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**saralou** · #**1336** 20 Aug 2015

The last day of our 72 hours visa we took the hydofoil for a 40-minute ride across the Gulf to the park at Peterhoff Palace. We even saw a Russian submarine on the way there.

st petersburg 133 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 137 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 134 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 135 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Here at Peterhoff, the fountains are the main attraction.

st petersburg 138 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 141 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03533 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 148 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 150 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 153 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 155 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 159 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**lectron** · #**1337** 22 Aug 2015

Finally caught up with all of your pages. Have also been following the blogs of some of your cohorts who you have been intersecting with. love your dialogue and the photos are tremendous. I have visited all of the lower 48 states, but am looking to extend the boundries. Your insightful information is making that possible. Will keep tracking your progress.

**saralou** · #**1338** 22 Aug 2015

Quote:

Originally Posted by lectron

Finally caught up with all of your pages. Have also been following the blogs of some of your cohorts who you have been intersecting with. love your dialogue and the photos are tremendous. I have visited all of the lower 48 states, but am looking to extend the boundries. Your insightful information is making that possible. Will keep tracking your progress.

Hey there Thanks so much. Just get out and ride the world is an awesome place!Mexico is spectacular and so is Guatemala, both are close to home. Cheers sara

**saralou** · #**1339** 23 Aug 2015

What a whirlwind trip we had and now we are back to the ferry for the overnight crossing. We arrived to sunny weather in Helsinki and returned to the camping for another night. We had booked passage on the ferry to Estonia for the next afternoon. We finally had a couple of days to do nothing! The Ferries to Tallinn leave from the west harbor. It is easy to book on line and we found the Eckero Line was the cheapest for the afternoon sailing of the 3 options. You can also book 2 bikes and 2 people on one reservation, which is rarely the case.

Screen Shot 2015-08-14 at 1.59.14 AM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1340** 23 Aug 2015

We arrived early, but so did quite a few others. The bikes are all loaded on the second level of the ferry and there were lots of new looking tie down to secure them. The crossing was very calm. The boat is very nice and there are all kinds of different seating options. There were 6 or 7 bars since this is a bit of a booze cruise at night. There were 2 different bars with live band playing.

DSC03420 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

The forecast was for a light rain, but when we unloaded it was torrentially raining.
We had planned to camp, but even the streets were flooded so we did not think the campground would be better. The first few places we stopped were full and one had a suite for 180$. We by then were a ways from the city and looped back to finally find a hotel at a reasonable price.

**saralou** · #**1341** 23 Aug 2015

The next day of course it was spectacular. We drove to the old town and did a walking tour. There are 4 cruise ships docked today and so the old town was packed.

DSC03446 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03445 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

IMG_4268 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

IMG_4266 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03455 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03454 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03452 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03447 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03434 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1342** 23 Aug 2015

Today we booked ferry tickets from Lithuania to Stockholm in 4 days time. That said we planned a loop through Estonia and into Latvia and Lithuania and planned at least 450 km per day.

Screen Shot 2015-08-23 at 11.42.47 AM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1343** 24 Aug 2015

Day one we rode west to the coast 100 km to the “beach” town of Haapsalu. From here we backtracked 40 km and then rode south and west to Tartu. We took a lot of secondary and tertiary roads, some of which were dirt. Estonia is a very clean and prosperous looking country. The farms are neat and tidy and the homes even the old ones are well kept.

Screen Shot 2015-08-16 at 10.45.25 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

ESTONIA 1 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

ESTONIA 2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

ESTONIA 4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

ESTONIA 5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1344** 24 Aug 2015

The cities also are very clean and beautiful. Since these are relatively new countries in the Baltic region they are wired! They have the fastest intenet in Europe.

ESTONIA 9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia and was founded in 1030. We enjoyed the Main Square and dinner there.

ESTONIA 6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

ESTONIA 7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

ESTONIA 8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1345** 24 Aug 2015

We continued south for a total of 491 km. We did not see any camping after about 2 pm of course. We ultimately crossed into Latvia and finally we found a hotel in Aluksne that let us camp on the lawn by their pond for 5 Euros. We had taken the dirt short cut to the town, which had some sections of very bad washboard.

latvia lithuania 2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

latvia lithuania 3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

latvia lithuania 4 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1346** 24 Aug 2015

Riding south again we stopped and toured the city of Rezenke. Then we tried to stay off the highway, but this proved difficult on our way south to Lithuania.

latvia lithuania 11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

latvia lithuania 6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Here we again did a small tour into the Capital of Vilnius, with its beautiful architecture.

latvia lithuania 7 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Now we turned north towards Riga. Here we really tried to get off the highway, but several of the roads were dirt with some washboard again. Again we did not find any camping, but we did find a hotel in Panevezys after 537 tiring Kms.

Screen Shot 2015-08-16 at 10.54.18 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

A

and a

/grapefruit dink in Lithuania 1.34 Euros!!

latvia lithuania 8 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

latvia lithuania 9 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1347** 25 Aug 2015

We slept in today until 930, but it was no issue since we had only 167 km to go to Riga Latvia.

Screen Shot 2015-08-16 at 11.01.51 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

We took the secondary roads all the way, which wound thru the forests and farms. The towns show their Soviet history.

latvia lithuania 12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

latvia lithuania 13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

**saralou** · #**1348** 25 Aug 2015

Arriving in Riga we had booked an apartment for 40 Euros in a city where hotels are very expensive. From the outside we were a bit worried, but it was very nice inside. We did have 24 hour security for the bike, which was nice.

riga 3 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

riga 1 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

riga 2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

riga 5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr