| Over the next week we break new 2-wheel ground (for us) — Poland, Lithuania, Lativia, Estonia, Russia, Finland, Norway, & Sweden |
| Our goal is Nordkapp, Norway, Europe’s northern end-of-the-road! It is considered Europe’s northernmost point. It is also considered one of the start/stop points for rider’s who are riding across the European/African continents.
Just saying… |
| Fri-May 18, 2012 |
| Location: Bamberg, Germany
Lodging: Home Base Euro: $1 USD = €0.75 or €1 = $1.33 USD Gas/Fuel in Bamberg: €1.68/l = $2.24 USD/l or $8.28 USD/gal! Weather: Clear blue skies today over Bamberg! 14°C/57°F |
| NO RIDING TODAY! |
| There will be three riders going to Nordkapp. Martin Thomas, Germany, will join us AND has ridden to Nordkapp before. Get this, Martin will be riding a HD Sporty!
The other big decision was no tent camping on the Nordkapp loop. We kinda got our schedule pinched so we may end up with some 500+ mile days. Tent camping and the possibility of riding a couple big mile days are not compatible!! This is the only part of our ride in Europe where we have a defined window to pass through. Our Russian visa is for May 23-26. Up to Russia we stay in small hotels, after Russia we stay in “camping houses”. Not sure what these are but I’ll be sure to include photos when the time to stay in “camping houses” happens. |
| Today is prepping for Nordkapp day. |
| A. Since we pack our tents wet in Garmisch-P, we open our tents and lay them out to sun-dry. Mine still had enough moisture on the surfaces to mildew if not dried. |
| B. V-Strompasourus maintenance.
Refill Scott Chain Oiler |
| C. GPS: My riding partner is using a Garmin Zumo 665 loaded with City Navigator Europe NT 2011. He’s routing with a PC laptop with Garmin BaseCamp.
I’m using a Garmin Zumo 550 loaded with City Navigator Europe NT 2012. I’m routing, and creating waypoints with a MacBook Air with Mac Garmin BaseCamp, Google Earth, and the internet for research, etc. We are creating a list of waypoints to dump into our GPS’s using Garmin’s POI Loader. Interesting enough, routable GPS map is not available for St Petersburg and Russia. This is our Plan A: East then North Bamberg, Germany Bernotai, 26 km N of Vilnius, Lithuania, The Center of Europe Riga, Lativia South Norway (down along the west coast) Of course all is subject to change. |
| D. Made 3 photo copies of everything for border crossings
- Passport photo ID page with Russia visa |
| E. We reorganize our entire load for the Nordkapp loop. We are cutting anything that we have not used.
Tomorrow we’ll do this all again out of nervous fidgeting. |
| Sat-May 19, 2012 |
| Weather: Second day of clear blue skies! 23°C/73°F at 5:21 PM.
We are essentially packed. Around noon we took a 3-hour 100-mile shake down ride through the countryside to GoBweinstein for apple strudel. |
 Apfelstrudel (Apple Strudel) from GoBweinstein. This was the best ever! Opps! Goofy helmet hair day. |
| Since we are riding through so many countries, we are packing: - portable fire extinguisher - reflective vest - reflective triangle - first aid kit The above items are, in part, required in motor vehicles in the countries we pass through. |
| Tomorrow, Sunday, we head east to Treuen, Germany where we meet up with Martin Thomas and continue on through Dresden, Wroclaw, Lodz to Warsaw/Warschau, Poland. |
| From here on out, our days in the saddle will be long and my ability of blog will be limited. If you want to see where we are, keep an eye on the “CURRENT LOCATION”, SPOT Sat Track. This is our actual tracks +20-30 minutes. |
Finally blue skies, enjoy!
Dean, could you email me a piece of that Apfelstrudel, please? You know I’m German — I miss it.
Don’t worry about the helmet hair, I’m looking at that strudel also. Yum, that with a cup of java.. Heaven!
Enjoy the sunshine!
I know a lot of guys that would love to be able to say they had helmet hair…or just about any kind of hair!
:)
Bring on the sun!