Monday    3.6.2017
  594km Total: 6786km    254km Total: 1550km
  4.95km Total: 325.72km

I usually hate riding on the Autobahn with the Tiger, it's not exactly a high speed weapon.
But today it's rolls along quite nicely, some part of the explanation might be owed to the fact that it's a smoother due to the switch from the rock hard Heidenaus to the somewhat softer Mitas tyres.
As a consequence I march at about 150km/h for the better part of the day.

At some point I catch up to a convoy of police cars with the first of them flashing its lights.
As a Swede it's a very strange experience to turn your indicator on and overtake a police car but what else could I do when they where driving at considerably slower pace than me?
In total I think I rode past about a dozen police cars during the course of the day and every single time I had a miniature panic attack before realising I wasn't actually doing anything wrong.

The pace was only due to the pure entertainment value as I had all the time in the world.
Even though I'm riding 600kms I have all day and most of the afternoon to do it.
So even with a few stops and a lunch break which just happened to be at the exact same place as on the ride down with SMC I'm way early.

Well, that could be remedied to some extent with a supply run at Citti-Markt in Lübeck.
1L Tullamore at a discount of €15.99 was a irresistible bargain and I practically filled up the box I'd had the readymeals in.
Considering that Steam-packet hassled on a bout the 2L jerrycan I might have to hang a "dangerous goods" on the back of the bike now?
It's a bit odd that you can ride 1500kms and get a considerably better price than at the actual distillery.

Well I arrive in Travemünde harbour very early and park up in line for check-in which hasn't even opened yet.
I prepare a readymeal as supper and just as I put it down to warm up the heavens open up.
I know I might have overused that term but this was biblical, the rain droplets bounced back several decimetres in the air after hitting the ground.
Lucky for me there was a stairwell to a passage to the lounge where I can take refuge because otherwise I can't rule out that I might have drowned.

After eating I go to the lounge and pass the time before it's time to check in and by then the rain has died down to a drizzle.
The man in the check-in booth at Finnlines gets a bit puzzled when I rolled up on the bike because for some strange reason I'd failed to book the bike on the passage so here we have a biker who should according to the ticket be a foot passenger.
It took the poor guy a long time to sort out my mistake and credit where credit is due, they could have punished me big time for that blunder but he sorted the whole thing out and I just had to pay an extra fee of €29.
It's still only half of what Stena-Line wanted for Kiel-Gothenburg.

As stated there was still plenty of time after check-in until we where to ride on board so I head back to the lounge.
There I meet a group of older gents who are heading back to Sweden after a tour of the Pyrenees.
To no ones surprise they'd had a tad better luck with the weather.
A funny thing was that the called themselves Dinklot MC where the abbreviation stands for Double Income No Kids, Lots Of Time.
That's pretty funny I think.

I get down to the bike too early since the hour the staff said turned into one and a half before we actually got to ride onto the ferry.
I got a bit confused when they directed me to a spot in the middle of the car deck and then all the loaders just disappeared.
The hunt was on for someone to tell me if it was my responsibility to strap down the bike and if so, where the straps where.
It was up to me and I was very generously given four straps so I lashed that machine down so good that the ferry could have done somersaults without it moving an inch but I still walked a way with just a hint of doubt if I couldn't have done it just a little bit better.

A quick run through the taxfree, a shower and then it's definitely bedtime.
Reveille will probably be around 6AM.

Wonderful weather

But at least it got better

As good as it got

Tuesday    4.7.2017
  505km Total: 7291km    Total: 1550km    0.83km Total: 326.55km

As expected the spectacle begins with loud music from the cabin speakers at 5.30AM.
I have no idea how intricate and time consuming they assume peoples morning routines are when they think you need this much notice.
I had brought one of my trusty readymeals along as breakfast as I expect there wouldn't be much that I actually could eat in the breakfast restaurant.

We disembark and I steer my Tiger in the direction homewards in a light drizzle that subsides more and more with the clouds dispersing and turning into nicer and nicer weather the closer I get to home.

I stop to get lunch around noon and make a stop at the cemetery to debrief my mom on the way back, it's starting to be a bit of a tradition stopping there on the way out and back.
She was always the first one I talked to on the last evening before heading out and the day I got back so this at least makes up for it a tiny bit.
The last few kms back home disappear ruminating on memories of a great trip.

  36 days    7291km    5 Countries    1550km    326.55km

Like I always write this trip too was unforgettable.

Starting the trip with the tour to Isle of man also felt right.
Letting someone else do the legwork and just walk and ride where you're told was a nice contrast to doing it all by myself and it was obviously very nice having that many compadres along, they where a real friendly bunch.

It was a grand experience going to the TT even if it was somewhat tarnished by my migraines and a bad cold.
It's definitely something I can imagine doing again and the tour with SMC was pretty affordable, especially since I got deductions for the ferries on the return which wasn't a given since it was after all a pre-prepared package deal.

