Poor planning, soar ass and out of money...

...a beginners look at touring.
(Bear with me on this, it's my first ever ride report and first long trip)
And of course, my first attempt at posting this failed. That may explain some odd things below..

It all began last Wednesday at work, walking around wondering what to do this weekend.. After checking out the weather report for the days to come, I decided to ask someone to join me down south for a couple of days.

Hours later, that problem had solved itself when a friend told me we should go Amsterdam for the weekend.

Since this was my first real touring trip down to Europe from Sweden, I had no real clue what things would actually cost.

We were planning on leaving around noon, Friday the 29/5 with a stopover in Germany. And heading for home again on sunday, with a over night break at a hotel in Hamburg or Lübeck. That was the PLAN.

Somehow, I had estimated the whole trip with fuel and hotel would cost me around 350 euros.

I was riding my BMW R1200 GSA, and my "wingman" came along with his Triumph Street Triple R. Two days later, it was Friday and time to go:

*** Friday ***

The day before my riding pal had just gotten his tank and other details back from the paint shop for his almost brand new Triumph Street Triple R. So we had a little preparation on his bike before leaving. We had to go out and buy some mounts for his new mirrors, and search every place possible for a headset for our Cobra RF radios. Since his bike was fresh out of the paint shop we didn't think putting a bag ontop of the tank was such a good idea at that time - so all luggage went on the GS.

We managed to solve everything, but a couple of hours had passed while jerking around different shops in summer heat and full gear.
The whole trip from Linköping to Malmö (420 km) was more or less testing grounds for getting the intercom working properly with volume and placement of micro-/headphones.


First stop to refuel..



On the way over the Denmark we had to pass the Öresundsbridge, costing us around 22 euros each for just passing over to Copenhagen.
We were keeping a good pace, averaging 120-140 kph.
I remember the sun being placed "Kodak moment" perfectly between the bridges' enormous towers.

At this point we had not taken many photos at all, because we were eager to go places - fast!


Taking our first piss on Danish soil.


Preparing to leave for the last leg of Denmark.

An hour or so pass while cruising through Denmark to Rødbyhavn, for the ferry crossing to Puttgarden in Germany. Crossing to Germany on ferry did cost us somewhere around 40 euros each.
Up till now we had refueled 3 times since the Triumph only has a range of around 200 km.
Me, on the other hand could go double that distance since boasting the large 33 litre Adventure tank.
Average cost at every petrol station stop ended up at 25 euros.

The feeling of being the mothership with all the gear and supplies held me back from playing around too much.
Taking the ferry only took about an hour, but at that time the sun had disappeared completly, and another problem arose. My wingman remembered only to bring his tinted daytime visor for his helmet, so; snailing along at 80 kph (riding with open visor) and praying that no animals decided to cross the road in front of us we slowly made it to Lübeck.

By this time, we were beat up and tired from riding all day without real food or rest. Neither of us had any water and only drank several energy drinks during the day.
In all the exitement of being in Germany we forgot to bring cash, and of course we ended up in a highway toll booth and getting the magic words spoken "Only cash". In the middle of the night, without money. With no clue where the hell we were supposted to go..
After some delibirations, the nice man in the booth asked for my credit card and was able (?!) to extract some money from it.
We asked for directions to a cheap hotel but at that mental state nothing he said besides "goodbye" stuck in my mind.
We knew that we were in Lübeck, but at 02:00 AM a saturday morning the whole town slept.

After some 30 minutes or so, we found a Scandic Hotel. But they wanted over 200 euros for a room with two beds for the night.
Luckily, at the same time. Another swede showed up in his car, with the same problem. He was searching for a cheap hotel for the night. But didn't find anything open at that hour. It was beginning to feel like an adventure!

Minutes passed until we finally managed to wave down a taxi and asked him to drive in front of us to a nearby hotel.
And yes, the taxi driver delivered!
Finally we had a place to sleep!!

The other swede, from Gothenburg in Sweden was a real hoot.
His english was somewhat limited, but worked hilarously great at the moment.
While taking care of the payment at the lobby, he told the receptionist that he was in Germany to watch his son do some "pole jumping" the next day.
Those words, combined with the fact we were going to see "pole dancers" the next day in Amsterdam cracked me up inside.
Last order of the day, battling with the foot odour from my wingmans boots, we hit the beds..
At last, maybe 03:30 AM we turned off the lights. But I didn't get any sleep for maybe an hour later due to excessive Red Bull intake during the day.
(Felt like the Benny Hill theme was looping endlessly in my mind, not allowing the brain to slow down and sleep) :huh

More to come in my next post!

Good report so far... Please GOD tell me you took pictures
of the "pole dancers" the next day in Amsterdam...

There is one pic coming!
We almost got ourselfs beat up over that one

I'll have the pics from Saturday up tomorrow!

edit: Maybe even later today!

