Sweden 2006

 Been looking forward to this one for ages. After a bit of a gap since the last cluster of rallies at Kelso, Whitby and Southport earlier in the season, it had been a long time coming round. Meeting Jonathan, Pata and Bob at Whitby gave us a taster and now we’re finally off! Sweden here we come!  The rally started with a (very) small band of vesparados meeting at Musselborough for the trip by scoot. Dave and Lynn, Willie and wee dude, me and Jeannie. An early start was planned to allow for breakdowns and mishaps (as if!) and seemed justified when Willie called to say he was waylaid with not one but two punctures! Lucky white heather eh? The man with the flashy lights was called and promptly delivered the scoot to the ferry port at Newcastle where the rest had arrived uneventfully minutes before, meeting Kitch and Anne. On to the boat then for the 27 hour trip to Gothenburg. Straight to the bar then a great night was had with the on-board compeer upstaged for entertainment by Jeannie dancing on her knees. Off to bed hen! Think the guy was traumatised by the heckling scooter scum in the corner! Drink prices were sore but not as horrendous as we’d been led to believe but maybe different off the boat? We’ll see. The crossing was really smooth and soon enough it was time to disembark. Jonathan’s directions were fantastic and made it really easy to go the right way (even reminding us to drive on the right!) Once we were close to the site we got a bit of a surreal escort in by a guy on a vespa with a wooden leg eating an apple as he drove?!? Ok then!  Soon met up with the rest of the club who had flown in earlier – Pete, Cath, Jimbo, Elvis, Sumo, Daisy, Mary, Kenny and Anne, as well as all the guys from Munich and Sweden Blues. Pete said he had been stung at the bar but I thought the prices were pretty good - Haha pesky wasps! As there were 2 all-nighters planned, better pace ourselves then – hahahaha he says as Elvis collapses by 6 o’clock! Closely followed by Annybananae who at least had the excuse of drinking Absinth. More drunkenness quickly ensued with Ante(social) from Gothenburg doing his best to fall-out with all and struggling to keep his clothes on! No worries mate – all sorted now good lad. It all got a bit hazy then and only got the photos for evidence including the pile-on on the dance floor with Cath on top!

Saturday started soggy and dull, which was a shame as the ride-out sounded really nice. Opted for the bar instead and settled down to watch the days events. Impressed with the origami competition where Pete stepped up a gear and trounced Elvis! This was followed by a quick peek at the scoots where a really nice custom vespa streetracer, which I think belonged to Rolf and a totally insane vespa that had the engine under the front mudguard!!! (you gotta see the pics). Then the German compeer announced that the ‘fun and games are about to begin’ woohoo. What followed was absolutely bizarre with a bunched of bemused Scottish scooterists wondering what the fuck was going on with the buckets of water and joiners trestle set up with fireworks on. What you had to do was basically drive around a wee course two-up on scoot collecting buckets of water that you weighed at the end to see who had the most. Then you tried to light firework as you drove past. Total bollocks! It was painful to watch. Like Mersea but totally lost in translation!!! Anyway it all changed when me and Pete stepped up for team GB and promptly drove straight off the course and out of the site before returning to throw water over everyone else and each other then coming in last place. Wouldn’t have changed a thing!   Sat evening started with another set from Kitch and the International DJ known to us as Jimbo. Good sounds rang out as we drank funny Morgans and danced aboot like silly buggers. It’s all fun and games though until someone loses a bollock – or in this case until Cath suffers yet another unlucky break (pardon the pun) when Speedy from Germany falls on her and breaks her wrist. Nightmare. Poor lass was in proper pain and I hope it mends soon. Take care love.

 Sunday morning said bye bye to the air travellers and tidied up the vacated rooms. Swedes are the tidiest nation in the world with everyone pitching in. Wait ‘til they see the Southcliffe at Brid haha! We then packed up and scooted to Gothenburg. A gorgeous morning and a 50-mile drive meant I hadn’t bothered with waterproofs. Mistake! Total torrential downpour made it a pretty soggy journey down to our hostel, which we waited outside for 4 hours until reception opened. The next three days were spent in the company of Jonathan and his ‘goddess’ girlfriend Lynda, David from Stockholm (who is now christened “Stocko” as you can’t have yet another “Dave” in the Blues!) Ante, who stayed above the pub, and some of the German guys including Rolf, Sven and Cooper. Keen to see a bit of Gothenburg we spent most of the time in an English pub with Swedish prices! Haha. We did go for a bit of a jaunt and some nice meals etc plus a shopping trip (check out the photo of Kitch trying on the flying hat – it’s a belter!), but it was a pity it pissed down most of the time. Sweden truly is the land of the pretty people though. And the tidy police as demonstrated when a young lad did a wheel spin on the street and a council van turned up with a jetwash a mere 2 minutes later to wash down the tarmac!!! Bizarre. Soon came our last night and as we got ready in the morning for our early departure we received some bad news. David (Stocko) had forgotten his passport and could not go with us to Isle of Wight. Jonathan was a bit apprehensive about doing the return journey solo and opted to stay home as well. Gutted. Really wish you both could have come. Left Sweden feeling pretty sad and down (although not as sad as Davie who had to push his broken scoot onto the boat!) Anyway – you left us a bit of a parting present – your bloody man-flu! (which is like woman-flu but obviously much worse!) The ferry back was just as smooth and the drink just as dear. Spent the day getting rid of as many Kroner as we could at the bar and did pretty well! Ended it by snoring my way through the ‘Da Vinci Code’ in the boat’s cinema! Oops. The journey ended as we docked down in Newcastle and said our cheerio’s to the rest of the gang but only momentarily as the next episode for me and Jeannie was just beginning – we had an appointment at the Isle of Wight…………….!

 Dunf

 Stats - Sweden 2006 – 19 August

Club scooters attending:-

Davie and Lynne-Vespa PX210 

Willie and David-Vespa PX200

Jeannie-Vespa PX200 (T5172)

Dunf-Vespa PX210

Kitch and Anne-Vespa GS210 (English Blues)

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