Rode the back roads by some pretty lakes to Vaasa for our next ferry.
It was very pretty. Despite what Norwegians say.
Another ferry, 5 hours with the time difference, to Umea, Sweden.
And a scary, high speed, in the dark, rush off the ferry, out of the port with a string of cars and trucks behind us to our accommodations.
Arrived late, hosts not home, thank goodness for that since we roared up and parked in front of the wrong building. After finding the keys and fumbling with them for a long time realized, my hands were cold!
Like Raynauds cold.
Is the heat really over?
Really really?
So I get the living room again.
Pop open sofa trundle.
Grindle was having fun sliding.
That's me in the reflection of the window.
Woke up to this gorgeous view.
And a fridge full of things to eat including frozen lingonberries.
They are a lot better at Ikea.
Anyway, we ate all the eggs and cheese.
The morning after. Where's Grindle?
Took me a while to find him.
OK, now these people have a fetish with light switches.
There was even a sign of all the button's functions and whether to push them,
turn them or just don't touch them.
Lot's of people have pushed the bottom one.
I fixed it.
Just like Bob fixed the bathroom door falling off the hinge.
First "stop", UNESCO, The High Coast.
Notice the dramatic curve of this mountain?
It was a natural marvel.
We rode by it at 130KM/hr.
So a few years back, at the Healdsburg Hotel bar, I came upon a cocktail that sounded wonderful but it was made with gin. I asked the bartender if he could make it with Vodka. He grimaced and said "if you don't like it, I'll make you one with Vodka."
OK.
My first gin cocktail.
Boy did I love it.
And little did I realize how much I would come to love gin.
I always thought of gin as an old lady drink.
Well, maybe I'm getting old.
So when I saw Harnosand on the map,
bells went off in my head.
Herno Gin!
I learned about this from Zanzibar Gin bar in Dunedin New Zealand with Trevor a little while back.
So we followed a narrow gravel back road and voila.
Unfortunately we had to book a tasting in advance...
That's OK.
I'm riding a motorcycle, and it's a Triumph baby!
Chatted with this nice lady from inside and got a few whiffs of juniper as they were making a batch inside somewhere. That's OK. She sent us into town to the liquor store and I bought a small bottle for a lot of Krona and it rode two weeks in my top box.
She sent us to the marina at a nice restaurant that was
closed but the waitress managed to get us a meal.
King Bob had some seafood, open sandwich.
I had the best, and I mean the best, steak tar tar ever.
My mouth is watering as I type this.
Next was time to visit a Thai temple.
In Sweden.
Where King Bob had an entertaining (well to me anyway) close encounter with a fox.
It was closed but that's ok.
No buses with hoards of tourists.
And I have a great zoom lens.
On to our next Airbnb.
Red house again.
Red must be a color that goes on sale a lot.
My shadow.
Oh, oh, Sweden...it's cooler here!
This place had a sauna.
Huge house. Nice kitchen.
With her garden tomatoes.
We wolfed those down.
And the rest traveled with us the next day.
My bed. Grindle wanted the right one.
Love how the rest of the world figured out to give each person sleeping their own comforter.
No more fighting about who pulled the comforter the most last night.
Our Tigers in the garage.
I wheeled mine right under the bird nest.
Yeah.
Saw this cool, church-looking structure.
Saw a few more of these throughout the day.
Next UNESCO site.
Roros. Old mining town.
And kissing a ?
Cool weird glowy globes hanging from the ceiling.
The tourist trap of shops.
And what I excitedly thought would be good
fried chicken.
She plunked the plate down in front of me and my mouth started watering.
Then, after a few seconds, we both noticed something seemed weird.
Then he figured it out.
It was chicken rolled in corn flakes.
OK. OK. For my southern friends in Bama.
I know some people use corn flakes.
But they also use seasoning.
Soak the chicken in buttermilk.
Yada Yada.
Nope. This was just rolled in cereal cornflakes.
After lunch, walked around the old wood buildings.
Beautiful flowers.
It was really pretty neat.
The river through the mining area.
Above the doorway was the Roros town symbol.
So next.
We went to Hell and back again.
Literally.
This is the town and train station for 'Hell'.
HAHAHA.
After this we stopped for another meal.
A great burger.
Was too hungry to take a photo.
It's all about the next meal....
