Two V-Stroms in Scandinavia: Mike and Beverly's European Wanderings
 

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May 13, 2012
With some planning and more structure then we are used to, this 5000 mile trip has been honed down to under 3000 miles by adding transportation on three boats and one train. We have been resisting our tendency to put three pounds of sh** in a one-pound bag. That’s what happens when you want to combine the fjords of Norway, the Arctic Circle and Russia in the same almost-month-long trip.
Our planned route is May 15 -- Seattle to Frankfurt by plane, pick up bikes at Stephans (Knopf tours in Heidelberg), complete some maintenance on the bikes, May 20 – pick up ferry in Kiel, arrive in Oslo on May 21, the evening of May 23 – leave Bergen on a boat, arrive Alesund May 24, May 26 – Trondheim, May 29 or 30 – Rovaneimi to see the midnight sun and Santa Claus village at the Artic Circle national Park May 31 – load on train in the evening, June 1 – arrive Helsinki, June 2 – St Petersburg, June 5 Psklov, June 6 – Latvia, June 7—Lithuania, June 10 1AM ferry leaves Lithuania and arrives in Kiel at 10PM. June 12 – Heidelberg to put the bikes away, June 13 – fly to Seattle.
See what I mean – lots of structure. The good side of this pre-planning is less time on the road required for planning. The down-side, of course, is less freedom for spontaneity. Regardless, we are both excited to take this next tour.
If you want to read about our previous tour blogs see http://www.horizonsunlimited.com/hubb/ride-tales/eastern-europe-two-v-stroms-59213 And http://2seniorsonabike.blogspot.com
Back to packing: two tires, chain, sprocket, kuba-links, center stand and personal stuff. And this time, we are taking our camping gear.

No holding you guys back, had hoped to do a similar route this year but life got in the way. Looking forward to seeing the pics and hearing your report, good luck from Enniskillen.

Hello Paul and Teresa. We are currently in Alesund Norway getting ready to get our trip diary posted. Had a few technical difficulties in posting but hoping that we will get it started tonight. Wish you were here.

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Arriving at Knopf Tours is a great way to get energized for a motorcycle trip. There are bikers just getting ready to start their trip and others just coming back.

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Bikers are busy preparing for their next adventure or preparing their bikes for storage.

We met Mike,Debbie, Harrison and Ellen, all from our neck of the woods in Washington, who just returned from their trip. They have travelled extensively around the world and have impressive tales of their adventures. Nick, from Florida, like us, was just heading out. What a war history buff he is. He will not return to Heidelberg until November. He has travelled 375,000 miles on his bike.

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Nick

One of the first challenges of a trip crossing several time zones is jet lag. Check that one off. As usual, we (almost) managed a 9-hour time difference and we are ready to go after only one night in Heidelberg. But let’s get to the important stuff. Mike accomplished his priorities for bike maintenance and improvements; Kubla-links for Beverly, adjust clutch for Beverly, install center-stand for Mike. We still have a few other minor things to accomplish but by the afternoon we are ready to go. We can’t go far, but we are definitely ready to go.

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Kubla Links Install

Stephan Knopf (of Knopf Tours) said suggested the towns just beyond Bingen on the Rhine. Bingen is just over an hour away (that is, if you know where you are going and you travel 80mph on the autobahn. We took 2 or 3 hours. We stopped in Bingen, asked our GPS for a hotel nearby and near the water and came up with Hotel Koeppel where we could park the bikes in a garage. Mike led the way. Should I be surprised at the seemingly round about route? It seems that those are the characteristics of the best European towns – you know you aren’t in the U.S.

We asked at the hotel for a good restaurant nearby. We were interested in good German food. She suggested a place near the church on the hill. After getting a few pictures of our hotel sign with the castle on the hill in the background, we walked down to the Rhine river. The walkways and cruise boats were deserted at 8pm. What a beautiful evening.

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When our walking route took us by a restaurant with windows at eye level and the diner’s tables in view, we could see some beautiful Italian dishes. I (Beverly) insisted that we stop now. We had missed lunch and I was hungry now. We had a nice dinner and then walked back to the hotel. The Hotel Koeppel & Café.

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Bingen has a long history of battles dating back before the birth of Christ. The joining of the Rhine and the Nahe gave Bingen strategic importance. Bingen is also a wine area. In fact, this is where ice wine was “invented” in 1830.
In 1829 the grapes could often not be picked because they were not ripe enough. The flowing harsh winter, with lots of problems for people and animals, caused many people to take the grapes from the vines and feed them to their cattle. It was then discovered that the grapes, which had survived 22° of frost, still contained liquid. The grapes were pressed through a piece of cloth and the juice was fermented in the usual way. The result was a thoroughly good, sweet wine.