The islands lived up to any and all prejudices I've ever had about British weather, up in the Highlands the climate almost felt like I was back on Iceland.
The Klim gear cost a fortune but is really starting to pay dividends, messing with rain gear for every drizzle I've had this trip would have ruined it (and driven me to insanity).
A few times I actually regretted not bringing the heated jacket along but I managed to keep pretty warm anyway so in retrospect it wouldn't really have been worth lugging it along for a month just for the few occasions it might have been useful.

This trip was more about the scenery and nature than just sightseeing and boy did it deliver.
I who usually just gets in a worse and worse mood by every downpour should by that account have hated it since I think I totalled four days on the whole trip where it didn't rain during any part of the day.
But I don't, quite the opposite in fact, it was worth every single droplet of rain just to see what I've seen on this trip.

It was also really nice just being able to pretty much make it up as I went along from one day to the next.
I didn't have a fixed route like I did last year, I just had a bunch of waypoints fed into Garmin Basecamp from which I could pick and choose as they fit in to the general direction of the day.
I would have wanted to ride a bit more in Northern Ireland and along the Irish coast but I wouldn't have wanted to sacrifice anything else I did so on the whole I'm pleased with how the route turned out.
One of the reasons that I spent so little time in Belfast was that the price for accommodation was absolutely extortionate but I also wanted to get to Dublin so I could spend my birthday and the Swedish midsummer holiday there.
In retrospect I think I made the right choice, Belfast was an interesting city but I fell head over heels in love with Dublin.

Accommodation was really the biggest problem I had during the trip.
Last year I spent a lot of time finding the most affordable places but up in the Highlands I was difficult to even find a roof over your head regardless of cost.
The whole Isle of Skye was completely out of the question with prices ranging from €250 and up for a single night.
I managed to find some nice places but I do think this might be the first time my lack of foresight have been to my disadvantage, usually it pays off pricewise booking hotels last minute.

The Datsun debacle on the Isle of man was a real bummer but still it's most serious accident I've been in (abroad) since I started touring so I guess it isn't that bad.
It took a couple of months before I heard anything from my insurance company.
At first I got a message saying that I was deemed at fault and that the excess would be added to my next payment but just two weeks later they wanted additional info about how the bike had been parked.
If the counterpart couldn't prove that I hade been reckless it would be deemed as an act of god (direct quote).
That seems to be what happened because after that I never heard back from the insurance company and I never had to pay any excess.
Geoff, the owner of the Datsun on the other hand got back to me and was to say the least a bit upset about how he'd been treated (by the insurance companies that is, he still hasn't said or written a single harsh word to me).

Update 1:
The estimate for the damages to the car was £1734 (~€1960) so he has no other choice than to use insurance to pay for it and since god have decided that it wasn't my fault he has to pay his own excess.
Since I'd already calculated paying my own excess ever since the day of the accident I Paypaled Geoff that money, it didn't cover his excess but at least it helped some.
Last I heard he was planning a war against the insurance companies and I hope he wins it, the guy was a real gentleman.

Update 2:
Perhaps not the bona fide gentleman after all.
Unfortunately Geoff used the fact that I transferred some money to him against me by turning to his insurance company and claiming that the fact that I had chosen to give him any money was an admission that I had been reckless and was at fault.
But he got greedy as he'd easily been able to prove that I'd paypaled him the money.
Instead I got into a completely absurd situation where Geoffs insurance company wanted me to prove that I transferred the money so they could use that against me.
Why settle for getting the money just once I guess?
I obviously decided to clam up at that point and heard nothing more of it.
He seemed like a nice enough guy at the outset but the lesson I've learned from this is to completely avoid any direct contact with any counterpart after an accident and just leave any communication to the insurance companies.

Another albeit minor setback of the trip was the debacle with accommodation in Glasgow which was supposed to be at Onslow Guesthouse.
The fact that I was redirected to Alison for the same price meant I actually paid more than what was the standard tariff at the place.
Quite a bit more actually (£90 instead of £60).
Booking.com though this was completely par for the course and could not have cared less.
They even deleted the review I wrote that simply stated the facts.
The rating system on that page is worse than useless, negative reviews are either not published at all or get "archived" a lot quicker than the positive ones.
I've pretty much given up on that booking site altogether at this point and never use it when other alternatives are available which they usually are.

The Tiger did good on this trip as well and the fact that it didn't use any oil this time around and had a lower fuel consumption was most likely a combination of lower temperatures and a slower average speed.
Since this trip was less about the highways and more about the byways I'm as sure as I've ever been that for me personally there's no better bike than my trusty Tiger.

Finally, the trip in numbers:

The cost of fuel and accommodation (converted to Euros).

Other costs (converted to Euros).