SWEDEN O4.

I suppose it was inevitable that when Stu phoned to say he was going to be delayed because he had a couple of
holes in his rear tyre this was going to set the tone for the inward journey. The Original plan was to meet up with
STU at Corley Services at 11.45am then RB and Doug at 12.45 M1 JCt 13a to ride to Harwich together.

Smokin Paul B and I left Corley and at 1pm and decided to head straight for Harwich. Carried onto towards Harwich
where we spotted two very dodgy characters in a lay bye RB and Doug. We turned around and waited for them and
made the grand entrance together as planned, worryingly still no sign of STU.

GTB and Spread (and Pillion Dave) were at the petrol station as agreed so at least we were six bikes and 7 people.
Before leaving to join the massive queue of bikes the familiar rumble (to those of us that know it) turned out to be
STU complete with new tyre. Turns out there is also a huge Harley Rally in Sweden this weekend and also a another
British Bike rally in Denmark allegedly 250+ bikes loaded onto the ferry. So you can see it was quite a crush getting
loaded and nervously convincing ourselves we had done an efficient job tying the bikes down.

Nothing to do but relax and have a drink, Paul B had a sea sickness pill because we didn't want him turning into Honkin
Paul B, I had one as well so he wouldn't be lonely. We had adjoining en-suite cabins so pretty comfortable really. Time
for a few beers wash away the dust from out throats, for some obscure reason RB decided he was going to treat us to
his bare feet wandering round like some '60s hippy... Don't really remember much about the outward journey from here
on, except we had a good nights kip other that the snores and bodily emissions....

Next morning went down the stairs to the deck expecting the bikes to be in one large jumble however all was well so
disembarked from the ferry. Esberg in Denmark, next meeting point was the services just over the first of the toll
bridges, this first toll bridge has the second longest span in the world according to Jan Dirscher who is our expert
guide and tracker for the next part of the journey.

Storebaelt Suspension Bridge (Denmark)
This $806 million bridge, completed in 1998, has the world's second longest span at 1,624 meters.

Next stop was to Jans house where he and his lovely wife Kirsten had prepared a meal and drinks for us.

more pics to follow

After a suitable break we said goodbye to Kirsten. Jan lead us on the final part of our journey into Sweden,
this also involves another toll bridge to Sweden this was also an equally impressive feat of engineering.

The bridge crossing the Flintrännan navigation channel is a cable-stayed bridge, supported
by the four pylon legs (204 m above sea level), each pair standing on a common caisson.
Crossbeams under the bridge span also connect the pylon legs. The span is suspended by
80 cable pairs which are attached to the pylon legs at 12 m intervals. The high bridge is 1,092 m long, with
a main span of 490 m and a navigation clearance of 55 m. he pylon and anchor pier foundations are made up
of concrete caissons that are lowered into dredged pits some 13-28 m below sea level. Protective islands,
designed to prevent ship collisions, surround each caisson.

Finally arrived in Hoor early evening checked into our caves. Time to relax, have a drink meet up with old
friends the food laid on for the Thursday evening was Steak cooked on the BBQ, didn't ask if it was
Beefsteak or Moosen Steaks. During the course of the evening a number of others turned up and checked
in, including Nils and his trusty companion Gismo

Friday morning saw a bright start the usual bread, cheese, cereals and lots of coffee. Today the ride out
takes us to a Museum then onwards to a place on the coast for lunch which we queued a good 30 mins for.

Back to the campsite more bikes had arrived and tonight BBQ with Hamburgers, the band was OK heard better
and did not seem to keen at first on RB & GTB's assistance however when they realised they could provide
backing vocals (Yeah) and were actually more popular with the crowd than they were, they soon warmed to them.

Saturday morning JK turned up and joined us for breakfast, most of our group decided it might be best to travel
back to Gothenberg have a night in a hotel, a evening meal out and be closer to the ferries rather than have a problem
early on Sunday morning. I decided not to do this and to take the risk and travel back on the Sunday morning Paul
stopped with me, no problem, we said our goodbyes to the others at the campsite an wednt off on the planned ride out.
After about 30 mins the road the leader was informed that the group had managed to get split so we waited by the side
of the road. Some of the group backtracked and found them. The roads were much better biking on the Saturday and
we went through some very interesting scenery including some heavily forested areas where I was expecting Moosen
to jump out in front of me. First stop was another Swedish seaside resort where we stopped for some grub then unlike
Friday the Cafe could cope with a few more people, moved to the next stop where the Absolut Vodka Factory is located
unfortunately for me (or do I mean fortunately) the attraction was a floating Ice Cream Parlour moored on the riverside,
then back to the campsite for the evenings entertainment and pig roast.

Excellent food and plenty of it on the Saturday evening , ate our meal with Johan then said our farewells to him, Paul
was being a pain in the arse and kept saying "watch what you drink early start in the morning"(little did he know lol)
fortunately the band was a big improvement from the previous evening, I think had they stayed, GTG and RB would have
had a even better response than the previous evening, much dancing and merriment was to be had and towards the end of
the evening the almost legendary Swedish raffle was drawn. Paul and I said our farewells about midnight and left
everyone having a real good time, wasn't long it seemed until the clock was saying 4.30am time to pack up and go.

Very much to our surprise Nils and Gismo were packing up and were going to lead us to Gothenberg. Quite an eventful
journey really we had a Deer run out in front of us from the very misty forest, Nils had a bird strike him on the head,
our visors were constantly misted up so badly from the morning mists that most of the time I ran with mine up, eventually
the sun started to warm us through we stooped to get fuel at a unmanned fuel stop now that's an experience. Eventually
we found a services that was open, so we could get coffee's and croissants, arrived at the meeting place early so Nils
took us to a vantage point to look over the city.

Finally met up with the others at the ferry port and had a very entertaining evening before disembarking and making our
weary way home. All in all we had a great time thanks especially go to Geoff the Bolt for Organising it this side of the water
, Jan and Kirsten in Denmark and everyone from the Swedish club for the hospitality and Nils and Gismo for getting
Paul and myself to Gothenberg on time.