May 18
Today we are going to Cologne through the Rhine river valley.
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Mike on Rhine

The roads were perfect. What an enjoyable ride to Koblenz along Hwy 9. We were treated to a scenic view of a castle overlooking the Rhine every few miles. It rained a bit on us after Koblenz but didn’t interfere with our enjoyment of the ride.
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Cathedral in Cologne

Both of us have memories of a previous life of the beautiful cathedral in Cologne. The cathedral is beautiful – maybe not like we remembered some 30 years ago – but still, pretty awesome. We both remember that there weren’t so many tourists many years ago. It is under maintenance construction and, apparently, will be forever.

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Parking wasn’t a problem though.

We didn’t want to stay the evening in Cologne and although it was already 6:30pm, we had a few more hours of daylight. We decided to go to Hamm which was on our route but outside the highly populated areas in the city. We stayed at the Mercure hotel – an upscale hotel for our tastes. It has an elevator, fancy lights in the room and underground parking. It was almost 9:30 PM when we were all settled. Daniel, the bartender, suggested a big hamburger and a Ceasar salad when we asked him what we should eat that would be easy for the kitchen. Add to that our beer and wine and we were set

5-19
Breakfast at the Mecure in Hamm was quite a spread. After eating, checking email and finding a room for the evening in Kiel, we drove out of Hamm at about 10 am. Our goal for the day was to make it to Kiel. We started our ride through the countryside. Small town after small town, connected by bicycle paths, little traffic and pleasant roads. What an enjoyable ride.

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Mike grinding to lower the kickstand

Upon seeing an auto shop, Mike stopped to see if he could use a grinder to make an adjustment on my kick stand, which is now to high after he lowered my bike. It was lowered a bit but not enough to make it stable. The solution is going to have to be a shorter one or one that is adjustable. We will have to use the center stand until then.

After a few hours of just roaming around the side roads, we decided to hit the autobahn. It is amazing how fast you can put on the miles on the autobahn going 70-85 mph. We arrived at our hotel.

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Beverly at Hotel Catherineberg

Catherineberg in Melfsee, just South of Kiel. We got on the internet and did mail, pictures etc. After an authentic German dinner with 3 kinds of fish served with potatoes, we went for a walk which took us through the neighborhood and by a wildlife park with a small lake.

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5-20-12
Today is the ferry to Oslo. We needed to be there at noon for a 2pm sailing. We arrived early and, like our experience has been on previous ferries, we struck up conversations with the other bike riders. By the time we loaded, we had met Uwa, Marta, Bob, and a few other cyclist heading to Scandinavia.

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Mike and Beverly Uwa and Marta

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Color Line Ferry -- Magic was our boat

We are sure making use of ferries in our travels. The ferries allow us to extend the reach of our trip in a shorter amount of time. The first long ferry ride was 22 hours. Here is the video link of our Brittany Ferry Loading during our 2010 trip. Videogetting on Ferry - YouTube


The Color Line Ferry to Oslo is also a 22 hour crossing.


We crossed under the Great Belt Bridge which connects Zealand with Funen is without any doubt the biggest of Denmark’s many bridges. It’s also one the world longest suspension bridges and the biggest outside Asia.


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Passing under the Great Belt Bridge


What a ship this is, several restaurants, a casino, a night club, a show bar, spa and health club, shopping. Some people make it a 2 day round trip to go on a cruise.

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On the ferry overlooking the shopping area


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We have a really nice room.


For the departure from Kiel, we sat in the observation lounge, like a small version of the Space Needle in Seattle (but it doesn’t rotate). The harbor is quite large. We passed the U-boat museum which has 2 of the actual U-boats from the war.


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U-Boat in Kiel


We met up with Uwa, Marta and Bob at the Monkey bar at 7pm. I am not the only one who enjoys a good paper map. We all compared routes and destinations. Since Uwa, Marta and we are on almost the same schedule, we decided to travel together in the morning.

On our way back to our cabin, the show bar was in full swing. We watched the singing and dancing show before turning in for the evening.

