Tuesday    12.8.2014 

We are pretty beat today because of yesterday's bout with the wind and with the weather only calmed down from homicidal to open hostility none of us were in the mood for riding.
We also have a practical problem that need solving, we're out of clean clothes so we need to do some laundry.

This is the conversation I had with the lady that runs the place:
Excuse me but I wonder if you could wash some clothes for us, we would obviously pay for this.
No.
If you don't have the time maybe we could pay for the use your washing machine?
No.
So you won't let us use it or you don't have a washing machine?
No.
Do you know anywhere around here were we could get clothes washed.
No.

With the prices they're charging no doubt they could afford outsourcing the laundry but seeing this is an eastern fjord on Iceland it does seem logistically improbable with the only logical conclusion that she either understands nothing of what I say and responds to everything not understood with the less than friendly answer no or she might quite simply be an unfriendly, unmotivated bitch.
It definitely felt more like the latter.

With no plug in the sink and the shower not quite hygienically suitable in its current condition (cleaning might be outsourced too?) the hunt is on for a bucket or some other vessel suitable for the task at hand.
We find one in the local store and decide to get our dinner at the finest hotel in town.
Ok so it might also have been the only hotel in town but it was still good eatin'.

Doing the laundry was one thing, hanging it quite another.
When we were done we had made a web of enough lines to make even the most productive of spiders envious.

Seyðisfjörður

Doing a bit of laundry

Monday    28.07.2014
  427km   92km

I originally wrote this as a Ride Report on the ADVrider forum and there I named it "Doing it in style".
The reason for that was a Scottish biker named Paul that we met on the ferry over to Iceland.
He intended to spend the whole trip riding the gnarliest F-roads while camping and had brought most of the food he was going to eat with him.
All this was an impressive high rise building on the pillion seat of his BMW 800GS.
Upon hearing that we intended to spend most of, if not all of the trip sharing rooms in hotels or guesthouses he exclaimed (with that awesome Scottish accent that made the Romans so nervous they built a wall): Ahh, you're doing it in style!
I've never really seen it that way since sharing a room we tend to come out of it pretty cheap but I can see how a warm bed and a hot shower can add some flair compared to going full out Bear Grylls.

I do think my mechanic really doubts my sense of style though, he has now called me twice with updates asking what have you done to this motorcycle?

Well more on that later. This is my story and I'm sticking to it:

Me and my travel companion Bear (name poorly disguised to protect the guilty) set off from the truck stop where we had agreed to meet at about ten o clock .
With all the gear we were bringing it felt like we were almost as heavily laden as the big rigs at the truck stop.
We had plenty of time to get to the ferry crossing over to Denmark which inevitably led to us mucking about, drinking coffee (just me, but I do drink enough for the both of us) and just generally taking it too slow.
All in all I think we caught last check-in for the ferry with about 60 seconds to spare.

Once across Kattegatt we went straight for the Hotel in Hirtshals.
I had booked it through the Agoda booking site and had no idea how late the reception was open so off we went.
Now, walking into a hotel reception in bike gear probably a bit worse for wear after a long day in the saddle you sometimes don't really get the treatment you deserve (or maybe I'm just a complete asshole and DO get what I deserve, I'll just leave that open to interpretation).
This was one of those places, Hotel Strandlyst obviously thought themselves far to posh to cater to some bearded bikers.
I don't know if it's because of the 90's biker wars or what the problem is but of all the places I've ridden the overall worst treatment I've gotten in hotels is in Denmark.

The clown in the reception claimed no rooms where available, no booking had been made and the booking site which happens to be one of the biggest in the world was completely unknown to him.
We weren't going anywhere with our "discussion" and had no plan B so I called Agoda and asked them to sort it out.
They on the other hand called booking.com which on behalf of Agoda had made the actual reservation.
Apparently THE largest booking site in the world was known even in the great state of Denmark because in fifteen minutes time (at 9.30PM) someone had mysteriously checked out and voila, a room had mysteriously appeared.
I do think we would have heard a thud or seen some sheets tied together and flung out a window had this really happened since there were no rooms in street level and absolutely no one passed us while we sat in the reception the whole time.

As we hauled our luggage to our room I really felt we were off to a bad start but as most times, a warm shower, a cold beer and a hot meal was all it took to cool my blood from boiling point and change my perspective.
In all fairness even though the hotel sucked the restaurant was great.
The food was good, the beer was cold and the waitress was cute.

It will never be this clean again.

Do yourself a favour and stay clear of this place.

Tuesday    29.07.2014
  5km Total: 432km   1688km Total: 1780km

After a sturdy breakfast we ride to the port and park along with all the other bikes, there were still two hours before we were to board so there was plenty of time to take in the atmosphere and scope out the "competition".
There really were all kinds of bikes, everything from small sportsbikes on street tyres, a Gold Wing trike with a trailer all up to the full on desertracer-kitted bikes that seemed to be there just as warm-up for Dakar 2015.

After checking in and unloading the gear in the cabin we hit the Taxfree and stock up on necessities before loading up a movie, we had been previously warned that there was little to nothing to do onboard so I had brought my traveling-laptop and portable harddrive filled to the brim.
We eventually get our asses over to one of the restaurants onboard and had some food and the first little taste of the Faroese beer (which in general is the best I've ever had) before we hit the sack.

Waiting to board the ferry in Hirthals.

I am NOT a morning person.

Strapping down the bikes on the ferry.

This is how we spent most of the trip, the movie is The best bar in America btw, great movie!