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Stopping for a photo opp https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0669-L.jpg Loving Norway now that we are warm and dry! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0687-L.jpg Riding carefully, lest I wake up the troll underneath this bridge Traditionally, Norwegian trolls live in rocks, mountains and caves. Later on, they were associated with landmarks and I think it was the Three Billy Goats Gruff fairytale that was the first account of a troll living underneath a bridge. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0695-L.jpg When the road rises high enough, you get spectacular views of the inlets below https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0715-L.jpg Roadside flowers bloom in the middle of a Norwegian summer |
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These steep cliffs were cut by glaciers! A fjord is created when glaciers extend to below sea level. The deep grooves they carve into the bedrock underneath are exposed when the glaciers recede and are then filled with seawater creating inlets, channels and fjords. Pretty cool that all of these geological features we're riding around were created during the last ice age 10,000 years ago! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5450-L.jpg https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5458-L.jpg https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5464-L.jpg https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0734-L.jpg We roll into the campsite at Kinsarvik in the late evening and the sun is still hanging high in the sky. I love traveling in the north! |
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Our neighbour Dan sizes up Neda's cooking gear and is deciding whether to start another camping gear comparison showdown or not... Sara and Daniel have planned a pretty long riding day tomorrow and we've got a different schedule so I think this may be our last evening with them. It's been nice having company for a while and I'm sure we'll run into each other somewhere, sometime! The world seems so small when you're riding around it on a motorcycle! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5522-L.jpg Raining when we visit Borgund Well, the good weather lasted all of one day. The rain is back in the morning and the air is cold with mist hugging the sides of the mountains. We ride to our first site of the day, the Borgund Stave church but it's too wet to walk around, so we duck into the visitor's centre to wait out the rain. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0578-L.jpg Stealing free wifi The wifi may have been free, but the staff at the visitor's centre were giving us the stinkeye because we had occupied a table for over an hour without buying anything. So we bought some really expensive cake from them. Too ashamed to say how much we paid... Ouch. Norway is expensive! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0511-L.jpg During a break in the rain, we literally ran out to see the church Stave churches are built in the middle ages and are made entirely of... Norwegian wood. Isn't it... no, too easy. There used to be a lot of them built all over north-west Europe but today, most of the surviving Stave churches are only in Norway. The Borgund Stave Church was built in the late 1100s and is the most well preserved and authentic stave church. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0534-L.jpg The church is surrounded by a cemetary |
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The wood has been heavily treated with tar which gives it a dark appearance https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0817-L.jpg Christianity? I always thought the Norse religion involved Valhalla, Odin, Thor, Hulk, etc. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0547-L.jpg Inside the Stave Church https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0757-L.jpg Great detail inside the church. You can see the dragon motif repeated everywhere. There are runic inscriptions on the wall inside and one reads, "Thor wrote these runes in the evening at the St. Olav's Mass" No kidding! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0555-L.jpg The cemetery outside Borgund Stave Church |
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Dragon motif on the roof pointing off to the sides. Similar to the ones on the bow and stern of their ships https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0564-L.jpg Overlapping tiles of the roof look like the feathers of a black bird https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0558-L.jpg Tombstone in the cemetery |
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Nice to hear from you! My leg ist good again and I travelled Portugal and Spain in September. Getting serious with my travel to Asia! Greez to Tony!! Are you moving up north? You know there is always a bed and some food for you at my house!! Sorry for the off topic:innocent: I love your report and enjoy it very much. Always a safe ride to you! Herbert P.S.: sorry, I mistook you for Terry and Sara, who helped me when I had a broken leg in the Rif / Marocco. But whenever yo cross South west Germany, you´re welcomed too ;-) |
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/245.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map245-L.jpg Just a quick update with some thoughts from the road: We're still on our march northwards through the fjordlands of the west coast of Norway. And it's still raining. We've only had one day of sun in the last week. The "Come Visit Norway" green fjords/blue sky travel brochure is falling apart like wet tissue paper at the bottom of my tankbag. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5493-L.jpg The scenery is gorgeous. If only it wasn't so wet! Even though the pictures don't show it, there is quite a lot of traffic on the roads in Norway, even though we've made a decision to stay off the main interior highway. Most of the license plates we see are Norwegian. We've not seen a lot of Norwegian travelers on our journeys, but now we know that they do travel, but they just like to spend all of their high-value Krones inside their own country. I guess everywhere else outside of Norway is just too cheap for them! :) There's only a short window of summer that Norwegians are able to enjoy warm weather and despite the rain, there are a lot of motorcyclists on the road braving the inclement weather. My waterproof gloves are starting to lose their waterproofing, but I'm glad I have large handguard spoilers so my gloves don't get too wet when they're hiding behind them. However, when another motorcyclist rides past us and waves, I experience a brief anti-social twinge because lifting my left hand from behind the handguard means exposing it to the rain and getting it wet... But I'm Canadian and it's only cold water, so I wave politely and get my left hand all soggy. Dammit. Oh, and I think my right boot is also starting to leak. :( https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5485-L.jpg The Hardanger Bridge is kind of unique because it's the only tunnel-to-tunnel bridge in the world, both ends of the bridge lead to a tunnel! The geography afjords us plenty of opportunity to cross small bodies of water. The last few days have taken their toll (literally and figuratively) on us via ferries, bridges and tunnels. Some of these tunnels are quite long, ranging from 3kms to over 10kms! At every tunnel entrance, there is a sign that tells you how long the tunnel is that you're entering. Whenever I see a sign that reads, "6,184 meters", I smile because it gives us a bit of respite from the falling rain, and most times the air in the tunnel is nice and warm. On the longer tunnels, I stick my left glove out in the airflow to try to dry it out. Oncoming cars that pass us must wonder what I'm doing. But I don't care. My glove is wet, deal with it. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5482-L.jpg What the heck is this? At one end of the Hardanger Bridge is the Valavik Tunnel which is 7.5 kms long. It's so long that there is actually a funky traffic roundabout with disco-blue lighting in the middle with exits that will take you to different parts of the country. Imagine taking the wrong exit? It'll be like digging a hole to China and then breaking above ground to find yourself in Mexico! Damn!:) https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5488-L.jpg Another roundabout But 7.5 kms is nothing for a tunnel in Norway. Just a bit further north, we enter the Lærdal Tunnel and before we enter, I read the sign, "24.5 km" Sweet!? That's a lot of glove-drying time. When tunnels are really long, you also wonder what kind of weather you're going to get on the other side because often the mountains that they're tunneling under stop the clouds and precipitation from getting to the other side, or vice versa. |
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Caves inside the Lærdal Tunnel As we get deeper into the Lærdal Tunnel, we approach these huge caverns, also lit up like a discotheque. It turns out that the tunnel is so long that every 6 kms there is a large space to give travelers a visual break from tunnel vision (literally!) And also, if you realize you're tunneling to Mexico instead of China, there's space to turn a vehicle around and go back. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5509-L.jpg All that's needed now are huge speakers to pump techno music into these caves. And seedy teenagers in the corners peddling E. My glove is almost dry as we exit the Lærdal Tunnel and... the weather is dry on the other side of the tunnel! Of course it is, after riding for so long underground we're probably in a different time zone as well! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0819-L.jpg China? Mexico? Nope, still Norway, however still doesn't look anything like in the travel brochures... :( https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0824-L.jpg "It's Norway or the highway!" Glad we are staying off the main interior highway. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5584-L.jpg When the road climbs higher, it's so cold that ice forms on the lakes up here! |
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So pretty! We must stop to check it out. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0833-L.jpg Reminds me so much of Iceland https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0852-L.jpg More Icelandic scenery up here https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0864-L.jpg I should really be saying that Iceland looks like Norway, not the other way around! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0871-L.jpg Norwegian/Icelandic Turf houses |
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Turf houses provide good insulation and you can grow potatoes, turnips and carrots in the attic https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0883-L.jpg Okay bye, Iceland, we have to continue on. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5532-L.jpg Back to the lush greenlands at sea level https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5541-L.jpg In North America, kids open up lemonade stands and sell lemonade for 5 cents. In Norway, kids open up fruit stands and sell cherries for... €7 ($11 CDN). Yikes. We're traveling through a region that produces most of Norway's fruit in the summertime. It's akin to the Niagara Region in Canada. This particular area yields 80% of the cherries for the country and everything we've read about them say that these particular Morello dark-red cherries are supposed to be most awesome, and we're here at the peak time in the season as well. Neda loves cherries and fruits and this was on her bucket list for Norway. But looking at the price tag, we had to walk back over to the bikes and have a huddle to decide if we wanted to spend $11 on a carton of cherries... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5537-L.jpg So... we're not actually buying these cherries to eat. We're going to put them in a glass case and showcase them in the living room of wherever we decide to move to. Who are we kidding, those cherries disappeared before our butts got back on the bike. They were good. Not sure if they were $11 good, but they were good. |
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...and then more money paid to the ferrymen to take us to the other side https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5555-L.jpg Riding into Sogndal https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5565-L.jpg And another ferry. And it's raining again... Starting to get a bit repetitive now. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5591-L.jpg Hey, I found the Norwegian Lake Louise! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5598-L.jpg And Neda says "hi" from the road |
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Getting close to our destination for the evening https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5608-L.jpg Updating the blog in our "campsite" in Moskog, our tent just outside and the cottages in the background There is nobody tenting in the rain when we arrive in Moskog. Everyone has rented little warm and dry cottages in the campsite, but they are four times more expensive than a tent site (which is expensive to begin with!) So when we head into the washroom/kitchen building that the tenters can use, we realize that absolutely nobody comes in here because they all have their own private washrooms and kitchens in their cottages. So we totally set up inside the communal kitchen just like it was our own living room. We now have our own dry and warm private cottage for a quarter of the cost! LOL! We are such hobos... |
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/246.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map246-L.jpg https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5612-L.jpg Another rainy day ahead of us. This is not awesome at all. We're continuing our northwards march through the fjords. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5641-L.jpg We ride by so much water from the fjords at sea level, to the lakes at the tops of the passes where snow still lies unmelted even in the middle of summer https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5645-L.jpg The conditions are gross and I can't help imagine how beautiful it would look if it was sunny https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5649-L.jpg Neda tackling the serpentine mountain passes, up and over the fingers of land that reach out to the North Sea |
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Rivulets of rain and meltwater create waterfalls, small and large, all around us https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0889-L.jpg We approach our first sightseeing spot of the day - Geirangerfjord! The Geirangerfjord is another one of Norway's most visited tourist sights. People from all around the world come in to see a picture-perfect example of Norway's fjords: snow capped mountains and steep cliff walls leading into a harbour that can be seen from all the roads above. Then a slow descent through multiple switchbacks to finally hit the gift store at the quaint village at the bottom. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0902-L.jpg Selfie overlooking Geirangerfjord https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0903-L.jpg Guess who we ran into at Geirangerfjord? Dan and Sara! I knew we'd see them again! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0905-L.jpg Steep cliffs at Geirangerfjord |
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Lunch at the town of Geiranger There is a visitor centre in Geiranger right at the harbour of the fjord. Huge cruise ships come in and purge their bowels, dumping their load of tourists out into the town and then just as quickly swallow them up only to defecate them back out again at the next popular destination on the brochures. Which brings us to lunch. We are not allowed to eat our own food inside the visitor centre, so while the rich Norwegians order their $10 coffees and $20 pieces of pie, we break out the groceries which we've been lugging since Sweden and huddle outside in the cold and wet to prepare our budget lunch. We flaunt our yummy cucumber and mustard sandwiches through the glass at the Norwegians inside! It looks like our cheap Swedish supplies are running low and we're going to have to replenish them at a Norwegian grocery store soon. Now is a good time to apply for a bank loan. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5661-L.jpg Each cruise ship carries 2000-3000 people. There must be tens of thousands of people coming in everyday on these cruise ships! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5667-L.jpg Leaving Geirangerfjord on a staircase of roads, we can see the harbour from the other side https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0913-L.jpg Looks good from this side too! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5623-L.jpg So dark, wet and gloomy. Gross. |
