Scotland 2007

More photos

Skoll — Mon, 13 Aug 2007 19:15:29

More photos available at http://www.flickr.com/photos/skoll/sets/72157601436092711/.

-Skoll

Home, sweet home

Skoll — Fri, 10 Aug 2007 11:30:48

Home, sweet home.

There's a theory me and some friends of mine have been empirically testing for several years now. This trip has been another proof that this theory is true. Even though there were some mornings when I felt a bit weak, I didn't have a single proper hangover during the journey. That is until I reached Finland. In Finland (and the Stockholm ferry operated partly by finnish personnel) they add to all the alcohol drinks a special hangover ingredient that's missing in the beer and other drinks abroad. When abroad, you never get a hangover, but back home it happens all the time, so it has to be something in the drink. The 12 km ride home from the harbor was - if possible - even more scary than the 400 km in rain in Germany.

But home I am - alive and kicking, or at least wriggling. So after three weeks on the road, what I am left with, apart from an empty wallet and shot liver? Here's some statistics for you:
About 400 euros spent on gas
About 275 liters of gas used
About 5275 kilometers driven in total
About 1000 pictures taken

Scotland was the main objective of our trip and the definite highlight. The cruising was nice and easy and the scenery beautyful. We should have reserved more time for that part. Coming back through Europe took more time than I had anticipated and included in the end maybe a bit too much driving on the highways. That again, Wacken was the other objective of the journey and we had enormous fun there. If you are into metal, you should definitely go there.

So that's that. Thank you for reading. If you feel an urge to comment on the trip or ask me something, feel free to e-mail me at skoll@routamc.org.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll go off dying.

Woo-hoo!

-Skoll

PS. There are still some pictures coming once I have time go them through, so stay tuned.

Final Score:
Vesku: 2
Janne: 0
Skoll: -1

Sweden

Thu, 09 Aug 2007 14:45:10

Tuesday evening the battle exhaustion finally did get us. As did the lizards. We spent the day in Copenhagen and enjoyed a few refreshing beers. There was a metalbar callen The Rock which we ment to check out but instead we retired to the hotel around 8 o'clock.

Wednesday we rode to Västervik and checked in to a camping site. They had a bastu there disguised as a Sauna (there was 60 degrees of Celsius there and no water) which we welcomed nontheless.

Now we are on board of Silja Symphony taking us home.

-Skoll

Trip yesterday: 483 km
Trip today: 290 km
Trip total: 5263 km

Western Europe

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 17:15:07

Yesterday the battle exhaustion almost got us. I was in the middle of my third pint - the mood was flegmatic and Vesku and Janne weren't a bit more energetic than me. I had already spoken out the words "I think I'll retire after this one", but by the time I finished the drink, the potion of merryness had once again worked it's magic.

I haven't been too active with the blogs since we left Scotland. The main reason is that there hasn't been much to tell. Compared to Scotland the rest of the Europe we have seen has been pretty dull. But just of the record I'll try to recap briefly our journey since we left the Highlands behind us.

In London we had planned to have a day off. Kristiina had invited some friends over and we had a fun evening. We met our co-host Henrik, Meron from Eritrea/Germany, Kenji from Japan, Maija from Finland, Alex from England and Kristiinas father Max. And Kristiina proved wrong my opinion about the steaks in England - the steaks they served us with their traditional family recipe pepper sauce were delicious.

I retired quite early but Kristiina and Vesku partied through the night. They woke me and Janne around 9 am with a brilliant idea of going out to a picnic. Once again I left the party in the afternoon while the rest partied on until late night.

The next morning we had planned to have an early wake-up and get as close to Wacken as possible - as you can imagine that didn't happen. When we finally got on our bikes, it was already 14:00. Because of changing time zone when coming to the continent we lost another hour. Still, we decided to get out of France at least as no sane person wants to spend any more time there as absolutely necessary. We got a room in a hotel in Belgium, near to the border.

We had some 800 km ahead of us Thursday, so that morning we actually managed to be on our bikes at 07:00 as planned. The morning was cloudy, but the clouds were light and for a time it looked like the sun would come out eventually. It didn't. In the afternoon when we still had more than half of the ride ahead of us it started raining. My enhanced water resistant pants did their work surprisingly well. Also my leather jacket kept the water out for the first few hours, but then slowly started leaking. Before reaching our destination I was soaking. And cold. Had being wet and cold been the worst things at that point, the rest of the drive would have been somewhat bearable, but thanks to the rain the concrete-built autobahn was slippery and the visibility at times less than 100 meters. Imagine yourself driving in those kind of conditions - on a bike - at 130 km / h. I have rarely been more afraid of my life than I was then.

