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Showing posts from June, 2016

The day of the Troll

Today it was over the Trollstiggen- one of the iconic roads of Europe - and not just for motorcycles. We leave Geiranger and within two kilometres we claw our way up yet another impossible hillside.  This must be a more up market cruise boat than yesterday's - the chef is clearly handling the steaks better.    And the views we like being in an aeroplane      Then down the other side and onto yet another ferry.      Then the last mountain pass for the day and what a beauty ! Going down this one was the jewel in the Crown. Wow,wow,wow !! It just cannot get any better than this.    Do I see a problem coming up?    And here comes the kitchen sink being towed up the hill!    This sort of obstacle can create a problem when one is going round the corners on the bike at speed in the opposite direction. Road hog!    That's better. Diana is now riding the bike  whilst I climbed up to get the photo ! The red colour on the front of the bike is from her bleeding fingernails!    And I did sc

Tunnels I have met

Another long day. It starts off by us taking the easy  route down the hill. Then at the bottom we checked where we went up yesterday.evening.  Yes, the signs could perhaps be interpreted that we were not supposed to go up this road. But, in defence of ourselves,  as our beloved Prime Minister of New Zealand would so succinctly and beautifully put it, it was "at the end of the day actually"   So it was a morning of tunnels. Quite boring!  In the first 100 km we did 68 km of it in tunnels. There is clearly a strong  underground movement here in Norway I said to myself.    Included in our tunnel traipse was the longest tunnel in Europe at some 24km. Yes, it took a long time to go thru. The blue lights were sometimes replaced with coloured ones to relieve the monotony.    Then " enough of tunnels " we said to ourselves. So we looked at the map and decided to take "the road less well travelled". Over the mountain pass rather than thru it. A note to Robert Frost

Hairpins I have met

And today I met enough to keep a hair salon going forever. Big hairpin bends ,small ones,tight ones 360 degree one, hairpins inside tunnels and so the list goes on  The day started well with three varieties of pickled herring for breakfast. Heaven!  However I did notice that one of the varieties of herring had a funny colour. Then the penny( Kroner!) dropped. It was of course a red herring!  But let's start properly  at the beginning. Thru a slight navigational miscalculation it was a 500 km day which, given the twisty roads made it a big day and a long 10 hour day. We start off and head up a delightful drive to a town called Oddda. Yes, it does get  Odda and Odda !  The rain came down for the last half hour so it was a case if stopping and putting on the rain jackets which is normally guaranteed to make it stop raining. And they worked a treat. The rain promptly stopped.    Even the sheep on the side of the road get colour blindness as we go past. However we will scare off the elk

South to go North

So it is goodbye Iceland as we board the ferry. That does involve a long wait    Some trips have been less successful than ours. The front of the bike was even in worse shape with broken forks. Needless to say the bike got pushed on the boat. Another chappie I spoke to was sans bike - he hit a big bird and came off as a result. His bike was being shipped back and he was hitching a ride with his son    Fishing is big in Iceland and they have obviously used their sardine packing expertise in the loading of their boats. Bikes and cars are crammed in like sardines. In fact a sardine would have more room in a can I think. Hang on - I do not think Iceland has a sardines industry. There must be another theory so where.      But we strap the bike down and then it is on the way. Bye bye Iceland.      And back to Denmark with two nights on the boat. And the North Sea was like a mill pond all the way  Then we have a night in Denmark and then catch the ferry to Norway. Some of the bikes in the que

South to go North

So it is goodbye Iceland as we board the ferry. That does involve a long wait    Some trips have been less successful than ours. The front of the bike was even in worse shape with broken forks. Needless to say the bike got pushed on the boat. Another chappie I spoke to was sans bike - he hit a big bird and came off as a result. His bike was being shipped back and he was hitching a ride with his son    Fishing is big in Iceland and they have obviously used their sardine packing expertise in the loading of their boats. Bikes and cars are crammed in like sardines. In fact a sardine would have more room in a can I think. Hang on - I do not think Iceland has a sardines industry. There must be another theory so where.      But we strap the bike down and then it is on the way. Bye bye Iceland.      And back to Denmark with two nights on the boat. And the North Sea was like a mill pond all the way  Then we have a night in Denmark and then catch the ferry to Norway. Some of the bikes in the que