5-21-12
The ferry arrived in Oslo at 10 AM. We decided to ride with Uwa and Marta since their travel plans were very similar to ours. Uwa led us off the ferry towards Geilo but not only did we lose Uwa, we lost each other -- in downtown Oslo. It just so happens that Mike had finally got our 2-way radio communications working and this is the very first time we were able to use them. Even though we couldn’t see each other, Mike and I were able to get back together. One might say that this was a great opportunity to see how they worked. One might also say that we shouldn’t have been separated in the first place. We met up with Uva and Marta aways down the road and continued on towards Geilo.

I had been thinking that I didn’t have clothing to wear under my motorcycle jacket to keep me warm in the temperatures we might be seeing. No problem. An outlet store on our route was having a close-out. I got a wool under garment and a wool sweater. The clerk (wish I had his name and his picture) said that wool is the best and that in Norway people use wool for warmth. The price was right so I got them. Plus he threw in a couple of pairs of wool socks. Those could come in very handy when we cross the mountains in the North of Trondheim at over 1400 meters. (5000 ft)

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Outlet Store

We all stayed at a hotel at a ski resort. We had a nice dinner and enjoyed each other’s company.

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Chairlift view from our room at the ski resort

5-22-12

Up early. Breakfast a 7am with Uwa and Marta. On the road at 9am. I put on my new wool shirt before heading out, noting that the map showed we would be climbing to 3800 feet.


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Getting ready to go over the top


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Who needs warm clothing? I can do this in my T-shirt.


We climbed up into the clouds. And kept climbing. It got cold. We all think it was just over freezing at the summit. After the summit the road dropped quickly in the warmth of the other side. By the time we hit Bergen it was in the high 70s. We had to shed our layers on the way.


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Coming down the other side


Our route from Geilo to Bergen was Hwy 7. It included a stop at the lookout point to see Vøringfossen waterfalls which is 182 meters (597 feet) high. It free falls before continuing through the grand canyon Måbødalen.


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Voringfossen waterfalls


There is pull off from the road just below the falls for another view. We took our motorcycles down the walking path which was just a short way from the parking lot. Since the path continued on parallel to the road we kept going until we came to an unpaved dark tunnel. As we started to turn our bikes around to go back, some hikers said to keep going – it would be fine for us. And it was. In fact, it was really cool. A steep decent in and out of tunnels took us to the Hardangerfjord.


We crossed the fjord on a ferry and then stopped for lunch. We headed into Bergen with Uwa leading the way continuing on the Hwy 7, then to E16 just outside of Bergen. Uwa and Marta were leaving on the boat to Alesund at 6PM and they had to check in. It was nice for us to be able to see the terminal because we would be going on the same ferry the next day. After a short walk into town for us to find a motel and Uwa and Marta to find some food for the ferry trip, we parted ways and promised to see each other again in the future.


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Beverly and Mike


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Crossing Hardangerfjorden on the ferry

The spring festival was happening in Bergen. Consequently, city-center hotel rooms were impossible to get. The tourist center found us a room near Tjeldste which is out on one of the islands. After about an hours drive, with the population (and the roads) getting thinner and thinner, we arrived at Nautines, our hotel. But it wasn’t a hotel like you would normally think of. It was a fishing camp.

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The fish camp with bikes parked outside

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Cleaning fish – a successful day out on the water

Our “room” has four bedrooms and 2 baths. We drove one bike back about 5 miles to a grocery store to get some dinner then we went to bed early.
It never really got dark the entire night.

5-23-12

Another beautiful day in the 70s at the Nautines fishing camp.

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Having tea

We had tea and read our books out on the dock and watched the fishing boats motor out. Mike put on the hand-guards on his bike; it was quite cold going over the pass the other day. We have more potentially cold rides on our route further North so the hand-guards might be necessary.
Our initial plan was to go into Bergen today because our boat doesn’t sail until 8pm. However, we have been both somewhat suffering from a cold and it is just so beautiful at the fishing camp on the water that we decided to stay.
Barnard even offered to take us out on his boat for a while. Of course, we accepted. He said we should come back next year and go fishing.

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Out on Barnard’s boat

Barnard says that the fish camp can house 120 people. 90% of their clientele comes from Germany.

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Beverly and Barnard at Nautines Fishing Camp

We were close to a major oil depot which was out of character in the middle of this beautiful place. Since large oil reserves were found in the North Sea, Norway has considerable cash reserves. They are saving a good percentage for future country financing. They have so much money, their biggest problem is where to invest it.

We eventually left to head back to Bergen which was about an hour’s drive including a traffic jam. We arrived early enough to have another quick tour of Bergen.

