panama to Colombia. It's always a treat to hear about other travelers talk about their home town and then be able to see it for yourself. We were planning on visiting Orvar on our trip up north, but when he told us that Sara and Daniel were also at his place right now, we made an extra effort to catch up to them.

Sara and Daniel are another motorcycling couple from British Columbia, Canada, also on two bikes. They left around the same time as we did, but travel a lot faster than we do. Then again, most people travel faster than we do. We have a lot of mutual friends - the RTW moto-circle isn't that large, and with social media, it's so easy to connect with each other. We've almost crossed paths with Sara and Daniel so many times in the last three years, but now we're finally able to meet them!

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Orvar helps Daniel and Neda plan out some northern routes in his kitchen

So apparently Orvar's nickname is "King of Sweden". He's never actually called himself that, but everyone we meet tells us so. He took us grocery shopping and walking around town and *everybody* knew Orvar and his motorcycling exploits around the world.

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A cheap skate and a wheel

Daniel convinced me to not be so cheap and to change out my balding rear tire. I think I really needed an impartial third-party opinion otherwise there'd be another Czech-Republic-Roadside-Moto-Emergency further north. So we hopped into Orvar's car with my wheel and got a Michelin Anakee 2 mounted. We're probably not going to be doing as many off-road routes in Europe, so I decided to go with a 90/10 tire instead of the Heidenau 50/50s. I've always been a Tourance guy, so it'll be interesting to see how the Michelins stack up to Metzelers.

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We are going to be big stars in Trollhättan! Sara is holding the Canadian flag for the interview!

The King of Sweden has many friends in the media, and they were very interested in doing a story on the four Canadian motorcycle travelers that were nesting in Trollhättan, Sweden. So one morning, they sent in a reporter and a photographer and we had a great time telling tall tales of our adventures and exploits.

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The photoshoot for our newspaper article - the four Canadians with our kind hosts, Orvar and his wife Anne

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We are famous!!!

Orvar used to own a restaurant in town and now in his retirement he keeps himself busy by traveling the world on a motorcycle and when he's back at home, he occupies his time by driving a bus and volunteering at a refugee centre just outside of Trollhättan. A lot of refugees from the Middle East come to Sweden and are processed here before they get assigned homes all over the country. I found out that of the 50,000 people that live in Trollhättan, one in four have an immigrant background.

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Trollhattan Falls - before the dam opens

Trollhattan has a man-made dam that they release the water a few times every day in the summer to create an artificial waterfall. Three doors open to let 300,000 liters of water into the gorge below to the delight of visitors watching from above. There are hydro-electric dams further down the coasts that actually use the flowing water to generate power, but this one is just for the tourists during the summer.

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While Orvar was out volunteering, his wife Anne drove the four Canadians around town showing us the sites. Trollhättan is a quaint town that reminded me of Huntsville, another quaint town in Northern Ontario. And what was more fascinating was walking around in this Canadian facsimile town talking to fellow Canadians Sara and Daniel. They have such similar backgrounds to us that it was like talking to mirror images of Neda and I.

Dan and I were engrossed in the topic of vehicle insurance in Canada and for a while I completely forgot that I was in Sweden, on the other side of the world from our home country. Everything that they remarked on I thought to myself, "Wow, I was *JUST* about to say the same thing!" It was so eerie meeting people with such similar cultural backgrounds from us, transplanted in another place and having the same reactions to things around us.

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Watching boats pass through the locks at the Trollhatte Kanal

We used to go motorcycling in an area north of Toronto called the Muskokas. The Trent-Severn waterway runs through there and goes through several locks on it's way east through Ontario. The Trollhatte Kanal really reminded me of the locks in Port Carling, Ontario. And they speak English here with a funny accent. Just like people in Northern Ontario do, eh?

And you know what? They even have Ikea stores here in Sweden, just like in Canada!

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There was a classic car meet near the Trollhatte Kanal. Instead of old Chevies and Fords, there were these swede-looking vintage Volvos!

Anne took us grocery shopping to prepare us for our run into Norway. She told us that it was *very* expensive in Norway compared to Sweden. I had never thought that there were any distinctions in Cost of Living between countries in Scandinavia, but every Swedish person we've run into calls their Krona the Swedish Peso in comparison to the Norwegian Krone. It scared me a little bit how expensive everyone said it was going to be...

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All suited up and ready to head to Norway!

Sara and Daniel were ready to leave the small town of Northern Ontario, Sweden the same time as we were, so we're all going to travel together for a little while, with the King of Sweden leading us out of his country! It'll be nice to have company for a change! And with fellow Canucks too!

