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 Monday-Tuesday, June 17-18, 2002
Today’s statistics:Total Distance: 8993 KM Wonderful 10 hour flight from San Francisco, California to Frankfort, Germany. Left Monday afternoon and arrived Tuesday morning. Then it was a few short train rides and we were reunited with our bikes in Idstein, Germany. A very big thank you to Gabi and Erdman Scheibe who own and operate the Gasthaus Ziegelhuette for providing storage space for the bikes while we were in the US. If you are ever in Idstein, we recommend their hotel - it is located adjacent to the Bahnhoff at Bahnhoff Strasse 6, 65510, Idstein, +49 (0)6126/70277. Wednesday, June 19, 2002Today’s statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 0 KM Well, we did walk a fair amount today. This week is Hessentag in Idstein. This could be described as a county fair, only on a larger scale without the animals and contests. Really an excuse to get out and see some good entertainment in an open air atmosphere and eat and drink till you drop. Some days the party starts at 9 in the evening and runs until 5 the next morning. For the local residents this can be a bit much. Lucky for them that this is the first time this event has been held in Idstein. The elders of the city decided that they wanted to host the Hessentag and submitted an application. They got a response say that they had been accepted 10 years after the submission was made. It was then another ten years before the actual event came it Idstein. Due to the nature of the event it is moved to a different town each year. Thursday, June 20, 20Today’s statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 0 KM Well, Jim is up to his old tricks - seems he forgot to reset the GPS before we started our travels today so no statistics! We decided to move on from Idstein because the party was scheduled to run form 7 in the evening until 3 in the morning tonight with the majority of the activity right across the street from the hotel. A radio station playing hard rock at volume level number 12 on a scale of 1 to 10. So, we left early (for us) and rode east to Schotten in hopes of finding a hotel. No luck. We turned south and located something in Langenselbold. Did we mention that the temperatures since we arrived in Frankfort have been about 30+ degrees Centigrade (about 94, Fahrenheit) which for us is too hot! It has also been humid so the heat has been a bit oppressive. Friday-Saturday, June 21-22, 2002Today’s statistics Top of PageTotal Distance: 0 KM We’ve been catching up on lots of little things. Like getting Jim’s radio off his bike, packaged and shipped for repair. Also been doing lots of catchup work on other things that were neglected while we were in the USA. Tomorrow we will resume our travels. Sunday, June 23, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 117.9 KM Jim remembered to reset the GPS today and now we have some statistics - but they are not entirely accurate. We actually went further and were on the road longer. He forgot to reset it until we were on the road for some time. Oh well, perhaps tomorrow he will get it right! We traveled from Langenselbold to Hirschhorn (Neckar) where we found a nice zimmer with a view of the Rhine River and a castle on the hill on the other side of the valley from our room. Hirschhorn (Neckar) is east of Heidelberg. It was very warm again today - but, it was a nice ride today, especially the ride through the forest on the gravel, dirt and muddy road we decided to take. When we emerged from the forest onto a paved road there were some bicyclists there who looked at us as if we were crazy to be riding our big, heavy bikes on the road we were on. They were on mountain bike and we emerging from a forest service road that paralleled ours so they knew what the road conditions were. In fact, the first one quarter of the road was the same for both of us - they opted for the left and we for the right where there way a fork in the road. Monday, June 24, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 106.3 KM After thunder and lightning and tremendous volumes of rain all night we woke to clear skies and sunshine.
