From: todk@ariel.lerc.nasa.gov (John A. Gazzaniga  (Sverdrup))
Subject: The DoD at the Arctic Circle:  Title III
News-Software: VAX/VMS VNEWS 1.41    
Organization: NASA Lewis Research Center
Date: 18 Dec 1992 23:22 EST  


     My apologies to the internet.  It has been what... two to three
weeks since I posted title II of my journey?  Sorry to leave you hang-
ing (if indeed any of you are "hanging").  I was out of the country for
a week, which is a small excuse although an attempted coup d'etat almost
made my trip somewhat longer :-).  So, for those of you interested I
will attempt to complete this trip report in a more timely fashion over
the next week.  For those of you who wish to obtain the earlier parts
(the volume of this newsgroup is enormous!) e-mail me a request and I
will comply.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Before I continue with this scintillating odyssey :-) there is one
point I would like to make.  In shipping my GPz by aerial frieght I will
state that I think it is fairly important to have an address to ship to.
In my case when I getting the paperwork filled out to ship the m'cycle to
England I was asked what address I was going to ship it to.  My initial
thought was to just give the address of Gatwick since, naturally, that
was where it was going.  The person behind the counter indicated that a
home address to ship the motorcycle would be easier to get through customs.
Given this suggestion I provided my sister's address and phone number.

     On the evening of my first day in England (Sept. 20th) I was sitting
down with my sister's family getting ready to eat dinner when the phone
rang.  With me jokingly suggesting that the phone would be for me my
niece answered the phone and then said the phone was for me!  It turned
out to be the customs agent who had handled the importation of the bike.
He apologized for forgetting to give me the paperwork with Her Majesties
customs stamp certifying that I was exempted from paying duty on the cycle.
He said he would send it out immediately and I was pleasantly suprised to
receive the packet of material two days later on Wed. (Sept. 23rd), the
day I was to leave for Sweden.

     Fortunately for them, no customs agent dared to ask me for my customs
and excise stamp :-).  But I could just imagine not having it and trying to
get back into England from Sweden and having some hard-nose customs officer
who has had a bad day busting me for not having it and making me pay duty.
So, having an address that I could be reached at for the first several days
after the importation was, in this instance, most helpful.

------------------------------------------------------------------------
     Now... back to the trip

     As I last left you I was just getting ready to board the ferry bound
for Gothenburg from Harwich on Wednesday the 23rd of September, 1992 while
in the company of two Finnish motorcyclists, Andre and Erkki.  After passing
through the customs booths I ascended a concrete ramp which turned into a
spiral in its descent towards the ship.  With a spiral that didn't seem
much wider than two meters (six feet) surrounded on both sides by relative-
ly high concrete walls now would be the time to test cornering ability to
the limit without fear of completely loosing it :-).  Of course, I was most
timid in my navigation of the course.

     With metal ramps leading into the hold of the ship I was a little
concerned about traction with the decks being splotched with water.  With
suitable caution, though, I proceeded without incident; gingerly where
the metal was wet, and with reason where it wasn't.  While coming into the
hold we (the cyclists) were directed to a place between the two columnar
islands that divided the deck into left and right halves.  Once there we
were thrown some big rubber chocks with which we were to chock-up the
wheels.  While tying the motorcycles down with nylon ropes ending in metal
S-hooks Andre commented that this was the worst spot they ever gave him to
tie the cycle down.  Certainly there wasn't a lot of places the cycles could
be secured to with pipes and ladders being the most obvious candidates.
After some tries and a little bit of head scratching I eventually got my bike
secured as did Erkki and Andre.  One big help for me in tying the cycle down
was the use of tie-down loops which I could loop around my grab rails and
around the base of the clip-ons.  These were quite useful in preventing any
damage occurring to the bike where the metal hooks were positioned.

     Now completely boarded, it turns out that I would not see Andre and Erkki
until we were to disembark.  As far as maritime company for my sea-going
digs goes, my four-person berth was actually a one person berth with moi being
the one person.  This in retrospect is not really suprising as this was
probably not the peak of the traveling season.  Taking advantage of the movies
shown on board I took the occasion to see _Basic Instinct_, a really trashy
movie full of gratuitous sex and violence... most entertaing :-).