Norway ;)
 

Love to follow the route ;)

Where are you heading here in Norway ?

Fellow Canadians
 

Great post as usual, but it's even more fun when we are in it! Cheers from Riezlern Austria. We are headed home for winter Oct 19 from Madrid. See you next summer?? Sara

The blog is a little behind, but we've planned to see as much of Norway as possible!

Yes! Safe travels and have a great time at home!

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/242.html

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The King of Sweden led us north out of Trollhattan.

Orvar is on his way back to the refugee camp where he volunteers, to deliver some food. Our Canadian quartet follows him through some of his favorite scenic gravel backroads to get us there.

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Because we are so slow, Orvar, Daniel and Sara leave us behind in the dust. Literally!

Orvar, Daniel and Sara had traveled before together and we could tell that they were familiar with each other's pacing and riding style already.

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The Swedish scenery is still so incredibly reminiscent of Ontario!

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More Sweden/Ontario farmland

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Your eyes don't deceive you. A section of the Dalsland Canal
is actually built over the natural gorge running underneath it

The Dalsland Canal in Håverud is one of Sweden's architectural achievements. It's both a system of locks to join the different levels of lakes in the area and also includes a cool 32m long aqueduct which allows boats to traverse over a narrow ravine. It was difficult to build anything on because the steep walls of the gorge were too soft and loose.

It's here that we bid a fond farewell to our Swedish host, Orvar. He reassures us that the weather ahead looks clear and sunny, and the four Canadians continue our invasion of Norway.

Norway! We've been planing this trip all year long, trying to time our journey to fit within the small window of warm weather that the far northern summer allows. However, we cross the border with very little fanfare, the scenery around us not changing one bit. Only a large sign that read "Norge" greets us into the country.

We stopped for the night at a campsite near Vinterbro, which is just outside Oslo. We all conferred earlier and none of us were really interested in seeing the big city. The main attraction for Norway is the nature and the geography, so we're going to stay off the highways and out of the cities while we're here.

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We spend a lot of time comparing our experiences with Sara and Daniel. Always good to get some fresh ideas from fellow moto-travelers. We have such similar views on everything, I was starting to feel like we were all carbon-Canuck-copies of each other. That is, until Pillow-Gate...

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We meet a lot of people on the road, who are also making the most of the short summer months in Norway

The plan is to stay in Southern Norway for a while since a lot of the sights are concentrated here. Actually our plan is just to follow Daniel and Sara. It feels really good to take a break from planning and just follow the back wheel of someone for a change.

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One of many waterfalls in Norway

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Sun is shining, Neda is smiling

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My office

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Canadian forest scenery continues in Norway

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These roads really remind me of Vancouver Island

The relatively flat lands of Sweden have now been replaced by the mountains. These are the raised fingers of land that conspire to make up the famous fiordlands of the west coast of Norway.

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Bikes on break, we're roughly following the Otra River on our way west

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Single file through a switchback. The roads are really nice here!

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Some dead mosquitoes are gumming up Sara's forks. Dan is using a thin plastic card to dig them out

Dan takes really good care of their bikes. We are so lazy in comparison... I think back to all the problems we've had because of poor maintenance - dead batteries, broken chains and bald tires. Puts us to shame!

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Waterfalls all around us, remind us of New Zealand

So in the space of a few hundred kilometers, we've seen Northern Ontario, Vancouver Island and now Milford Sound in New Zealand. The more traveling we do, the more familiar things start to look around us everywhere we go!

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These "turf-houses" with their grass roofs give us our first taste of Iceland-deja-vu

It only makes sense that a lot things we see here remind us of our ride through Iceland. After all, the Vikings were originally from Norway!

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And then the road climbs higher and snow starts appearing on the ground beside us. Oh yeah, and sheep...

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It's the middle of the summer! Crazy!

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Stopping to admire the scenery. And more sheep.

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Neda hanging out with the dandelions

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Catching a breather in the middle of the Norwegian wilderness

We are running a very fast pace with Daniel and Sara! Much faster than we are used to. Before we met them it was like we were walking beside a railroad and now it's like we've grabbed onto the back of a fast moving train as it whizzes past us!

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More Icelandic-style scenery

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I have a million pictures from this ride, so difficult to pick just a few for the blog

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There are hundreds of these tiny lakes, the rain and the meltwater trapped in the wells of rocky terrain in Southern Norway

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Nature-Girl Neda is totally enjoying herself!

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Gorgeous scenery!

