Travel news

A week and a halve ago the news said there will be a direct link between the Netherlands and Norway again since i think it was 6 years.
From April 2022 the ferry service starts and it’s between Eemshaven in the north of the Netherlands and Kristiansand in the south of Norway.
It just happens that after a day highway for just over 900km’s to get to Hirtshals in Denmark to get the ferry to…. Indeed, Kristiansand.
The ferry from the Netherlands will be a overnight ferry and take away 1 day travelling to get to the real start of the trip. It also takes away about 600km boring highway and a probably expensive overnight in Hirtshals so time to re-evaluate my plans which are actually more guidelines.

Well… i double checked at work and booked the ferry with the departure at 9 July 2022 and that will be the only thing pre booked and the main reason is the early bird discount which is besides the mentioned pro’s probably even cheaper.
In the initial plan a had a long first day and i don’t mind camping but rather not on the first day after such a long ride, hence the probably expensive overnight.
Now i can plan a nice route from the far south to the far north. The departure is at 15:00h and the arrival is at 9:00h giving me 5 to 6 hours depending on how far before departure i need to be there to get there.
Once boarded i can enjoy the 18 hour cruise eating, drinking and sleeping to arrive well rested to start the trip right away.

I changed 2 other things on the trip.
First i decided to take Sporherre and ad a bit off the TET Finland into the trip and maybe i’ll find some more alternative routes on my way.
Second is a detour to Lofoten Islands which i would like to go to but i was afraid it was just a bit too much. A friend mentioned it also a few time that it is very beautiful and now i have essential a day extra it became an option, i just hope the ferry from Bodo to Moskenes doesn’t take too much time or budget.
after the Sicily trip i had decided to do the next trips with a long first and last section and that cut this trip back to 19 sections in 23 days off of work.
At this point i am thinking of staying a day over in St Petersburg and maybe also in Berlin. I don’t like big city’s but somehow i have the feeling these are a bit crazy city’s with interesting sights.
It’s not like a real plan but i think you have to have at least some kind of general idea which you can screw up along the way.

It’s not just me screwing up.
The surprise part i mentioned in the last blog is a special designed sticker kit, that’s why i washed Sporherre and put him in the living room. The garage is not heated which makes the vinyl hard to work with and it’s also a bit dusty.
A special design was off course a bit more expensive but it turned out not way less than i thought id would be. It would also take a bit longer but it became another bit longer because my design went wrong on 2 different tries and when i finally got the kit in it turned out that they where sleeping and it looked like they packaged one of the faulty prints.
I mailed the photo’s and pointed out on the approved design what was wrong and no bullshit or excuses, just sincere apologies and they would fix it.
Yesterday i got a text from DHL that it was scheduled for today and i changed the address to a pick-up point just like the last time but this time it wasn’t there the next day so i have to wait another day…. again bummer…
Just to give you an idea what direction it goes i already put the front fender on because that was correct, don’t mind the mess.

• 

• 

• 

The Black and blue are staying but i added grey, white and off course orange.
My allroad helmet had the Crosstourer logo and a big Honda wing on the back but i thought the Honda vibe is not appropriate any more and Sporherre also deserves a place.
Already looked for a T7 logo but couldn’t find anything i liked and when i removed the decals to clean up the panels for the design kit i thought i might be able to rescue one and recycle it sticking it to the place where i already took the wing off.

The tail tidy came in also came in and as i couldn’t finish the sticky job i had the time to get that sorted.

In between i wrote a travel report for the V4 (club magazine for the VFROC) from my Balkan trip and i hope to get Sporherre finished before Saturday evening.
Sunday is the last ride of the VFROC and i want to take Sporherre to get the feeling on a long day in the saddle with highway and small roads just over 600km.
After that i promise i will start with the movies and story about the Balkan trip. The V4 has a fixed deadline that is this Friday and i have to do a bit more for that.