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Just north of Geirangerfjord we take a ferry to get to Linge instead of going the long way around the harbour https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5676-L.jpg Hey this ferry's almost empty! And the sun is slowly peeking out from behind the clouds! We're taking a lot of ferries to hop between all these fingers of land out in the western coast. It depends on the length, but on average we're paying about 50 krones per bike each ferry crossing, so about $8 CDN each and we're taking at least two ferries a day at the pace that we're going. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5634-L.jpg At another town further north, we gas up and watch more tourists unloading You know, for a country that made its fortunes in oil, gasoline prices are pretty high here. The price at the pumps is about $2.50 CDN a liter (I think that's $7.25 USD a gallon). Someone's pocketing some krones here... As we are draining our wallets at the pump, a cruise ship couple approaches us and starts a conversation. They recognized our Ontario license plates because they're from Canada as well! Funny, we are meeting the most Canadians in Norway. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0927-L.jpg The visitor centre at Trollstigen We are just crossing off all the tourist sites on the brochure today! Trollstigen is a picturesque mountain road, its steep switchbacks giving a great view of the valley below as you descend past the rushing waters of several large waterfalls. There are many mountain climbs in Norway over the fjords, but the Trollstigen is the most prettiest. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0924-L.jpg The name Trollstigen means The Troll's Path in English In Norwegian fairytales, trolls turn to stone in the sunlight and in the dark they spring to life to scare little children. |
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We walk down to the overlook to get a good idea of the kind of road that we're going to be traveling down https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0934-L.jpg Sweet! Can't wait to ride this!!! We're lucky to catch a break as the sun has come out just when we hit the Trollstigen. The mists cling mysteriously to the sides of the steep valley walls as we descend and many motorcyclists go up and down a few times, almost all of them still clad in their rainsuits, just like us! The Trollstigen doesn't disappoint, I love riding so close to the waterfalls and sometimes right through the mists as they hit the rocks below. Here's some onboard footage from the Sena Prism camera, see for yourself: Trollstigen Mountain Road! Awesome! |
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Whew, what a road! Like most of the motorists here we did go up and down a couple of times! :) https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0941-L.jpg Our campsite for the night just outside of Andalsnes The rain is off and on as we reach our campsite. This time there is no cosy kitchen/washroom building that we can take over and we have to wait for the sprinkles to subside before we can put up our tent. Although we're enjoying these terrific rides up and down and over the fjords, it's cold, it's wet, my boots are leaking and everything is so oppresively expensive. I'm sure it'll pass. If only we could see some sun... |
Absolutely stunning pictures and love the quality of the video too, thanks Gene :thumbup1:
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No problem, thank you for the encouragement! It's much appreciated! bier
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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/247.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map247-L.jpg It dipped to single digits last night, and we were dreading what kind of weather we'd see when we woke up. But in the morning, we strained to hear the patter of rain on the tent. A look outside confirms it. No rain!!! It's still fairly cool out, so we'll have to continue wearing our rainsuits, but I can sense this will be a good day for travel. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5681-L.jpg What better way to start off the day than with a brisk ferry ride - Afanes to Solsnes. We get the top level all to ourselves! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5687-L.jpg View from our perch on the ferry. Cloudy, but at least it's dry! Today we're going to spend some time on the Atlantic Road. It's only an 8-km stretch of road right along the Atlantic coast (duh) that's supposed to run through some quaint Norwegian seaside villages. The scenic route is really out of the way, our GPS keeps wanting to route us back to the main highway, so we follow the clearly marked tourist signs that point us to the "Atlantic Way". https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0952-L.jpg The village of Kyststi is so small, I couldn't find it on Google Maps Then I found out that Kyststi means "coastal road" in Norwegian... Silly me. I feel kind of ashamed that we've learned no Norwegian words while we're here. But in our defense, everyone speaks English! Neda finds a small grocery store in Bud, which is a town at the start of the Atlantic Road and I go exploring the tiny village by myself and to take some pictures. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0954-L.jpg Nice colours amongst all the boat houses |
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Absolutely no one around, so I park wherever I want. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0964-L.jpg Fishing boats go out for the day I return to the grocery store to rendez-vous with Neda. We took turns updating each other. I was showing her my pictures and she was telling me how super-expensive the groceries were. She revealed to me the most outrageously priced item that she saw - a single red pepper that they were asking for €6! WHAT? I know they don't grow these in Norway and they have to import them in, but seriously, $10 for one red pepper?!? I know how much Neda likes red peppers so I check the grocery bag. No red peppers. *phew* https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0973-L.jpg Other motorcyclists out enjoying the Atlantic Ocean Road https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0971-L.jpg I think by Norwegian law, you have to paint your boathouses rust-red. There is a hefty fine if you don't - they make you buy a bag of red peppers. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0985-L.jpg A nice ride out in the country |
Towards the northern end of the Atlantic Ocean Road is one of the more popular sights in Norway. It's a run of eight bridges that link the tiny islands together so tourists can continue traveling along the coast. You've probably seen the dramatic photo of the Atlantic waves in the autumn hitting one of the more peculiarly shaped bridges on this road:
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...0/O/lowres.png Famous picture of one of the bridges on the Atlantic Ocean Road - taken from the Internet This is the first bridge to the south and it's the one that everyone knows about - the Storseisunbrua Bridge. It's been written up as "the most dangerous bridge in the world", "both terrifying and awe-inspiring", "Its treacherous twists and turns, perched just above the Atlantic's unpredictable waters, make a casual drive feel like a roller coaster ride". Well, if it's that dangerous, we *MUST* go and ride over it... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0991-L.jpg Oooh, looks like a pretty cool ride from here https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0989-L.jpg So Neda, are you ready to ride "The Most Dangerous Bridge in the World"? I want to make sure we capture this on video, so all my cameras are ready. We approach from the south, and I ready the contents of my stomach for the dramatic twist and swoop down the northern side... that never came. What?!? Where is it? Where's the drop, swoop and danger?!? Turns out the famous picture of Storseisunbrua is a bit of an optical illusion to make it seem more dangerous and dramatic than it really is. It's a forced perspective taken at a very specific angle. When you're actually driving over it, it's kind of boring. Don't take my word for it, here's the onboard video: So disappointing... Oh yeah, many people have asked me how I take those riding shots with my point-and-shoot camera. Well, now you know. |
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The after picture from the northern side. Welp... not so dramatic after all... After all the hype and marketing, we were very disappointed. But before leaving, I at least wanted to get a shot of the bridge from that famous, forced perspective. It turns out you have to hike over the road barriers almost out to the waters edge. Fishermen were lined on the steep shores, and that seemed way more dangerous than the bridge itself. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_1000-XL.jpg *bah* The hike was too far. It turns out I didn't care so much about getting a shot of the bridge and the fishermen were far more interesting... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0999-L.jpg More fishermen along the Atlantic Ocean Road, risking a terrifying death-plunge into the frigid waters of the awe-inspiring Atlantic Ocean below!!! Death! Danger! Fishing! My heart can't stand it!!! We actually rode further north to the other bridges in the Atlantic Ocean Road just to make sure we didn't miss anything. The other bridges are even more boring than Storseisunbrua. What a complete waste of time. We got off the coastal road and made a bee-line for the highway. After exhausting most of the tourist attractions in southern Norway, the plan is to head far, far north now. We stopped for the evening at a campsite just outside of Trondheim and called it an early day. The next morning brought us considerably less sunshine for our long trek north. We spent about 8 hours on the highway, enduring frigid temperatures and riding through on-and-off again rain. What made us feel even more miserable is the knowledge that the rest of Europe is currently experiencing a heat wave. Neda's sister in Milan messaged us to tell us that it almost hit 40°C there the other day. And it's 10°C here. What the hell are we doing here? We stopped in Mo i Rana, about 500 kms north of Trondheim. We're just too cold and tired to carry on, so we stopped in a shopping mall to warm up. We sat in the food court with all of our rain clothes drying on the chairs around us. And we didn't buy anything. Such sorry hobos we are. I looked around and wondered silently if we could hide in the mall overnight and sleep there. It was so warm and dry... Well, we couldn't stay there forever, what with mall security giving us the evil eye. With all the rain-riding that we've done, Neda ran out of chain lube a long time ago and we've been checking all the gas stations and stores in all the small towns that we've ridden through without any success. It's kind of worrying her since this was a new chain and she wanted to take care of it. Turns out Mo i Rana was a large enough town that we managed to find some chain lube at a gas station near the mall. The price for a small can? $40 CDN. ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?! It's like $10 back home for a much larger can... So we begrudgingly buy a $40 can of chain lube. After forking over the cash, I felt like I needed the lube for something other than a motorcycle chain... |
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Our spirits are lifted about an hour north of Mo i Rana I don't have many pictures of the long, rainy ride up Norway's main highway. But now we've arrived at a very special place: The Arctic Circle! The elevation of the road is much higher here and the vegetation is sparse amongst all the unmelted snow patches on the barren ground. But amidst all of this emptiness is a large building and monument marking the imaginary line of latitude. The Arctic Circle is the line on earth where anything north of it is able to experience 24 hours of daylight (on Jun 21st) or 24 hours of darkness (on Dec 21st). Even though we are well past the summer solstice, we've noticed that the sun has lingered higher in the sky a lot later than it usually did even compared to yesterday, 600 kms to the south. These pictures were taken around 8PM and it was like it was the middle of the day. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5721-L.jpg Feeling like we're on top of the world!!! The last time we crossed the Arctic Circle was in Alaska back in August 2012 on the way to Prudhoe Bay! Man, that seems like a lifetime ago! There's something really profound about crossing lines of latitude. You become acutely aware that you're actually crawling on the face of a globe instead of a flat 2D map. And to cross the Arctic Circle so close to the summer solstice and to see the effect that it this has on the path of the sun - you can imagine the Earth tilting through its seasons as it completes its annual orbit. It really places you in a larger, celestial context. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5711-L.jpg There are a couple of other monuments here at the Arctic Circle centre We're a bit refreshed, mentally and physically, after crossing the Arctic Circle, as if an imaginary line of latitude has imbued us with some kind of spiritual energy to continue on. It's getting fairly late now and we have to find a campsite close to Bodø, where we're going to catch a ferry early tomorrow morning. We're feeling like maybe we should wildcamp for the night. Why spend the money to put up a tent for 8 hours when we could do it for free? So on the way to Bodø, we keep an eye out for a spot to pitch a tent out of the way of the main road. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5723-L.jpg On the way to Bodø. The sun has been threatening to set on us for hours now! Turns out that there weren't any suitable places to pitch a tent. I think too many people have the same idea as us - to try to wildcamp between the Arctic Circle and the next major town up, so they've made it intentionally difficult to do so. Two hours later, we arrive in Bodø and we have to camp anyway. Oh well. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5732-L.jpg Over 700kms today. Over 14 hours on the road. We're cold and tired. It's 11:30PM and the sun *STILL* hasn't set! So strange. We're on the other side of the summer solstice and the sun is setting later and later the further north we go. |
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/248.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map248-L.jpg After checking in at our campsite in Bodo, we pitch our tent around midnight. Even though it's still bright out, we try our best not to make any noise lest we disturb the other campers around us who are surely asleep at this time of night, er day...? Eventually the sun dips below the horizon as we settle into our sleeping bags. But it didn't stay there. Three short hours later, it was back up in the sky, casting an otherworldly glow against our tent wall as if an alien spacecraft were landing beside us. Go away, Sun. We're trying to sleep!!! In the morning, we paid for our 8 hour patch of grass rental and headed back out on the road. Part of the reason we are up this far north in Norway is to visit the Lofoten Islands. It's kind of neat how we found out about it. Our guide in Lyon France, Jean-Jacques, put us in touch with his friend in Sweden, and he recommended to us that we visit this archipelago in the north. I love how our random interactions with people we meet along the way influence the direction of our travels! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5737-L.jpg These days, everyday starts off with a ferry ride! This one is much bigger than the ones we normally take! Most of our ferry rides through the southern fjordlands of Norway have been hop-on-hop-off affairs, none lasting more than 15-20 minutes. However the ferry from Bodo to the western tip of the Lofoten Islands is three hours long, so we have some more time to nap on the boat! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5747-L.jpg Wow! Those mountains, though...! We roll off the ferry in the early afternoon and the weather in Lofoten is just as overcast and gloomy as the mainland we just left. However, we are immediately impressed by the tall, imposing mountains around us. Most of the mountainsides are so steep, they look like some monster has bitten through the crust of the earth from the inside and left their teeth sticking up through the landscape. Although the geography here was shaped by the same glaciers that cut the fjords in southern Norway, these Lofoten mountains are like the fjordlands on steriods - higher, more craggy, intensely foreboding and dramatic against the cloudy sky! No wonder we have to take a ferry here. One does not simply walk to Lofoten... |
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Reine, Moskenes, Lofoten, Norway, Scandinavia, Earth The first island we land on is the Moskenes. It's the western-most tip of the Lofoten archipelago and from there we start making our way east. But we don't get very far before we have to stop and explore the very pretty town of Reine, which has arrested our journey just less than 5 kms from where the ferry let us off. It's going to be a very long day. But since the sun sets around midnight, we have the time... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0006-L.jpg Red buildings? Must be boathouses. Wouldn't want to be fined a bag of red peppers now! Reine is a pretty fishing village with a very impressive backdrop of Mordor-like mountains behind it. Unfortunately the main peak is obscured by these damn low-lying clouds but it's still quite a sight nonetheless! There's supposed to be some really good hiking in the mountains around Lofoten, but thankfully for me it's so wet and gloomy that Neda doesn't bring it up. *phew* https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0010-L.jpg Some boat construction going on around Reine https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0011-L.jpg More beautiful scenery as we ride further North/East through Lofoten |
E10 is the main road that runs through Lofoten, but we're taking our time to explore all the little roads that run off it towards the coast on both sides. On the next island over, Flakstadoya, we found a quaint fishing village called Nusfjord on the southern coast. It's advertised as the oldest and most preserved fishing village in Norway. However, we found a whole bunch of other villages which also make that claim, so we're taking that with a grain of Atlantic Sea salt.
