Motourama Part 14: On The Road Again
Motourama Part 14 – On the Road Again
Hello family, friends and followers! The time in Denmark came to an end in the 12th part of our Travel Stories, and it is time to get a move on again.
We had a last breakfast in Sæby, before jumping on our impatient steeds. The sun was warm, and the air was cool. Perfect riding conditions. We set off at a very pleasant speed for a whole 5 km before making the first small break. We remembered, that it had been a while since we last checked the air in the tires.
Making sure the air is there. The delivery van in the background is from Esben’s old workplace.
After making sure, that they had the correct amount of air pressure, we set off again, and found our pleasant pace once again. This time for a whole 15 minutes before Esben, with a series of loud mumbling, stopped his bike and tore open his helmet. A bee had come to visit, and decided that the mouth would be the perfect place to go. With the bee out of the helmet, helped by an encouraging flick of the finger, we set of, again again, towards our first planned stop – in Aalborg, 30 minutes away.
Even the bridge in Aalborg was up to hold us back from leaving.
The one and only Hafer.
It felt like Denmark did not want us to leave already, but we told her that it was time. We thoroughly enjoyed the farewells with Hafer, Esben’s friend in Aalborg, and continued on to Aarhus, where Esben’s sister lives. She had bought koldskål (a soursweet dairy product, much like buttermilk, but with added lemon juice), kammerjunker (dry, sweet biscuits, that are plunged into the koldskål to soak up the soursweet, lemony goodness), and raspberries! A delicious treat in the sun.
Esben’s sister, Astrid, with the delicious koldskål.
We had our farewells as well, and we went back on the scenic, Danish country roads to further adventures. And “adventures” we found, in a way. Denise’s bike had been making some clonking sounds from the engine, when it started cold, and at certain revs. It had been like that since we bought it, and we had thought nothing of it. Just the unfamiliar sound of a different single cylinder, than that of the BMWs we had before. We had noticed, that Esben’s bike sounded different, but it was not drastic. On the road south through Denmark, it got slightly more noticeable. We started to wonder if there might be something wrong, but as it didn’t get any worse, we didn’t investigate further. “If it ain’t broke (yet), don’t fix it!”.
Setting up the tent in Flensburg.
We made it to south of the Danish/German border, to Flensburg, where we camped for the night. The next day, we had a long, uneventful day in the saddle towards Berlin. The day started out grey, but turned into a sunny afternoon. Riding was made easy by the weather, and we reached Berlin without being fatigued, even though we had been on the road for 9 hours. Our passports had arrived the same day, and relieved we packed them safely away with the rest of our important documents. Now we could set off and actually cross borders legally!
Grey morning, happy faces.
Sunny afternoon, happy faces! Uh, and driving a stick, as they say in the US.
We spent the night in Berlin, with our former hosts. Till was very interested in the drone, and to impress him with its capabilities, Esben started E2-D2 in the living room, and flew him out of the balcony door. Even Esben was amazed with the ease of control for such a tight maneuver.
Out the door…
…and into the sky.
After a good night’s sleep, we readied our bikes again, and set off for Poland, the first “real” border crossing of the trip. It turned out, that Germany had some parting gifts for us before we crossed the border. The first was the severity of the clonking sound of Phoenix’s engine. It had become quite a lot louder and much more disconcerting. We looked up Honda dealers in Krakow, our true goal in Poland, and found one with good reviews. We would make it the highest priority to go there, as soon as possible. The second gift was Phoenix’s speedometer suddenly going from 80 km/h to zero. We knew what the problem was this time, and that we had to spend another hour picking out the teeth of the speedometer gear from the gooey grease on the housing with pincers. We decided to just let that be, and to do it at Honda in Krakow while waiting for a diagnose of the sound. We rode on, and crossed the border without even having to show our passports. You’ve got to love the Schengen Agreement.
Cool old Ford pickup.
The pine woods around Berlin, where the Red Army fought the last defence before Berlin in WWII.
The carrot spoon – excellent for left over lentils. Thanks Till and Yasi!
Hello Poland!
As we had begun the day a bit late, we only made it to Zielona Gora, but that turned out to be for the better. We found a small, basic camp ground to put our tent up for the night. It was a very interesting place. There were trees scattered all around, so it felt like it was divided into areas in a very natural way. We sought out a place with nice flat ground, a bit away from the thumping techno music of a picnic near the entrance.
It turned out a large group of locals had come together and were just about to make the picnic into a party. It didn’t disturb us much, though. We got the tent up and then had dinner overlooking a large, empty basin of a man-made lake – complete with a beach and several gangplanks. There was a small stream running through the bottom of the basin. The very nice and polite elderly man controlling the camp grounds told us, in Polish and with a lot of gesturing, that the stream would be dammed up the following day, so the basin would fill, and the man-made lake would open up for locals looking for a day at the beach.
Dinner is ready.
Denise flying the drone for the first time!
With our stomachs full, Denise went off around the lake basin to explore, while Esben got E2-D2 out to let it soak in some fresh air. Denise also had her first try at flying with it. We then went to bed with the rhythmic thumping of the bass from afar lulling us to sleep.
The stream that will fill the basin.
Until next time, ride on!