Airport Fun, Fast Routes, Ferry Rides, Great Bike Roads, Excellent Scenery, Border Crossings, and Tall, Blond, Good Looking Women.
A fellow I know that rides all over the world says "the REAL adventure begins when the plan goes to hell". Well, our plan took a bad turn 3 hours after we left Los Angeles. Our LA to Houston flight landed 20 minutes AFTER our Houston to Frankfurt plane took off. Bummed, but Continental set us up in a “multi star” hotel (2, IS multi, right) and gave us breakfast, lunch and dinner while we waited till the next day for our flight. We finally made it though, got the bikes sorted, repacked from suitcases to saddlebags and were ready to be “on the road again” (sounds like it could be a song huh?)

One little setback though, Corey got separated from some of our equipment. Air pump and gauge, tie down straps, and the GPS mount which was a GREAT loss but fortunately the motorcycle rental place set us up with GPS stuff at least. Some TSA person must be a motorcycle rider. With only one night in Frankfurt, we thought that the least we could do was find an authentic German dinner. We walked into a typical village (btw, we were actually quite a bit north of downtown) and after passing up the McDonalds found a perfect restaurant. NO ONE spoke English and they had no English menu. Dos Cervezas por favor got us NOTHING! :=) Actually, I took a little German in high school so I was finally able to get some pork loin with spaetzels (sp) that was excellent and so was Corey’s beef surprise.

Since we were a day behind already we decided to take what will hereafter be referred as the Mileage Disposal Route (MDR) otherwise known as the Autobahn. Headed north toward Denmark at a VERY FAST pace. Max speed for the day was 112mph and the moving average was 74mph (probably would have been higher but it was raining off and on). :=) At those speeds you can dispose of the miles very quickly (540 for the day). Made it to the ferry. Had no idea how the system worked but met a very nice couple while in line that held our hands and made it easy for us.

Thanks to Anders and Karina (why does she ride a Suzuki when he has a KTM store?) The ferry took us to Denmark and much more importantly AWAY from the high speeds and onto some great motorcycle roads with lots of scenery.

Not in Denmark very long. We crossed a beautiful new bridge and suddenly we were in Malmo, Sweden where we spent the night after we found a great sidewalk café for dinner.

The next day, it was more perfect motorcycle roads along the ocean,

plenty of scenery,

many nice places to stop,

and great weather (finally). We toured the very southeastern tip of Sweden on our way to Okarshamn to catch another ferry for Gotland Island to pick up Shelly so we can be the 3 Eurotrash Amigos. I’ll let you know how that goes later. You may have noticed that I didn’t say anything about tall, blond, good looking women from the intro. That’s cause I didn’t see any (Julia, that’s my story and I’m stickin' to it!!!!)

There are more pictures here if you would like to look in.

http://www.smugmug.com/gallery/15599906_8ri5r

Rick and Corey (haven’t found Shelly yet) :=)