And we left with Sascha's copy of the book which lists all of the BMW dealers in Europe. Thanks Sascha! Tuesday, June 24, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 159.2 KM Today we started to work our way north. A beautiful day with clear skies and sunshine with perfect temperatures for riding the bike. We pointed ourselves north and a bit west and after lunch stopped for the day in order to do some work on the computer. We continue to have problems with our Virus Scan software and now have an official case number for our problem with McAfee. Now, if they will just do something to get it to work correctly. It took two weeks of badgering them before they would admit that there was a problem. Also, it appears that Verna's GPS has serious problems. It is not reading all of the data on the data card and we cannot establish a data connection with it to up/down load way points and/or routes. Technology is wonderful - when it works! Tomorrow we will search for new face shields for our Schuberth helmets. We have looked in several places but no one has had them in stock. Maybe we will get lucky tomorrow. Wednesday, June 25, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 0.0 KM Today was our lucky day! We were able to get new face shields for our helmets. This, thanks to a very nice man in the Hein Geirke store in Limburg, Germany. He took the face shields off new helmets he had in the store and sold them to us! Now Jim can see the roads on his GPS without moving his head four times to make sure that one of the roads is not a scratch on his face shield. We had a nice ride today after we left Limburg to Betzdorf. Unfortunately we chose the wrong place to spend the night. While we will not publish the actual name we call it the “Rip Off Hotel”. Much, much too high a price for the accommodations - put another way, it is a high priced dump, in our humble opinion. Sorry about the lack of mileage data - more on that later. Thursday, June 26, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 0.0 KM From Betzdorf to Neuss. Not an exciting ride but we did it without getting on the autobahn and give the quantity of autobahn’s in the Neuss/Dusseldorff area we thought that this was a good endorsement for GPS navigation through urban areas with heavy traffic. Tomorrow we will visit with Andreas and Sabine Luthardt and collect some of our US mail that has been forwarded to them. Friday, June 27, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 0.0 KM The day started off very nice. We visited with Andreas and Sabine at their office and had a nice leisurely lunch with them and then hit the road. Our objective today was to head south to a sportplatz between Bruschied and Schneppenbach. Well, the best laid plans of mice and men, as the old quote goes. As we were headed south on the A61 about 10 km north of our exit for the B50 Verna’s bike lost 75% of its power. This, while going up a hill passing slower cars and trucks in the “fast lane”. Now, for those of you who have not driven the autobahn’s in Germany, the term “fast lane” has an entirely different meaning. Here, the axiom, “Keep right, except to pass” is strictly enforced and practiced by all on the roads. Fortunately Verna was able to drop in behind a truck which protected her from much faster moving traffic and we exited at the next rastplatz to see if we could determine the problem. After some initial investigation we determined that it was not ignition related (good spark at both plugs) and it appeared that gasoline was entering the combustion chambers unhindered. So, what to do? We limped to the same hotel we had spent the night in on Tuesday. While in Karlsruhe, Sascha gave us a book which lists all the BMW dealers in Europe. Little did we know that we would be using it so soon. The book is really well done - it has a map of each European country with the name of the dealership highlighted next to the name of the town where they are located. There is a listing with the dealers details - address, phone numbers, etc. Saturday, June 28, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 0.0 KM First thing Saturday morning Jim rode his bike to Simmern (about 10 km from our hotel) and located the dealer - very easy thanks to the GPS software being able to display the location after we entered the address. Two hours later and Verna’s bike was in their hands to repair. Coincident to these events we continued to pursue the problems we were experiencing on our computer due to the Virus Scan software from McAfee. Sunday, June 29 - Wednesday, July 3 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 0.0 KM Well, it was a tough week. We have been fighting our computer problem since the 5th of June and it continues to create problems for us. And now, we are “stuck” because of yet another mechanical failure to one of the bikes. As we were preparing for our journey a BMW dealer said to Jim that the nice thing about the new bikes is that they were so much more reliable than the older models. Let’s see; Jim rode his R100/7 for 22 years, put more than 140,00 miles on it and never once suffered more than a punctured tire. Verna rode her R65LS and suffered two problems - a failed electronic ignition module and stripped splines on her clutch plate. The spline problem was a known issue in that an entire batch came from the factory having been produced with inferior metal which meant that the spine area could not withstand the stress exerted and after about 40,000 miles they failed. The electronic ignition module is another story but the failure was man made. So, would anyone at BMW care to comment about the reliability of our bikes that have been serviced by factory trained (in theory) mechanics and why we have had so many problems? We suspect that this question will go unanswered but should we get a response we will include it in the web site.