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0014-L.jpg Nusfjord, one of many old fishing villages on Lofoten Island https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0017-XL.jpg What Neda would look like if she were a Norwegian fisherman https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0026-L.jpg Walking around Nusfjord https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0034-L.jpg A collection of fish heads drying on the rails in Nusfjord. Adds atmosphere... |
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Canadians in Norway: "Whadaya talkin' a-boat?" Walking around all these fishing villages really reminded me of the Maritime provinces in Canada, especially Newfoundland. When I mentioned this to Neda, she replied, "How do you think Norwegians feel when you're constantly comparing their country to Northern Ontario, Vancouver Island, New Zealand, Iceland and now Newfoundland?" "Well, hopefully they're not that overly sensitive about things that don't matter. You know, like how Torontonians are..." https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0053-L.jpg Most expensive boathouses in the world No, they weren't expensive to build, but they are expensive to sleep in! In Lofoten, these fishermen's cabins (called Rorbu) have been renovated and furnished to accommodate tourists. Recently, they've become quite a trendy thing to rent out for vacations. Just for fun, I checked out how much they cost: $260/night for a single, $350/night for a double. Of course it would cost that much. Of course. I just hope they leave a bag of bloody red peppers on the pillow every evening for that price... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0055-L.jpg Eggum, Vetvagoya As we were leaving Nusfjord, it started raining. It's pretty cold out so we're wearing our rainsuits anyway, but still it's a bit of a bummer because this place must be beautiful when the skies are cloudless and blue! Although the islands that make up the Lofoten chain are pretty small (ranging from 20-70kms long), we are stopping fairly often, so it's getting late in the day. However, the omnipresent Arctic summer sun fools us into thinking its much earlier than it is. Our next stop is to the tiny village of Eggum which is on the north coast of the next island in the Lofoten chain, Vestvagoya. Neda is planning all the routes and destinations in Norway and she said there were some ruins that we could visit here. |
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Not as old as we thought it was These are the remains of a WWII German radar station. It was built in 1944 to monitor the Russians at Murmansk, just across the Finnish border. These days, the area has become quite a popular hiking destination, with the old radar station used as a meet up point. As you can tell it's raining fairly steadily now, so hiking is the last thing we want to do. Thank Odin! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0060-L.jpg Walking around the radar station. We keep our helmets on so we don't get wet. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0065-L.jpg I have no idea what we were talking about here, but usually when Neda does this, she's normally saying to me: "Come on, it's not *THAT* far away!" https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0070-L.jpg Inside the ruins are presumably the remains of the radar station. The electricity was powered by a petrol-driven generator https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0071-L.jpg You can also camp at Eggum, but we don't. Lots more to see in Lofoten. It's a pity the tops of the mountains are obscured by the clouds, they must be majestic! We're off to the next island, Ausvagoya! At least the islands are close enough that we don't have to take ferries, everything's connected via short bridges. |
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Riding through more small towns on the southern shore of Ausvagoya https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0082-L.jpg Absolutely beautiful here! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0099-L.jpg Sidpollnes church, with the Higravstinden mountain in the background https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5783-L.jpg The coastal fishing villages are endless here in Lofoten |
Well we've been in Norway for over a week and a half now, so here are some peculiar things we've noted (besides the most expensive red peppers in the world):
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0704-L.jpg There are a chit-ton of Tesla cars here. Literally, one in every four cars is a Tesla Model S. What is up with that? I got a chance to Google it, one of the first links led to this fact: "Tesla Sells More Model S EVs In Norway Than Ford Sells Everything". It is the best-selling car in the country. You know the Norwegians are filthy rich when the best selling vehicle in the country is a $90,000 car. What the what?!? Like the Saudis, I heard that when their Model S breaks down, they drive it out into the fjordlands to abandon it and just go to the Tesla dealership to pick up another with the loose change they have in their pocket. Then they go to the grocery store to buy a bag of red peppers to feed to the birds outside. Damn oil barons... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5796-L.jpg Me, trying to fit in, pretending to be a rich Norwegian. Hope I don't blow up my gas tank... So apparently, besides Norwegians being filthy rich, they pride themselves for being environmentally friendly (ironic, yet commendable for an oil-producing nation). Plus the government has set up a sovereign wealth fund from all the oil money and subsidizes the purchases of electric cars. Citizens get an income tax deduction *and* they pay a lot less sales tax if they buy an electric car. But they're *STILL* $90,000 cars! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5798-L.jpg Neda poses for the camera Not just in Norway, but all over Europe there are these photo radar cameras set up at the side of the road. Apparently they only snap pictures from the front, and because we're motorcyclists, there is no front plate to record. So every opportunity we get, we zoom by those cameras at perhaps slightly more than posted limit and give the operators some interesting poses to look at. I've been told there are newer cameras that take pictures from the front *and* the back, but our license plates are Canadian, so I'm sure we're immune to those to. At least I hope so, otherwise there'll be a ton of speeding tickets waiting for us back in Canada! We've set a pretty blistering pace (at least for our standards) over the last 10 days, riding almost every day. We normally never do that, but Norway is too expensive for us to stay put for any length of time. However, we're feeling a little drained, so we've booked three nights at this nice campsite we found just outside of Skibotn back on mainland Norway. This area seems to have a weird microclimate, a pocket of clear, dry weather perhaps because it's in a valley surrounded by large mountains. Nice place to be for a few days. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...olderelv-L.jpg Our campsite in Storfjord. Picture could have been taken at 12PM or 12AM... We got to know our Finnish neighbours Jana and Janni a little bit. They come to Storfjord every summer and they said that the weather last year and the year before was beautiful and sunny. It's just that for some reason this year was very rainy. We both looked at the ground guiltily... We're up so far north that after sunset the sun stays just barely below the horizon so it still manages to light up the sky all night. I'm a night owl and it's so strange roaming around the campgrounds and not being able to tell if it's 4AM or 4PM, other than the fact that I'm the only one walking around. |
I'm so jealous of your trip! But not so much about the cost of it! :-)
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I hear ya. But it's a once in a lifetime thing, so we just suck it up, take in all the sights and try to get out before the costs get too out of hand!
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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/249.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map249-L.jpg It was time to leave our sunny pocket universe tucked away inside rainy Norway. I checked the forecast and the minute we leave Storfjord, we're going to get dumped on. Outside of this place, I think we've had maybe two days of good weather the entire two weeks we've been here. Typical RideDOT.com. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5807-L.jpg Suiting up for another rainy ride. Going through a lot of plastic bags to keep my feet dry. Today is exciting though. We're on our way to Nordkapp (North Cape in English). It's the northern-most point in Europe, marking our last days in Norway and the mid-point of our journey through Scandinavia. Nordkapp, like Deadhorse and Ushuaia is kind of a bucketlist item for overland travelers. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5822-L.jpg Wet ride to the very top of Europe https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5824-L.jpg The coastal road takes us through some undramatic scenery compared to the Lofoten Islands. All there seems to be this far north are road, rocks and water. |
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These racks are called hjell, they're used in the spring months to dry cod We see these drying racks everywhere while riding along the coast in Norway. The fish is dried in the cold spring air, the temperature just warm enough to avoid freezing the fish but cold enough to ward off bacteria and insects. Looks like it would make for a quick tent. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0107-L.jpg The weather gets drier the closer we get to the most northern point in Europe https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0132-L.jpg We see tons of reindeer along the side of the road. This is moulting season, so their fur is falling off. I think this is the first time that we've seen reindeer in the wild! Very cool! There are about 200,000 of them in Northern Norway. They're raised by the indigenous Sami people who used them for their meat, pelts and antlers, and to sell them to jolly, fat men in red suits. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0138-L.jpg Inukshuk on the side of the road, heading towards Nordkapp. The sun is still high in the sky despite it being 10PM Although the inukshuk is a Canadian Inuit symbol, the teepee isn't. We've seen lots of teepees and related pictures and signs while traveling through the north and at first, I thought it was just North American kitsch that the Norwegians were borrowing. But actually, the native Sami people live in similar cone-shaped huts called lavvu. |
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Monument at Nordkapp at the end of the world. Well, at least one end of it... Nordkapp is basically just a very expensive parking lot. It's $30USD per person just to enter the premises, which consists of a huge parking lot and a visitors centre. We sat through the panoramic movie screening which was interesting, but the diorama displays inside the centre were poor and embarrassing. Most people just come to see the sunset. It's so cold and windy up here. We had to put on all our layers and we alternated from hanging around the monument and then ducking inside the vistor centre to warm up. I think it's so windy because of the lack of any mountains at the very north coast. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0166-L.jpg Since we arrived at Nordkapp around 10:30PM, we had over an hour to kill before "sunset", so we goofed around a bit This is the second time we've ridden to the very northern reaches of a continent. The last time was when we trekked up the Dalton Road to Deadhorse, Alaska. What a different ride that was through the muck and mud. Norway's road to the Arctic Ocean is pretty much paved all the way, but it is still quite a long journey to travel from the rest of Europe. The distance from Copenhagen (the gateway to Scandinavia) and Nordkapp is 2,400 kms! That's almost half-way across Canada. Nordkapp is actually further north than Deadhorse, Alaska. Just over 100 kms closer to the North Pole. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0213-L.jpg Got so bored, I brought my motorcycle out from the parking lot and rode around the monument a few times Nordkapp is a popular tourist destination because a lot of people want to say they've traveled as far north as they could in continental Europe. But also, this spot is where you can catch the last Polar Day (24 hours of daylight) on the continent. It just worked out that this was the actual last day in 2015! We totally did not plan that, but when we found out, we were very excited to see it! As you can tell, so were a lot of other people. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0250-L.jpg Over an hour of waiting and loitering around, the moment is almost here! Neda waits with excited anticipation! It was a few minutes before midnight, and the sun was slowly sinking towards the horizon, turning the sky around it a deep shade of orange. But rather than disappearing from view and letting darkness slowly creep over the land, it halted its downward path right at the moment it touched the water and at the stroke of midnight, reversed direction to start climbing the sky again. Wow, that was cool! |
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Sunrise at 12:01AM. And there it is: the last day of the 24 hours of daylight in 2015 With the show over, we headed back to our campsite just a few kms away. There was a bit of traffic on the road back, because everyone else was leaving as if a concert or a baseball game just let out. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5864-L.jpg Back at our campsite just outside of Skarsvag This picture was taken around 1AM. This sun's been up for an hour already! Well, technically it never set, so really it's been up since May 14th... Isn't that crazy? I'm so surprised that Neda is not only wide awake but practically wired at this time of day (night?). Normally she starts turning into a pumpkin around 10PM and is fully asleep by 11. It's amazing how attuned she is to the sun. Unlike me, my normal sleep time is consistently around 2-3AM regardless of the time of year or where the sun is. But the minute Neda puts on her eye mask she is fast asleep. So I work a little bit on another blog entry in the campsite's kitchen before turning in. We've been constantly on the move over the last few weeks that it's left me with little time to edit pictures and write, so the blog is falling very far behind! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0260-L.jpg We wake up very late the next day and everyone's left. We're the only ones in the campsite! We're at no risk of running out of daylight up here, which suits us just fine because we like to dawdle in the mornings. However, this isn't going to last. Nowhere to go but south now and I'm not looking forward to the days getting shorter. At least it's finally sunny! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0261-L.jpg [B][SIZE=1]Deserted cabins at our campsite. These were expensive to rent out. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0266-L.jpg We rode into Skarsvag for a little bit to check out the town. Typical fishing village, but it has the distinction of being the northern-most one! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0273-L.jpg We got so close! And the antlers are so furry! Cute! Did you know male reindeers shed their antlers as well as their fur during moulting season? Their antlers grow back for the winter and get bigger every year the older they are. You can tell these antlers are already in their growing phase because they're covered with fur called velvet, which feeds nutrients to the growing bone underneath. Once the antlers grow to full size, the velvet is no longer needed and falls off. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0276-L.jpg Curious reindeers interrupt their feeding to check up on us https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0301-L.jpg They decide that we're not a threat and go back to eating to feed their growing antlers. Beautiful creatures! |
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Leaving Skarsvag and Nordkapp https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5880-L.jpg Heading south with the glorious sunshine above us! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5895-L.jpg https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5901-L.jpg As beautiful as they are, reindeers are kinda dumb. Every time we ride by a herd them, they inevitably cross the road in front of our motorcycles Lots of reindeer warning signs on the roads up here. Every year, 4000 reindeer collisions are reported in Northern Norway. Reminds me of the moose problem they have on the island of Newfoundland. |
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/250.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map250-L.jpg Neda is angry. We are scheduled to make a date-sensitive border crossing in a few days. Unfortunately while we were at Nordkapp I realized that I misremembered the date and it was actually six days later than I thought. Normally six days more time is not a bad problem to have, but because I got the date wrong, we were rushing through Norway a lot faster than Neda had planned. She wanted to enjoy the nature and do some hiking but all we did was ride and ride for two weeks. I reminded her that the weather was crappy, she couldn't have hiked anyway. Apparently it's not really an apology if it starts with a "But" and ends with "anyway"... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5909-L.jpg At least the weather has gotten a lot nicer We're traveling south through Finland and the scenery is the same homogeneous boreal forest that you find all over Canada and Scandinavia. It's a long ride back to mainland Europe, but we have lots of time, as I'm reminded constantly. During this time on the road, the squabbles and arguments bubble up again over the communicator. We've been looking forward to riding Norway the entire year and Neda is still upset that she didn't get to spend more time camping and hiking. There is a huge misunderstanding about leaving Lofoten earlier than she wanted. I thought she wanted to leave, she thought I wanted to leave. So we left and that wasn't what either of us wanted. Neda is angrier than I've ever seen her this entire trip. That makes me feel very defensive over what I thought was an honest mistake. Plus I'm also feeling under-appreciated for all the work I put in planning the next stage of our trip. Nothing is getting resolved. It's just better if we drop it and continue our ride. At least the groceries and camping are less expensive in Finland. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...IMG_2773-L.jpg I'll be honest with you. I don't know what kind of meat this is. I only bought it cause I thought the name was funny... It sounds like something you would say to a baby when you are tickling them. |
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Pulling into our first campsite outside of Ivalo, Finland https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5916-L.jpg Raining the next day. From Ivalo, we head down the main highway that passes through Rovaniemi. This is where the Arctic Circle runs through Finland, so we take a break from riding and pull into the visitor's centre there. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0314-L.jpg Much more commercial than Norway I'm so surprised at how developed Arctic Scandinavia is compared to North America. Maybe the weather is milder in this part of the world, but they've made more use of their land north of the Arctic Circle than we have. In Canada, 75% of our population live within 100 miles of the US border. Not that we're getting ready to do something. Yet... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0322-L.jpg Stepping over the Arctic Circle in Finland And then back on the road towards Oulu. The scenery is still the same. We start arguing once again about having to leave Norway early. You know how when you're fighting, sometimes it gets so heated that one person walks out and slams the door, or hangs up the phone? Well the equivalent here is switching off the comms when the other person is talking... It got ugly. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5941-L.jpg Silent treatment through much of Finland |
We have almost a week to kill before we can cross the border. So we attempt to get some regular maintenance done on our bikes at the dealership in Oulu. We've always just showed up at the service centre and have always gotten an appointment immediately. However here, they are busy for the next three weeks. The service manager helps us by calling around to the other dealerships in Finland and everyone is booked solid. We can't even make productive use of all this time we have on our hands.
