There was one more rider waiting for us in the Schwerin accomodation and then we were 5 riders to conquer the Europe! The last bike to the group is black Triumph Street Triple.
We checked the Schwerin castle already early in the morning!
This is the castle itself.
The day was about riding many kilometers and quite a lot about taking it in Autobahn. In the middle of the day there was some rain too -it surprised us and we got a little bit wet! The route was 650km’s to the southside of the Danube river in Regensburg. It was a nice sunset from the hotel window!
The route was like this:
S1000XR
It was monday the 26th of June when me and 3 friens of mine took the boat from Helsinki to Travemunde (Germany).
We had 4 red bikes (Ducati Monster 695, Ducati Streetfighter 1100, Yamaha MT-09 Tracer and BMW S1000XR) to ride with next three weeks.
The boat trip takes over 1 day and there’s nothing to do (except to eat!) And maybe go outside and take some pictures:
This was 4am in the morning when the sun was getting up from the northeast. One of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen! Tuesday 27th of June the boat was almost 1,5 hours late in the harbour of Travemunde and we had 70km’s to ride to our first destination. It was a beautiful city of Schwerin where we had a place to stay for the night. The route was like this:
Mostly they’re selling too short chains!! If anyone of you is thinking about buying new chains? And looking anything but the originals. Here’s a warning!
It seems that there is wrong information about the length of the XR’s chains! Quite many marketplace is selling 118-links chains and the XR has 128-links!! I was very lucky to find D.I.D. 525 chains that has 128 links but they are maybe too weak (X-ring).
As far as I know there’s not too many aftermarket chains that are long- and strong enough -I would prefer XW-rings not the X-ring.
With motorcycle
This was a dream come true finally for me! I’ve been to Åland few times with a car (last time was 17 years ago!) but now I got there with my motorcycle. This is the 4 days trip to Åland (Swedish)/ Aland (English)/ Ahvenanmaa (Finnish).
Åland is here and to get there with a motorcycle you need to take a ferry from Stockholm, Helsinki or Turku… Or a small ferry from Korppoo (Galtby) or from Kustavi (Vuosnainen). If you use these ferries the idea is to spend the night in some small islands before you go to the main island -and that’s what we did.
But before we took the boat from Korppoo we spent the night there in Faffas. They had a very nice cabin near the sea!
And then 10am it was time for a boat (ferry). This trip (to Föglö island) takes 4 hours!
In Föglö we had lot of time to get to know the island. It’s not very big! There’s actually only 1 road that goes through the island, and because of beautiful scenery and some nice curves it is also in motocaching.net: (Road in Föglö).
But there is also a very beautiful church and quite interesting hiking path in this island. Our accomodation in Föglö was Degerby Mat & Cafe.
Next morning the ferry to the main island left the Föglö at 9am. This was 30min trip.
And the first route was a detour from the mainroad to some villages in Högskär.
Then we rode to the southside of the “capitol of Åland” (Mariehamn), this was a beautiful road through islands.
After this road we rode to the eastside of the main island. First we had this very nice road with some nice bends and then we visited the fire station museum (but it was closed).
Then sun was shining so brightly and weather was too hot (about +13 celsius) so I had to go swimming! Did it here. Water was maybe +8… We took a short break in Käringsund.
Then we visited Sålis Batteri, this is some fortifications that Russians built even they should not do it. Åland was a demilitarized already 50-60 years before!
From the east parts of the main island we moved to north with this road.
In the north we visited the Getaberget (and the tower), Havsvidden (with some nice views too) -this place had a great road!
And finally visited the Stallhagen Brewery and I bought 2 bottles of beer.
This was the first day on the main island of Åland, we spent the night is Strandnäs Hotel.
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Next morning I took a short tour in Mariehamn (This city has about 11500 inhabitants).
Then we started the ride of the day. First we rode to north (again) because there was still few places to visit. First there was Road of Tjudö -this is maybe the best road (for motorcycling) in Åland! It’s definately worth riding!
Then we rode to one small harbour again. This was Hamnsundet with small cafeteria (not yet open).
After this we took the most famous cafeteria in the island (Uffe På Berget). The altitude in the top of the tower is more than 50 meters above sealevel!
