Jotunheimen

I forgot to mention the bicycles in Copenhagen. They are everywhere!! The city has a goal of being the most auto free in Europe and they are well on their way. There are very few private cars on the downtown streets, just bikes and buses. And not that many motorbikes either, just plain old single speed, coaster bikes. And like Harleys and Model Ts, most are painted black. As the incidence of theft is high, most don't invest in a good looking or high tech bike for there every day commute. And they ride year round, not just in nice weather. They are welcome on the buses and underground trains as well with elevators in the train station to go down to the trains. I do see motorbikes on the road, about half cruisers with two up and camping gear, the other half sport bikes with full riding gear and traveling in a group, a tour maybe. The people that I have met are extremely friendly with wide open smiling faces and more that willing to help with whatever I need Two have even lent me their telephones as I did not bring my US only phone with me. The internet and Skype, as expected, are widely available but not very fast.

The sun only highlights part of this great view.

I have ridden many really wonderful roads in the past, but yesterday's ride on Highway 55 through Jotunheimen National Park was outstanding in many ways. Excesses of water, ice, snow and far vistas interspersed with cute lodges and farms made it hard to keep my eyes on the road. Parts were similar to Glacier or Estes Parks, but this was five times longer and had many other 'mosts' As extras, the road is very narrow, one lane at times and never wide enough to merit a center stripe, and the switchbacks were quite a bit sharper than usual - a challenge for my big Gold Wing (but not me, of course). The day before, I rode up and then back the deep valley north of Lillehammar and thought that that was pretty marvellous, but the shortcut road out of Vinstra and over to Lom brought on new expectations.  And then Highway 55!!!  Google this park up and try to find some photos. I tried, but my camera is just not big enough to capture all of this.

Last night was at the Walaker Hotel in Solvorn.  I balked at the price when I first came through, but then in town the Best Western had the same price and I knew that this would be my last hotel for a week, so I came back the 20 km. It has been in continuous operation by the same family since 1690 and is quite the European classic. It is the oldest hotel in Norway, quite picturesque and right on the fjord. Their offering for dinner last night was a six course extravaganza for $95 plus wine. I picked up a take away sandwich and a beer from the cafe and enjoyed it sitting on the pier. The hotel breakfasts are spectacular buffet affairs with meats, cheeses, breads, eggs, herring, salmon, yoghurt, cereals, juices, and coffee. Much of it home made or local and all very good. I think there must be some type of competition between the different hotels and it is always included with the room. Or maybe the room is included with the breakfast.

It is raining again/still as it did most of yesterday. Not a downpour, just overcast with a splash of sunshine now and then and a sprinkle every twenty minutes, just to keep me in my rain gear.  I will check out after I finish my coffee and head over to Bergen, a three hour ride plus a short ferry, and meet up with Karina, a woman that I met in Greece two years ago.

Demark and Sweden

I left Prescott on the 2:30 am shuttle to Phoenix for a 7 am June 19th flight to Copenhagen for a two month tour of Scandinavia with a side trip to Bristol, England and then up to Glasgow, Scottland. But things change, so stay tuned.

Here's me and 'The Little Mermaid' in Copenhagen. The city certainly lives up to its reputation as one of the most beautiful capitals of Europe.

The downtown area has a large river running through it with many side canals such as this. Of course there are tour boats and water buses on the river and canals.

I climbed a church tower to get this shot. It used to be the tallest building in town and the last part of the climb is on the outside of the tower, spiralling up to the very peak.

This is Olle in his shop in Stockholm where he cleaned up my friend Noel's Gold Wing for me to use. It had been parked for three years and needed quite a bit of work. Olle also fed me and put me up for the night.

I rode out of Stockholm on Friday, June 22, the largest holiday in Sweden, Midsummer, and found a lovely hotel on the river. This was my happy hour place with a cold beer.

After an all night flight from New York, I arrived in Copenhagen at 7:30 in the morning and checked my large bag into storage, purchased a train ticket to Stockholm for the next day, picked up some tourists maps and headed downtown on the Metro. It was a beautiful, sunshiny day living up to all of the brochure photos. I mixed up museums, art galleries, and coffee by the river with people watching before catching the 6 pm Metro out to my Couch Surfing hosts. The Metro stations as well as all of the city is extremely automated and modern. One station even had movies projected on to the wall that appeared to be what one would see looking out the window of one of the cars as the scenery passes by. Wave at a button and the door would slide open, just like Spock would have it.

My hosts were great, giving me beer and eating with them and their teenage daughter a meal of roasted chicken, potatoes and vegies from their garden. Finn and I chatted on into the night and I crashed so hard that I didn't wake up until almost 8 am, disregarding the all night well lit sky.

Then back on the tourist route, again leaving my large bag at the train station to await my 2:30 departure to Stockholm on the high speed train to pick up the motorcycle that Noel is letting me use. I was originally picking it up in Malmo, just across the river from Copenhagen, but it was transferred to Olle in Stockholm as he had the time to do the 'get ready' work on it. I paid Olle for the work and have rationalized that I would spend that much on very limited bus and train fares and even more if I had to rent a vehicle. The train ride from Copenhagen to Stockholm was 985 SEK. An SEK is somewhere around 6.8 per USD, and Olle put me up and fed me dinner and breakfast and two beers, so that is worth at least the 800 SEK  price that I am paying for food and rooms. I was warned that this would be and expensive area of the world. Good rationalizing, no?

Olle said compare Mexico to the US, then apply the same ratio to the US vs Scandinavia. The hotel I am in now is 700 SEK and includes breadfast., Dinner last night was 200.


Saturday, June 23.    I am now staying at a small hotel/resort along a good sized river 10 K outside of Malung, Sweden. I rode 300 km yesterday in five hours, a good lazy beginning to the trip. The Gold Wing is old and tired, an 84 model with 98 K miles on it. The engine seems OK, but the tranny makes some interesting noises. It looks good and seems to work, so we shall see.

I think I am going to go on strike today and read and put out a blog. Maybe go into town and buy some sun screen and skin cream and replace the reading glasses that I can't find. It is another 1000 km over to Bergen, Norway where I meet up with Karina, but I don't want to be there til Tuesday afternoon. Supposedly, the roads get much more interesting in Norway as it is quite mountainous. Sweden has been fairly flat with some rolling hills, lots of water, and mainly pasture land and timbering.

The days are way long and it never does get completely dark. I think I could ride all night not be too concerned about seeing things. This weekend is the midsummer festival for the Swedes, occurring on the first Friday after June 21. There doesn't seem to be much public celebrations, but I saw a lot of picnics and family gatherings going on in back yards. There is a group of 15 or so here at the hotel that had dinner last night in the restaurant and they appear to be family. I sat with Tom, an 92 year old man from Norway who is just driving around. He stayed here last year and enjoyed just walking around so much that he came back. He thinks this will be the last year as he is afraid that he is going to lose his drivers license soon. He told some interesting stories about WW II.

I did go into town and attended an outdoor annual performance of the Swedish version of 'The Taming of the Shrew', mostly local actors, but the leads were big name opera people. A different day for me. It was overcast most of the day, high of 60 or so. Tomorrow will be riding west into Norway, which promises to be more interesting riding with mountains and twisty roads.