Then there is our computer. While we were in the US we took the opportunity to upgrade our laptop - we were running out of disc space for pictures and the web site, among other things. We had heard good things about a machine that had won best of show at Comdex in Las Vegas in 2001 and decided that we would upgrade to that model. Nice machine, until we tried to install McAfee Virus Scan on it. The Virus Scan software would never run correctly and we eventually (after two weeks) had our problem referred to the Research and Development group at McAfee. After their last suggestion to resolve the problem killed all the TCP/IP protocols on our system and left us unable to communicate with the world as well as some other items they decided that we should not install Virus Scan 6.0! The interesting thing is that the system came with a different McAfee product on it for virus scanning. As best as we can tell, when the program was run to remove the original software it really did not remove all of the software and this created problems for the software we installed. Now we are waiting - for what? We finally installed this software that came with the machine (only licensed for 45 days) and guess what? It works fine. We are waiting for them to credit us with the money we paid for the product that will not work so that we do not have to pay for the one that will. Grrrr. And, as if this was not enough, as a result of the Virus Scan 6.0 by McAfee problems we had to reinstall the operating system on our less than one month old computer FOUR times! All of this because the things we were told to do to fix the 6.0 Virus Scan software by the McAfee technical support organization caused more problems on our machine. Then, as if all this was not enough, as we were rebuilding the computer we discovered that we did not have the license key for our web site software! So we were not able to install the web site software when the machine was rebuilt. When we sent e-mail to the vendor of our software they had no record of our purchase and would not tell us what our license key is! Aghhhh! We also lost everything we had done to update the web site since the 24th of June. :-( Thursday, July 4, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 280.2 KM “On The Road Again” - thank you Willie! It took longer than expected to get the parts to fix Verna’s bike - oh yes, the problem. One of the exhaust valves in the left cylinder decided that it wanted to give a part of itself to the world. We were very lucky. This is the first time in Jim’s life that he had seen a cylinder in which a valve had broken and the cylinder head, the piston, or the cylinder walls were not damaged. Apparently the piece of metal that broke away from the valve was blown directly into the exhaust system which saved all these expensive pieces of equipment. Once again we were able to educate a non US BMW dealer about the 3 year unlimited mileage warranty that US models of BMW motorcycles have. BMW paid for the repair. See the Equipment Report Card page for the year 2002 in The Bike’s Section for more details. There you will also find some information about a problem that was discovered by one of the mechanics at the shop with the mounting plate for Verna’s top box. Fortunately sanity has prevailed about the license key for our web site software and after a phone call yesterday and another e-mail we were provided with a new license key for our software today. A great big thank you to Rick at NetObjects (Web Site Pro’s) Fusion support department for getting us the new key!!! It has been a traumatic week but at last it appears that everything is back to normal - well, as normal as it can be for two homeless nomads! Today we traveled from Simmern to Winterberg, via Limburg. We wanted to visit the Tourist Information Office in Limburg to see if anyone had turned in the wallet that Verna had lost before we went to the US in May. This is the 3rd time we have tried to do this and each time the office has been closed. Other than that it was a nice day for riding if you don’t mind getting drenched in the odd rain shower or two. Friday, July 5, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 194.9 KM