Found this cool cabin at a ski area.
Weird shaped roof and windows.
Cute little kitchen.
The cameras everywhere annoyed King Bob.
I agree. It was a bit creepy.
All I cared about was the fireplace.
It was finally cold!
Like chilly.
Heated gear chilly.
Didn't take me long to get the fire roaring.
I sat in front of it to dry my hair.
Low ceilings.
Warned Grindle to not bang his head.
He got the inside bunk.
Why is it cold now?
We passed the Nordic circle.
And made it to the Lofoten Islands.
With a gulf stream current which keeps it warm and they even have tropical fish.
Or so our host told us.
This was a friend of a friend Adventure Rider.
Who offered his boat shed.
Literally.
What the heck.
I've stayed in weirder places.
We got there just at sunset.
After a few more ferries.
Muddy, slippery snot.
The boat shed.
It's literally a shack on the water edge.
But round the corner and you can see a lot of work has been put in it.
It was amazing. Loved it so much that we stayed two nights.
Hard to believe. I am always so excited to get up and go see new things the next day.
It's hard for me to stay anywhere two nights.
Inside.
Two military cots.
A teeny weeny cast iron stove.
Kerosene lanterns.
A chemical toilet.
A non stick pan and burner.
I finally got to make eggs without scraping them off an old, scratched up pan
with Teflon flakes for garnish.
Dag. Our host.
And he had strawberries!!!
We rode around to all the special places our host told us to go.
And found this expensive seafood restaurant.
I had insanely good halibut.
Man was it CUTE here.
Not sure why I took this photo but what the heck.
I did start to grow moss on my boots.
It rained while riding Norway.
A lot.
That's ok.
I'll take rain over 100+F heat.
After a couple nights in our shack...time to leave.
YES another ferry.
And many more to come.
But the sheer idiocy of this ferry is well,
difficult to describe but I'll try.
See the low ceiling?
How the bikes are lined up?
We had to go up into the ferry.
Then down a ramp.
Then turn the bikes 180 degrees (u-turn) inside the boat.
On slippery, wet metal plates.
And we have to line the bikes up like dominos.
When I saw these poor schmucks dragging their bikes on centerstands to get them to fit, I thought, uh un...and I backed in. I was rather proud of myself. You can see my little orange beak, 4th bike from the back.
All of us were shaking our heads at this and agreed whomever designed this one, really had a problem with motorcyclists.
Dramatic, moody clouds.
It rained on and off again.
But I was happy as a clam.
I'd made it to Lofoten.
After we arrived in Bodo.
King Bob was in charge of the itinerary.
He found a Maelstrom.
The strongest in the world.
Dramatic clouds. We had no idea what we were in for.....
Whoops. Skipped a meal.
Best veal chop I've had in a long time with extra veggies.
King Bob admitted he was a bit jealous of my meal.
He ordered a soup.
It was a gorgeous place on the marina.
With the sunset.
And the bikes parked on the sidewalk in front.
He found some old church but someone slept in because they never opened.
Apparently I was a bad girl and got put in this thing.
Rode beautiful Fjords.
I'm a bit Fjorded out after Iceland.
Ride 10-20 KM along one side to the end.
Then another ride 10-20KM back out again.
But total distance between shores 2-4KM.
Still....took some glacier photos.
And now.
La Piece de Resistance.
The Creepy Baby House.
The house was at the end of a gravel road.
Nice and muddy after a heavy rainfall.
A bit remote.
Red. Again
You know that red that all of these houses seem to be painted in?
Had a nice view of the lake though.
The photos are always nicer than it really is.
Just like online dating.
But hey...we were soaking wet.
Kitchen seemed OK.
Old wood burning stove.
And they had, I kid you not, 6 trash bins with this ridiculous sign.
What???
Maybe I was just tired but everything, egg shells, coffee grounds, foil, paper towels, paper and whatever else went into one of these.
My room.
Grindle was not too sure.
The assortment of baby dolls around this house was staggering.
Even the bathroom had these knit baby things like grandmothers make to cover Kleenex boxes.
And baby clothes draped everywhere.
And baby photos on all the walls.
Lots of them.
And a Snow White spinning wheel.
I was pretty creeped out that it might start spinning in the middle of the night.
This one was the freaking weirdest one.
SWEET DREAMS.
