Motorcycle Tour to the Nord Kapp Begins! 1400KM IN 40 HOURS!

We have finished packing we've just got to take the bags down to the bike and the panniers and strap everything on and then we can hit the road. So this is the calm before the storm we're having our last meal at home before we head out into the unknown which will actually be the German Autobahn for about six or seven hours today. Yeah we have a big slog we have 1400 kilometers to do in around 40 hours because we have a ferry leaving from Denmark to Norway on Sunday morning. Yeah it's Friday afternoon now and yeah the sun is out the weather looks great so that's a bonus isn't it I didn't quite fancy a rain drive today. No we didn't want it to be the start of like heading south again where it's just full rain but that is the plan we're going to be on the motorway pretty much and it's going to be a bit of a challenge for us to see how far we can get today. Yeah the more we do today the nicer of a day we can have tomorrow so I don't know maybe we'll ride on into night we haven't got anything booked so we have that flexibility so let's see how far we get. We basically got stuck in gridlock traffic around the city that we live Basel and we're about to cross our first border of the trip which is the Switzerland into Germany border. Yeah it's quite hot in that traffic as well wasn't it but it's good that we're moving again and the wind is rushing through our suit so we're about to cross into Germany now and then yeah well let's see how much more traffic we hit on this journey but we've got 12 hours until we get to the top of Denmark but we're splitting that over two days so it's not too bad. Here is the border crossing right now saying goodbye to Switzerland for quite a few weeks. Yeah it's another one of those high security crossings and first new country of the trip we're in Germany. We've done about 250 kilometers so far we've just pulled over some fuel it is quite expensive here in Germany for fuel I put about 23 liters in there it cost the best part of 50 euros well I guess that's what you expect when you fill up on the autobahn. Anyway we're going to still continue on the 5 in the direction of Frankfurt and yeah we don't know how far we're going to get today but we're going to get as far as we can the weather is fantastic still about 32 degrees even though it's coming up to six o'clock so I'm going to get back on the road now and see how far we can get. We pulled off the motorway about five ten minutes ago and about I know five kilometers from the motorway we've stumbled across this beautiful little old German town. Em's found us a restaurant so she's gone in to get a table now so I'm just going to go in to join her just park the bike up it's pretty safe here so no need to take anything off but my goodness this place is amazing it's like the best preserved medieval town I've ever seen and I've never really heard of it I don't even know where it is so we're going to go ask Em what town we are actually on finally worked out where we are yeah we're in a place called which is yeah here somewhere between was it frankfurt and castle castle and then like the next big town I guess would be yeah Hanover but we are 500 kilometers from where we started which is pretty good to go yeah we've done quite well today that's quite impressive we've got quite an here in an Indian restaurant yeah I did my classic trick and I jumped on my phone on happy cow and the nearest vegan place was in this little town and I said right it's in what 70 kilometers and we were riding through every building is perfect yeah like medieval facades and you know it's I think we should have probably stayed the night yeah it's really we'll have to come back here again in the future I'm like really shocked that we just turned up we've been a bit jammy with this but we've ordered a couple of curries so we'll be well sustained yeah we're not trying any local specialities tonight we've ended up at an Indian restaurant because it's just what we're fancy and food smells spectacular yeah and good thing shadows just parked outside which is great but we're in like an old traditional german style house but if you look pass me the camera sean look behind you look at these houses they're amazing hopefully there'll still be some light later on we have a little quick stroll through there before we go to the hotel and the hotel what is 10 minutes that way I think it's like 15 kilometers that's good so 500 done today and I think another 800 tomorrow and that should get us just before her shawls so we can have a casual ride on sunday to catch the ferry starters have arrived and it's their version of like onion bhajis but it's basically just big chunks of onion that's been dipped in chickpea batter with a chili sauce I'm gonna try it oh it's so hot it's like just been made like fresh it's really tasty I've had something like that before it's like an Indian version Indian version of an onion ring dinner has arrived we have chana masala and Sean got the same as me some rice naan bread and we also got some side salad everything smells amazing so we're gonna tuck into this now we're on a midnight adventure around Melsungan it is all happening here in Melsungan on a friday night there's hordes of people just up to no good these buildings are awesome that's about as much as our tour of this place is going to be for tonight we have to come back here it's really cool it is really really lovely I think they're Tudor style houses and this is the curry house we went to this is the outside it is it's uh Tandoori Italia which is not very aptly named but they do both right let's get to this hotel then we'll be trying what's that I've just got a feeling about this check-in key lock box situation oh yeah we've we've got a code to put in to get the key out uh it was a German conversation as well on the phone so maybe the tent will get an early usage tonight than planned but uh we're also trying out the new led light which we had fitted yesterday and hopefully we'll get someone with there's no street lights and we can see how much light it does actually cast but I think the uh the light protector isn't blocking it too much at the moment but actually I think this light guard we had is designed for the led light yeah it is we were using