     I made plans, once I got off the ferry that I would leave Gothenburg
immediately and get on the E4 to Stockholm via Jonkoping.  Once in Stockholm
I would stay overnight and prepare for continuing my journey Northward.  The
ferry got in to Gothenburg at approximately 1600 hour (4:00 P.M.) as scheduled.
Erkki was also going to go to Stockholm and stay overnight as was probably
Andre.  Andre, however, wasn't sure if he could make it on the Harley so he
said that he would probably park it in Gothenburg and head East by other
means.  We didn't make any plans to ride together to Stockholm so I figured
that once Andre and Erkki got off I probably would not see them again.  In
that assumption I would be at least partially mistaken.

     Disembarkation proved to be relatively uneventful.  I was asked, while
passing through customs, about my international insurance, this being the
only time I was so asked.  While parked on the side to retrieve my green card
and associated papers I saw Andre talk to the customs officials after which
he pulled the Harley up to the customs shed where a garage door was opened
whereupon he rolled the Harley in and disappeared into the garage.  I did not
see Andre again.  His Harley, however, was another matter.

     Since I didn't look forward to riding at night in unfamiliar territory
my intention was to breeze through Gothenburg, get on the E4 and beat cheeks
to Stockholm.  This was easier planned than executed.  As I got onto the
road going out of Skandiahamnen (translation please) I started to head for
where I thought the center of town was thinking I could pick up E4 on the way.
After riding for about 15 minutes and seeing no sign of the E4 and stopping
once for directions I finally decided to go on the E20 which wasn't even on
my maps (A Baedeker [1991] and a Hallwag Euromap [1982]).  The E20 did, how-
ever, have the magic name of Stockholm upon it so I rode that way.

     Once out of Gotherburg I was able to form my first impression of Swedish
roads and drivers.  This first impression was a favorable one (apart from
road signs :-)).  As another poster to the net indicated several weeks ago
the main Swedish roads that are not divided are wide two-laners. When I
came up to a (presumably) Swedish driver they would ease over to the right,
allowing me to pass without even having to cross the center line.  As I
passed I would give a nod of acknowledgement for their courtesy, hoping
that they would notice the gesture.  It appeared that the maximum speed for
these roads was 110 km/hr (66 mph).  Needless to say, that wasn't my
maximum :-).  Still, in order not to spook myself or others I wouldn't 
generally exceed 125 km/hr (75 mph).  Even so, into the afternoon and eve-
ning I exhibited the most celerity of any motorist then on the road.
[DISCLAIMER - The above three sentences are only hypothetical in nature :-)]

     This rate of travel was to pay off for me for as the daylight turned
into twilight I noticed another motorcycle rider up ahead.  This was the
first motorcyclist that I saw in Sweden since my arrival two and half hours
earlier.  My curiosity about the presumably Scandinavian rider turned to
suprise as the hard panniers (side luggage) and blue and white leathers in-
dicated that I came upon Erkki on his Suzuki GS1000.  I say suprise since
Erkki recommended for me to take the E4 to Stockholm and here he was with me
on the E20.  I pulled ahead of him and slowed down to a more legally accept-
able speed, matching Erkki's velocity.

     With the endurance on the GPz roughly three hours at normal highway
speeds (approx. 180 miles:  290 klicks) I figured that when I pulled in for
fuel, so would Erkki.  This turned out to be the case when I finally pulled
in for the required dose of petrol (gas).  Using my most rudimentary know-
ledge of German I was able to determine that the green buttons on the pump
marked blyfrei (I am pretty sure that I spelled that right) were unleaded.
With a pattern that would be repeated for the duration of my journey I would
take unleaded with the highest octane I could find.  Sorry, not once for the
whole trip did I attempt to work out how much it cost to fill up.  That was
the least of my concerns :-).

     In asking Erkki why he was on the E20 rather than the E4 that he him-
self recommended his response was that he had the same difficulty as my-
self in finding this apparently phantom road.  O.K. I won't hold this against
the Swedes :-).  With night now upon us it was becoming quite chilly on the
two wheels, but it wasn't unbearably so (yet).  In possibly talking about
hypothermia Erkki told me when riding in the cold weather that I shouldn't
just take a 20 minute or so break when I gas up.  He thought that at least
an hour or so break should be spent, this allowing a thorough warming up of
a possibly dangerously cold rider.

       Erkki asked if I still intended to go to Stockholm and I said yes.
Perhaps heeding his own advice he said that at the next exit he would
peel off to find a place to crash, er, sleep; probably at a motel.  Once
back on the road the next exit quickly came up and I waved goodbye to Erkki
thinking this would be the last time that I saw him.  For myself my main
concern was to get to Stockholm but I also wanted to contact Peter Ahlskog
in Turku (Abo), Finland to let him know that I was in Sweden and in several
days I would be wheeling (not wheelieing :-)) into Finland.