Hi NoviceAdventurer,

Good to see fellow countrymen here! For cheap but decent hotels, and especially in Germany, I would recommend Etap. They are all over the place, have WC, shower, TV, clean beds and that is about it. Some are even unmanned at times, you open the front door with your creditcard and check in yourself. This was a sign in one of the hotels we stayed in...

It translates approximtely to "Here was originally the mini-bar, but we saved you some space - a service by the Etap Hotel."

Good luck on your journey, I'm looking forward to the rest. Interesting though that you don't consider our country being part of Europe? :huh

waiting on the pole dancer pics

read the title and thought to myself...coulda been worse....
had a friend once said the same thing happened to him, he'd gone clubbing and wound up at a gay bar by mistake...

stripper pics?

Same to you, and thanks for the advice! I will need it later on this year when going for a five week trip around Europe.
And about Sweden not being part of Europe - I might have expressed myself kind of wierd, but yes of course, Sweden is part of Europe. I didn't miss that class

Looking at that gorgeous (and expensive!) GS in a thread about lack of money for the trip...

In Texas they have a saying "All Hat, No Cattle"
The equivalent here is "All GS, No Gas Money"



anyway, looking forward to the Amsterdam portion of the trip.

*** Saturday ***

Next morning (or 4 hours later...) I woke up from a fist telling me that my alarm has woken him up before me.
After we hit snooze for another 30 minutes, we head down to breakfast to meet up our new Gothenburg friend.
We took it easy for a good hour, before leaving towards Hamburg around 9 AM. To our great surprise we ended up on road 1 in Germany, also known as Autobahn. It was nice to be speeding through Germany at 180 kph without a care about law enforcement. At this point, more than ever I felt like the slow fat kid trying to catch up the Triumph fiddling around infront of me.


On our way again!





Sympathy refueling with the Triumph..


The one finger ADVrider salute!





"When you see it, you'll shit bricks" or, maybe not.


Assresting, triumph style. By this time I had discovered that the covers for the cylinder heads on my GS makes for excellent footrests. My ass still thanks me for that idea.


To notice you have passed the legal wear limit on your rear tire, and knowing you have all the way home left - must be a great feeling.



Crusing along, not far from Amsterdam.










When we were standing still waiting for the bridge to close, one of the local girls passed us on her bike. Here on after, all the way to Amsterdam the poor boxer got a treatment like no other. I have never, ever seen a girl drive that aggressively. She was well over 250 kph at times, and every time a car blocked her way she crept in close behind it and revved without clutch making the bike jump up. I'm in LOVE!

Thats why all the pictures next are in Amsterdam, because no pictures were taken due to excessive speed.


More pictures to come in my next post..

Awesome so far. Dammit, now I have THREE ride reports I have to check multiple times a day.

No, I'm not gonna subscribe...to many "" going into my email, lol.

Sounds like you had a great trip!!!

Great ride report and pictures! Keep it coming!

Ryan

+1

*** Still Saturday ***

Finally, we had arrived at Amsterdam after a 1300 km ride!!
We drove around for a short while, and ended up in the center of the city, and several hotels to choose from. We parked our bikes and walked around checking which hotel could offer the lowest price for the night.

We chose the first hotel we asked, since they allowed us to park our bikes just outside their lobby.

Our stomachs ached for food, and asses were really soar and when trying to check into the hotel we noticed both of us apparently had no money left on our cards.
Luckily, they had a computer with internet connection in the lobby allowing me to transfer money from another account.

I thought for sure the problem were solved, since I totally emptied my saving account to be on the safe side.
And my friend called home to have some money transferred to his account.


Right outside the hotel - that's a lot of bikes, damn!


Beautiful city, with wonderful and helpful people.


Getting some refill of energy. For some reason we still hadn't eaten anything.


On our way through town to redlight..


The famous coffeeshops of Amsterdam!


Stores we passed by, I would not enter without a girl since two silent och confused guys wandering around giggling would not seemed too "heterosexual".


Getting closer now! And for the record, damnit those girls are beautiful!


Okey, since her face isn't showing i'll post it. It does not matter, but damn. I was sure we were getting a beating for this or at least thrown into the stream in the middle of the street. I remember seeing the girls opening the door and screaming a lot. And all the people on the street looking at us. And I told my friend just a couple of minutes before not to do it, since i've heard people getting in quite an uncomfortable situation over it.
To be honest I was pissed at my friend for doing it, and making me look like an asshole in front of a lot of people. But now;

What surprised me the most was that not only did families, and people of all ages walk around those streets, there were children with their parents walking around - like shopping. Damn. And I thought I was open minded.

Next post, Sunday - the trip home to Sweden! More to come!

Wait. You didn't tell us how the "coffee" was....

Ryan

I'm in on this one ! I love this part of the world even though it's been many years since I've been there !

Well, you know about fractals?
Let's leave it at that.