We reached Wacken at around 21:00. Just about the same time the rain ended. (As a matter of fact we have only had sunshine since.) After some searching we finally found the camp of Metal Club Mökä where we set up our tent. At that time the party was already well underway - somewhere further away Overkill was playing and all people were merry. The first beer we got on the festival area was one of the better ones I have had.

I already wrote a bit about Wacken. Looking back, it once again lived up to the expectations - it is the best metal party there is. In addition to the bands I already described, I saw Amorphis, Type O Negative and Immortal. Type O I saw first time live and they did a very enjoyable gig starting with "We hate everyone"! Immortal did a lot better show than in Tuska and I even enjoyed the newer stuff they were playing. The gig ended with "Blashyrkh (Mighty Ravendark)" which they skipped in Tuska.

Considering there are 70000 (according to another source, it's actually over 100000) people partying there, the arrangements are first class (I know Juha you disagree). There's alot different kinds of food there, the prices aren't too bad and you never need to wait more than a couple of minutes to get into the actual festival area, even before the biggest bands. And all the people are so friendly - you could walk to any camp and simply start talking with them and they even offer you a beer. During the four times I have been there I have seen a single fight. And the sun was shining during the whole time.

In the night between Saturday and Sunday Vesku had once again had an allnighter and quit drinking only after coming back to the camp in the morning and learning that we need to get out from the camping area that day. We left around 17:00. We had planned to drive to Hamburg, but as some of us were feeling a bit shaky we took a hotel in Itzehoe, 25 km from Wacken. Apparently we got the last rooms in the city because later I heared about several Wacken-goers and their desperate quest to find a room. Vesku and Janne retired to the hotel and I spent the rest of the evening sitting on a terrace, drinking beer and reading "The lies of Locke Lamora" - an excellent new low-fantasy book. Even though we only spent one night in Germany (Wacken is a dimension on its own), I once again loved everything there - the food, the people, the little villages we drove by.

Next morning we started planning our route back home. As mentioned, we had underestimated the distance between Hamburg and Tallinn, so we decided to ride back through Scandinavia.

There wasn't much to see in the autobahns in Germany, but when we got to Denmark, the scenery got even more boring. As you can see in the attached picture, the country is completely flat. To add some exitement to the ride, the wind was blowing like hell - at times you really had to hold the steering bar with you full force to keep the bike straight.

When we got to Copenhagen we heared there's fashion weeks there so all of the hotels are fully booked. Luckily we arrived at a hotel (CabInn City) just when they were cancelling reservations that hadn't been payed yet so we got two - rather expensive - rooms. After reviving from the apathy of being us, the night was spent in The Irish Rover where Jim Fox - a jolly troubadure - was entertaining the audience. As part of his show he was asking from all the guests there about the country of origin. Upon hearing that we are from Finland, he joked that he thought that that were the members of Lordi sitting there. Curiously after that some Wacked-goers from Italy started taking picures of us. And - as there were the fashion weeks going on - the bar was filled with long-legged models who your eyes really rested on.

Today we have spent in Copenhagen. Even though it's a nice city, one day here was enough to remind me why I don't like city-vacations.

Tomorrow we are heading to Sweden. We have two days to reach our ferry back home leaving from Stockholm, so we can take it easy and cruise along the coast.

-Skoll

Kobenhavn

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 18:05:07

After a good night's sleep in small city called Itzehoe close to Wacken, it was time to plan how to get home. As we all wanted to have one weekend home before going to work, we decided to take shortcut through Denmark.

Instead of driving some 1900km through Baltic countries, 900km felt quite a lot better as we would be also able to have one day off in Kobenhavn -and possibly storm some metal bars there...

See our happy family having a pint in The old English pub in Kobenhavn.

Trip today: 357 km
Trip total: 4490 km

Towards home

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 13:35:07

The morning greeted us with a shining sun on a cloudless sky. We started planning our ruote back through Poland and the Baltic countries. After calculating the royta we notuced we had somewhat misjudged the distance from Hamburg to Tallinn so we decided to drive back through Denmark and Sweden. Now we are on board of a ferry taking us from Puttgarden to Rødby. Today we are planning to ride to Copenhagen.

-Skoll

Itzehoe

Sun, 05 Aug 2007 17:10:05

Location: Itzehoe
State: Undeath

-Skoll

Trip today: 25 km
Trip total: 4115 km

Cheerz metalheads!

Sat, 04 Aug 2007 13:55:09

I guess I ought to say a couple of words about Wacken. It is the fastest, the hardest and the loudest metal festival there is after all. With 70000 metalheads it's the biggest metal party in Europe.

First the negative sides. 70000 visitors. Last time I was here in 2002 there were 40000 people here. Now it's a bit too crowded. You can't get closer than 50 meters from the stage.

