Iron Bridge

MZ Skorpion Trail

The bridge in the background is on what passes for the main road into Hov in southwest Norway (2011)

On The Road

“If you don’t know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

~Lewis Carroll

Old Boxer

Nice old airhead BMW twin, an R75/7, spotted on my trip to Norway last summer.

 

Note the straps around the panniers. Those of us who have owned a BMW fitted with old-style Krauser panniers like this will know, you need the straps to stop the panniers opening and spilling their contents along the road whilst travelling.

The turf-roofed structures are over picnic tables thoughtfully provided at a service area. 

Norway: Conclusion

Our time in Norway was mostly spent in bright sunshine, in idyllic surroundings, and was a generally positive experience. I did wonder about leaving things like that and not mentioning the problems we had on the return trip. However, on reflection, I reckoned that, since you have to put up with the bad along with the good, I should cover that as well. Otherwise you wouldn’t be getting the full picture.

Do I regret going? Not at all. We had a fantastic time in Norway. It is a beautiful country with friendly people and scenery reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands grown large. The roads are perfect for motorcycles and, outside the few big cities, mercifully quiet.

Would I do it again? No, I don’t think so. Until they reinstate some sort of direct ferry link from the UK to Norway I wouldn’t recommend going on your bike as we did. It’s really too far to travel to get there and back, and takes too long. Around half of our holiday was spent just getting to where we wanted to be, and the long haul through Germany was thoroughly unpleasant, as all you did was travel exceedingly fast on the motorway for hours on end at the mercy of idiot drivers and the weather.

However, we both agreed that Norway was somewhere we’d like to go back to and a fly/drive holiday with family might be on the cards at some time in the not too distant future.

So, I'm not saying that I'll never be back; just that it's unlikely to be on a bike any time soon, I'm afraid.

Day 15 - Norway Tour 2011

Newcastle to Home

Distance: 120 miles / 192 km

Song for today:  Within a Mile of Home, Flogging Molly

The weather didn’t abate overnight and it was difficult to sleep due to all of the movement, so we woke tired and not a little queasy and decided to forego breakfast to be on the safe side.

Due to the overnight conditions we arrived in North Shields over an hour and a half late. On checking the bikes, for which we'd feared the worst, we found that the crew had been down at some point and put another couple of straps across each bike, so they were okay, and then when we finally disembarked it was to yet another bright and sunny morning.

Another border check, only this time on home soil. Asked where we'd been, we got the now standard, "Oh, wasn't it awful" response which we still didn't fully understand, having been pretty much out of the loop since we left. The bombing in Oslo and shootings elsewhere were still pretty much a mystery to us. I only found out the full details once I got home.

Anyway, one last effort and we'd be home. I stopped briefly at the border just north of Berwick on Tweed for a photo opportunity, before eventually arriving outside my door with a huge smile on my face and a truly massive sense of achievement.

I was pleased too, with the performance of the Skorpion. It behaved impeccably and didn't miss a beat. Not bad for an old girl. Who says that you can’t tour on a smaller bike, or on a single?

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Day 14 - Norway Tour 2011

Bremen, Germany to Ijmuiden, Netherlands

Distance: 240 miles / 385 km

Song for today:  Song to the Siren, This Mortal Coil

Last day, and another long one. We were up and away from the hotel early. In fact, there had been a bit of a communication breakdown the night before about times and we had to wake the proprietors up to get our bikes out of the garage, so no breakfast for us today.

Also, no real rain today, thank goodness, only the occasional light shower, but the winds from yesterday were still making themselves felt. They make travelling at motorway speeds very tiring as you seem to be fighting the bike all day. However, as soon as we passed over the border into the Netherlands the standard of driving improved considerably, making the final run to the ferry less harrowing than yesterday had been.

We eventually arrived in Ijmuiden in plenty of time, and began to relax in the knowledge that it was all almost over. One more night and then we'd be back in the UK. To celebrate we had some fish & chips before heading off to book in at the ferry terminal.  

Once through and onto the quayside we were left to wait for over an hour in increasingly stormy conditions, but Gareth and I were in high spirits as we were on our way home. I did feel sorry for some of the others who were obviously starting their trip in such poor conditions.

There were loads of bikes, too. Gareth was pleased to note that his was still the smallest bike there. The only ones smaller than the Skorpion, apart from Gareth's bike, were a couple of 600cc machines ridden by some girls from Austria - a Honda Transalp and a Ducati Monster. We quietly sneered at the need for 1300cc HDs, and BMWs with every gadget known to man bolted to them to go touring on.

However, the stormy conditions only got significantly worse as we left the harbour's mouth. Extremely high seas saw the ferry bucking and rolling all over the place. The sounds of retching could be heard pretty much all the way across the Channel.

A suitably dramatic end to what had been up to now an epic trip.

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Day 13 - Norway Tour 2011

Copenhagen, Denmark to Bremen, Germany

Distance: 280 miles / 450 km

Song for today: Highway To Hell, AC/DC

Today was truly awful. Probably one of the worst days that either of us could remember having had on a bike. It was raining when we exited the ferry at Copenhagen, and it was still raining when we arrived in Bremen seven hours later. Add to the rain, really strong gusting side winds, almost constant roadworks and another dose of German drivers and you have a recipe for a very long and tiring day.

The run across Denmark was wet and unpleasant, and the crossing on the small ferry from Denmark to Germany was rough due to the high winds which tossed the boat about a fair bit. However, once off the ferry the road crosses a rather large suspension bridge. The wind straight off the sea was horrendous, blowing us all over the road. We passed a number of cyclists huddling behind the pillars on the footpath over the bridge who were, it seemed, trying to hide. No such hiding for us, though. Traffic crawled along, with the big trucks tail-gaiting slower vehicles, including those of us on bikes. What would have happened had one of us fallen off didn’t bear thinking about.

The journey through Germany on the way out had been fairly uneventful, but this return trip was sheer torture. The standard of driving hadn’t improved in the week we had been away and now, rather than being faintly amusing, was actually something which was approaching dangerous. Not helped by our being wet, cold and fatigued from wrestling with the bike in the wind and our reaction times not being what they should have been.

Crawling along because of roadworks was hard going. At one point we gave up being nice and just filtered through about 10 km (6 miles) of stationary traffic, to discover that the reason for the hold-up was the closure of one lane on a short bridge. Once over the bridge the traffic went back about its usual suicidal business.

Not much else to say, I’m, afraid. Glad that the day was over we rolled up to our hotel on the outskirts of Bremen. 

Booked over the internet, this one didn’t quite match expectations (here's the lovely view from our window), but it got us out of the rain, and after something to eat and a very welcome beer to steady our frayed nerves we headed for another early night, not relishing the fact that we had to do it all again on the morrow.

Only later did we find out about the terrible events which took place in Oslo today, which did put our own experiences into some sort of perspective.

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