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Conference call

Would have been nice to link up all our comunicators, but since we're all using different brands, every now and then we stop to have a face-to-face "conference call" to figure out where to go next. Well, at least those guys do, I'm just the staff photographer... :D

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Lysebotn Harbour

There's a tourist restaurant at the top of Lysebotn Harbour. We went in to warm up and to see how expensive the food was. Holy crap. €6 for a coffee. That's $10 CDN. Holy crap. We left feeling very poor. On the way out we met some Swedish tourists and we all commiserated about how expensive Norway was. Okay, if the Swedish feel poor as well, then I don't feel so bad. $10 for a coffee. Holy crap!

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Lysevegen Road leading down to Lysebotn Harbour. This is going to be fun!


Lysevegen Road: In just 8.9 short kms, you've got 32 hairpins and a vertical drop of 840m! Yeah, baby!!!

Yeah, the Count is a bit wrong because we had already done a few switchbacks before I thought to myself, "Hey... this would make a really cool video..." Love our Sena Prism camera, it makes shooting on the fly so simple!

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I found an aerial view shot of the Lysevegen road on the Internet! This is what it looks like from the sky! :)

Remember the "Carpal" Tunnel? It's that huge drop where you don't see any hairpins because they're hidden underground. It doesn't look like it in the video, but it was friggin' steep! We were basically engine braking the whole way down.

Man, if the rest of Norway is going to be this awesome, I'm gonna explode!!!

Great post. I love your humour! We will always have pillow gate. Hi from near Avignon. Sara

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/243.html

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At Lysebotn Harbour, we have to decide whether to ride for a couple more hours to our intended destination for the night or to camp out here. Although the riding days are long and we are in no danger of running out of daylight, the clouds are getting very dark and threatening rain, and because we've already ridden many hours, we decide to stay here overnight and then do a short run tomorrow.

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Then we see the campsite and we know we're making the right decision. Nice!

The rain is imminent now and it's a mad dash to get the tents up just as the first drops of rain are falling on our heads. Then it's time to reward ourselves with a hot meal!

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Isn't it good? Norwegian food.

Actually, not Norwegian food. It's food that we've brought in from Sweden. One great benefit of traveling with other people is that you can pool your food and camping recipes together to try new stuff! We dragged a picnic table under the awning of the washroom building at the campsite and had ourselves a feast! Livin' La Vida Hobo!

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World-class view at Lysebotn Harbour. Shame it's so rainy here.

It rains 2 out of 3 days in Lysebotn at this time of year, so the weather is not too unexpected. This whole area of Western Norway gets a lot of precipitation because the warm air from the North Sea hits the steep mountains of the fjordlands and as it is forced upwards, it cools, releasing all of its moisture as rainfall. Brekke, a few hours north of here gets 3500mm of rain a year. Three and a half meters of rain! That's almost 10 cms of rain a day. Crazy!

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Peering out the tent in the morning to see if it's going to be a good riding day or not

One nice side effect of all this precipitation is that there are waterfalls everywhere on the high cliff walls of the Lysefjorden. This large one just outside our tent provided a nice white-noise effect that lulled us to sleep last night.

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Drinking water is the cheapest thing we could find in Norway

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Trying to find patches of sun in the dark skies above us

With the clouds slowly dissipating, we try to get our tents as dry as possible before packing them in. No success at all. It's such a gross feeling packing a wet tent away. It's like putting on wet underwear. Ugh.

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Got our wet underwear packed and ready to head out for the day! Bye Lysebotn!

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Back on the Canadian Express through Southern Norway! Choo choo!

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With all the rain here, everything that can cling to the rocky terrain is so lush and green

We're hanging onto the back of Sara and Daniel's convoy by our fingernails. We can't keep up at with the pace that they're running, so we just let them go ahead and we'll meet them later on in the campsite. This allows us to dawdle at our own pace, and lets me stop and take some pictures too.

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This reminds me *SO* much of Iceland!

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Sheep crossing. Getting hungry...

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Dinner bell?

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Rains create so many waterfalls along the steep cliffs around us. Very pretty, but it'd be nice to have some dry weather

It just keeps on raining without any break, the water bouncing off my tank bag and coming up underneath my helmet. I think my left boot is developing a leak, the tip of my sock feels a bit wet, but I'm not sure if it's just cold or damp. This is not the time to have our waterproof gear fail on us!

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Ugh, so much rain!

It occurred to me that for the last two years of our trip we have been followed by rains. But this time it's different. It feels as if we've followed the RideDOT.com rains back to their home and we're on its turf right now. Ugh.