But as all the people are so friendly - a true metal family indeed it doesn't really bother that much. The feeling here is something amazing. I know it's not true, but I have been all smile all the time here. It just feels great.

And then there are the bands... So far all the gigs I have wanted to see have been just brilliant. First one we saw was Therion. I haven't listened to their newer stuff but they delivered a lot better gig than I expected. They didn't use any choirs, only two male and two female singers. Each had their own role and area of voice and it worked well in its simplicity. Another band I hadn't been following for some time was Enslaved. (Actually both Therion and Enslaved I have last seen in the legendary Lepakko in Helsinki in mid 90's.) They kicked some serious ass by playing songs from most of their records. To my great surprise they even finished with "Slaget i skogen brotenfor" (or something) from "Hordanes land", their first split with Emperor. Right after Enslaved there was Blind Guardian. I have never liked them too much, but they did a lot better gig than in Tuska a month ago. The german audience seemed to enjoyed themselves at the fullest. And then there was Iced Earth. It was the first time I saw them with Ripper and my did they blow your mind. To my disappontment they didn't play a single song from Glorious Burden, but Ripper did the old songs very well. And based on the two songs from their upcoming album, it's going to be a killer.

(As a sidenote, I have currently 1,25 promille alcohol in my blood accoring to an alcometer. Janne has 2,53 and Vesku has 1,55.)

Today I have seen Moonspell so far. They had a shorther gig than in Tuska, but once again I got tears of happiness in my eyes. They are in excellent live shape at the moment. If they are coming near you, go see them.

Today there's still Rage, Type O Negative and Immortal to be seen. Tomorrow we are planning to drive to Hamburg (80 km) and cure our hangover there.

-Skoll

Score:
Vesku: 2
Janne: 0
Skoll: -1

Fuck you all!

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:35:07

Fuck you who are not here! We are here. You are not. So fuck you all!

-Skoll, Vsq & Janne

Riding horses made of steel

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 22:45:09

One of me favourite bands Manowar once sang "Riding horses made of steel" (on track "Return of the Warlord" from the album "Louder than Hell"). What kind of mental image does that provoke? Riding a Harley Davidson to sunset on an empty hightway, a beautiful young girl on your back seat? What a load of bullcrap! Motorcycling is about rain, it's about being soaking wet and freezing your ass off. It's about losing your friends in the traffic because you can see shit in the rain. It's about jams, about highways full of trucks and mobile homes and passing them being scared for your life because there's no traction. It's about acheing shoulders, acheing back and numb ass. It's about water finally reaching your balls through your so called waterproof gear (yeah, I know, my pants are only water resistant). It's about waking at 6:30 am and driving 800 km.

Oh how I wished to be home. Oh I wished to be warm, sitting on a sofa, watching TV, eating icecream... Hmm... Not that I think of it, fuck the sofa! After 13 hours on the road we finally made it to Wacken. And god it feels great to be here again. 70.000 metalheads having the greatest party of the year. Fuck being safe at home! Fuck being cozy in a hotel room! Fuck touring the world in your car! This is motorcycling! This is Wacken!

I think I promised you a longer entry today. Well, you won't be getting one. Boo-hoo, so cry me a river. All my clothes are soaking, so I'm gonna need some inner fire to keep me warm. Or maybe find a Helga... yeah right!

-Skoll

Trip yesterday: 245 km
Trip today: 850 km
Trip total: 4090 km

...and the search for camp

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 21:40:06

It took us almost two more hours to find the Metal Club Mökä camp and get settled. So it was dark already as you can see.

Wacken at last!

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 21:30:08

After 14 hours of driving in the rain, we finally got to Wacken some time after 9 p.m., just happy to be alive. But the pain wasn't over yet...

Who will stop the rain?

Thu, 02 Aug 2007 13:50:10

A bigger update coming later. We are on our way to Wacken. We have ridden some 600 km today anb about 200 still to go. 2 hours ago it started raining. My duck tape -enhanced pants are keeping water pretty well, but my jacket kept the water out onli the first 1,5 hours. Nice.

Veskus CBX is also giving trouble with the rain - not all of its 4 cylinders are working all the time. Probaby water in the carburators.

-Skoll

Farewell Britain

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 21:20:06

Phew. Scotland and England are now behind. We just arrived to Belgium to a hotel.

The trip to UK was something I'll remember forever, mostly because of the good people we met there. I would especially like to thank our hosts for the last couple of days. The hospitality they greeted us with was overwhelming. Special thanks to Kristiina for her great company during our sleepless night in London. Although paying over 80 pounds for a dinner and 56 pounds for a taxi, It was worth it. I had a blast. London makes you do stupid things.

But now I got to get some rest, tomorrow we're heading towards Wacken at 7 a.m.