*** Sunday ****

We had be out of the room at noon, so we slept as long as we could and tried to eat as much as we could for the long trip ahead.
I could not get much down, being so hungry from the day before and only having drank a couple of beers.

Neither of us was really looking forward to the long way home, since we just arrived the day before. Our asses were still hurting, my head was aching and I think my friends knees had taken some damage from the riding.

Getting out of town seemed harder than getting in, and we drove around quite unorganized for a while before finding a bus stop with a map.
At the same time an elderly couple approached and offered their help.
They asked where we were from, and helped us on our way.

These smalls occations, that only last maybe a minute or two - lasts a long time in my mind. Don't know why.

On our way up north out of Amsterdam, we start taking pictures once again...


Cigarettes, a great substitute for food, rest and health. Goes great with bikes.


Stopped for a moment to check out these guys playing around. Wish we had time and money for that then.


We did take a different route home apparently, and the wind on this piece of road was horrible. Must have used up almost the double in fuel consumption on this 100km strech of road.


But, it was beautiful nonetheless. E22, over the flood banks. First we were a bit confused and thought we had accidentially ridden south, since we could only see ocean to the right.




We rode on, stopping only for fuel and some rest when our asses could not take the beating anymore for a while. Not many pictures for a while since there just wasn't any energy left in us.

Riding into Germany it felt as we were going home at last, but after passing a sign with a gas station and deciding to go for it, it never appeared. Either the Germans were kidding or our brains shut off for a moment there. And then, of course - since we had not refueled - the Triumph stopped after going for over 200 km.. Out of fuel, 10 km from Oldenburg.

I'm borrowing Obama for this one;


But, strangely enough, I was neither upset or stressed about it.
I just told my friend to relax while I continue to town and look for fuel.

And sure enough, with some luck, 20 minutes or something later I had a bottle of fuel with me, and we could continue.

It's somewhere here the idea pops into my mind - lets drive nonstop home! Little did I know that we were forced into that situation anyhow.
Soon after we realized we cannot afford to sleep on a hotel for the night.

Just fast forwarding past a lot of milage and ass ache - we found ourselvs at Puttgarden again, ready for the ferry back to Denmark.


Some Danish gas station, in the middle of the night..


Taking a piss on Denmark, yet again.

** Monday ***

The clock had reached midnight by now, and we had been riding for 12 hours straight. Well into Denmark, we were getting worried that our money had ran out again cause the the pumps at a gas station did not accept either our cards. Some 140 km later, we were at the toll station on the Öresundsbridge wanting access into Sweden.
My card was not accepted, but the girl in the booth said it may be because of too many transactions abroad. So we tried my friends card, and it passed. Thankfully!

But then we needed an ATM to figure out what the hell happened to a couple hundred euros. We knew for a fact that my friends card had nothing or very little left on it, so we decided to fill up the Triumph with as much as was possible.

Now, both bikes had 200 km in them left.
And yes, of course. The time, had become maybe 0200 AM.

We are out of money, its monday morning. We have nothing to eat or drink, and we both have 200 km left in our tanks.

Too bad it was at least 400 km to get home! :eek1
Stubborn as we were, we decided to get as far as possible and since it was night time it had gotten really cold outside. We took turns riding the GS since it has its heated grips, which the triumph does not.

Somewhat hungover from last night, too little too sleep, eat and drink - the cold really got to us. Snailing forward at 80 kph again, constantly watching the fuel efficency meter and range.

Stopped at a bridge, since we thought "what's the hurry to get home".
We're hungry, freezing and broke. Both of us. And not enough fuel.


The sun was just rising again. And that was about time, we had been riding all night freezing our already beaten up asses off.



Making use of the 1/4 of our storage space eating camera for the first time on the trip.


And heres what came out of it.


Another...



Time to warm up before some more suffering.


You ain't going nowhere without a smile of hopelessness.


The morning, turning to day, we crept nearer to home for every minute.
But some 200 km away, we had to admit defeat.

To call someone 5 AM in the morning, asking for money was not what I intended to do for this trip. And I will have to take shit for it a long time forward.

Well, after the money had been solved. We refilled our bikes, and left for home.

Home, finally. The time had passed 9 AM. We had been on the road for 21 hours.

2600 km, over 4 days. We were finished.

Nice one Novice Adv! I bet there are so many things you would do differently next time. Like have a plan. Take some money. Maybe a bit more time to enjoy your trip. Avoid so many Motorways. Think about a Zumo if only to put your music on.
But then the best mini-adventures just happen. Enjoy your bike. Enjoy your youth. Ride safe and thanks for the entertainment.

It was a healthy lesson to have. All those small transactions that you rarely ever even think about amounts to real money fast!
I'm definitly not taking any big roads next time.
Long periods of time passed without ever moving on the bike, reminded me of a film quote "Travelling without moving". And yeah, Garmin is getting another customer soon. (Broke at the moment)

Thanks for reading, I hope others liked it as well.

Great story and pictures ! Thanks for sharing the trip !