The aggravating part of having a bucket list is that it never seems to get any shorter. For a while, I made some gains and actually thought that I might get to the end of it, but an article or YouTube video about some exotic riding location will always make me break out the list to add a ride. I have given up trying to control it!
Such was the case for Iceland. I planned
on going by myself in the late spring, hope- fully before too many tourists descended on the island, but after watching some videos on YouTube, it was apparent that it made much more sense to ride some of the roads with at least one other rider. Lifting my R 1200 GS Adventure by myself out of a river- bed killed the solitary instinct. When John Jesson sent an email inviting me to join Ayres Adventure’s inaugural tour of Iceland, I knew that this was meant to be. Since I keep my bike in Germany, it was
an easy ride to the top of Denmark to hop the ferry to Iceland. A two-day stop in the
Faroe Islands proved a very worthwhile add-on. Eighteen hours after leaving the Faroe Islands, Iceland appeared out of the mist hovering over a calm sea. The ferry arrived on the east coast, and I was to meet the group in Reykjavik, about a nine-hour ride west. Being from Los Angles, my immediate thought was traffic, morning rush hour, evening rush hour, tour buses, trucks and endless cars. In those nine hours, once out of the towns, I doubt I saw 30 cars. This solitary ride on the northern portion of the Ring Road set the tone for the next nine days of my amazing journey. Reykjavik is in a boom phase.
Construction cranes are everywhere, and modern buildings rise alongside the older, traditional structures. The people are warm and friendly. I didn’t meet a local who didn’t speak perfect English, which was a major plus as the Icelandic language is a definite challenge. Our hotel was a new, small estab- lishment with a staff who made us all feel welcome. The food at the restaurant for our kickoff dinner was superb. For some rea- son, I expected herring prepared 30 differ- ent ways, but I never saw it, and that evening meal set the standard for the rest of the trip. One minute you are in Reykjavik and its suburbs and then almost instantaneously
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BMW OWNERS NEWS March 2017
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