After getting that finished we found a place to say and Verna set off on a picture taking expedition here in the home town of the “Pied Piper of Hamlin”. Note the difference in the spelling of Hameln (the German way) and Hamlin (the English way). See the Land of Ferry Tales page in the Germany section for more information. We thought it was interesting that the local police have made use of the BMW C1 for their city police (picture, right). With any luck at all we should find ourselves in Denmark tomorrow, only one week behind schedule. Saturday, July 6, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 379.9 KM We are now just south of the border between Germany and Denmark in the town of Flensburg. Lots of time on the autobahn today. Not much to report when we are on the road just driving all day. Boring! Tomorrow we will be in Denamrk - we are looking forward to doing a little more touring in Denmark than we did last summer. All we did last year was ride to Copenhagen and spend a few days in the city. Sunday, July 7, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 203.6 KM We spent the day roving about the back roads of , Denmark. A very nice day to be out and about on the bike. Our first stop of the day was in the town of Ribe, which bills itself as Denmark’s oldest town. The town also plays host to a pair of storks every year who nest on a platform on top of the old town hall. See the Ribe page in the Denmark Section for more information. We finished our day when we arrived at Legoland (adjacent to the twn of Billund) - a land built of 50 million Lego bricks. This is also home to the factory where production began in the late 1950’s. Wow, what would any of us have given for that many Lego bricks when we were kids? We realized how big an attraction this place is when we learned that an airport has been constructed next to the park just to handle the volume of vacationers that come to visit the park. Monday, July 8, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 321 KM We rode much more than we planned today. Our original plan was to check out Legoland but the weather combined with a 22 Euro entry fee per person forced us to decide that we would live without seeing what 40 million Lego bricks can build. We spent the day riding around the country enjoying the beautiful scenery and trying to avoid the numerous downpours that were everywhere. The fjords on the north west coast are beautiful. Late in the afternoon we decided that we may as well head for Hirtshals where we will catch the ferry to Norway. When we arrived at the ferry terminal we debated about taking the ferry directly to Oslo or going to Kristiansand and then riding north to Oslo. The ferry to Oslo is 8.5 hours and the ferry to Kristiansand is 2.5 hours. We decided to take the ferry to Kristiansand and ride to Oslo. So, tomorrow at 11:30 the ferry leaves and we arrive at two in the afternoon. Tuesday, July 9, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 102.8 KM We managed to make the ferry on time and traveled from Hirtshals, Denmark to Kristiansand, Norway - a crossing of 2.5 hours. A nice ferry and a relatively calm ride. The boat did do a bit of rolling but nothing too bad. This was the Color Line Ferry and they provided the best accomodations for the bikes that we have had since the Stenna Line between Dublin, Ireland and Holyhead, Wales. Good ties down points and lots of good 4 inch wide nylon straps with ratchet handles to get everything nice and tight. The crew even came by and made sure that the bikes were secure and added a strap or two if they felt it was needed.
Wednesday-Thursday, July 10-11, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 245.2 KM We made it to Oslo today. Interesting ride. In most of the countries we have visited we have found drivers who want to go much faster than the posted speed limits. Not here. This highest speed we have seen posted is 100 KPH. Mostly it has been 70 and 80 KPH. The interesting thing is that the vast majority of the Norwegians drive at 5 to 10 KPH slower than the posted speed limit. Interesting. Yes. But. Also. Very. Frustrating. When. You. Are. Trying. To. Get. To. A. Destination. That. Is. Hundreds. Of. Kilometers. Down. The. Road. The vast majority of the roads are two lanes (one in each direction) and based on what we have seen so far, the traffic volume is very high. It took an hour and a half to cover the first 60 miles of our ride today. Fortunately the last part was a dual land divided highway with he 100 KPH speed posted. Friday, July 12, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 335.6 KM Oslo to Dovre. The traffic on the E6 has been very heavy all day - in both directions. The good news is that as we got further north it tended to thin a bit, however it did tend to travel in groups of 5 to 25 cars. Often there were large trucks mixed in as well. We find it amazing that the people tend to drive so conservatively here - almost always these groups are traveling anywhere from 5 to 15 kilometers below the speed limit. When these groups encounter any of the numerous photo cameras that are used to record vehicle registration numbers of vehicles traveling in excess of the speed limit they slow even more. We have never passed one of these cameras with other cars where the cars did not slow even further. The scenery today has been spectacular. Mountains, lakes, rivers, forests, villages, farms, cottages - and all of it a lovely sight to behold. Oh, and the ski jumps at Lillehamer too.
