This is actually part of a bigger trip. The whole trip is Vail,CO to St. Moritz, CH via Nordkapp. Vail - Montreal - London - Bergen (if still possible) - Nordkapp - Murmansk - St Pete - 3 Baltics - Poland - Czech Republic - Austria - Switzerland.

...or maybe I will just be run over by some drunk uninsured Mexican in Denver, in this case, thanks for your help anyway .

Vail and St Moritz are sister city and I have strong ties with both of them, just in case you are wondering. And no, I'm not a Jet Set Monoski Pretty Boy

I'm planning on leaving the first week of August. I'm pretty behind with my planning as usual, but I'm ok with everything US, Canada, transport,UK.

UK is where the questions start :O). I hope I can get some help from you guys, it would help me tremendously! Thank you in advance!

- I would love to ride up to the most northern point of Scottland, I believe it's John O' Groats, and take a ferry from around there to Bergen via Lerwick. I read that Smyril Lines travels that route, but so far I get completely different info about the length of the trip...from 12 hours to 5 days. I have enough Falco on my Ipod, but 4 days+ would streching it a bit...
Has anyone done this route?

- I have never been to Norway, but read a lot about it now. Unfortunately I'm not only German, but pretty dumb,too, so I forget most of what I read . Anyway, I would like to see a bit of this amazing area, and I'm trying to plan my time from Bergen to Nordkapp. I have absolutely no idea how long it will take me. How many miles does one average a day with all the ferries, taking pictures, ...? I'm really struggeling with this part...

- I'm planning to cross the border in Kirkenes. How long is the drive from Kirkenes to Murmansk? Anything interesting on the way? How is the infrastructure (gas, food, hookers) <-- I'm kidding (maybe not), seriously, is gas available on the way? Is there such a thing as an emergency road service in this area (and no, I'm not talking about the madames)? Are there any interesting things to see on the way to Murmansk?

- Same questions as above for Murmansk to St Pete, most importantly, who long is the approx riding time?

- I heard of a couple Russian GPS maps for my Garmin, but of course I forgot their names :confused1:. Any recommondations? I do have the Auto Atlas.

- What paperwork do I need for my bike at RU border crossing?
- Which is the best SIM card for Russia?

- Is anyone going during this time? I'm riding solo, unless my wife is going to discover the video of me next to some Norwegen top model on youtube and is going to hunt me down ( aren't the Swedish the top models??), or I'm getting raped by some delicate Russian Igor (but for that case I have bearspray with me ) .


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Thank you for helping me, your input is of great value for me!
Markus