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Ah, the home stretch. We catch the ferry from Lauvvik and it should let us off close to our campsite

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Guess who we run into on the ferry? Sara and Daniel! We caught up to them!

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Thankfully the ferry staff let us park under this awning. It is *so* wet!

I walked around the ferry as it took us across to the other side of Lysebotn Harbour while Neda paid the ferryman (before he got us to the other side!) They're very organized, walking around to all the vehicles with their wireless credit-card machines, collecting everyone's payment in the short hop from Lauvvik to Oanes.

The toes of my left foot squished in a tiny pool at the tip of my no-so-waterproof-anymore boot. Gross.

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Just another half-hour of rain till we reach our campsite

We all pull into the Preikestolen Campsite in the pouring rain. All we want to do is get warm and dry, so we pile inside the camping lodge watching the waterworks outside. My left sock has completely wicked up the water inside the boot and is completely soaked up to my calf and the boot is waterlogged. Ugh. Now we're just waiting, trying to find a small window of time when the rain lets up a little bit to put up our tents, which are also completely soaked in our "dry" bags. Ugh. Camping in the rain sucks.

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I hate when people read over my shoulder when I'm blogging.

We've been getting to know Sara and Dan a little bit more over the last few days. Sara is the documenter for their trip, and everytime we find wifi, the two of us are banging out blog entries while Dan and Neda engage in camping gear comparisons/competitions (Isn't it good? Norwegian feud).

I'm a night owl and I'm discovering that Sara is as well. Many times, I'll do my final 2AM run to the washroom before crawling into our tent and I'll see that their tent is softly illuminated from within by laptop light.

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We have to eat outside because we're not allowed to bring our own food in the lodge and everything on the menu is too expensive for us

Why is Norway so expensive? They were actually a very poor country - about 750,000 Norwegians emigrated to the US and Canada from 1825 to 1925 to escape famine, war and poverty. Then they discovered oil in 1969 and have been inflicting famine, economic warfare and poverty onto tourists ever since.

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Sara and Neda on the way to Pulpit Rock

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Neda, Sara and Daniel do some hiking! Without me! YAY!!!!

One of Norway's most famous sights is Preikestolen, otherwise known as Pulpit Rock. It's a 25x25 metre square outcropping of rock high above the waters of the Lysefjorden and the straight drop is completely unhindered by any railing or safety precaution.

The Pulpit Rock is about a two-hour hike from our campsite. Since I'm suffering from bad allergies (and I hate hiking), I beg off this walk, and I'm so glad Sara and Daniel are hikers so they can keep Neda company.

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People do all sorts of crazy things for a picture at Pulpit Rock, but surprisingly,
there has only been one confirmed accidental death here. Lots of suicides though...

About a quarter million people tourists make the trek to Preikestolen annually. It's also a popular place to do BASE jumping.

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Neda the Brave, dangling her legs over 600 meters above the waters of Lysefjorden

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Back at camp, we're drying everything out as soon as there is a little bit of sun

Neda's panniers are leaking really badly, just like my left boot, so when the sun comes out, we spread out all of our belongings on the grass around our tent to try to dry them out. Redneck Yard Sale.

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We escape Norwegian poverty by eating food smuggled in from Sweden. Thank you, Abba!

Abba, other than being a 70s pop group, is also a brand of canned seafood that we picked up while doing cheap grocery shopping in Sweden. We have developed a liking to salted herring, so our favorite lunchtime meal is herring sandwich. Yum! Other than campsite fees and gas, I don't think we've spent any money in Norway. Can't afford it...

Money, money, money, must be funny, in a rich man's world.

Updated from Jul 20 2015: The Church of THOR!

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We putter around the Preikestolen Campsite, taking our time before leaving. I like that the days are so long up north that we can wake up and start riding anytime we want - which is late! Daniel and Sara are early birds and have left while we are eating breakfast, we'll catch up to them at the next campsite.

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First ferry of the day. Get the wallet out, Neda!

The day starts off without rain, so we're very optimistic that we'll get a chance to experience the fabled Norwegian summer that's on all the travel web sites and brochures. You know, the ones that feature all those green-covered fjords towering over impossibly clear blue skies?

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We start heading north

There's a route that travels right along the western coastline of Norway through Stavanger. But going that way requires a very long and expensive ferry to get to the next fjord north, so we opt for the inland route instead. Our chosen road curves around a myriad of inlets and lakes. Nice. And very scenic as well!

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If you like riding past water, you'll like the west coast of Norway!

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If you like riding through tunnels, you'll like the west coast of Norway!