We find a campsite in Oulu and during that time, we don't really say much to one another. With the midnight sun far behind us, the nights are getting darker now. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...IMG_2799-L.jpg Waiting it out in our campsite at Oulu, at least the weather is warmer After about a week in Oulu, we pack up and head to Savonlinna. It's here that we have a final knock-down, drag-out fight to end our time in Scandinavia. This is more than a simple argument about forgetting dates and we both know it. You don't argue about something that trivial for an entire week. We are not enjoying the trip anymore and the stress of having a schedule and rushing to meet dates is taking its toll on us after over three years of constant travel. I think all this stress started before we went to Toronto at the beginning of the summer. We had to rush through Central Europe to catch our flight back, it was busy and hectic while we were overseas, and then once we were back here we had to rush through Norway because of the border date (yes, the one I got wrong). To make matters worse, we are heading into a part of the world that requires visas and carnets at every crossing, with entry and exit dates carved in stone. So the dates and deadlines would only get tighter and more strict from hereon. We've always traveled when we wanted to and on our own schedule, but this won't be possible anymore when we travel though the countries in the Middle East and Central Asia. Just thinking about trying to stick to all those dates made our stress levels skyrocket. Part of me is very embarrassed that we've turned into the non-committal kind of people that cringe with visible distress at the sight of dates on a calendar. Has all of this freedom spoiled us that much? This is supposed to be fun and it most obviously isn't anymore. It's not worth the time or the damage to our relationship. So after much talk, we finally discussed the possibility that this trip might be over. And as soon as we both acknowledged this, an immense weight seemed to be lifted off of our shoulders. A weight that we've been carrying for a few months now. Perhaps we were trying too hard to hang on to something that should have been finished quite some time ago. The only problem is that we're not sure where home is anymore. Our trip back to Toronto confirmed that we don't really want to move back into the city. Maybe somewhere outside of it. Don't know. These are still things we have to talk about. So the current situation is that we have a couple of appointments we have to keep - dates that we had planned months ago. But the plan now is that after we've finished with those appointments, we would not make any further arrangements to continue our trip and in the meantime give some serious consideration about where we would end up. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0332-L.jpg Okay, so we're feeling better about things, so we resume our sightseeing I know we've missed out on a lot in Southern Finland because neither of us really felt like doing any sightseeing. But now that we've got some of our issues resolved, we try to make the most of it before moving on. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0334-L.jpg Checking out the Olavinlinna Castle in Savonlinna |
Its a shame that is has come to this for you. But better you are happy than miserable and that your relationship remains good and strong.
All the best in whatever you decide Wayne |
I am sorry to hear it has been so stressful for you guys. Good to know you have made a decision that feels right for you both. You know we well understand the issues of being on the road so long. Small things easily become SO BIG! The days with rain and cold really take the glamour out of "adventure motorcycling". Good luck with your next phase in life! Sara
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what ever you two decide being happy together is the most important. Wish you both well .
john |
Thanks everyone, appreciate the kind words!
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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/251.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map251-L.jpg OMG, we're entering Russia today! I'm so excited! And a bit scared. Out of all the countries we've traveled to, for me, Russia is the one that holds the most fascination and also the most uncertainty and trepidation. I was a child of the 80s. I grew up during the tail end of the Cold War with constant reminders of an impending nuclear armageddon flashing across all media. The newspapers and magazines were always full of stories of Mutually Assured Destruction, Doomsday Clocks and nuclear winters. The movies I grew up watching were Rocky IV, Red Dawn, Firefox, Red Heat, White Nights, Gorky Park and Moscow on the Hudson. At that age, I was on a 24-hour diet of music videos: Genesis' "Land of Confusion", Iron Maiden's "2 Minutes to Midnight", Sting's "Russians" were all featured heavily in the rotation. For an entire decade. I was continually bombarded with images and information that taught me that the Soviets hated us and wanted nothing more than to wipe the Western world off the globe with their arsenal of thermonuclear intercontinental ballistic missiles ("Do you want to play a game?") - each individual one of them stenciled with a red hammer and sickle on the side. Things change. The wall fell. Some bald Russian guy with a stain on his head introduced glastnost and perestroika to the Western lexicon. The USSR became Russia. AC/DC played a huge concert in Moscow and then suddenly overnight everyone became friends again. But it's not that easy to forget how it felt to grow up under the threat of nuclear holocaust. Thirty years later, we're riding our motorcycles towards the Finland/Russia border and I've got butterflies in my stomach. Just last year, Russia annexed the Crimea. Their actions were condemned worldwide and the entire country is now suffering through economic sanctions. Everyday, the headlines shout dire warnings about the proxy war that's escalating between Russia and the US in Syria. It feels like the Cold War all over again and I'm more feaful of today's border crossing than I was when we first crossed into Mexico. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...lication-M.jpg Filling in the Russian Visa application form And also: Russia does not want tourists. You can't just show up at the border with your passport and visit the Russian Federation. While we were in Toronto earlier this summer, I went through the steps to apply for a Tourist Visa - the first one we've had to do this entire trip. The form was long and tedious (see above). But worse of all, we had to state on the application the date and the place where we would be entering and exiting Russia. Even back then, that stressed the hell out of us. We had to cross reference our routes through Northern Europe and then Scandinavia, plan out each day's mileage, activity and rest stops in order to calculate a date so far in the future that we could arrive at the border. That's just not the way we travel. But we eventually came up with an entry date that felt right for us and then we started filling out the application form. "How long do you intend to stay in Russia?". Well, how long *can* we stay? "Maximum 30 days". Okay, we apply for a 30-day visa. We always apply for the maximum time at border crossings. Why wouldn't you? You have to submit your application in person at the Russian embassy, where they interview you. That sounds pretty serious. We made an appointment, showed up with all our forms and documents and the lady that interviewed us took one look at the dates we had requested and asked, "What are you planning on doing for 30 days in Russia?". I was taken aback. We didn't have any plans, we were just going to show up, look around and then leave when our visa expired. I made the mistake of saying this out loud. The lady at the Russian embassy shook her head. So I made up a route on the spot. I reeled off a couple of things we wanted to see, places I read about. She shook her head again, "That is not going to take you 30 days to see all of that". But... but... but... what about 'Slow Travel'? We made a YouTube video about it. That's what we want to do in Russia! I don't say this last part out loud... Well apparently this is not the way things work in Russia. You have to document in explicit detail your route, the cities you are visiting, when you'll be there in each city, the names and addresses of all the hotels which you'll be staying at - basically they want to know where you will be in the country every minute of your stay. The Russian embassy wanted us to show them hotel reservations *before* they were going to issue us visas. This seemed a bit backwards to me. It was very obvious: Russia does not want tourists. So our visa application was rejected. I want to say that the lady in the embassy did so with a thick Russian accent and with KGB-like ruthlessness: "Pearrr-mee-shun deee-nyed!", but really her accent was more Canadian with only a hint of Russian and she was quite nice and told us how to fill out the form again and rebooked us for another appointment. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0482-L.jpg Armed with a thick sheaf of supporting documentation, we passed the second visa application. I like seeing my name in Cyrillic! Mother Russia here we come! |
So back to us in Finland. We are crossing at Niirala which is about an hour and a half east of Savonlinna.
As we were being stamped out of the Schengen Zone at the Finnish side, the border guard smiled at us and warned us of the bad Russian roads. Uh oh. Would this be the last friendly face we would see for a while? We lined up at the Russian border surrounded by vehicles with mostly Finnish license plates and a few with Russian Federation plates. I wanted to record everything about this exciting border crossing, but there was a sign with a camera and a slash through it. No pictures allowed. I remember all those 80s movies I saw about KGB interrogation and torture and I keep my camera in the tankbag. Finally it was our turn to cross, and we got off our bikes and walked up to the immigration booth. A young man working there, not more than 25-years old, flashed a big grin and welcomed us enthusiastically. Okay! This might not be so bad. He was so friendly and it was a great introduction to Russia. He was eager to practice his English and everything appeared to go smoothly. Until he stared in puzzlement at my visa and called his superior over (she was not much older than him, didn't speak as much English) and they talked for a while in Russian, pointing at my visa, talking more then shaking their heads. Uh oh. There was some kind of discrepancy with the visa. The embassy in Canada is familiar with Anglo names, so they know "Gene" is pronounced with a soft "G". The translated phonetic Cyrillic letter is "Ж". But in Russia, the equivalent of my name is Evgeni with a hard "G" (like "Ghetto") so they were expecting my name to be spelled with a "Г". That's КЯДZУ. I was assured it was not a big deal. I got my visa stamped and Neda cleared okay as well. *phew* I used one of the three Russian words I knew, "Spacibo!" So far, Russia was young, friendly and welcoming! ...Until we hit the second booth at the border: customs. Here was the old ex-KGB officer with the fur hat and the permanent scowl on his face. Demoted from torturing western spies, his job now was to make sure we didn't smuggle Finnish cigarettes into the country. We had to fill out forms to temporary import our vehicles into Russia and all the while his frowning face made me nervous. "Bravely we hope against all hope. There is so much at stake, seems our freedom's up against the ropes..." I'm singing the theme song to Rocky IV in my head. I can't stop it. The ex-KGB officer glares menacingly at our paperwork, like a much older Ivan Drago staring down Rocky Balboa. And he stamps it. We're in! AHHHHH!!! We're in Russia! I know it doesn't sound very dramatic, but I was so nervous crossing the border. Neda on the other hand was quite calm and found all my worrying very amusing. Meh, she probably tortured quite a few western spies herself back in the 80s in Yugoslavia. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5946-L.jpg Trying to find vehicle insurance. This search was so familiar. In Latin America, this would be called seguros para extranjeros. Once across the border, I knew we had to purchase vehicle insurance, but nobody at the border knew where we could go to get it. All the Finns crossing over already had their insurance, so they were of no help. Unfortunately, I forgot to look this up on the Internet beforehand, so we rode around asking random people where to get insurance. Neda had to use her Croatian/Slavic skills, which led us to the suspicious-looking shack above. They didn't have what we were looking for. So after spending quite some time riding around the border without finding insurance, we gave up and decided to forge on. The political situation in Russia is not the only thing that concerns me. Everything that I've read warns me that Russian drivers are the most dangerous in the world. That coupled with the alleged corruption within the Russian police force makes us a bit nervous about riding without insurance, but what can we do? While we're in Russia, it's decided that I will do all the leading because Neda is a chronic speeder and finds it physically impossible to obey speed limits. And now that we're riding without insurance it's even more important that we don't get nabbed for breaking the law. Because KGB. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0347-L.jpg Lots of old shacks and broken down cars in the yards in rural Russia. Red Necks? Red. Necks. The geography here is not so much different from Scandinavia, lots of trees. The greenery is more wild, less maintained and the road coming out of the border crossing was terrible, but once we were on the main highway, it seemed fine. There weren't a lot of cars around since we're kind of far away from any major urban centres up here, but so far we haven't seen any evidence of those crazy Russian drivers. |
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While we were stopped for a photo break at the side of the road, a friendly Russian motorcyclist stops to say hi As he rode by he saw our license plates, so he turned around to talk to us. His English was good and he told us of some places where we could stop to grab food on the road. Nice guy! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0350-L.jpg Neda shops for groceries and I do some photo hunting We actually rode on for a while longer and stopped in one of the small towns that the main road passes through. Neda ducks into the grocery store to pick up some lunch for us and I walk around to take some pictures. Most of the buildings are non-descript, I wouldn't call them Soviet-style, but they weren't modern. There did seem to be a lot of run-down buildings here. The economy doesn't seem as robust as Finland or Scandinavia. Also I noted that the most common fashion on men walking around on the street are army fatigues. And it's obvious that they're not actually in the army. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0356-L.jpg And then we pass this on the road! I *HAVE* to get a picture with this! It looks to be the tail or a wing of a Soviet airplane planted as a monument on the side of the road. I ride offroad to get to the monument, a little bit worried that KGB would come and take me away for breaking the law, but I was excited because this kind of stuff was what I wanted to see! Neda thinks I'm nuts, but she takes a picture of me posing with an airplane wing at the side of the road anyway... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0363-L.jpg We were driving into town and Neda and I were talking about Russian cars because we saw several old Ladas on the road We were behind one of them in traffic trying to make out the symbol on the badge, a stylized sail, and Neda said, "Oh, it's a ship! Did you know the Croatian word for ship is Ladja.... ooooooh!" I could see the lightbulb turn on above her helmet. Neda's language skills are going to come in handy here in Russia. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5954-L.jpg I didn't know they still make Ladas. Here's a newer one that we were talking about. Lovin' the huge sail in the back! |
Our first stop in Russia is a small city called Petrozavodsk. It's the capital of the region that we're in, the Republic of Karelia, and is about four hours away from the border. All the signs are written in Cyrillic, so I have to memorize what Petrozavodsk looks like in foreign squiggles. It looks like this: "Петрозаводск".
Yeah. Good luck with that, MonoLingualGene! We pass by the road signs too quickly for me to read the whole thing, so instead I look for the pi symbol at the beginning of the word and hope that we're headed to Petrozavodsk and not Podpodrozhye... By the way, I love saying the word, Petrozavodsk! I think that's probably the most Russian-sounding word you could ever come up with. Petrozavodsk. It sounds like a word you would use to describe Vodka that's so strong that it tastes like Petrol. And when you say it, you have to pronounce it with a drunken Russian accent: "Da Petrazavodsk, tovarisch! Nasdarovje!" Totally going to Petrozavodsk just because of the name... :D https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0672-L.jpg Petrozavodsk railway station, right beside our hotel. I love the star at the top of the spire! The star lights up red at night. Cool. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0366-L.jpg "Is it east vs west? Or man against man? Can any nation stand alone...." Ahhh! Get out of my head, Survivor! Although Petrozavodsk is not a very pretty town, I am totally loving all the signs in Cyrillic, it makes it feel so exotic. And seeing these Western companies' signs in Cyrillic reminds me of when the first McDonalds opened in Russia back in 1990. I remember when that happened, it was big news at the time. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0371-L.jpg Nice to see that motorcyclists are all the same all over the world https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0374-L.jpg KFC has taken over a neoclassical building *smh* https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0377-L.jpg The sign on the coffee shop reads "Central Perk" in Cyrillic. Haha! |
We wanted to try some Russian food, so we went on the Internet to find the most popular Russian restaurant. There's a lot of game meat on the menu, but we were here for one thing: bear! Unfortunately it wasn't in season. But I'm getting the impression that we're out in the boonies if bear is on the menu.