it with the halogen one last time it still worked quite well the lights are really impressive there's full beam even with a metal headlight guard on they're fantastic and they also they're adaptive headlights as well so even when you're on a in a corner leant over the beam and the light stays in exactly the same position it's really impressive this is the one hotel montana that's the one hotel montana how german not even making a noise is there a nine button no it's not even like it should beep oh there we go there we go nice yeah to press it with two fingers that was the trick which room do we want to have any upgrades I guess we'll take the one with our name it's very trusty isn't it I haven't changed the number have I nothing's easy is it film me opening the door he said oh I think it's that one isn't it it's that one it's making me look like a proper idiot I am enjoying this quite a lot it's been 40 seconds it's like all those challenges right and get the crystal in it right give it me let me so we finally got into the room and man this hotel is kind of creepy it's like something from a movie you know there's really long like corridors and like the eerie looking flickery lights and the vintage style furniture but this is a room um kind of strange there's like open shampoo and conditioner bottles up here little shower toilet and a sink but we have just realized there's a little bit of a problem because there's only one pillow and one single duvet and I definitely booked a double room and there is no staff here um past 10 o'clock uh that's why we had to call them at the restaurant and say we were going to be late um and they said oh it's fine we'll put the the room key in the lock box outside and yeah so I guess one of us is sleeping without a pillow tonight or we're gonna have to get the pillow and sleeping bag out from the pannier but yeah it's gonna be an interesting evening anyway good morning we've woken up to a slightly wet central Germany this morning the pillow sharing didn't go too badly last night I think um took most of it midway through the night but I did I woke up you were freezing yeah one blanket they do that one blanket each thing anyway how many kilometers we've got today 840 we're heading up to Hamburg first and then we're going to be crossing into Denmark I think this afternoon or maybe late morning hopefully it's it's nearly nine o'clock now and I think it's around a five hour ride to Denmark again now we're going to scoot around Hamburg not going to have time to go through it this time so yeah the mission is just to get to the top of Denmark as soon as possible so we're near the ferry for Sunday first stop of the day we're at a place called coffee villas which is in the service station we've done around 100 more kilometers and now we are in dire need of coffee so hopefully we can grab a couple coffees get a shadow fueled up get us fueled up and then do another two three hundred before we start for lunch that's the first 100 kilometers done this morning um it stopped raining pretty cold today well 19 degrees a little bit chilly the wind feels cooler I think I think when you've stopped it's 19 degrees but on the bike it's a little bit cold we've both got merino layers on we have they are they are working magic a bit of spray from the trucks and things today but I think there's some blue skies ahead so it's going to clear up we've grabbed our first coffee of the day at a services nothing spectacular but it's actually not bad little coffee this they had oat milk so we're happy like take what you can get yeah I'm gonna have this and continue on up to Hamburg isn't it we don't know when we're going to eat again next because service food services doesn't offer the best food so and it's really expensive they wanted like eight euros for a sandwich the good thing is we're heading around Hamburg now and normally on the outskirts of bigger cities you might find a couple of places somewhere that does falafel or at least maybe like sushi like we did in Barcelona that was a good one that was the best so we'll see when we stop next but it's time to like put some music on get in a good a good head space and get these 700 plugs in as well and that'll be good actually the German motorways or the autobahns are they're really relaxing to ride on despite there being no speed limit in most of the sections it's they work so well and there's no charges for them either and they're very scenic like either side of the road we've had beautiful like scenery we've been actually already yesterday I didn't know but we went through a national park did we really yeah we'll get back on the road now little update on our progress to Denmark we've done another couple of hundred kilometers and finally getting too hungry to carry on so we've pulled in to a little supermarket here just off the motorway it's actually a really nice place grabbed ourselves a little coffee and Em's gone into the supermarket to get us some food because we're getting quite hungry now as we didn't have breakfast bikes parked just behind me so we can keep an eye on it quite a bit of traffic on the way down today there's a lot of standstill traffic as well with lots of roadworks a couple of accidents so yeah looks like there's people stuck in traffic for a long time I just googled and apparently lane splitting on the bike is legal in Germany as long as the traffic is at a standstill so if it's moving and you're darting in and out apparently that's not legal but if it's a standstill you're perfectly okay to go through the middle and it's quite good I was quite impressed with how many of the people here made like a rescue lane so when the traffic's a standstill cars to the left will pull to the left and those to the right will bunch up in the two lanes on the right but it gives you a lovely path to go down the middle so yeah looking forward to this lunch and then we're going to get back on the road again and do another few hundred kilometers well our luck's run out today it's absolutely poured down for the last hour and a bit so just going to refuel and I think we'll be well nearly to Denmark soon or which one is it now super plus super plus I just go for super it's really confusing when they change the colors of the pumps in some parts they're green and black