Met a nice chap in a gas station today who was traveling in his car with a caravan (trailer) along with his wife and child. He told us that he has a 1980 R100RS that he rides. He also told us about the Norwegian BMW Motorcycle Club Rally that will be held the first weekend in August in Mo I Rana. Unfortunately by that date we hope to be much further north - at the Nord Cap. Saturday, July 13, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 211.3 KM A beautiful day for our continued ride north. The traffic is thinning each day and our progress is easier. We arrived in Trondheim, settled into a small hotel and went looking for something to eat. This is the start of the area known as Trondelag. We found a farmers market where we bought some fruit. Not many bargains. We purchased some strawberries and cherries. The cherries cost a little more than $2.00 US for 100 grams - 12 cherries! We also found a store that sells motorcycle clothing. We were interested in seeing what people used in this climate. If you have read Verna’s evaluation of her Aerostitch jacket you know that she is not very happy with it. We were wondering if we could find something here that would work better. A good/bad news situation. We found a jacket that fit her perfectly - the good news. But, it had no way to provide ventilation in hot weather where it would become an oven - the bad news. Riding in the heat is not something the people living at these latitudes are concerned about! Sunday, July 14, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 399.9 KM We left Trondheim this morning with partly cloudy skies and about 21 degrees C. We rode north along the fjord, narrowly missing Hell (yes, there is a town called Hell, though we doubt it means the same in Norwegian as it does in English). We encountered a bit of weather today but all things being equal we managed to ride around most of it. Sometimes we were lucky enough to come in just as the rain was reaching the area we were riding through and on a few occasions we came in behind the rain and got to deal with the wet roads. But, for the most part a nice day and a nice day’s ride. The scenery is gorgeous, very green with lots of rivers and lakes. Most of the road followed along the river valleys and we occasionally passed a small settlement. A lot less traffic as we move north which is allowing us to move on down the road just a little easier. We did learn what happens when someone makes a mistake on this road. All traffic comes to a halt. We rode around a rather long queue of traffic that was stopped - because of an accident. We could not tell what had happened but there was a car on the left side of the road in the ditch, another on the right that was leaking all of the fluids from the engine all over the road. And, what used to be a motorcycle was in the left lane. It was missing most of its plastic bits as well as the front wheel. The paramedics were at the site taking care of the rider. As we moved up the road, about 15 minutes later, we encountered the police going south enroute to the accident scene. Another 15 minutes and an ambulance went by headed south and then about 10 minutes later a tow truck.
We then entered the next area of Norway, Nordland. We spent the night in Mosjoen. It appears that the focal point of the town are the old timber cottages from the 1800s, many of which have been kept in good condition while others appear to literally falling apart at the seams. There is also a huge aluminum production plant at the north end of the town as well as a lumber mill, the two of which are probably the major employers in the area. We are continually surprised at the number of people that live this far north. The area is beautiful, but we can imagine that the winters are quite harsh (not to mention dark - here it is only a bit over 100 km south of the Arctic Circle). Oh yea, at 23:00 the sky was blue and the sun was still up. Monday-Tuesday, July 15-16, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 257.1 KM
On the way to Mo I Rana (translated, Mo in Rana [Mo is the name of the town and Rana is the name of the region it is in]) we rode along rivers and huge lakes, each of which were smooth and mirror-like in the morning calm. All along the roadsides a beautiful purple blooming plant highlights the lush green that is everywhere. Now, does anyone know the name of this plant (pictured right)???? Verna thinks it might be Purple Loosestrife, but she is only guessing. We have seen it blooming interspersed with white Astilbe, a plant Verna tried unsuccessfully to grow in San Ramon. Here, the Astilbe grows wild about 2 feet tall - but where it is cultivated in people’s yards, it is up to 3 or 4 feet tall and quite lush, very different from anything we had seen growing in California. Just shows what a plant can do in its native environment.
At the glacier we will have a ten minute boat ride across the fjord and then a three kilometer hike to the visitors center where we will meet with some other intrepid souls who also want to take the daily hike onto the glacier. During our first ferry crossing today (it was an hour long) we crossed the Arctic Circle, so we are now officially in the land of the midnight sun and the polar night. Thank goodness we are here during the midnight sun season! Because it is the middle of July, we still have to travel a bit further north to actually see the midnight sun (the last day to see it in this area was in late June). But we should catch up to it before we hit the Nord Cap. Oh yea, it’s 12 Midnight and it is daylight - we cannot see the sun but we can see for miles and miles. On Tuesday we went to the Svartisen Glacier and spent the day getting up to and on the glacier and then walking about enjoying the beautiful scenery. Wednesday-Thursday, July 17-18, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 200.4 KM Well, the Weather God’s caught up with us today. We have had really nice weather but today when we woke up it was pouring down rain. Fortunately it eased up during the time we were loading the bikes. Then we headed north with the town of Bodo being our goal for the day. On the way we passed over the Saltstraumen - the world’s largest tidal current. We will be here for two days - the bikes will go into the local BMW shop for their 36,000 mile service Thursday. Friday, July 19, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 71.3 KM With the bikes serviced we are back on the road. We caught the 10:00 ferry from Bodo and three hours later we were in the town of Moskenes. These islands are the archipelago to the west of Bodo and are