This is part of the seventeenth section of our around the world trip.
Complete Trip Overview & Map

Coming from Germany or read our previous visit to Netherlands  

4/8/11 We had first met Marcus Kingma in Norway last year when he was on a Harley for a Muscular Dystrophy charity ride to Nordkapp, Youtube videoing his progress and interviewing people he met along the way, including us. Over the years he has produced more than 600 Youtube video's, receiving almost 2 million views, testriding many motorcycles, taking them to much of Europe, reviewing their benefits and faults as well as his experiences along the way. He also video'd Sjaak Lucassen's trip to Nordkapp in the winter of 2008 and edited and produced the many part series of Sjaak's and Doris Wiedemann's Alaska winter ride to Prudhoe Bay in 2009. Marcus had arranged to meet us at the German-Netherlands border and was waiting there with his camera poised, along with two other friends, one also a camera man, to catch our arrival. Then it was filming the ride to Marcus's home. Two helmet cameras plus a boom camera, operated by Marcus from an automatic motorcycle, loaned from a motorcycle collector friend, Johen, specifically to allow a free hand whilst riding, for filming. Marcus lives in a highrise 70's complex near Utrecht which overlooks forest. A magnificent view from either side of the apartment adds to its location on the 10th floor. With professional lighting and a world map for reference we were video interviewed by Ripko and Marcus for over an hour in the evening at his apartment after a great dinner cooked by his girlfriend. A full on day, afternoon and filming, something we are not that accustomed to, but it was an interesting experience. The Youtube video should be online in a week or two.

5/8/11 More photos after breakfast, mostly stills of us at the motorcycle, but another small Youtube video of us placing Doris Wiedemann's stickers on our motorcycle appeared on Youtube soon after. Something we have not considered before but we should be a little aware of when people are using a camera, everything we say or do, can and might appear in the media, a different world than when we started travelling. It was to be an easy ride, just 250 km's, and after saying goodbye to Marcus and Ripko we headed out along the freeway only to find soon after it was completely blocked with an accident and traffic, after splitting lanes for 10km's, was being diverted along another road, smaller, making what was to be an easy ride long and painful. The freeways of Europe are excellent but the traffic is so consistent that if there is the slightest disturbance, either accident, breakdown or roadworks it impacts on traffic flow significantly and it is unusual that we don't have at least one lane splitting section each day to move through stationary traffic.

Move with us to Germany

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