Sunday    29.7.2012
  470km

Departure at 8PM or soon thereafter. Stops along the way for food and coffee in Mariestad, Jönköping and Ljungy.
Moslty dry throughout the day but raining from Ljungby to the hotel.

Absolutely amazing roads from the E4 and to the hotel, not a straight piece of road for the last 20kms and scenery like an enchanted forest.

We at supper at the local Thai restaurant.
We ordered a small digestif at an open air belonging to a pizzeria but they pretty much threw us out right after serving the drinks so I'm not sure what that was about.

Back at the hotel we planned for the continuation of the trip and booked the next hotel which is to be two nights at the Suite Novotel in central Hamburg.

The absolutely essential "before" photo.

The Hotel in Svalöv was a real fairy tale castle.

Monday    30.7.2012
  400km Total: 870km  19km

Reveille at 7PM. We leave the hotel right after 8 and the weather is gloomy and grey.

The weather clears kilometre by kilometre and on the Öresund bridge it's bright sunshine and unlike last year the visibility is excellent and the view is stunning.
I really like the feeling when riding under the blinking sign saying "last exit in Sweden", it really feels like I'm on my way at that point.

Since none of us had studied beforehand and are just as geographically challenged we where both equally surprised when we rolled into Rödby ferry terminal, I didn't check the route after punching in the destination, I'd just assumed we'd go overland and the Bear had come to the same conclusion.

Not that it mattered really, the ferry was 380DKK which felt quite alright compared to the bridge fee of 200DKK, we got to rest a bit and had lunch while moving along so it was for the best.

We made a few shorter stops along the way in very uninspiring Autobahn rest stops.
We where lucky with the weather for most of the day but the last dozen kms before Hamburg the heavens opened up on us.
We where drenched like rats in a sinking ship so I felt nice finally arriving, checking in and getting a warm shower.

We went out and ate supper at a place called Alex.
It has a very nice location right by the water by the Bitten-Alster (the smaller part of the Alster lake in Hamburg).
The Bear had a beer with the food which he regarded as the not overly appealing "slimy and filling".

After supper we wandered around aimlessly in town to the extent that it took us 1.5 hours to find our way back to the hotel (Bears don't ride taxis as a principle).
So to the total mileage of the day I think I can at least add a couple of dozen kilometres...

The (unexpected) ferry terminal in Rödby.

It's said that everything fair in war and love. There's one addition to the rule: if you're a biker and need something dried anything goes.

The "slimy and filling" beer didn't feel very appealing at all. I think I'll stick to Weißbier.

Tuesday    31.7.2012 

Second day in Hamburg. We sleep in until 9PM and hit the town.

We started at Automuseum Prototyp, a car museum with it's primary exhibits being Porches and racing.
Amongst other things they had the first F1 car Mikael Schumacher drove which was a Ford Cosworth which was a bonus since we're both a bit soft for Fords.

After that we went down to St Pauli Fishmarkt and a uboat-museum which isn't really a "museum" all things considered.
It's very real Russian submarine which was in active duty until the year 2000 that you can crawl around in to your hearts desire which we most definitely did.
As often as we could get away with it humming the national hymn of the Soviet Union and since the Bear just happened to have the hunt for red October (which is a cinematic masterpiece by the way) on his phone so we also got a healthy dose of The hymn for the Red October.
The whole thing was obviously a very juvenile spectacle but it was immensely enjoying and since we practically had the boat to ourselves it did no harm.

After that we at lunch at a fish restaurant at the fishmarkt.
I ate fried flounder with a baked potato and a dunkel weissbier.

We went on a pretty boring ride on a tour bus and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening at the open air bars on the Reeperbahn.
(For those of you who have your preconceptions stuck in the 80's the Reeperbahn is a bar district nowadays even if it still has a few quirky additions.

There was a couple of droplets when we where on the bus (a double decker with no roof on the top) but we didn't even get wet really so pretty much a rain free day, hopefully one of many these coming weeks.

Automuseum

U-434

Fishbreadking