Good night. - Vsq

End of part one - of scenery and cruising

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 12:00:18

It's 11:30 on Tuesday morning and we are having a picnic. It don't think it's proper here in England, but luckily we are from Finland. That's Kenji, Vsq, Janne and Kristiina sitting and enjoying the morning sun and some refreshments.

The journey so far has been lovely - fantastic (excellent, splendid -Janne) as a matter of fact (I'm trying to pick up the English vocabulary). The ride in Norway - even with its rainy and cold weather - was nice one. I have never had a campsite like we had there. And we had a fun evening at Trine's and Kai's place. But the main target of our trip was of course Scotland. Looking back we could have reserved more time for that part, but we somewhat misestimated the size of the Great Britain and it took us longer to get down to London than we thought. But the scenery we did see in the Highlands was amazing and the ride on the narrow, curvy roads a most enjoyable one. Edinburgh was a nice city - that is if you happen to like city holidays. I don't. But the metal place we found, we had good time there.

The second part of our trip started yesterday. It's about driving like mad and partying like hell. We got from Edinburgh to Longon (700 km) in one day, and we have two days to get from London to Wacken (some 80 km north on Hamburg). As of the partying, we are staying at Kristiinas place at the moment - some of the youngsters haven't slept at all during the night - and then there's Wacken - the loudest and proudest metal festival in Europe!

So here we are, on the highest spot of London, enjoying a traditional picnic of sparkling wine and beer. It's the most beautyful day we have had during our trip so far. Tomorrow we are having a long ride ahead of us, but before that it's still good time to to lay back and relax.

-Skoll

London

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 20:50:09

After spending 10 hours on the road, we finally made it to London. We are staying at Kristiinas - a friend of mine from Finland who has moved here - place in Barnet. She has invited some friends over and the plan is to eat some, drink some more and have a good time.

-Skoll

Trip today: 713 km
Trip total: 2995 km

Day of setbacks

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 13:55:08

The planned ride for today was probably the longest of the whole trip - 650 km from Edinburgh to London. So far we have managed to travel without any issues, so oviously they all gathered for the day we needed to cover some miles.

We lost almost an hour when both Vesku and Janne run our of gas. Near Newcastle we stopped for gas again. When leaving, Vesku missed the junction we took (he didn't even see us) and continued on through another route. As we didn't see Vesku we stopped to wait. We waited, and we waited. We tried calling him, but there was no reply - so he was either riding or something had happened. Aftet 50 min he finally called us back. He had been driving like mad thinking we went on and he tried to reach us. In addidtion he's bike had lost most of the power now. Vesku had driven to Batron Park (next to Darlington) so we drove there. By the time we got there he had identified and fixed the problem - it was the ignition box again. This time it was soldered using proper tools, thanks to the boys of G.C.S. Johnsons.

Now we are good to hit the road again. Still 350 km to cover today.

-Skoll

Out of fuel

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 10:05:09

About 100km from Edinburg on our way to London, mine and Vesku's bikes ran out of fuel. Actually my bike had ran out of fuel 15km before, but one farmer was friendly enough to give me one liter to get to the next station. Well, still not enough. Skoll had some fuel though, so he did the rescue.

Headlights and blinkers

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 18:55:16

I have to be honest with you; When I told you that we rebuilt the electric system of our Honda, I was twisting the truth a bit. All we actually did, was that we totally renewed the groundings and main power lines, as the original design was ridiculous. Almost all electrical gadgets, lights etc. were grounded through one thin wire (14 awg I guess). This wire was then splitted many times in the main wire harness. So we ripped apart the whole harness and grounded each gadget with a proper individual wire. In addition to that, the power lines going to the fuse box, and from the fuse box to the headlights were way too thin, so they were renewed them as well.

Some other minor fixes were also made to the main harness, but we did not touch the front cluster of connectors and relays much. Mistake #1! We also did not renew the fuse box, which is apparently unsuitable for the heavier wiring. Mistake #2! Now, after a rain, the headlight circuit sometimes shorts with the blinkers, and then they are both unusable. The problem can be fixed by taking off the front cover and opening the fusebox. I'm no rookie with electrics, but I just can't find the real fault, especially on the road.

Next winter, I'm going to rebuild everything that was left untouched in the last rebuild.

I lost the lights again yesterday, and was fixing them today as you can see from the photo. You can also see me making the classical "burn the main fuse" manouver with the screwdriver. Needless to say, I don't have spares with me...

Duck tape magic

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 18:55:08

My previously +2 pants of Water Resistance have been enchanted by the ancient Duck Tape magic to +5. Still, anybody coming here I recommend the Waterproof enchantment or at least Water Resistance level of +8.

-Skoll