Day21 - from Hirtshals to Altona

The room is so hot, we have to sleep with the window and the room-door open to get a bit of air-current. We sleep both profoundly deep to wake up for the last adventure. Miji counts his new mosquito-bites: 19 on the right leg, 14 on the left. This almost beats the Finland-record! Let’s get out of this suffocating room!

Today’s goal is to reach the Autozug in Altona, already! We had planned to just drive through Denmark on its one Autobahn… this is because we haven’t thought that after Norway, our vacation-sightseeing could still go on; but Denmark has also a nice coast-line. So we evaluate or choices: boring Autobahn/ 513km versus nice coastal road/ 700km in 9 hours. We also consider postponing the Autozug for 1 day to appreciate Denmark’s coast over two days. Impossible: there’s no Autozug the next day. We also consider just quitting our jobs… Ok… this is daydreaming Isabel, let's stick to the original plan and take the Autobahn...

With that strong resolution, we drive 5km, but just before taking the highway, we are distracted by enormous quantities of white sand and just have to stop. 

We are melting away under this heat, there is no time to consider where to hide our belongings. The bike just has to take care of it.

The water is surprisingly colder than the fjords in Norway, but soooooooo refreshing! We linger on the beach, observe crabs in the water, look for sea-shells… we just don’t want to drive on….

Oh wait! We still have to get something fixed on the bike! Miji thinks something must be wrong with the suspension and wants to have it checked. Time pushes us, so we force ourselves to head on. We find a BMW garage 100km further down the road, but they don't sell motorcycles anymore (who buys them in flat Demark anyways...). There is another garage some 250km further south. It’s 60km deviation from our way, but still south and we are almost happy to have a break of this boring Autobahn. After several stops to rehydrate, we reach the garage: oh what a surprise! It looks very well equipped and even has the new BMW GS Adventure in his exhibition. But where is everyone??? On summer vacation! The garage is closed, Miji gives up.

Back on the boring Autobahn, we repeat our song-hitlist and try to think of new songs and all of a sudden Isabel yells: stop! stop! Something is in my jacket and bit me! 
We stop on the side, Isabel throws off her jacket and a bee flies away. Her arm was stung twice. Half as bad, at least more interesting than the Autobahn. We drive on... 

We cross the border, we are in Germany, but we cannot stand this Autobahn anymore, so we deviate a bit to visit Flensburg. It is still very hot and we can’t wait to have a good German beer. We find a nice beergarden ("The most northern German brewery"). Miji orders a 1kg Schweinshax and 1L of beer. After all the Norwegian cod, we loudly think: Germans do know how to cook! Miam!

Time management is again perfect and we arrive just on time for the Autozug (even if some Co-pilot has confused check-in and boarding times!). While Miji waits in line with the other bikers, Isabel jumps of the bike to throw away the overheating, heavy biking-cloths to get into a fresh summer dress and flip flops… it is just too hot here!

Miji’s last challenge is waiting: driving the bike into the Autozug, without ripping his head off. Luckily the 1L beer makes 3D-conceptions easier.

Here we are… back in the tiniest compartment, enjoying the offered wine and trying to get some more blogging done. The electricity-plug doesn’t work – oh what a bummer! So for the first time, we actually go to bed early – well the compartment is two beds, so nowhere else to go :-).