       Thus when the next exit came up indicating a Euro-stop, whatever
that was, I would stop and attempt to reach him by phone.  As it turns out
this Euro-stop, located in Orebro, was a combination petrol-restaurant-shop-
ping center/mall-motel.  The smell from the restarant was most enticing when
I was calling Mr. Ahlskog but I was determined just to call and then resume
my ride.  I finally got through to Peter letting him know that I was in the
region.  When he asked me of what my near term plans were I told him that
I intended to get into Stockholm by about 2200 hours (10:00 P.M.), stay
there overnight, and for the next day take the E4 (or whatever road it really
was!) North.  Peter told me that if I took the GPz to Stockholm that it would
be a good candidate for getting stolen.  Stockholm and Copenhagen are ap-
parently places where sportbikes don't stay with one owner very long :-).
I don't hold anything against Stockholm (or Copenhagen, for that matter)
but the thought of anyone even looking slightly cross-eyed at my baby was
enough to send shivers up and down my spine, especially as this was my only
mode of transport that I was using in this foreign land.  So how did I pre-
vent my motorcycle from getting stolen in Stockholm?  I didn't go to Stockholm!
Right there I made arrangements to stay in the Euro-stop motel, this after I
told Peter that in the next two days I would hopefully be in his neck of the
woods.

     After deciding where to park the motorcycle, (on the walkway pavement
in front of the motel's front desk [cabled to a post, with a Kryptonite
lock through the front wheel!]) taking all my baggage in, and having a meal
at the restaurant, I got ready for a good nights rest, hitting the sack by
0000 hour (12:00 mid.).  When I am concerned about getting up early I will
usually sleep with a light on.  That is what I did this time, not being sure
about how fatigued I might actually be and possibly getting up while it still
might be dark.

     Lying in bed for an indeterminate period of time (my watch was on the
desk/counter) I became aware of a piercing, high pitched tone that was com-
ing from the direction of the counter.  I got up and went over to the counter,
groggily rummaging about my articles trying to find my alarm clock to shut
it off when after some fruitless searching I realized that I wasn't using my
alarm clock, and if I did, it didn't sound like this!  Well, where was the
tone coming from and what was it?  As the sleep induced fog slowly cleared
from my consciousness it dawned on me that this was some sort of fire alarm.
After cleverly determining that I put on a minimum of accoutrements and made
my way down to the front desk to see what was going on.

     It turns out that on my floor (1st in Europe, 2nd in the States) that
some fellows in the Sauna (at two friggin' oclock in the morning!) got the
Sauna too hot and set off the alarm.  This was not to be a total loss,
though, since when I looked out of the glass at the front desk I saw not
only my own motorcycle but also Erkki's.  He had apparently come in to the
Euro-stop after I went to bed.  After having the nightperson (female) search
unsucessfully for "Aki" I finally gave up and went to go get some refreshment
while waiting for the firepeople to arrive.  My floor was the only one to get
the alarm, with Erkki not being among the smattering of people stricken by the
alarm.  After having a sarsaparilla (soda) at the 24 hour restaurant and still
waiting for the fire personnel to arrive I took a closer look at a display
that was apparently an advertisement for insurance near the front desk.

     Part of the display consisted of a slightly scuffed full leather outfit
surmounted by a full face helmet that suffered considerable damage.  Not being
able to read Swedish left me unable to determine exactly how the accident
occurred or even how the rider fared (all right I hope).  I'm not quite sure
but I remember that I thought that this accident might be moose related.
This initial impression of moose plus motorcycle equalling disaster was to be
strengthened later on.  With my valuable sleep being slowly chipped away, the
firemen finally trooped in.  They appeared not to be too concerned about this
being a real fire although they did have their full protective gear on, just
in case.  After shutting the alarm off they gave us the all clear to go back
to our rooms.

     So my hope was to get up early and possibly meet with Erkki before he
took off.  An early start would be desirable as I still had a lot of riding
ahead of me.  As far as leaving this section with my next stop in mind, I
was already stopped!  But my intention would be to get to at least Skelleftea
or possibly Lulea, the minimum distance being at least 917 km (550 mi), by
Friday night.


     For a more heightened awareness of moose, staid info on what to do on a
Friday night in Sweden, and how to pay attention when backing up your motor-
cycle, please tune in to:

                  The DoD at the Arctic Circle:  Title IV


John A. Gazzaniga                                   todk@ariel.lerc.nasa.gov
Newsgroups: rec.motorcycles