The long road to Norway

Made it to the ferry in Denmark  😎 Time for an update.

Day 1 Weds 11th July 18

The  Eurotunnel train was 45 mins late departing, spent the time waiting talking to some bikers from Leicestershire who were off to the Moto GP at Saxon Ring in  Germany. The ride to Antwerp was uneventful until I got to the city in the rush hour, only to find  major roadworks on one of its main streets. Every road the sat nav wanted to take me  down was blocked off! I drove round in circles getting nowhere dodging trams, tram lines , traffic jams and cycle lanes. In the end I stopped and resorted to Google Maps to show me a way to the hotel avoiding the road closures. 

A quick shower and it was time to find somewhere to watch England vs Croatia in the semi final of the World Cup ! A bit more Googling and up came The Irish Pub.. must be the best place 👍

Found my way there, the place was jumping with a mix of Brits, Croatians draped in flags and a few Belgians and even some Frenchmen; got a beer and managed to find a seat near some tough looking guys, were they Croatians? .. no, they were Albanias supporting England 👍 ( told me they hate Croatians) , they turned out to be really friendly guys, As was everyone else I talked to that night.  What a great game and the atmosphere was electric with rival fans chanting and cheering, all good natured.. the beers kept coming and unfortunately they were not serving food that night 😱 

It was a disappointing result for England, but Croatia deserved to win I thought .. as I told a Croatian fan, who then hugged me 🤪 Time for something to eat, but most of the restaurants were closing by now. Managed to find an Italian place open and got a pizza. Slept well that night. 

Day 2 Thurs 12th July 18

A bit of a thick head this morning and 380 miles to do, all motorway through Netherlands and into Germany to my hotel in Kaltenkirchen, just North of Hamburg.

The road was busy with traffic and so many lorries; so boring on a motorbike, but a necessity to save time. The boredom was broken by petrol and coffee stops, each time with the added bonus of talking to other bikers. I met guys from Luxembourg, also on their way to Norway, a Danish guy on his way home and several Dutch.

Things got interesting when I entered Germany; long stretches of unrestricted motorway.. no speed limit!! 😱 Now I know why the Germans build fast cars.. because the have somewhere to use them 👍 I was cruising along at 100mph and Audis, BMWs and Mercs came flying past like I was stationary.. need to look twice in the mirror before pulling into the fast lane!! 

But the best bit was when 3 guys all on Hayabusas ( Japanese for Falcon) came past flat out and disappeared into the distance..these things can hit close to 200mph !!

Around Bremen I got stuck in miles of roadwork jams, lanes so narrow that even a bike could not filter through.. and by now it was 29c 🔥 Finally my exit approached and after 9 1/2 hours on the road I arrived at a very nice spa hotel and a much needed cold beer 😎

Day 3 Fri 13th July18

Another 300+ miles of motorway today to reach Hirtshals, right at the top of Denmark, to catch the ferry to Norway 🇳🇴 

After 70 miles came the Danish border, long tailbacks caused by police randomly pull cars in for checks; I was waved through. The traffic cleared and the motorway went through a mix of woodlands and large areas of corn fields, it was a pleasant 23c and cruising at 90mph, we’ll on schedule to get the 8pm ferry.  At coffee stop had a very nice chat with a couple of Swiss bikers also on their way to Norway for a 3wk trip going right round the top and down into Finland and the Baltic states camping all the way!

The land was now flat and very windy, lots of wind turbines..hard work on the bike against the wind.  Took a detour off the motorway and had lunch by a nice marina on the coast, hot 29c.

Finally saw the sign for Hirtshals, only 40kms to go 😁. Arrived with a couple of hours to kill so had a look into town, not much there, just fishing boats and so on to check in at a windswept ferry port. Got chatting to some Swedish and Dutch bikers to pass the time. Finally the boat arrived and we were first on. Had to tie our own bikes down.

Got to the cabin, what a nice surprise, I’d booked a mini delux cabin all to myself instead of the normal cramped shared cabin I’m used to on Brittany Ferries ( even has a television) Sent a pic to my upcoming Spanish trip riding buddies to gloat 🤣

Well after nearly 1000 miles of motorway riding to get here I deserved it! 🤪

The boat arrives in Bergen at 12.30 tomorrow; So looking forward to some nice twisty roads over the next 10 days in Norway  😎