for diesel and here they're black for everything come on anyway we've got our waterproofs on we're nice and dry inside and we're just cruising on the motorway it's been raining quite hard now for the past hour and a bit we stopped by to put our high-waist jackets on as it's also getting pretty dark the spray off the other cars is really bad you can't see too far ahead of us anyway we're going to press on because we don't really have a choice we need to get to our destination tonight in order to catch the ferry tomorrow we've still got about 350 kilometers to go it's coming to about half past three so it's going to be a miserable afternoon is one of the downsides to bike travel but it's still okay once we cross over to Denmark we'll feel like morale will be a little bit higher because we'll be in a new country Emma's not been to Denmark before so that's at least something exciting for her to look forward to anyway gonna press on now and yeah just do those kilometers all right we've stopped at our first services here in Denmark and do you want to know how it's going i'll tell you how it's going oh dear soaking is the wettest four or five hours i think we've ever had on the bike but we're here in the yeah that rain has been absolutely relentless and it's not stopping we still have 270 kilometers to go today and yeah by the looks of the speed the speed has reduced quite dramatically because visibility is non-existent so i think we're going to be on the motorway for another three hours i think so we've got 250 kilometers to go and we're going about 100 kilometers an hour so yeah maybe maybe two yeah i'd rather get there later than go fast on this the visibility is terrible yeah however the metzeler torrens next two have been performing very well in the rain a lot of people said they were good in the wet and they're right there's been a few like where the traffic stopped we've had to brake fairly hard we've had plenty of distance but they feel really solid on the wet so that's good it's a good time i need to dry off a little bit here comes em now let's see the look on her face when she realizes she has a box of chips waiting for her i only get chips when it's raining it's the only time it's not a bad little box though it's not it's quite cute actually isn't it well we got a box of chips a tea and a filter coffee and four of these liquorice sticks which was 122 kroner which sounded like a good deal until i did a conversion that was 16 euros after 1300 1400 kilometers yeah we've arrived at the top of denmark and it has been a horrendous past five hours it stopped raining about an hour ago it went warm lovely skies we thought great can dry off and have the last hour cruising up and then it came back with a vengeance and absolutely teamed down again so yeah i'm glad to be here but tomorrow apparently it's sunny so it can rain all it likes now get it all out the sky so we're ready for tomorrow so it looks like we've got here when things are closed again so the reception is closed but apparently we have a key in this key box i'm gonna try and find us now okay so we have found our little apartment for the night shadows pulled right outside this is our apartment we're in b6 and look a little kitchen how cute is this and towels for a shower that i'm going to be getting in straight away time to get out of these absolutely soaking clothes and uh have some dinner what a day that's been it's nice to finally be dry well we stayed dry we stayed dry on the inside anyway but uh yeah everything is drying at the moment we're using every bit of space and hanging space we can we actually find it's quite good in older hotels they tend to have radiators that you can turn on yeah and they go like burn you hot warm factor hot so this there's got a little radiator here which i think will do us very well for the morning but it's been an unbelievable day starting off in the central germany to now be at the very very top of denmark it's what 800 kilometers you think we've done today uh yeah i think it was eight or nine hundred today yeah we we set off a little bit later than planned yesterday so we didn't quite get as much done yesterday but the deadline for the ferry is tomorrow so we don't normally have a deadline but for something like the ferry you need to book ahead here because it can get quite busy and it can also get quite expensive it jumps off in price if you book it last minute so we're going to eat some dinner i've just quickly made some lentil pasta with a tomato sauce and i might jump in the shower and then just get straight into bed but we're in a little apartment here at the top we found it quite hard to find hotels um in this area that were like a reasonable one too many there wasn't there's quite a few holiday resorts up here because i think the beaches here so people stay mostly for like a week or two at least five days not necessarily just overnight but this place is really nice i think it was what 90 euros 88 88 euros but if you wanted um sheets and towels it was an extra 20 was it 20 euros or 10 each yeah it was like 13 14 yeah so we've got uh we've got the little towels and bedding yeah ready for us and we're gonna have to make our own bed because we just realized as well that the bed is like a couch just realized i was wondering where the bed was and that's the bed there in the corner it's the couch so we'll have to make but apart from that it's nice to have a kitchen so we can make some food and it was awesome that i could just ride the bike right up to the front door as well so we didn't have to carry the bags in so that was nice that's gonna make easy loading off tomorrow absolutely because tomorrow is when the real trip starts for me i think yeah i think as soon as we get on or off that ferry it feels like the adventure has started yeah so we'll see you all probably tomorrow yeah try and get an early start tomorrow because i'm not sure what time we need to be at the boat but the boat's 10 minutes away yeah the boat's 10 minutes away but the actual ferry journey is four hours so yeah and if i can get up early or we can get up early enough the beach is just around the corner as well so might go for a quick walk but we'll see what happens tomorrow morning so yeah that's good night from us and we'll see you again in the morning