René Seindal

The list of misfortunes during my journey in Italy last year keeps growing, even more than a month after my return to Denmark.

Today a Danish police officer called me at home to ask if I had been driving in Switzerland last autumn, as a fine for speeding down there had ended on his table. Apparently, I had been doing the normal 120 km/h on a stretch of motorway where there was a local limit of 80 km/h. There was little point in denying as he had some very nice photos of me

I have no idea how large the fine will be, but I will know when the Swiss police sends me the fine.

Here’s a scan of a photocopy of the photo:

What’s the first thing to do when arriving at home after three months away?

I’m back in Denmark now. I started Thursday morning from the motel north of Würzburg, with frost on the motorcycle. Fortunately, it started promptly, but it was a cold start of the day.

When I started the thermometer on the dashboard showed 0° C, but as I moved northward it became milder, and most of the day I had 5-10° C and could put on a bit more speed.

The first time I had to get gasoline, I couldn’t open the gas tank lid. The key wouldn’t get all the way in. I had to warm the key in my hands to heat it enough to melt the droplet of ice in the lock.

I almost missed the exit towards Kassel, and did some fairly stupid manoeuvres at the exit to get back on track.

Close to Hamburg I saw a motorbike or large scooter on the motorway, but it turn off the motorway before I could have a look. It is the only two wheeler I have seen since I left Italy.

North of Hamburg it started to rain and it got dark, so I had to slow down again. I only had about 100 km to the border, so I just drove with the lorries at their speed.

I had rain and wet roads all the way up Jutland. My destination was Videbæk between Herning and Ringkøbing, which is were my wife works. The last 100 kms were on main roads in the countryside, which wasn’t a nice experience. The lorries drive fast there too, and when they pass you in the opposite direction, they create a forceful drag full of water droplets they lift from the wet road. Its like getting sprayed in the face with high pressure water.

Würzburg to Videbæk (850km):

View Larger Map

Now I’m relaxing a bit here in Jutland. It seems like I will be driving to Copenhagen on Tuesday, based on the weather forecasts. It’ll be the only day without too much rain and wind in the coming week.
View Larger Map

I’m on my way back to Denmark. I started Monday from Rome and made it to Venice, where I had to wait for the next day to pick up my bag, and send a few things back to Palermo. Tuesday afternoon at 17:30 I was back on the motorway heading home.

The first part of the journey, from Venice to Trento, was OK. The weather was fine and I made good progress. As I started to climb up towards the Brenner pass, and night fell, it started to get really cold. Nominally it wasn’t really that cold, maybe 5°C, but add the chill factor of 150 km/h and you’ll start to feel it a bit. It was dark too so I had to slow down, but at least then I could feel my fingers just a little bit.

I’ve never seen snow clad mountains at night before. Its a very special sight, quite impressive.

When I reached the pass at about eleven in the evening, it started to snow too. I still had 25 km to reach Innsbrück and its definitely the first time ever I’ve been driving at 40 km/h on an almost deserted motorway, being overtaken by the occasional long haul lorry. Driving a motorcycle at midnight in pitch darkness on a mountain motorway while its snowing is not my kind of fun. Actually, it wasn’t fun at all.

I was so eager to get off the motorway that I just picked the first exit that said Innsbrück, which happened to dump me on some deserted mountain road some 5 km south of the city, so I spend another half an hour crawling down the hair pin turns towards the city further down the valley. It was one at night before I had found a hotel and a bed.

This morning I started from Innsbrück and I’ve just been following the E45 all the time. For a Dane with a Sicilian wife the E45 is all you need to know. It starts in Sicily and winds it’s way up Italy, Austria, Germany to Denmark, from where it continues to Nordkapp in Norway.

It was still very cold this morning, and I didn’t dare go too fast, in case there was ice on the road, so I just stayed in the outer lane with all the lorries, doing 90-100 km/h. After about half an hour my fingers were so cold they started to pain, and I had to stop to warm them with some coffee. Most of the day has been like that. Half an hour on the road and half an hour in an auto-grill warming up again.

I found a little thermometer in a shop on the road, and glued it to the dashboard. Its been 3-5°C most of the day, but the temperature dropped a bit at sunset, to 1-2°C at 17:30. I don’t want to drive in the dark if the temperatures drop below zero, so I’m now at a motel on the A7/E45 just north of Würzburg.

This must be the slowest motorcycle journey I have even done. I have managed to do just 400 km on Tuesday, and another 400 km today, so I still have over 600 km before I’m home. I should be home tomorrow, though, because the weather forecasts promise milder weather in northern Germany than in the south. I do, however, risk getting some rain tomorrow.

I don’t dare think about how I look on the road. I have so many layers of clothes on. First I have a set of Merino wool leggings and shirt, then a fleece jacket, then a jogging set, then my old Dainese leather suit and over that my new Kokatat anorak. I wear two sets of gloves, a woolen set under the leather gloves, and still my hands get as frozen as glacial ice. My feet get cold too, because I haven’t brought woolen socks, but they’re not as exposed as the hands. I close the fleece and jogging jackets all the way up, then put a Kokatat turtleneck on top, and close the anorak all the way up to my nose. I also put on the hood under the helmet. It gives me a burka like field of vision, but it is great for keeping out the cold. Driving like that I’m not all that cold, except for my hands.

Here’s the fully loaded motorbike. The rucksack on the top contains the stuff I sent to Palermo, so its not with me anymore. I’ve had quite a bit of problems getting my Avatak Aleutina paddle to sit there, but I think I have sorted it out. At least its still with me.

The days on Google maps

Venice to Innsbück (376km)

View Larger Map

Innsbrück to Wurzburg (450km)

View Larger Map

I’m sitting in a very cheap hotel room, clean though, in Mestre. I’m here to pick up the stuff Wendy and I left here when we departed for Sardinia in September. Back them we expected to return on our way back north after a successful journey, but a capricious Fortuna wanted it otherwise.

Tomorrow I will meet up with my friend Marco and go to the Lido where my monster bag is kept.

The trip here was quite eventless. Traffic on the motorways were surprisingly light, except on the last part. The motorway Milan-Venice never rests, apparently.

I made a regular stop on the motorway near Arezzo, for coffee and gasoline. When I came out of the shop a police car drove slowly by, apparently having a close look by my motorcycle. It stopped a little bit ahead and waited. As I got ready to roll over for gasoline, another police car did the same. It stopped besides the first. Only as I drove by the two police cars did I understand what they were doing.

Two weeks ago a young man, a fan of the Lazio soccer team, was shot dead just there, in front of the shop, as he was sitting in a car with his friends. The killer was a policeman who shot from a distance of 200m, warning shots, he claimed. Circumstances are still unclear, but the policeman is indicted for manslaughter.

Just in front of the two police cars were an improvised memorial for the young man, made of flowers, photos and blue/white Lazio sharves, caps, banners and other soccer fan accessories.

Fortuna is not always a welcome visitor.

View Larger Map