known as Lofoten. The area of Lofoten had been inhabited for about 6,000 years. Today the islands are known for the winter fisheries for cod between February and April. The ferry was loaded. About 20 motorcycles as well as the cars and campers. The weather has been beautiful. The ferry crossing was very smooth and the sun has been shining every day. The warm Gulf Stream has tremendous influence on the climate and Lofoten has a much milder climate than other parts of the world at the same latitude. We were walking around in short sleeve shirts in the afternoon and were very comfortable. A young lady at the tourist center told us that this summer has been the best weather they have had in many years. Glad we are here! The ride along the coast of the islands provides some of the most spectacular scenery - vast cliffs and granite mountains that appear to be vertical. The mountains are very deceptive. They appear to be a single unbroken range but in reality are a series of mountains, each on differing islands. Our travels the next several days should provide some wonderful riding. Oh yes, it is daylight 24 hours a day. We just are a bit too far south to see the sun 24 hours a day. Saturday, July 20, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 249.5 KM More beautiful scenery today. But, the weather Gods caught up with us today. Now we are in the weather that we thought we would see long before we arrived at the Arctic Circle - lots of low clouds and drizzly rain. Ugh. The first part of today’s ride was quite nice with blue skies, some clouds and lots of sun. Shortly after we passed through Stokmarknes we ran into the overcast skies and then as we approached Adenes the rain began in earnest. Two ferry rides today - one about 25 minutes and the second about one hour and forty minutes. Tonight we find ourselves in Torsken, not far from Greyllefjord where the second ferry docked at 7:20 this evening. Tomorrow we will ride to Tromso so we can visit the BMW motorcycle dealer there to purchase a spark plug for Jim’s bike. The shop in Bodo only had three spark plugs in stock when they did the service on the bikes so we need to get one more. Someone asked so we will reply - all of the distance figures are for kilometers traveled on the bikes; the distance the ferry’s traverse are not included in our daily distance figures. Sunday, July 21, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 227.8 KM Lots of overcast skies and lots of rain on the roads to Tromso. It was a very pretty ride. Ocean views at the start and end of the ride with lots of forest in between. Seems we both wound up humming a few bars of The Beatles Norwegian Wood while riding today. We arrived in the island town (there is nothing on the island but the town and the airport - a small island) in the early afternoon. We found a place to stay and located the tourist office. We now have the schedule for the two ferries we must take if we ride out of town tomorrow. We are going to find out how much it will cost for the 16 hour overnight trip on the Coastal Ferry to Honningsvag which is just 30 kilometers south of the Nord Cap. Tomorrow’s task is to locate the local BMW Motorcycle dealer and purchase a spark plug. The shop in Bodo only had three of the four spark plugs that were needed for the service of our bikes. Monday, July 22, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 306.7 KM We find ourselves in Alta tonight after a day of riding in and around lots of rain. We were on two ferries today, both relatively short rides (20 minutes and 40 minutes). The forecast is for partly cloudy skies with some sunshine tomorrow and we hope that that is the way it will be because we hope to reach our destination tomorrow - the Nord Cap. Tonight we are staying in a little cabin that is right on the water and as this is being typed, looking out the window of the cabin, the view to the north is beautiful but the low clouds are spoiling it. We have been far enough north (for the last several days) to see the sun 24 hours a day but the weather has not cooperated. Too much cloud cover and rain. We have this fantasy about taking a picture at midnight with the sun above the horizon and in view. We shall see what tomorrow brings. Tuesday, July 23, 2002Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 274 KM The first thing we did today was backtrack about 3 kilometers to visit the site of the Alta Rock Carvings. See the Alta Rock Carvings page for more information. Today is a good news/bad news day. The good news: We reached our goal - The Nord Cap! The bad news: It was so foggy that we could only see about 10-15 meters (30 to 45 feet). The elevation is about 280 meters (about 900 feet). At 180 meters we were out of the clouds (fog) and we could see. Oh well, no midnight sun for us. Also no picture of the bikes because there would have been nothing in the picture other than the bikes and a lot of fog. It was also windy and cold (about 8 degrees centigrade - 48 degrees fahrenheit). To get to the Nord Cap it is necessary to ride through a tunnel 6.87 kilometers in length that connects the mainland with the island where the Nord Cap is located. It’s like a ferry - you get to pay a toll going in both directions - about $10.00 US per bike each way. Cars are more costly. And then when you get to the Nord Cap there is an entrance fee - about $26.00 US per person. So, you can see that the cost to reach our objective was quite high. We were aware that there were fees but not of the ammounts. Once again we were suffering from “cost shock” here in Norway. See the Finnmark page for more information. This concludes this protion of the adventure. |
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From Hirschhorn (Neckar) to Karlsruhe to visit with Sascha and Michaela Leitz. We owe Sascha and Michaela a great deal for all the work they did last winter in getting the metal box that holds Jim's radio equipment repaired. We arrived unannounced and surprised everyone. In the evening we went to one of the best Mexican restaurants we have eaten in and had a great dinner. After dinner we went for a ride on a 55 meter tall Ferris Wheel that was set up next to the Schloss as part of the celebration of Karlsruhe's birthday (don't ask us how old the town is because we forgot to ask!). Of the four of us, Michaela enjoyed the ride the most - as evidenced by her "white knucles" holding on for dear life. Then it was off to the Italian Eis Cafe for a bit of desert and back to their house to look at the pictures Sascha had taken on his new digital camera. A good day and a great evening. 