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0378-L.jpg Drinking an alcoholic beverage called kvas. I wanted to order the harder stuff they kept under the counter, I think it's called Petrozavodsk https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0387-L.jpg The most scenic part of the city is the boardwalk along the shore of Lake Onega https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0382-L.jpg At the boardwalk, there was a motorcycle meet going on. Too dark to take good pictures, but here's one anyway. Seeing all these motorcycles we wanted to rush back to the hotel, grab our bikes and ride down to pose and hang out with these guys! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0388-L.jpg Walking the boardwalk at night in Petrozavodsk https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0393-L.jpg Petrozavodsk at night |
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The boardwalk during the day https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0652-L.jpg https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0661-L.jpg Doing some fishing off the boardwalk Whohoo! Evgeni and Neda in Russia! On motorcycles! So friggin' КФФL!!! I can't wait to see more of it! Here's a little earbug to celebrate! "I must break you!" |
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/252.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map252-L.jpg https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0394-L.jpg We're trading our motorcycles for a hydrofoil today! It looks like Captain Nemo's submarine, the Nautilus! We're doing some sightseeing today. We walk down to the harbour in Petrozavodsk and pick up tickets for the 1.5 hour hydrofoil ride across Lake Onega to Kizhi Island. There we are going to visit the Kizhi Open-Air Museum, also known as the Kizhi Museum of Wooden Architecture. It's a UNESCO site, so that means we *have* to go visit it. We're like thousands of miles away from Latin America but somehow we're still on the Gringo Trail! On Kizhi Island, there are several wooden buildings that have been relocated and reassembled from all over Karelia. The main exhibit is called the Kizhi Pogost (enclosure), which is collection of three buildings (two churches and a bell tower), of which the most famous of the three that everyone comes to visit is the Church of the Transfiguration of Our Saviour. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0407-L.jpg Two of the churches in the Pogost. As we get closer, dark skies quickly begin to roll in You know, we managed to lose the RideDOT.com rains in Finland, enjoying pretty clear weather for most of our time there. But now the rains seemed to have caught our scent again and before we know it, it starts coming down so hard that we're forced to take shelter in one of the other wooden houses just outside the Pogost. |
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Inside a typical house This house is part of another exhibit called "The Russians of Zaonezhye". In this exhibit, there are several wooden houses that have been relocated from the eastern shores of Lake Onega. They date back to the late 1800s-early 1900s and are typical peasant houses that have been decorated inside to show what life was like in that period. There was a tour group in the building led by a guide explaining what everything was. In Russian. Which neither of us understood, so everything I'm writing is from the Internet. There were actually a few different tour groups packed into this building because of the rain. From the way the Russian tourists were staring at me, I got the impression that everyone on the tour knew that we had brought the rains with us. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0478-L.jpg My camera is happy to find an indigenous Russian person! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0467-L.jpg Indigenous craftswork! Unfortunately these aren't real indigenous people. They work at the museum and are just dressed up to show the period clothing. That makes my camera sad. We have something exactly like this in Toronto called Black Creek Pioneer Village. They've also collected buildings from all over South-West Ontario and from around the same period (1800s) as well and reassembled them all in one place. And they too have employed students to dress up in period costumes so you can take pictures with them. Wow. We rode all the way to Russia just to visit Black Creek Pioneer Village... :) |
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Checking to see if it's still raining outside, looks good? https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0571-L.jpg Yes, time to explore outside. That's a traditional farm house over there https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0431-L.jpg Looking for food? Stick around, I'll see if I can Scare something up. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0453-L.jpg The Archangel Michael Chapel in the background |
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Not indigenous Russians on their lunch break https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0495-XL.jpg Carving wooden dolls for the gift shop https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0515-L.jpg Archangel Michael Chapel The crosses on top of these churches are a bit different than the ones I'm used to seeing. They have three cross beams and the bottom one is angled. I found out that these are the crosses of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The top beam is symbolic of the plaque that bears Pontius Pilate's inscription, the middle beam is the part of the cross that the hands are nailed to, and the bottom angled beam is the foot support. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0503-XL.jpg There was a guy ringing out the church bells of Archangel Michael Chapel https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0511-L.jpg But the most famous bells are in the Bell Tower of Kizhi Pogost. It's right next to the Transfiguration Church and is the third building in the Kizhi Pogost exhibition |
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The windmill from the village of Volkostrov https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0529-L.jpg https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0553-L.jpg In the foreground is the Church of the Intercession, it has 8 onion-shaped domes while the Church of the Transfiguration has 22! I'm so glad the weather cleared up. The wood on the domes made it seem like they were made of silver, glistening in the sunlight! The original church was supposedly built without a single nail. It's changed over time, but in 1950 it was restored to its original design. Unfortunately when we visited there were extensive renovations to the body of the church. It would have been nice to see it without all the scaffolding. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0594-XL.jpg Hey, they lied! I see nails! This was a sample cutaway showing how the overlapping tiling is arranged on the onion domes https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0566-L.jpg The domes look very Oriental. Domo Arigato. |
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I'm not sure these were real priests, but they sang some hymns acapella and they had beautiful voices. I don't think they were real priests because they were selling their CD off to the side. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0583-L.jpg Tour group exiting one of the buildings, almost everyone visiting was Russian https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0590-L.jpg More renovations https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0622-L.jpg We hiked around the island a little bit and saw how the rich Russians tourists arrive! Oh well, back to our hydrofoil... This was a pretty cool place to visit and it was waaay better than Black Creek Pioneer Village! Getting to Russia was kind of stressful because we had to stay on a schedule through most of Scandinavia. But seeing stuff like this is starting to make it all worthwhile. |
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/253.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map253-L.jpg We're heading south today, away from the hinterlands of Karelia towards more populated parts of Russia. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0675-L.jpg Stopping for a food break. We notice there's a truck on the other side of the road selling stuff https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0674-L.jpg The sign on the truck reads: Buy Money Badges Not sure what exactly he's selling, they look like trinkets and fruits and vegetables. But from what I know about people selling stuff from the back of a truck on the side of the road - most likely it's not entirely legal. We eat our food on the other side of the road while the driver eyes us warily. I sense he is ready to make a break for it if he suspects we are KGB. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5956-L.jpg While stuffing my mouth with a sandwich, I do an inspection of our bikes and then I see this: BMW Disease... Oil is leaking out of my shaft drive. I hadn't noticed this through Norway because it was raining so much, but this stretch of dry weather we're having has allowed the oil to collect at the bottom of the hub so it's finally noticeable. Dammit! I just had the seals replaced 20K ago! It doesn't look serious enough that it requires immediate attention, so we'll forge ahead and try to get it looked at when we pass a BMW shop. On the whole, my bike hasn't had that many problems given the age and the mileage it's done, but by far the weakest part of the motorcycle is the shaft drive. I've had so many problems, it's been quite costly and time-consuming. |
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Back on the road. More people selling food at the side of the road Russia is currently going through a food crisis. Most of the countries in the western world have imposed economic sanctions on Russia because of the invasion in Crimea, mostly against the finance, defense and energy sectors of the Russian economy. In retaliation, Russia responded with their own sanctions against these countries, refusing to buy food from them. Although this sounds a lot like shooting themselves in their own foot, I found out that Russia imports a lot of food from western countries and currently there are mountains of produce in Europe piling up and these sanctions are significantly impacting the economies of countries who trade with Russia. Norway exports a lot of fish and seafood to Russia, and Canada's pork industry is heavily reliant on them as well. Russia is still able to provide basic sustenance for their citizens. The sanctions apply to meat, fish, fruit, vegetables, dairy and poultry, all stuff that Russia is able to provide once it ramps up its own produce industry once again, but in the meantime, the supplies are scarce in the grocery stores and the prices are climbing in response to the shortages. To make matters worse, the government has decreed that any Western food imports already in the country will be destroyed. We just read in the newspaper yesterday that massive quantities of cheese have been bulldozed into the earth. So far, 550 *tonnes* of "illegal" food have been steamrolled, burned or buried. That is crazy!!! Although Putin receives a lot of support and approval in his country, these latest acts of nose-thumbing towards the west have gone too far in the minds of many Russians, especially when there is still so much poverty in the country. And yet in other news, girls wearing t-shirts reading, "Eat Russian" are marauding through grocery stores and reporting illegal western foods still on the shelves to the police. It is quite amazing to be in the middle of all of this while it's happening. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...IMG_2828-L.jpg All this is fine, as long as the price of our beloved cырок stay low! When we first entered Russia, Neda picked up this candy in the grocery store called cырок (syrok). We didn't know what it was, but when we bit into it, it was delicious! It's basically sweetened cheese curds covered in chocolate. The curds have the taste and consistency of cheesecake. You can get them in different flavours, also with jam as well, we love it! Every time we go grocery shopping now we pick up more syrok. Hopefully the ban on dairy will not affect the pricing on our beloved cырок! |
As we get closer to St Petersburg, the second-most populated city in Russia, the traffic starts to get more dense. As the cars and trucks continue to clog the roadways, the drivers become much more reckless. Impatient drivers from oncoming traffic pull out into our lane, only to pass one or two cars at a time. They wait until the very last millisecond to duck back into their lane. There is a lot of swearing going on in our helmets as a couple of drivers don't even bother to tuck back into their own lane, forcing us onto the shoulder! WTF!!!!
These are the crazy Russian drivers we had heard about. It was terrible. Last year, there were over 220,000 traffic accidents in the country, contributing to 28,000 deaths. Just go on YouTube and search for Crazy Russian Drivers. A large part of the problem is poor traffic enforcement. Lawlessness on the road is rampant when you know nobody is going to stop you from doing idiotic things. But also vodka. We're still riding without insurance, so this worries me quite a lot. To make matters worse, an hour outside of the city, I noticed that my engine is losing power at high revs. Everything under 4,000 rpms is fine, but the minute I rev the engine above that, it loses power. ARGH!!! This is very concerning, it's the first serious issue I've had with the engine. What makes matters worse is that we're on a tight timeline through Russia. We can't afford to hunker down in a city and try to get it fixed here because of the looming expiration date on our visas. This is stressing me out a bit and just hammers home the point that we are not psychologically prepared to continue overland across Central Asia with all of its strict entry and exit dates. As long as I keep the revs down on the engine, everything seems fine. We limp my bike through the gauntlet of crazy Russian drivers without insurance into the heart of Saint Petersburg and try to find our hotel. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0653-L.jpg We made it to Saint Petersburg in one piece! Coincidentally, the building behind me is called The Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood... We'll have to check it out later We find our hotel and thankfully they are able to find us a parking spot in this crowded neighbourhood. I park my bike and christen the spot that it's resting on the Church on Spilled Drive Shaft Oil. I have to do some Googling to figure out how serious the engine problem is. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0890-L.jpg Our neighbourhood, Nevsky Prospekt https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0704-L.jpg We are in the heart of the shopping district |
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Saint Petersburg is basically a city built on over 40 islands. Connecting these islands are 342 bridges, which earns it its nickname: "The Venice of the North". Most of these islands are very close together, the bridges spanning over canals no wider than a four-lane road. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0881-L.jpg Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood is perhaps the most striking building in Saint Petersburg https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0888-L.jpg Another bridge over Neva RIver https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0679-L.jpg Russian tourists on a cruise of the Neva River |
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Looks like a wedding in one of the old buildings https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0685-L.jpg Shop display in our neighbourhood, Nevsky Prospekt https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0863-L.jpg A bit of the old still mingles with all the new Saint Petersburg is such a beautiful place. It's the most westernized city in Russia and the architecture is so reminiscent of all the old European cities that we've visited in the last year and a half. However, this wasn't the Russia that I was hoping to see. After the western media's Cold War indoctrination on the evils of the USSR, I wanted to see some of that Soviet culture in the buildings, the people and their stories. I so wanted to talk to an older Russian person, to ask them what it was like experiencing the Cold War from the other side of the Iron Curtain. What did they think of the western world? Did they fear and villainize us like we did them? These are the things I was most curious and fascinated about coming to Russia. But Saint Petersburg is not going to satisfy my curiousity. It's basically Europe. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0867-L.jpg Members of the Russian army choir outside our hotel giving a concert. They were singing Adele's Skyfall... See what I mean? |
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So we decided to pay some money to visit the Russian Museum to see if we could get a glimpse of that period in history The Russian Museum houses a vast collection of fine art throughout this country's history. I think there's a lot of over-representation of art from the 18th-19th century, lots of cossacks on horses. It seems to be the most celebrated and romantic period. However there was very little on the art of the Soviet era, from the 1920s through to the late 80s. It's not surprising, this was a difficult period for most Russians, marked by poverty, hunger and lower life expectancy. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0626-L.jpg There was a small wing dedicated to the Socialist Realism art of the Soviet Union A lot of art historians think the Socialist Realism movement is boring. They call the art, "Girl Meets Tractor". I don't care what they say. Personally, I think this period of Soviet art is fascinating. I see so much struggle in the brush strokes portraying the common people caught in a larger political upswelling, the waves of an ideology that mattered none to the toils of putting food on the table. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0613-L.jpg The picture on the left, "Queue" by Alexei Sundukov in 1986 really hit home for Neda. From the style of the clothing that the women in line were wearing to the theme of the painting, it really reminded her of former Yugoslavia. It struck me that I didn't really need to find someone to talk to about the Soviet era. I was already traveling with one. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0609-L.jpg Actually not present-day Russia... I've discovered I'm a bit of a SovietPhile! The adventures of Comrade Neda and Evgeny continue. |
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/254.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map254-L.jpg Today we're meeting up with our Russian friend Varvara. We met her when we were riding around Iceland a few years ago. It's been exactly four years ago to the day! Varavara was still in high school at the time on vacation with her mom. We took a tour of the Golden Triangle with them and really got along with her. We've kept in touch ever since and now that we're in her hometown, what better way to see the city than with a local to show us around! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0579-L.jpg A happy reunion! Varvara met us at our hotel in the early afternoon. She's so grown up now! She's just finishing up her university studies. Wow, how time flies! Ugh, I feel so old. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0709-L.jpg She took us on a little walking tour of Nevsky Prospekt, and we caught up with each other's lives https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0727-L.jpg Walking along Griboedov Canal to check out the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood again |
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And then suddenly, some excitement breaks out in the square in front of the church!!! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0584-L.jpg Ah, it's just a movie being shot here on location. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0765-XL.jpg Around the church, girls in mini-skirts approached every male in sight. You could take a picture with them in front of the church for a fee... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0605-L.jpg The church is so striking amongst all the old European buildings Russia is only one of a handful of trans-continental countries that straddle Europe and Asia. St Peterburg is firmly planted on European soil in terms of location and architecture, but when we saw this church, it really stood out because of its Middle-Eastern stylings. The exterior is so colourful and ornamental, with over-the-top decorated onion domes that would not look out of place in Persia. |
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Blue skies above the church Varvara says we are quite lucky to be having such nice weather in St Petersburg. The city is typically blanketed by high cloud cover, experiencing only 75 sunny days per year. That's 1 sunny day out of every 5 days. And we've had great weather the whole time we've been here! Wow, perhaps our streak is finally over? https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0705-L.jpg Varvara teaches Neda the Russian Macarena Not really. Varvara wasn't even born when the Macarena came out. Ugh, I feel so old... It was very interesting talking with Varvara about present-day Russia. Obviously she doesn't remember anything from the Soviet era aside from the stories that her mom and grandmother tell her, but she gave us precious insight into how young people in the most Western city in Russia feel about the politics and how their country is perceived on the world stage. There is a nostalgia for the old Tsarist days when the Russian empire included all the current Baltic states, Central Asia and Finland. Many old-timers see the annexation of Crimea as a return to those heady times. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0772-L.jpg Boat cruises on the Neva River https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0771-L.jpg Lots of weddings this weekend, they lucked out with the weather just like we did! |
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We walk towards the Winter Palace and pass the arch of the Grand Staff Building https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0797-L.jpg Young people congregate at the Winter Palace grounds doing young people things https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0804-L.jpg Longboarding is popular all around the world https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0806-L.jpg Winter Palace - home of the Russian monarchs from the 1700s till they were evicted by KGB after the Russian Revolution If I made movies, I would make KGB the bad guys in every one of them. They're totally badass and they don't take any Bolshevik from anyone. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0811-L.jpg Just like in Hollywood, St Petersburg has a Home of the Tsars tour... |
We asked Varvara to teach us some Russian words. Most of the Russian words I know I learned from Piotr Nikolaievitch. He was Colossus in the X-men comic books. The only complete Russian phrase I know is, "Spacibo. Do svidaniya, tovarisch!"