And then we went to the castle! There is only 1 middleage castle in Åland, it’s called Kastelholma.
This took about 1 hour to walk through the museum and there was some very interesting stories about the people who lived here (or were prisoners). After castle we rode this road: Road of Sund. This was with 2km’s of gravel.
And for the last place we visited Bomarsund fortress. This has very interesting story which ends with Ålands demilitarization in 1856 (In Treaty of Paris).
Then we took the ferry to Kumlinge island at 5pm and we stay the night in Kumlinge Stugor. Next morning we visited Kumlinge church, Kumlinge mountain (Vårholmsböte) and rode the best motorcycle road in Kumlinge…
The ferry took us to Brändö islands (4-5 islands in group) and there you have to ride through these beautiful landscapes of the archipelago sea. What a road this is!
Our trip in Åland ended about 3pm when the ferry arrived in Vuosnainen in the north side of Turku. (But there is still 1 more ferry after this!).
You can ride the most beautiful places in the main island of Åland in 1 day. But I really recommend that you take your time at least in Kastelholma castle and in Bomarsund fortress. So it should be at least 2 days. And if you have the possibility to visit the small islands too… Then you’ll really know what is it all about! ********* (Gotta go there again some day!)
Thursday the 4th of May was finally the first actual spring-day here in southern Finland. I took some lining off from the jacket and pants ant took a short ride in very beautiful weather!
This is a small beach in Vihti (Otalampi). And because of very nice weather I took a swim also… The ice melted maybe 1 week ago so the water was freezing cold!
Little bit later I just stop the bike to take some photos. I am few meters away from the road and the sun is behind me… I love the photos that my new mobilephone (OnePlus 3T) is taking. The colours are very nice! This is also in Vihti (Tervalammentie).
I have this new red screen in my XR, I ordered it from powerbronze and it makes the bike look lighter and faster (I think). If I try to lean down behind that screen the road looks like this:
Soon I will be in my first tour for this year… We will take 5 days journey to Åland!!
Helsinki motorcycle exhibition 2017 was in Messukeskus Expo and Convention Centre.
Even there’s this possible (totally insane) motorcycle-tax coming it didn’t seem to affect the peoples intrest. Here are some of the most interesting bikes of the show:
Ducati Scrambler Desert Sled
Husqvarna 401 Vitpilen
New versions of BMW R NineT
Suzuki GSX-R1000
Triumph Street Triple 765
KTM 1090 Adventure R
Yamaha MT-07 Tracer
All the pictures I took are here!
This day was riding from Lörrach to Aystetten like this. The weather forecast didn’t promise too much (but the rain) but actually it was like the first half of the day there was no rain and then the rest… yes it was raining. And now it was only me and Maria.
Pretty soon after we started from Lörrach we found the Wehra valley and the road L148. What an amazing road it was!! It’s like from a fairytale…
Some might say that the corners are not too tight here… But I don’t think you can ride like a crazy! Some of them are pretty tight and with no visibility at all!
On the north side of Bannwald Wehratal the landscape was still very nice all around and the road was interesting and not boring at all!
This area has a lot of nature and forestpaths to visit and see very beautiful areas of Germany!
As we continued to east we didn’t know what to expect. So what we found next was a total surprise for both of us!
It was just a small city (called Zwiefalten) among many others and I stopped there to have a break. Then we noticed a very big building on the other side of the square and we started to walk closer. Then we thought “Let’s go inside…” -And there was the surprise!
I’ve never ever seen anything like this before!
It was an old abbey and this was the church hall. It had German Baroque style interior that looked very expensive with gold (looked like gold!?) all around! I was totally speechless.
There was 4 side-altars on the both sides of the church-hall. Then there was the “second altar” (here in the picture) and behind the fence and 2 gates was the first altar. I was thinking to myself “After seeing this I can’t imagine what St. Peter’s Basilica looks like from the inside!! This abbey in the middle of south Germany was already something beyond my imagination!”
When we came out from this amazing abbey/ church it was raining. Finally after 3 hours of riding in the rain we arrived in the small city of Aystetten and we had a room in a small (and outmoded) Hotel that I cannot recommend (Hotel Sohnel).
