Rest Day.

A bit of sleeping, a bit of wandering about, a couple of beers. More sleep, more beers. My bike is feeling neglected and it felt odd not to be saddling up and heading off somewhere today. This motorbike travel thing is addictive; the feeling of just packing up and heading off in the morning is a good one. The best parts of these trips is ALWAYS on the bike. Stopping is the hard bit, having to deal with the world of people again. Errr, maybe I should have written this before I got on the beer!

Tucked up for the night.

Holland #1: Canal? Check!

Holland #2: Rembrandt? Check! Windmill? Check! Job done.

Anyway: next stop, Hook of Holland and the ferry back to merry old England. Here's hoping it's not 4 years until the next bike trip.

Soundtrack: "Born To Go", Hawkwind.

Can you drown on "dry" land?

I am so done with this rain. As I got to within maybe 15 or 20 miles of Amsterdam, it was monsoonal (but without the heat). Probably the worst it has been so far. Could barely see anything at all, even my GPS, which was about a foot from my face, may as well have been on Mars; how I found my hotel is close to a miracle. My waterproofs have given up all pretence of fulfilling their function. I would have been drier if I'd swam to the hotel; if I'd been 20 minutes later, this may have been my only option. It's official, climate change is real and we are all f@*#$d.
Rest day tomorrow; if only to try and dry all my gear out. So, Amsterdam. Hmmm, plenty of bars to choose from (predominantly Oirish, staffed by Aussies; I've been doing extensive research!). The smell of weed in the air is overpowering in places. Every other person is English; says it all really. Fortunately, being a miserable bastard, I don't feel obliged to talk to anybody!
But! Global city means global food. So, for me, Thai, of course. Not the Dusit, but I'll take it.

The sights of Amsterdam.

Soundtrack: "Us fish must swim together", Subhumans.

This fecking weather though..........

I spent the first few hours on the motorway headed south in Denmark and Germany. I wanted to get some miles under my wheels so I'd have time for a rest day before I head for the ferry and home.
Rode into a bad storm in the south of Denmark: torrential rain combined with the spray from all the lorries on the road made visibility very poor. It got old very quickly. Fortunately as I crossed into Germany, the road gods took pity on me and the deluge eased into showers. I'd had enough of the autobahn, so I bailed on to quieter roads. I was headed for the Elbe ferry again, but this time there was a looooong queue of cars, lorries and campervans backed up down the road. Being British, I dutifully took my place in line; this could take a while. After about half an hour, a kindly German gentleman told me that bikes don't need to wait and can ride straight to the front. At least that is what I assume he said (my German is non-existent), nobody shouted at me as a passed all the backed up traffic, so I guess it was OK.
The River Elbe seemed to be the front line between 2 warring weather gods. Fortunately for me, the sun god held sway in the south. Finally able to dry out a bit, I decided to keep riding while the weather held. My goal was to stay somewhere near Bremen. As I was now on the back roads, this proved difficult as road closures with no diversions forced me to ride by compass bearing, south and west. I passed a guesthouse in a small town whose name I don't know and decided to call it a day as I was now pretty much lost.
Not many photos today as it was mostly too wet to get my camera out.
Note to self: really must sort out some decent weather/waterproof gear!

My route plans before they got soaked.

Crossing the Elbe to the realm of the sun god.

Soundtrack: "TCR", Sleaford Mods.

Back southward to Denmark.

Nice calm morning, some blue sky and only a short amble to the port. Took it easy on my last ride in Norway (for this trip at least), trying to soak it all in.
I was the first bike to arrive at the queue for the ferry, but another UK plated bike soon pulled in behind me. Jeremy on the inevitable GS. Turns out couple of years ago, he'd done a similar trip to my London to KL journey. We compared notes before boarding.
An uneventful crossing saw the boat pull in late in the afternoon. Then a short ride to my bed for the night by the beach. Too few miles ridden on what turned out to be a nice sunny day! Tomorrow.........who knows?
Conclusion on Norway: an outstandingly beautiful country to ride in. Weather is always going to be a gamble and overall I had more good than bad, so no complaints. High season is July; no guarantee of better weather and the roads which can be busy now with caravans and campervans, could be choked with the white monstrosities then. So June is a good month to visit Norway.

Last look at Norway.

First in the queue. 

Into the port at Hitshals, Denmark.

The race to get off the boat.

Room with a view.

Life's a beach.

Route planning, old school style.

Soundtrack: "Chilitetime", Tindersticks.

More rain...........