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0815-L.jpg Those two brown columns in the distance, the Rostral columns, marked the spot where St Petersburg's main port was once located https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0819-XL.jpg The Peter and Paul Fortress, the original citadel in St Petersburg https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SC_0837-XL.jpg And yet another Russian wedding. This guy brought his own hashtag for their Instagram wedding pictures. So not Soviet-era... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0839-L.jpg St Isaac's Cathedral https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0841-L.jpg Enjoying the weather with a ride along the canal, cathedral in the background |
Varvara asks us if we've tried any Russian food and what was our favorite. We both replied, "Syrok!" She laughed at that and Neda asks embarrassingly, "Why is that funny? Is that like kids' food?" Varavara was expecting that we would mention some Russian cuisine, and not a candy bar... :) *shrug* We're hobos. So she offered to take us to try some real Russian food.
Because of my interest in anything Soviet, Varvara knew exactly where to take us. The name of this restaurant is called "квартиpка." (Kvartirka.), which is Russian for "small apartment." The name actually has a period at the end of it. It's decorated inside like a typical Soviet-era apartment. Kinda kitschy, but I really liked it. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0856-L.jpg You have to read the menu with a Russian accent, then the grammar makes total sense! LOL! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0854-L.jpg Everything inside the restaurant was decorated with items from the 70s and 80s. Russians love to put carpets up on the wall. Google "Russian Carpets On Walls"! It's actually a thing. We saw these all over the restaurant. Haha! This is what I came to Russia to see!!! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...s/0/O/meme.jpg You know it's a thing when there's a meme for it! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0846-L.jpg Little bits of Russian kitsch decorating the walls of the kvartirka. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0853-L.jpg So nice to hang out with a local that knows where to go! |
I asked Varvara what was typical, and she told us that she really liked пельмени (Polmeni), which are dumplings filled with cheeses or meats, kind of like ravioli. The thing that makes it regional are the sauces that it's served with.
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0859-L.jpg Pelmeni! Yummy! The sauces are served on the side, I ordered cheese sauce. Well, at least I got a little bit of the Soviet experience, even though it was kind of set up for tourists! :) We thanked Varvara for showing us around St Petersburg. It was nice seeing her again and she was such a great guide - so knowledgeable and insightful about her city and country! I wish we had a local guide every place we go to, it really enriches the experience for us. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5960-L.jpg Leaving the Church on Spilled Driveshaft Oil I had some time the last couple of days to research and poke around my bike to see if the loss of power at high revs was something I could diagnose myself. Google searches strongly suggested a sparking problem. I just had the spark plugs replaced 15K ago, so that's probably not it. Lately, I've been resting my feet a lot on the crash bars below the cylinder head and I strongly suspect I've kicked an ignition coil wire loose. So I run out into the parking lot, checked the plugs and the wiring. Nothing. So I'm stumped. I'll have to limp it out of Saint Petersburg since we're on a timeline to exit the country before our visa expires. Hm. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl.../leaving-L.jpg Saying "Do svidaniya" to St Petersburg! |
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/255.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl.../map255a-L.jpg We're leaving Russia today. Part of me is kind of sad that we're only clipping the very north-west corner of this vast country. We made the decision not to ride towards Moscow because we heard the traffic was terrible and that it was just another big city. But also because, yes you guessed it, it was the home of KGB. I sense there's a lot more of the country to discover on the Asian continental side. But another part of me is kind of relieved because we're heading towards our first real rest break in months. The trip to the border crossing at Narva was uneventful. I was still limping my bike on the road, keeping the revs under 4000 rpm so as not to trip whatever it was that was cutting the power. I'm also glad that we're heading to a place where we can take our time to fix this issue. The lineup at the border to get out of Russia and into Estonia was long. We baked under a late summer sun, peeling off all our layers and pushing our motorcycles a few meters at a time closer to the Schengen Zone where our EU passports would let us back onto home soil again. The Russian exit procedure was uncomplicated, just understaffed. A quick check of our visa to make sure we hadn't overstayed and then we were let out into No Mans Land to wait at the Estonian border control. And here was the big difference: nice shiny modern booths in Estonia, multiple checkpoints that processed everyone in line so quickly and efficiently. The customs person looked mildly interested that we were riding our Canadian-plated motorcycles in with Euro passports and then just like that, we were back home. Funny, I've never been to Estonia before but as far as our passports were concerned, it was home. The capital city, Tallinn, is just a few hours ride west from the Russian border. We have an AirBnB place booked for a week, should be long enough for the local BMW shop to fix my motorcycle. |
Week 1
There are quite a number of chores that need to be done before we can relax. Laundry from Russia was first on the list. So was stocking up on groceries for the week. Neda has a number of health issues that have popped up in the last month or so - she has a toothache that needs to be looked at, as well as a mole on her back that has grown quite rapidly that also needs to be examined. Well, we've got the time. Because we were shut out of the service centres in Finland, we were sure to book ahead for an appointment at the BMW shop here in Tallinn, so they were ready for us. We brought my bike in first, so we could still use Neda's bike for runs around town. I explained the power loss on my bike and relayed to the Service Manager my suspicions that it was a sparking problem. He nodded his head in that patient manner that doctors have when you tell them what you found on the Internet about your medical symptoms: "Thank you, but let the experts determine what the real problem is..." https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0656-L.jpg First on the list of things to do. Laundry... Well my chores are over. I'm not leaving the apartment until the bike is fixed. I really want to get the blog caught up. At this point, we're close to three months behind where we really are. It's kind of daunting going through all the pictures I've taken. So in between procrastinating on working on the blog, I've started watching the new Doctor Who series (well new from 2005). I used to watch the old series back in the 80s. Tom Baker was my Doctor. This new guy Eccleston will take a bit of getting used to. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0893-L.jpg TV is my new hobby. Neda with her favorite downtime activity Neda now has an opportunity to start another cross-stitching pattern. She's finally found a hobby in the downtime that occupies her time in an engaging fashion. She's also enjoying having a real kitchen again and is trying new recipes all the time. The BMW dealership e-mailed me back and said the diagnostics pointed to an ECU failure. They recommended replacing it. Damn, that's going to be expensive. But what to do? They said that it would take a week to order one in from Germany. But I wasn't really in any kind of rush to leave Tallinn. And there are eight seasons of Doctor Who, so... |
Week 2
Neda is getting restless. That didn't take long. She's signed up for Yoga classes. Our AirBnB rental was up and there was another tenant moving in. This is high season for Tallinn, so we have to scramble a little bit to find another AirBnB rental. We book for another week in a place just 10 minutes away. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0895-L.jpg Estonian Pasteet. Yummy! Unlike the French "terrine", the Estonians willfully acknowledge that this is pâté From what little I've seen of Tallinn and Estonia, I'm very surprised at how affluent this country is. The language is not Slavic, and although it was under Soviet rule for some time, the people and their language and culture seem to have more in common with Finland. Lots of blonde people in Estonia. But, like Scandinavia, no need to learn Estonian. Most people speak English here. The BMW dealership e-mails me to let me know that the ECU came in from Germany. But when they installed it, it turned out that it wasn't the ECU that was the problem. It was a faulty ignition coil. Which is what I originally thought. But I don't know how to say, "I told you so" in Estonian, so I just authorize the repair. At least it's going to save me close to $700, the difference between the ECU and an ignition coil. The blog is slow-going. I haven't really written anything. But I have made a dent in Doctor Who though. Starting Season 3 now. The David Tennant years. I like this guy better than Eccleston. The stories are kind of hit and miss though. We've got a few weeks before our last scheduled appointment in Europe. After that, we still haven't decided what we want to do or where we're going to end up. I'm just content not doing anything and not going anywhere right now. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0906-L.jpg Neda's first completed cross-stitch! She's so proud of it. She's going to send it to Eva in Belgium. A couple of days later, the BMW dealership lets me know the ignition coil is installed and everything works perfectly. They took apart the shaft drive and the problem wasn't a seal, but a worn bearing that has to be replaced. So I was up $700 briefly and now I'm back down again. Dammit. And also, it's going to take another week to order the bearing from BMW in Germany. Why they didn't just diagnose everything all at once and then order all the parts at the same time, I don't know. But oddly, I didn't mind one bit. I really wasn't done vegging on the couch watching Doctor Who. I don't know how to say, "Take your time" in Estonian, so I just authorize the repairs. |
Week 3
Wow, that Matt Smith is the best Doctor ever. As expected, Neda is overcoming her travel fatigue a lot faster than I am. She's taken to exploring Tallinn on her own while I watch the summer pass quickly by from the window of our apartment. I feel like one of those old Croatian grandmothers staring out the window onto the street... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...O/security.jpg I don't feel guilty at all wasting such good weather holed up indoors. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5970-L.jpg Medieval old town of Tallinn https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5969-L.jpg Souvenir stores line the cobblestoned pedestrian walkways in the old town https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5964-L.jpg https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5973-L.jpg Playing up the Medieval Theme. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5974-L.jpg Some of the original preserved structures in the old town date back to the 1300s Still haven't updated the blog. So many pictures to wade through... I'm going to leave a post-it note on the camera that reads, "Don't wear out the shutter button, FutureGene!" A few people have sent concerned e-mails because of the lack of updates, which is so nice. Thanks guys! One afternoon, Neda comes back to the apartment and exclaims, "Estonian women are so beautiful! I was in the back of Yoga class today and couldn't stop staring at all the gorgeous women!" She looks at me expecting some kind of response. I've been married for 11 years now and I know a trap when I hear one. So, after carefully measuring out my words, I look her straight in the eye and reply with a steady voice, "I think the Pula Arena is the most beautiful amphitheatre in the world." Crisis averted! FTW! The dealership called to inform me that the shaft drive has been repaired. I ride over with Neda's bike and do an exchange. Her motorcycle just needs regular maintenance, but there is an intermittent Check ABS light on the dash that needs to be looked at. Riding back through the city streets of Tallinn, the bike rides and sounds healthy once again. I love my bike. We've been married for almost 210,000 kms. I whisper quietly to her, "Don't tell Neda this. I think you're way better than the Pula Arena." ...And we have to move again. 4th place in Tallinn. All the AirBnB hosts in the city know us by name now... |
Week 4
Both bikes are now done! The service guy just cleaned the ABS sensor and the light on Neda's dash went away. Cheap and easy. Our time in Tallinn is coming to an end, and I still feel like growing roots on the couch. We're only a week away from our final appointment in Europe and we need to have the talk: "Pack it in, or continue?" We both shrugged our shoulders. We're not really that keen on travel anymore. Just looking back, I haven't left our apartment(s) in the last month other than picking up the bikes or switching places. I think that's kind of telling. The thought of planning border crossings, finding places to stay, etc is as daunting as restarting the blog. The only thing I really want to do is watch more Doctor Who and the only dilemma I want to ponder upon is: Amy Pond vs Clara Oswald? https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...IMG_2845-L.jpg Neda has started a new cross-stitch pattern. This one is going to take a while to complete. Can you guess what it is? https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5976-L.jpg All the service is completed on our bikes. I guess I have no more excuses to stay in Tallinn anymore... Our time in Estonia was not very productive. We got the bikes done, but it was difficult for Neda to find a dentist to fix her toothache, and she still hasn't got the mole on her back checked yet. It's grown quite rapidly in the last couple of weeks, but we're out of time and we need to move on. Really, the only things I accomplished were riding the bikes in to get serviced and watching 8 seasons of Doctor Who. The new guy, Peter Capaldi is interesting. Looking forward to Season 9!!! Okay. Getting ready to leave Estonia and on towards our final scheduled appointment in Europe. And then...? |
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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/256.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl.../map255b-L.jpg Our final appointment is in Germany, 2,000 kms away. Because we stayed in Tallinn for so long, that leaves us with only 5 days to get there, so we map out a no-mess-no-fuss direct route on the highways. Based on our previous experiences through Central Europe, we're planning to travel through Poland and then onto Germany because those countries don't have any tolls on their highways. We've both agreed that we're not going to stop to do any sightseeing, mainly because we don't have the time, but really we don't want to anymore. To us, it really feels like we're shutting this trip down and this last leg is just a formality that needs to get done and over with. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5987-L.jpg Entering Latvia. Hey isn't Doctor Doom from here? The first night of travel, we found a cheap place in Valmiera, just across the Latvian border. Much cheaper than the places in Riga. Our AirBnB host finds it curious that we aren't visiting the capital city. She offers to give us a list of things to do in her tiny town, but we're just passing through. To her, it must be so strange to come all the way from Canada on motorcycles just to fly through Latvia, but we're just too tired to recount to her the entire story. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5988-L.jpg Entering Lithuania. Hey isn't Doctor Doom from here...? On our second day of travel, we crossed into Lithuania and sped through the entirety of the country into Poland. Baltic States fall like dominoes beneath our wheels and the scenery from the highway has been unchanging ever since we left Tallinn - flat and boring. At least the weather is perfect. This is the summer that we had missed when we were rushing through wet and frigid Arctic Norway. |
After just two days of riding superslab, Neda is fed up and done with all the highways. To remedy this, she's planned a little detour in north-eastern Poland, just across the Lithuanian border. The area is called Masuria and she's got us onto a route that takes us through the Masurian Lake District, land of over 2,000 lakes. We reach this part of Poland in the evening, and already it's getting dark so early! We step off the highway and tap down through the gears to take the scenic backroads at a more relaxed pace. The warm orange glow of a non-Arctic setting sun keeps us company the rest of the way.
