2003 Scandanavian Circle - Bakken And The Drug Squad

Departing JC Nimbus we caught the train to Klamenborg where there is the Jaegersborg Deer Park. From the train station a visitor can ride in a horse drawn carriage, or walk the small distance to Dyrehavsbakken, Bakken for short. This was our port of call as this is the retreat for many inhabitants of Copenhagen, being an amusement park that is over 400 years old. There is no entrance fee for this and is open from April to the end of August. At the start and end of the season there is a large motorcycle ride out to Bakken as shown in the two clips below.

The main attraction of the visit for us was an old wooden roller coaster. Guzzisue and myself went for a very bumpy ride on this while Ian had to miss out due to his dodgy back.

Having spent a very enjoyable afternoon watching people on the various rides and managing to see a red squirrel, but no deer, we headed back to Copenhagen where Ian spotted a green Nimbus. It didn’t take him long before he was chatting away to the owner. It appears that many Nimbus riders around the area appear to know each other.

As we were watching an activity across the waterfront from ourselves things went a little weird. An Italian approached Ian and asked him to take his photo, which he obliged, taking two, one landscape and one portrait. He jokingly offered to take one diagonally before passing his camera back.

The Italian asked us if we knew of any cheap hotels, but as we were on a campsite a few kilometers away and not being local we could not help him out. The Italian then departed only to be back with us accompanied with two very large men who proceeded to flash their police identity cards at us speaking to us in German. They were a little taken aback by the fact that we could not understand them, so in English asked if we had exchanged money with the Italian and where were the drugs!

Ian explained that we had only taken the mans photograph of him with his camera. All passports then had to be examined and wallets and pockets emptied to see how much money we were carrying. Further questions were asked like how long we were staying in Copenhagen, which hotel were we staying in etc. The answers that we gave certainly were not what they expected as we explained that we were staying on a campsite outside of the city and that we had been to a motorcycle shop.

Eventually the policemen wished us a good holiday and gave us a lecture about not exchanging money on the street! The rest of the afternoon was spent looking over our shoulders to see if we were being followed. The strange thing about this incident was that the Italian when he emptied out his pockets was very nervous as he had a large roll of US dollars in his pocket and when we all went our separate ways he was followed!

To this day we are unsure as to if we had walked into a setup. Lesson of the day is do not take photos of people with their camera!

After this the rest of the day was an anticlimax as we just wandered around aimlessly before catching the train back to the campsite and picking up some food for dinner and breakfast.

2003 Scandanavian Circle - The Nimbus Den

After a slow start to the day Ian eventually managed to get himself motivated and we were able to get to the railway station and purchased 24 hour tickets. The tickets were for a full 24 hours from when bought so that if one was obtained at 10 o’clock on Monday it would be valid until 10 o’clock on Tuesday, unlike at home where a day ticket is only valid until midnight!

Our first stop was to Nordhaven, which is just to the north of Copenhagen, as this was one of the reasons for coming here. Back in 1997 when we were in Andalsnes, Norway we sighted our first Nimbus and fell in love with them. In Nordhaven there is a wonderful little company, JC Nimbus, that deal in all things Nimbus related. Guzzisue had been in contact with the shop and had obtained directions on how to get there, so when we arrived we were made more than welcome. Ian was in his element and our visit lasted about an hour as we were shown round the workshops and restoration projects in hand. T shirts were bought and Ian was also given a key fob that he still treasures today.

Here is another link to a Nimbus site that you may find of interest.

To finish this post here are a few photos of Ian on one of these great little machines. All he has to do now is win the lottery!

It is a very rare occasion to see a Nimbus for sale as they often stay with the same owner for many years. To borrow a phrase, a Nimbus is not just for Christmas! What do you think about these motorcycles?

1997 Land Of The Midnight Sun - Sighting Of Our First Nimbus

I could start each entry with “we got up late and set off after 10 o’clock”, and today was no exception. We had a pleasant ride towards the mountains and stopped at Soggebru Camping, which is 15km before the start of the Trollstigen.

Having dropped our luggage off in a free hut we decided to return to the nearest town, Andalsnes, where Ian was so dehydrated that he drank a litre of coca-cola straight down by having to steady one hand by gripping it with the other!

Whilst Ian was recovering from his dehydration we sat talking to a group of Norwegian bikers. They wondered why we did not speak any Norwegian and we explained that Ian could read and speak a little French and Guzziesue could do the same with German. It was also explained that foreign languages were not taught in our schools until we were 11 years old. Our big question to them was why they all had sports bikes when the national speed limit was 90km/hr. The reply was that when the winter snow had gone they could go like f**k to meet their friends!

Having bid farewell to the bikers we walked a little and came across a strange outfit. This turned out to be a Nimbus, a Danish motorcycle that stopped production in the late 1950s. Unbeknown at the time Nimbus motorcycles would creep up on us again at a later date.

Back at Soggebru 3 other Brits, the first we had seen for about a week, had parked their car and were putting up their tents. We chattered with them for a little but did not have much common ground. As we were returning to our hutt the lady in the next one commented on how good our English was! When we explained that we are English she replied ‘Bloody great. I’m a Maori’, so we spent a long time talking to her and hubby as we watched bats flying around in the sunset.

I had better just mention that Sossebru is a small campsite with only 4 hutts and basic amenities, but to make up for this there is a clean river running at the back of the hutts and a small beach area nearby. An old lady on a bicycle came round in the early evening to collect our rent for the hutt and gave a receipt. We did not see her again until next morning.