My apologies as I'm becoming obsessed with the weather, but: today started VERY wet! I tried to wait it out for a while in the hope it would improve. It didn't. It would have been better to have holed up for the day, but I had to get south so I would be in time for my ferry back to Denmark tomorrow.  So I set off, climbing up to the pass and through a couple of tunnels; the rain relentless along with a biting wind.
Over more high passes, getting colder and wetter. I could see vague mountain outlines through the gloom, just enough to hint at the stark beauty hidden behind the veil of rain.
Stopped for a break to find my "waterproofs" are mis-named! No wonder I was cold. Ever southward and I began to see almost defined clouds up ahead; not just a uniform gray, but some white as well. Could it be? Yes! Gradually the rain eased and the sky softened. I was eventually able to remove my "waterproof" outer layer, so that my riding clothes could dry out in the wind. By the time I got to a town (Evje) about 40 miles short of Kriatiansand, there was even some late afternoon sunshine; what a change from the morning!
Stopped for the day and got a room next door to a pub!! Things are looking up! Not! I don't know if it's because it is sunday or early in the season, but the pub was closed. Even the hotel bar stopped serving at 6pm! There is some sort of global conspiracy going on here. I'm not paranoid! There was a mobile food van selling Thai food though (run by Thais); so at least I ate well.

The rain is good for the waterfalls.

The mighty XT doesn't mind the rain.

Brightening up??

Is that a patch of blue sky?

Finally some sun!

Soundtrack: "Cloudbusting", Kate Bush.

Rain day

Four seasons in one day, often in the same hour. The day started wet and finished VERY wet. But in between it was OK, the sun even occasionally showed its face, but "Scottish conditions" predominated. It was OK though, actually very enjoyable. You just need to get the waterproofs on and get riding. Stunning scenery was again the order of the day, the conditions making the landscape brooding and maybe even more dramatic. The rain also made for more impressive waterfalls!
Lots of tunnels today, one of which was about 10 km long, emerging onto a bridge across a fjord before plunging back inside another mountain. There was another desolate but very beautiful high pass. Also an inevitable ferry crossing. Norway is a motorcyclists dream.
Even some of the major roads in this part of Norway (connecting Bergen and Oslo) can be dual carriageway one minute and then single track with passing places the next. Keeps you on your toes!
Staying in a little town called "Odda" tonight, where the beer is only £7.50. Happy days! (How do you type sarcastically??)
I passed a sign at some point with the place name of the day: "Oddland", now that's my kind of town!

Fuel stop.

Can you spot the bike?

Yes, that is ice on the lake!

Lunch stop.

 Blue sky!!!!!!!

Happy.

Not bad, is it?

Soundtrack: "Strange Weather", Tom Waits

Stunning Norway.

Well, the hotel I stayed at last night was kind of odd. Big place, but virtually deserted. "The Shining" came to mind, the power cut at 11pm added to the surreal nature of the place (it's like deja-vu all over again). 10 km to the nearest bar, so drinking alone in the hotel; but at £8 a pint that was never going to last long. I even resorted to watching the football........tough times!
I was quite pleased to ride away in the morning, not least because the sun was shining. The road gods were smiling on me today: a combination of excellent roads and jaw-dropping scenery combined with the perfect weather made for an epic riding day. I continued north up the valley I'd been following the previous day before cutting west high over the mountains to Lysebotn. Note to riders: the Fv337 / Fv987 / Fv500 from Nomeland (on route 9) to Lysebotn is well worth your time, especially if the sun is out.
In descending from the high passes down to the village there are 27 hairpin bends, one of which is in a very long, very dark tunnel. I got to ride it twice,once down and once up. There was a group of Belgian riders in the village, so I gave them a cheery wave as I rode out: they looked at me like I'd just fallen out of the devils arse! Bikers, especially on the continent generally acknowledge each other as they pass with an outstretched left hand. I don't know what the Belgians problem was. Miserable bastards!
The stunning scenery continued as I pushed west, deeper into Fjordland. Lots of friendlier bikers around; though yet to see another UK rider.

Not enough bike pics in this blog!

High in the mountains.

Lysefjord.

The road to Lysebotn.

I'm in this one!

A couple more short ferry crossings later on in the day to get across the fjords. I pushed on perhaps further than I should have; but I wanted to make the most of the conditions. The word is that the weather will take a turn for the worse tomorrow. So ended the day in a little place called "Sand"; very tired, but very happy after one of the great days on the bike.

Yet another ferry crossing!

Soundtrack: "Good good day", Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds.

Norway, finally!

A good night's sleep followed by a bright clear dawn saw me riding the short hop to the ferry port at Hirtshals. Stopped to fill the tank and have some breakfast at a filling station/cafe on the edge of town. It was apparently run by a couple of Vietnamese. The choice of food was the usual in this part of the world, namely everything comes with chips (think of the Monty Python "Spam" sketch, but with chips instead of spam). For something different, I opted for the "Vietnamese sandwich" which was astonishingly good! I guess it was authentic as the woman who made it was from there.