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6014-L.jpg Once you're off the highway, you see some interesting things https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN5989-L.jpg Some pleasure riding through the Masurian Lake District Whenever there are mountains or lakes, you're almost guaranteed curvy roads in the vicinity. I can't remember the last time we rode just for the pleasure of riding and not as a means to get somewhere. At least a couple of months, I think... The scenery was perfect, the light was amazing, it was a nice change from superslabbing and sightseeing. We should just do more of this. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6018-L.jpg Masuria is one of the most popular vacation spots for both Polish people and Europeans. Lots of hiking, biking, boating, kayaking and camping are done here during the summer. One of the largest towns in Masuria is Giżycko, and it's where we're headed to stay for the evening. A bit out of the ways of our cannonball run, but it's a little welcome break from the highway. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SCN6001-XL.jpg Riding off into the sunset. |
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Giżycko I get a chance to finally do some research into Neda's growing mole. It started out as a small spot the size half a cm across, but in the last couple of months it has grown in height and diameter and now looks like an M&M is glued onto her back. Her bra strap has started sawing away at it and now it's bleeding a lot as well. The Google diagnosis is kind of worrying. Unfortunately, we've hit the weekend and all the clinics are closed till Monday. I hope it's nothing, but I'm very concerned. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6029-L.jpg Leaving Giżycko Even though we were here nearly five months ago, riding through Poland feels so familiar. There are tons of advertisements along the highway but also many of these roadside shrines: https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6035-L.jpg Sometimes Polish roadside shrines are put up to thank a saint or God, other times it's to memorialize someone who died on the road |
Back on the highway we make quick work of Poland and enter Germany. We find a cheap campsite just outside of Berlin and decide to splurge on the cafeteria on site. Our first restaurant meal in over a month! No wifi though. We've noticed that public wifi is pretty stingy in rural Germany, so strange for such a developed country...
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...IMG_2851-L.jpg You know you're in Germany when the only thing available on the menu is schnitzel and dark beer! Yummy! The next morning, it's another Autobahn-burner and we've now arrived in Baden-Württemberg where we'll be spending the next few days. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6054-L.jpg Riding through Baden-Württemberg https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6051-L.jpg Reached our destination! |
I wish you both the best in whatever you do but I'm going to be very bummed if your trip comes to an end any time soon. I really enjoy your writing style & your photos and I've enjoyed the slower pace of your trip up to this point.
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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/257.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map257-L.jpg One of the inspirations for our trip is the documentary, Long Way Round. We watched it when it came out way back in 2004. The moment Neda saw the boys training at the BMW Off-Road School with Simon Pavey, she's wanted to take the course herself ever since. I thought it was interesting, but personally, I would rather spend the money on a track day on one of the MotoGP circuits. However, when we stayed with Bettina last year in Switzerland, Neda found out that Bettina also wanted to take the training. So together, they booked this course almost a whole year in advance and planned to rendezvous at the BMW Off-Road training in Hechlingen, Germany. In the meantime, I checked the prices for all-inclusive trackday packages (superbike + gear rental + track fee) at the European MotoGP circuits and they were waaaaay too expensive. So I decided to join the girls in the dirt as well. Neda's been looking forward to this for over 10 years now! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...MG_2853-XL.jpg Exploring around the town of Hechlingen We're booked into a bed and breakfast in Hechlingen and we arrive a couple of days earlier. Hechlingen is tiny, other than houses the only feature here is a lone hotel. We hang out in the lobby and steal their free wifi because our B&B is wifi-less. Again with the lack of public wifi in rural Germany! The closest grocery store is a few minutes away in the nearby town of Heidenheim, so we do a bike run to stock up on food. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...IMG_2852-L.jpg Pretty town of Heidenheim, a few minutes away from Hechlingen The next evening, Bettina shows up and we have a joyful reunion. It's been almost a year since we last saw her and we spend hours at the kitchen table just catching up and getting all revved up for the weekend course! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6108-L.jpg Heading out to the course |
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BMW Enduro Park! Heaven in EU for dual-sport motorcycles! The BMW Enduro Park is 26 hectares of trails and training area. There are hills, bowls, ruts, whoops, obstacle courses, jumps and tricks, and tight single-track through forested and open terrain, over a variety of surfaces like hard pack gravel, small rocks, mud and sand. In the heavily-regulated European Union, it's unusual to have such a large playground for motorized vehicles (let alone only for two-wheelers), so riders from all over Europe come here to satisfy their off-road addiction. Folks in North America don't know how good they have it, with so much wide open space that can be dedicated to off-road motorsports. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6078-L.jpg In the morning, we gather at the lodge to get briefed on our two-day course We get our gear inspected and everything passes muster except for our street boots. We are able to rent motocross boots at the lodge and then we get divided up into groups. There are three levels, Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced. Since Beginner group is for new riders (dirt or street), most of the students, Neda and Bettina included, slot themselves into Intermediate (street riders with little-to-no dirt experience). I sign up for the Advanced (some dirt experience). The instructors tell us that if it looks like we don't belong in a group they'll move us up or down after the first session, so I might as well challenge myself. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SCN6074-XL.jpg I bet Brad was in the Advanced group... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6080-L.jpg We meet our instructors. Neda and Bettina's instructor Udo is third from the left, and my instructor Manuel is the one talking Manuel used to be an ex-motocross racer, so I feel like I'm in good hands. But all of the instructors have impeccable credentials and the course is offered in both German and English at the same time. |
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After briefing, we walk out to the garage and find our bikes https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6085-L.jpg Neda has chosen the F700GS, almost exactly identical to her F650GS but for minor tweaks BMW Enduro Park offers several GS models, G650GS (single cylinder), F700GS, F800GS, R1200GS, and the R1200GS Adventure. Most of the intermediates students choose the F700GS. In the Advanced group, we have some experienced motocross guys, and they choose the F800GS. With it's bigger 21" front wheel and longer suspension travel, it's more suited for the course than the R12 Boxer. However, most of the Advanced guys do choose the heavier R1200GS because they're all tough guys and have something to prove. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SCN6086-XL.jpg My bike for the weekend. The R1200GS... Actually, we're not all tough guys. Most of the students that opt for the R12GS already own one so they want to take the course on a bike that's familiar to them. Like me. I've been very curious about the new water-cooled model ever since it came out in 2013, this will be my very first time ever riding one. And it'll be off-road! What a great way to test it out! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SCN6091-XL.jpg Ergonomics are very familiar, the dashboard and all the computer buttons are totally new though The R1200GS for the courses are pretty much stock. The only difference is the keyless & remoteless on/off switch, low windshield, crash bars and no mirrors. All the bikes are current year models with very low mileage. My bike only has 1000 kms on it! The tires are Metzeler Karoos, similar to the Heidenau K60s that we ran in Latin America. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6087-L.jpg Neda's ready to hit the off-road! I can't really do a direct comparison from my old R1200GS to this new liquid-cooled one. On my bike, I carry so much weight over the rear wheel that the handling is very compromised, and my engine is much more taxed than this luggage-less model I'm riding this weekend. Still, this new engine seems to pull much stronger than what I remember from my unladen bike. Nice sound from the stock silencer as well! Although the new liquid-cooled model is over 20 lbs heavier than mine (without the furniture I'm carrying), you don't really feel the excess weigh too much. Until you drop the bike and have to pick it up. Which I have to do a couple of times during the day... |
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Main training area Each of the groups have a home-base where they get their lessons delivered and practice their drills. Neda and Bettina stay in the main training area near the lodge and Manuel leads us up the escarpment to another spot. The format is a short 10-minute lesson followed by drills and then a lot of free-riding in between. The first day we learn about body positioning, low speed drills, hill climbs and descents, front and rear braking, managing ruts and picking up a bike when it's down on a hill. And a lot of free-riding! Manuel and the motocross guys are doing jumps on their bikes. Geez. Watching those motorcross guys on the F800s, if I ever take the course again, I would rent that bike over the R1200GS. However, I'm amazed at how well I'm doing on the big pig. These bikes are well over 500lbs wet, twice what a normal dirtbike should weigh! Theoretically, they shouldn't be capable of doing some of the tight, gnarly stuff that Manuel takes us through. It's like being invited to go mountain-bike riding and showing up with a zamboni. And then realizing once you're out on the trails that it's a magical BMW Motorrad Zamboni that's capable of wheelying and jumping over hills. Crazy! The only time I struggle is when the BMW Zamboni tips over and I have to heave it up myself from the dirt. There are a lot of tipovers and falls, I'm glad I'm not the only one. I'm also glad that I'm squarely mid-pack in the Advanced group, between the motocross guys and some of the less dirt-experienced street riders. After all, nobody wants to be the worst rider in the group... :) https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6103-L.jpg For lunch, we take the bikes out onto the street and the whole school rides to the hotel in Hechlingen for a buffet meal When we head out onto the public roadways, we are advised to change the electronic suspension, traction control and throttle sensitivity settings from Enduro back to Street mode. However, I forget to change back from Street to Enduro after lunch and the bike is barely rideable back in the park, bouncing around all over the place. Since you can't change the setting while on the move and I was in the middle of the riding pack, to the guys behind me it must have looked like I forgot how to ride a motorcycle during lunch! At the first break, I changed back to Enduro Mode and the BMW Zamboni was suddenly capable of trail-riding once again! That was a very good lesson on how important the suspension settings are. And also how easy it is to change with the electronics. But these bikes are so computerized that I don't really think they'd make good Round-The-World vehicles. An electronic breakdown will be impossible to fix by yourself or a traditional motorcycle mechanic. You'd need a BMW computer technician to replace the computer or sensor and that's no good for the kind of travel that we do. Still, it's such a good bike when everything's working. I'd definitely have one in my garage. If we ever have a garage, that is... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6102-L.jpg Getting down and dirty with my zamboni I was wiped by the end of the first day, I had to call it quits about an hour before the day was actually done. I've been sedentary for so long that I'm very out of shape. It's embarrassing. That evening, we all slept the sleep of the dead and headed back out the next morning for Day 2. The curriculum for the second day was more advanced off-road concepts. Practicing front wheel slides and rear wheel slides, then using these techniques to quickly slide the bike around a slalom, advanced hill climbs and sand riding. When I talked to Neda at lunch, we found out that the Intermediate and Advanced groups have the exact same curriculum, just that the pace is faster in my group and there was more single-track free riding. Also the obstacle courses were more tighter. But you basically learn the same skills no matter what group you are in. |
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The instructors deliver all the lessons twice, once in English and then again in German https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/neda_2-L.jpg Once in a while, I'll pass Neda's group. Every single time I see her, she has a huge grin on her face! This was soooo much fun. Neda said that it totally lived up to her expectations and Bettina has already booked another Enduro Park course later on this year! But enough with the boring pictures, here's some footage from my Sena Prism helmet-mounted cam. It took forever to put this video together because there were literally hours of footage I had to sort through! |
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Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/258.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map258-L.jpg So now that we've wiped our schedule clean, we have absolutely no obligations to be anywhere, anytime. For the first time in months, it feels like we've got some breathing room. However there are still some things that need attending to. First and foremost, we've got to check out Neda's mole. It's grown quite large in the last few weeks and now looks like a Smartie that's been glued onto her back. Based on all the Google Image medical searches that I've been doing over the last few days, I've been very concerned that it might be something serious. There wasn't anything we could do over the weekend except send out some feelers to all of our German friends asking for advice for dermatologists that they could recommend. We even considered riding to Italy because Neda's brother-in-law works in a hospital in Milan. But we decided to give Munich a try first. It's only an hour and a half away from Hechlingen, and we researched some English-speaking dermatology drop-in clinics beforehand on the Internet. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6112-L.jpg Riding around Munich. We keep coming back to this city over and over again, like it's a central node in our travels. The clinic we visited was right in the city and at first the receptionist wanted to book us an appointment later on in the week. But after talking to the doctor directly, we managed to convince them to see us right away. I sat nervously in the waiting area as Neda disappeared into one of the examination rooms. I thumbed through some German magazines but I wasn't really looking at any of them. My mind was occupied by what the diagnosis would be. 45 suspenseful minutes later and Neda reappeared in the lobby outside the waiting room. Through the glass wall she smiled at me and gave me the thumbs up. Whew! What a relief! As I joined her at the receptionist desk, she told me that the dermatologist said it looked like a benign growth and that they quickly removed it and would send it away for analysis. But she reassured us that we needn't worry about it too much. We walked out of the office and into the city streets of Munich with a million pound weight off our shoulders. And best of all, we had nowhere to be! Best feeling in the world right now!!! Walking back to the bikes, I put my arm around my wife: "Well, where are we off to now, my little Smartie?" She shot me an icy glare and raised her index finger between us. "No. Just... NO." Hm. Too soon, even for a little nervous-relief humour...? |
