New York - New York. 2010

Woke up
this morning, early, to frequent showers and in between, not so frequent
showers. In other words, standard Scottish weather. Managed to pack up our gear
in between showers and got it somewhat dry into our bags. Headed for Isle of
Skye and it was a beautiful scenery. One of the most spectacular pieces of
riding/driving that you can see. Only one problem, in piss-pooring rain it is
hard to see and take it all in. Besides that it was great.

In all honesty,
the day started out allright. Found a
great place for brunch that also had some great friendly Scottish cows.

Took the
road less travelled, a tiny little piece of road that had a meeting place every
100 meters since it was to narrow for two vehicles, even motorcycles. Took the
old ferry, turntable-ferry, the last one still operating, to Skye. Stopped for
the night in Kyleakin.

The day
started in clouds, midday in pooring rain, but hey…. The afternoon/evening was
great. Henriette sat on the bike all day, changed clothes and went out running
when we got to Kyleakin. Håkan decided it was beertime.

Tomorrow
the Highland games, in Portree, starts with the bagpipers. That will be fun,
rain or not.

Had a good days ride up to Loch Ness. The scenery in scotland is truly awsome. After some debating of pros and cons we decided to put up the tent for the night. Ended up in Fort Augustus on the south shore of Loch Ness. There is a stairs of locks leading into Loch Ness if you are comig by boat. Quite interesting to watch. Even though it is managed by hydraulics today it was interesting to see that they still have kept the old turntables wich where horse/donkey operated at one time.
We did not see a slight glimpse of old nessie, but it is good fun to see how they manage to make money in every touristshop due to that old tale.

On our way up to Nessie, we passed the Commando Memorial in tribute to the fallen commandos from WW2. A very moving place wich still honors the fallen men in service up until this day. very moving and a quick check back to reality.

Since we did pitch our tent we hoped for good weather….did not come. Woke up in the middle of the night i pooring rain and hard winds. That just makes camping so much more fun…not. Henriette went out checking on the bikes and that everything was tight and stuck to the ground. Håkan was mumbling in the tent about the need for checking things…Left this morning for Isle of Skye. The ride there is another story….

Henriette went out running this morning. Hey, the weather was nice, meaning it did not rain. Cold as hell but no rain. That is always a good thing. Had a great breakfast and then decided to hike up Ben Vrackie. Turned out to be a great hike, pleasant weather going up, shitty going down. Took 4 hrs and some interesting facts. We have hiked the Alps and Rocky Mountains and every time there is a climb, the path starts to wind in a zig-zag formation. In Scotland it goes straight up! That makes the guy lighting the olympic flame

look like a vimp, compare to today.
Leaving tomororrom for Loch Ness area. We will see where we end up.

Left Haithwistle late morning after a great English breakfast. Probably the best we have ever had in England. Short ride ride but long in time, 300k today. Went to Pitlochry in the highlands. Beautiful ride after Glasgow. Stopped in for coffe in the small town ( tiny) of Muthill. Had a great discussion with the old locals. While we had a cup of coffe, they downed 3 whisky and 3 smirnoff with Irn Bru(scottish specialty).
Since the never ending rain keeps coming, tenting is not our cop of the. Ended up in Rosemount hotel for the next 2 nights.
Hiking the highlands tomorrow. Also found the smallest wisky destillery in Scottland, Edradour. Need to see that tomorrow.

In 120 AD, emperor Hadrian got tired of the Scotts raiding the province of Britannia and decided to build a wall across England. So he did, and it still stands today. It is very cool to see and to realize that it has been around for 2000 years. So, we like cool things, and we went there, hiked to the higest point, and walked almost 10k along the wall. Walking along the wall, we run in to a guy doing repairwork to the wall. We start up a discussion and find out he has been doing this for 30 some years. In fact that was the only thing he had done. He had lots to tell about the area and the economic importance today for the local business. ithout the wall there would be nothing besides farming here.

Then we found a local pub wich was extremly neat. Not as cool as Hadrian´s but still very neat.

Got off the ferry this morning, did not even get to the passport control, then it starts to rain. Seems like it will be the story of this trip. However, it lightened up and turned out to be a great day with a pint of beer after the wall-hiking-thing.
Cool day wich ended with a B&B at a great location.

We came off the boat in northern Germany at around 7am. Had almost 600k to Amsterdam and next port for the ferry to Newcastle. Looked forward to booooring transportation riding. Turned out to be nothing of the sort. It came to be an endurance test and a test of why the hell are we doing this on our vacation?? First half was OK, second half was some of the worst riding Håkan had done and by far the worst Henriette had done. Pooring rain, downpour, sideways rain, galeforce winds sideways, cold, wet and we needed to push on, did not have time to stop and wait it out. No fun whatsoever.

Made it to the ferry in Ijmuiden, outside Amsterdam with time to spare. Got on the boat and realized that the pleasent ferryride might not be so pleasant with the wind making whitewater already in port. However, after a beer and some dinner things turned for the better. Early night and had the luxury of sleeping in since we did not dock until 10am.

Started from Stockholm, going 700K to Port of Trelleborg. Easy ride, but interesting. Sun, rain, terrential downpour, rain, cloudy, rain and so on. But hey, a ride is a ride.
Sleep tonight on the ferry, On to Amsterdam tomorrow. Just booked accomodation next to Hadrian wall. Looking forward to walking that.
Pics from the start and from a dry-up session along the way.

Off we go tomorrow morning. Alarm set for early. Forecast says rain. We’ll see. Kilt, games and good people to come.