Refreshed, I headed for the ferry. I joined the queue of vehicles and asked the guy in front if this was the right place for the ferry to Kristiansand. Yes. I also asked the guy behind me just to be sure. Yes. All good until I got to the check-in window; it was "A" ferry to Kristiansand, but not "MY" ferry! Who knew two companies plied this route?!? They had to unlock a special gate for me to go back and make a mad dash around the docks to the ferry I was supposed to be on.
Made it in time and met some Fench bikers en route to Nordkapp, one of them was on an XT660Z too.
The crossing was OK, the sea a little "rolling" but OK. Disembarked and headed north under somewhat "Scottish" weather: some sun, some rain, but not too much of either. Only went about 50 miles on nice sinuous valley roads and decided to call it a day, in the hope the sun will win out more tomorrow. Got a hotel (much cheaper than I expected) overlooking a lake. The scenery is also very "Scottish" so far.

The wrong queue!

 All secure on the right boat.

Norway, or is it Scotland?

Peaceful and quiet.

Happy bunny!

Soundtrack: "Bless the Weather ", John Martyn

Denmark? It must be Wednesday!

I checked 3 separate weather forecasts; they all disagreed with each other. As the sun was shining, I decided to believe the most optimistic one. I still had a lot of ground to cover today to get to the northern tip of Denmark to catch the boat to Norway. So I started off for a while on the autobahn before the smaller roads started.
Crossing into Denmark, the roads became quieter and more fun to ride, although the countryside is still pretty flat with a lot of wind turbines scattered across the horizon. Not much to distract from chewing up the miles; but Norway is the prize for these long flat, straight roads. Not bad, but I can't wait for some mountains!
As I got to about 30 miles short of the ferry port, it looked like the weather might finally be turning after a generally fine day. The mist descended and, as if it was pre ordained, I passed a "Bikers Rest". Quick u turn and I pulled in to find a mixture of simple rooms, bunks and camping aimed at us in the 2 wheeled community. I took a room (only £23, dirt cheap for Denmark). As soon as I'd settled in, the sun came out again. It was late enough to stop anyway and I was obviously destined to stay here.
Turns out its election day here in Denmark. The whole route up was covered in campaign posters; no idea who won.....I'm guessing the politicians!

Long straight Danish road.

Highest point for miles around.

Bikers Rest

Local brew.

The mist descends......

Soundtrack: "Stick in a Five and Go", Sleaford Mods

Holland and Germany.

Well, that was a loooong day! Rolled off the ferry a little after 8 am, with a great sense of anticipation and a huge grin on my face! Sun was shining and I had the open road ahead of me; what could be better?
My GPS died a couple of times in the first 20 minutes, sending me on a bit of a detour; but after it decided to behave I headed north. Nowhere in particular to be and all day to get there.
After filling the bikes tank and my stomach, I alternated between motorways and smaller roads throughout the day (always heading north and east); trying to find the balance between making ground and enjoying the ride (not a fan of riding on motorways).
Holland is flat, verrrry flat with a lot of long straight roads (I'm sure it sees The Argentine pampas as its (much) bigger brother! Lots of cyclists on the road; but not the smug, lycra clad fanatics you see in London, but normal people in everyday clothes just going from A to B on antiquated looking bikes. Nice.
As the hours rolled by, I found myself in Germany. As the weather was so good, I decided to push on, crossing the River Elbe on another ferry (only 5.5 Euros!). After a bit of trouble finding somewhere to stay, I ended up in the town of Elmshorn almost 12 hours after rolling off the ferry from the UK. It didn't seem that long, I was just happy to be back on my bike and riding. Had a schnitzel and beer for my tea. How German is that?!

First glimpse of Holland.

Waiting to disembark. 

Afsluitdijk.

1 mile to a milestone. 

Elbe ferry.

Soundtrack: "Lowlands of Holland", Levellers

So it begins......

An uneventful evening ride to Harwich to catch the overnight ferry to the Hook of Holland. Finally back on the road doing a "proper" bike trip. The bikes idle revs are a bit low, but not enough to stall it at lights, may have to adjust it; see how it goes.
First time I've been on an overnight ferry (as far as I remember). Quite plush: private en-suite cabin, that even has a shower! There is an on board cinema showing Avengers Endgame. Also a couple of bars, but in a remarkable act of discipline and self control, I'll skip all that for an early night, so I am ready for a long ride up through that there Europe tomorrow.

Queuing for the ferry to Holland.

Surprisingly comfortable!

Soundtrack: "Come on Eileen", Dexys Midnight Runners (being played over the ships PA).