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Touratech Munich The whole city is bustling with activity, preparing for Oktberfest activities this afternoon. With the way that we're feeling, we know that this is *NOT* what we want to be doing. Crowds and over-priced food is just not a good salve for our travel-weary souls. So, instead we're going to continue the theme of catching up on maintenance, this time for our motorcycles. And what better place to do it than the land of BMWs? We rode over to the BMW Zentrum store to pick up a new pair of riding boots for me, since the ones I've been wearing have not been waterproof since Norway. Then we went to the Touratech store just outside the downtown area to see what they could do about re-waterproofing Neda's leaky Zega Pro panniers. The salesguy told us that it if we left it with him, he could have the panniers fixed by next week. That seemed like a bit too long, and when pressed, he told us that they didn't really do any repairs in the Munich shop. They actually shipped all the stuff to the real Touratech HQ in Niedereschach, which was a few hours to the west of us. He told us if we brought it to the HQ ourselves, they could probably do it in a day or so. That seemed to be the better solution, so we're going to Niederescach then! We chatted a bit more with the salesguy at the store about our trip before heading out. "Oh, you should definitely see Oktberfest while you're here in Munich". We just smiled and nodded our heads. Biggest attraction of the year in Germany and we're the only tourists heading away from it... :) https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6129-L.jpg Mainly Autobahn to get to Neiderescach, but once off the highway, it was pretty countryside We arrived at the Touratech HQ just as it was closing for the evening. They told us to return the next day and helped book us a hotel in a town nearby. So we came back bright and early the next morning, eager to get Neda's panniers fixed. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6116-L.jpg Our Touratech contact at HQ wheels away the panniers for surgery https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6255-L.jpg We also wanted to get Neda's seat fixed. It's been leaking since the beginning of the year We originally contacted Corbin (the manufacturer of the seat) to see if there was anything they could do. They forwarded us to their Sales department and told us to buy a new seat. Basically they told us to F-Off. Okay, message received. We'll take our business somewhere else. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SCN6120-XL.jpg Touratech were more than happy to lend Neda one of their aftermarket seats for an extended test ride through the Black Forest area Niederescach is located in the Black Forest region of Germany, which is well-known for it's scenic, twisty roads and the Touratech guys lent Neda a map with all the good routes in the area where she could test out the seat. They were very accommodating. |
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Neda's off to explore the Black Forest on her own, while I work on the blog at Touratech HQ After a couple of hours, Neda returned. She had a blast riding around the Black Forest on her own. She told me that she's scoped out a couple of roads and places that she wants to take me to later. Unfortunately, the Touratech seat was not what she was looking for. She said that for the first hour it was okay, but after that, she was squirming because the seat is very hard (it's really an Enduro seat, not a street one), and she couldn't wait to get off the bike. We'll have to keep shopping around. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6125-L.jpg And at the end of the day, Neda got her panniers back! They actually replaced the topcase and gave her a brand new one. The original one she had had a design flaw and is prone to cracking at the bottom where it joins the mounting bracket, thus allowing water in. As for the panniers, they explained that it's not the lids that leak when the panniers get bashed around, it's actually the seal around the mounting brackets on the inside. They re-waterproofed all the seals and spray-tested the boxes for Neda. And best of all, they did all of this no charge! Nice! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SCN6256-XL.jpg Neda couldn't leave the Touratech store without buying something, so she picked up some handlebar risers She's been eyeing a pair of these for a while now, saying that the F650GS's bars are too low and she's hunched forward when riding. The F700GS that she was riding at the BMW Enduro Park course had raised bars and that really convinced her that it would be a good buy. These Touratech risers lift the bars up 20mm. Not that much, but still noticeable. Slowly and surely, we're getting ourselves and all our stuffed fixed again. As for where our trip is headed next, we're still undecided. But what we really want to do right now is just see friends and hang out with them. We have a lot of friends in Germany and earlier this year we were planning on doing a road trip to see all of them. But unfortunately Neda's chain snapped off in the Czech Republic. After getting that repaired, we ran out of time and had to rush back to catch a plane to Toronto. So for now, getting back to those plans is what we want to do. |
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We rode back towards Stuttgart to see our friend Carmen Carmen lives just outside of Stuttgart, only an hour away by Autobahn from the Touratech HQ. We're noticing the sun is setting so much earlier these days. And it's getting colder. Do we really want to go back to Canada just as the winter is approaching? We first met Carmen on our first tour with the Stahlratte, sailing from Cartagena to Cuba. She had already taken a multi-month motorcycle trip through South America and was ending her trip by backpack. It's funny when you meet someone and instantly get along with them - even though we only hung out with her for such a brief time, that kind of easy friendship is so quick to spark up again, despite it being over two and a half years (!) since we last saw her. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6131-L.jpg Carmen helped us order some typical Swabian dishes from the area. I had Maultasche, which is a pasta-type meal rolled with meat, spinach and onions We had a great time catching up with Carmen. I like hanging around other long-term travelers because you don't have to explain the joys and the hardships of such a way of life. But because of the point of where we are on our trip, I was most curious about what life looked like after being on the road for so long. Although she's now got a job that she loves and has settled into a tiny apartment in town, she revealed to us that she misses being on the road all the time and that she's always dreaming and planning for the next big trip. I mulled that over for quite a while after we said goodbye to her for the night. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6133-L.jpg We rode into Stuttgart to try to find a place to stay for the evening Earlier on, I had picked out a campsite where we could stay for the night, which was right in the city. But when we got there, we were surprised to discover a huge fair had been set up on the campgrounds! We were in Stuttgart right in the middle of their own Oktoberfest celebrations, called the Stuttgart Beer Festival. It didn't even occur to me that there would be celebrations outside of Munich! Uh oh. We rode around the carnival for a bit, dodging drunken Stuttgarters singing football songs, then spied a sign that indicated where the camping spots would be. It was actually in the parking lot of the fairgrounds, right amongst all the trucks that had brought in the amusement park equipment. The security guard at the parking lot told us the lot was full and we couldn't set up our tent there. Neda was using her German skills to try to find out where else we could stay for the night and I was consulting my GPS to look for the same. So here we were, 11PM in a new city, no place to stay. The hotels in the city during the Beer Festival would probably be all booked up or exorbitantly expensive. But funnily enough, I wasn't stressed out at all. It's kind of strange, but after having our trip planned out for months in advance into the future, it was very exciting not knowing where we were going to be from hour to hour: Lets go to Touratech Munich to fix your panniers. OK! Oh, we have to go the the Black Forest to get them fixed? OK! Let's visit our friends all over Germany now. OK! Oh, we can't sleep here tonight and have to find somewhere else? OK! I was kind of reminded of the very beginning of our trip when we were roaming around North America, absolutely no plan, just letting each day unfold and take us to the next place. This was kind of cool - experiencing that freedom once again. And stuff usually works out in the end. Neda got the security guard to talk to the campground manager and he let us stay for the night because we were just a couple of bikes and a small tent. We set up in a corner of the parking lot while the carnival slowly turned off all their lights to signal closing time. As we tucked ourselves into our sleeping bags, the football chants grew fainter and fainter as the revelers headed away from the park, presumably towards the bars. We've been having a lot of fun during these last few days. |
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In the morning, we survey our makeshift campground in the parking lot https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...SCN6139-XL.jpg All packed up, ready for whatever's next! Goodbye Stuttgart Beer Festival! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6141-L.jpg Trying to find our way out of Stuttgart, we caught a parade riding past us. The guys in the beer cart were just as curious about us as we were about them. We are back on the Autobahn to visit more friends in the north. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6149-L.jpg Along the way, we got off the highway and I shed all the baggage off my motorcycle in the parking lot of... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6150-L.jpg ... the Nurburgring!!!! Yeah, baby! I remember the first time I ever drove on the Nurburgring Nordschleife. It was back in 2000, and I was behind the wheel of Porsche 911 (996) Twin Turbo. I was particularly excited because this car was quite rare at the time... because it didn't come with the original Need for Speed: Porsche Unleashed video game and was only available as an add-on downloadable content... :) They used to race MotoGP on the Nordschleife, but stopped in 1980 because of safety concerns. This was also the track where Niki Lauda crashed in 1976 and was the subject of the movie "Rush". That was the last F1 race ever held at the Ring. Despite no top-level events being run here, endurance racing is still popular at the Nordschleife and this is still *THE* place at which every sports car manufacturer tests their new models. The Nurburgring lap time is still considered the benchmark for sports car marketing literature and Top Gear episodes. |
The Nurburgring parking lot is full of exotic (and some very commonplace) cars and motorcycles. Most of them use the parking lot as a tuning garage, adjusting sway bars, tire pressures, and whatever else they can tweak to shave precious seconds off their Nordschleife lap time.
In a way, so was I - taking luggage off the back of my big dirt bike so I wouldn't tuck the front wheel in every corner. Yeah, like I would be going that fast... https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6151-L.jpg Lining up at the gate To ride the Nurburgring, you have to buy an RF "credit card" which you load up with laps. Each lap costs €27, and you just wave the card at the automated gate. Since I couldn't really afford more than 1 lap, this would be a touring lap of the Nordschleife. Despite being addicted to that Need For Speed video game and playing it for weeks straight at the time, I really can't remember all the turns on the Nurburgring from 15 years ago! And I'm on a big trail bike with a dual sport tires! And I'm slow anyway... I didn't know the etiquette of the Nurburgring, until I saw the sign written on the barrier that opens up to the course: "German Traffic Law is Valid. Keep to the Right Lane". Ah, good to know! Anyway, instead of embarrassing myself with a 15 minute video of my 20km lap of the Nurburgring Nordschliefe (the motorcycle record is 7:10), here's an interesting car that passed me. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...0m54s661-L.jpg Wa-HOOOOO!!!! |
Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/259.html
https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...L/map259-L.jpg We continue our Freunde Deutschland-Tour by heading north towards Bonn. Our friends Julia and Hans have been reminding us of the open invitation to visit them ever since we set foot in Europe last summer and finally we're able to see them, unencumbered by any pressing dates or schedules! Yay! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6163-L.jpg Some twisty German roads on the way there https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6168-L.jpg Waiting for the ferry at Neuwied https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6170-L.jpg Crossing the Rhine by ferry |
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At Hans and Julia's place, our bikes have a warm and dry place to sleep Our hosts are also motorcycle travelers, so they know exactly what we need. Food, shelter, garage, laundry and wifi are all provided within minutes of us walking through the front door! Danke schoen! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0036-L.jpg And we are greeted with a warm homemade dinner Like so many other fellow moto-travelers, we also met Hans and Julia on the Stahlratte. We ran into them on our second round out of Central America. You can catch a glimpse of them on our Stahlratte video. They also spent considerable time on the road. They were out for nine months riding from North to South America on the Pan American Highway. It felt very warm and homey catching up with them, and I sense that they really got a kick out of re-living their trip when we all chatted about our shared experiences. Again, I got a close-up of what "real life" was like after a long trip. They both managed to negotiate long-term sabbaticals away from their employers, returning back to the same jobs and their own house after their trip. But they also echoed that familiar sentiment - always dreaming of life back on the road, constantly planning their next big trip. Perhaps for people of our ilk, "real life" *IS* the nomadic existence. And the long periods in between travel are spent sleepwalking through the routines of whatever needs to be done - anything to taste again the freedom of our waking and most-alive moments wandering the world on the back of a motorcycle. Is this something we want to give up? https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSCN6188-L.jpg Do I look Tired? Must be from Treading all over Germany. We're continuing to be diligent about our maintenance by putting on new rubber on Neda's rear wheel. Hans and Julia were kind enough to order us a Michelin Anakee 3 shipped to their place. Hans just recently built a very cool workshop outfitted with all the tools and toys to maintain their two-wheeled hobby. So we took Neda's wheel off her bike and drove to the neighbourhood bike shop to mount the new tire. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0017-L.jpg Hans and Julia both ride Africa Twins. These are the ones they took to the Americas and back. Very cool bikes! |
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Anakee in the U.K. (or in this case, Germany) I put on the older Anakee 2 on my bike, since that was the only tire they had on the shelves back in Sweden (they ran out of Stockholm). Wonder what the difference will be between the 2 and the 3. At one point at the start of the trip, Neda and I were on the same tire replacement schedule. But the power and weight differences between the two bikes means that I wear out my tires sooner than hers, which doubles the time we need to spend shopping and mounting tires. Just a note to prospective long-term travelers considering taking two different kinds of bikes on their trip. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0026-L.jpg Hans the Woodcutter gets some logs ready for the fireplace https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0040-L.jpg And homemade apple pie is ready for us when we come inside. Delicious! Apples are the most cultivated fruit in Germany and they are currently in season. Which explains why I've been having a lot of apple pie while we've been in the country. I think this recipe is called "Wiener Apfelkuchen" and is more of a cake than a pie. While the Austrians have their strudel, this is more particular to Germany. Julia tells us that the Apfelkuchen slices must be served standing up on not on the side, otherwise you will be cursed with a bad relationship with your mother-in-law. Not sure if that's a German thing or not? |
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Kölner Dom (Cologne Cathedral) The next day, our hosts take us out to do some sightseeing in nearby Cologne. We learned that Hans *LOVES* churches! So he takes us to the most well-known one in Cologne. https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0945-L.jpg Beautiful inside! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0941-L.jpg I like churches too, but specifically the votive candles! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0951-L.jpg Preparing for a concert in the cathedral Hans said that we could get a great view of the city from the top of the cathedral. The only catch was that it was 532 steps to the top, about 150m climb. *Ugh* I hate hiking (and climbing stairs) but I succumbed to peer pressure. We were all huffing and puffing and had to stop several times along the way to get here: https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...IMG_2878-L.jpg Well worth it! View of Cologne and the Rhine |
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Ducati 998 in Cologne. I miss my sportbike so much!!! https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0977-L.jpg Taking a walk along the banks of the Rhine https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0982-L.jpg Walking around the Old Town of Cologne, cobblestone streets and pastel painted buildings. Just like the Gringo Trail towns of Latin America! :) https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...DSC_0986-L.jpg The only thing I like taking pictures of more than candles are indigenous people Hans and Julia are such great tour guides and hosts! They even treated us to a German dinner: https://mym0ry.smugmug.com/Motorcycl...IMG_2880-L.jpg Schweinshaxe - deep fried pork knuckle (or ham hock). Not particular to Cologne specifically, but delicious nevertheless! |
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