The silver lining to our waiting to get the bikes repaired arrived at the motorcycle dealer on Wednesday morning in the form of Jeff Bacon. Jeff is in Europe to attend the Europrez meeting (EP7) scheduled for the coming week end to be held south of Munich. We met Jeff at the 2001 Europrez annual meeting - 
We left Winterberg amid gray skies threatening rain.and headed north west. We arrived in Hameln shortly after 1 PM, found the tourist information office, got directions to the local ADAC (German auto club) and had some lunch. We then paid a visit to the ADAC office in search of someone who could speak English. We met Olaf Schöchle who assisted us in getting membership so who will have emergency road service, among other things. We have had too many breakdowns this year to travel further without this service.
We departed amid overcast skies and the odd rain shower and arrived to similar skies but things were improving by the minute as we left the boat and headed north to Arendal. There was a conference in town and all of the hotels were full. Too bad, but it put us on the road north to the town of Tvedestrand as directed by one of the front desk people in a hotel where we tried to get a room. Tvedestrand is much more sedate. It too is on the coast and has a small harbor which is the focal point of the town (right). Our hotel is right on the water, quite old and quaint. This area is a sailor’s paradise - warm weather and lots of protection from the Atlantic/North Sea. A very nice place.
Lunch today consisted of two 12 ounce diet cokes, one ham and cheese sandwich that consisted of one piece of ham and one piece of cheese between to pieces of bread and another similar sandwich - all for 140 Kroner = $19.71 US. And we consider this to be one of the cheaper meals we have had! The cost of everything here is extremely high. We are very curious about the average income in Norway. It must be enormous in order to eat! Gasoline is more costly than in Germany which has the highest prices we have found in Europe. And, hotels are also very expensive. The strange thing is that we found the cost of the hotel in Oslo to be high but acceptable. We thought that once we were out of the big city we would find places to stay at a much reduced price - wrong! So, tonight we are in a little camp cabin (and it is not much cheaper than the hotel in Oslo!). The picture at right was taken just outside the cabin, looking across the Lange River.
Soon after leaving Mosjean this morning, we rode through a tunnel about a kilometer long - with absolutely no lights in the tunnel! Man, was that thing dark! We now know the true meaning of “tunnel vision.” You have absolutely no periferal vision as your headlight is shining only in front you. It is as if the tunnel is gobbling up the light just as you get to it.
When we got to Mo I Rana we got information about the Svartisen Glacier (the second largest in Norway). We then left the main highway and headed out to the coastal route. After some riding and two ferry rides we arrived at the glacier. Wow! This thing is huge (part of it is pictured with the bikes, below). We decided that we will spend the time here so we can take a hike up onto the glacier tomorrow. So, it was on the bikes and then a ride to a place to stay that took us through three tunnels - the shortest of which was 2.8 kilometers, the long one, 7.6 kilometers and the other one was 3.3 kilometers. Very dark inside these things as minimal lighting is provided. Now all we have to do is ride through them all again in the morning to get back to the glacier and then through them again to get back to the hotel.