Then we loaded our bikes on the ship Nordnorge, which departed at 8pm. The ship can only take 11 cars. It is an 11-day cruise that goes all the way around Scandinavia to Russia. It is advertised as “ The world’s most beautiful voyage”. It is light until about 11:30 PM.
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Leaving Bergen

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Mike and the Nordnorge

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Sunset on the ship at 10:30 PM – We continue North to even longer days.

05/24/2012

Today was a day of leisure. After an overnight cruise, we spent the day on the Hurtigruten Line, Nordnorge ship, traveling up the Geirangerfjorden, one of the most picturesque fjords in Norway. We are on the Norway coastal steamer route which opened up the coast of Norway many years ago. The current service still takes some freight and passengers, but mostly is a high-end 11-day cruise along the coast and back to Bergen. We rode only one night and one day on the voyage before we got off in Alesund.

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We considered staying on the boat longer. There is just so much to see and do in Norway.

We are missing more than we are seeing. For example, Norwegians have told us not to miss the Lofoten Islands in our travels. This cruise goes all the way to North Cap, one of the four corners of the earth for world traveling motorcyclers. I hardly think it would count though if you arrived on your motorcycle at Northcap on the Hurtigruten lines.

We decided to stay with our original plan and get off the boat. We arrived back in Alesund in the evening and went to the local hostel.


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Beverly in Alesund

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Our hostel

We had some discussion with Martin, who runs the hostel, on the justice system in Norway. The interaction of the people is based on trust and it feels that way. The case of the guy who killed all those kids last year is a test for the justice system in the country. The country is trying to adhere to the innocent until proven guilty policy but there are strong feelings for a quick verdict among the people of the country.

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Beverly and Martin

5-25-12
The goal for today was to drive the Atlantic Highway in Norway. This road spans many of the islands along the coast with bridges and causeways. It is quite an engineering feat and apparently quite spectacular in the winter when the storm waves wash over the road. The day is rainy, but the roads are good. We take the ferry to Molde and after a ride through the countryside, we are at the Atlantic highway.

We were out for 10 hours but it was easy riding with constant spectacular scenery.
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Always a ferry in Norway

We didn't get the true perspective of the Atlantic Highway and our pictures don’t do it justice because of the overcast conditions, however it is quite impressive.

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365

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Photo of a poster of the bridge


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We made our way to Trondheim, Norway's third largest city. Our hotel was in the middle of town overlooking the river. One of the hotel employees said we are supposed to park down the block from the hotel on the street. The police are on strike though so a ticket was unlikely. We kept our bikes next to the hotel and had no problems.

A walking and biking bridge across the river led us to an area of several restaurants with outside seating. This is the first warm evening for the locals. Being a Friday night, there was much partying. We sat outside also and had dinner and met Hilde and Frank. They are local and we had a great evening over many drinks. Lots of discussion on social and political issues. Norwegians seem to be very satisfied to live here.

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Hilde and Frank.

In the morning, we were treated to the local police marching band performing along the pathway.

5/26/2012

From Trondheim we will travel East over the mountains before we head North to the Artic Circle.

We slept in a bit today and went to the hotel breakfast. The hotel people said it was the best breakfast in Norway. Gin cured salmon, mussel omelets, and beans. We ate too much, then headed for Ostersund, Sweden.

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Leaving Trondheim

It was a pleasant drive of 200 miles over the mountains.

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On the road

We got to an altitude of 5000ft but there was little snow and mild weather. Nothing like the pass in Southern Norway that we passed last week.

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Stopping for treats

Arrived in Ostersund, got a room in a B&B and went out on the town.

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Mike in hi-tech wardrobe by Kendra

We are staying up late because it stays bright until 11:30. We went to sleep at 1:00 and it was still like dusk.

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Out on the town at 11:00 PM. The sun is still up.

5/27/12

We intended to get going about 10:00 this morning but were delayed by a bike malfunction on Mike’s bike. His side-stand switch was defective, causing the bike not to start. After the time it took to unload the bike, diagnose the problem, talk to the passerbys, do the actual fix, reload the bike, we left about 2 hours later. By the time we stopped for gas, we left town following the E45 about 12:30.

The road was good and practically deserted. With the cool air and the warm sun at our backs, it was quite pleasant. We traveled 300 miles at a good clip through Sweden.

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A stop for lunch

Most of the Swedish cars have 2-3 headlights mounted in front of the grill of their car. This is because the roads at night are not lit and there are often animals in the road. It is not a heavily populated area.

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Typical Swedish car lights

We had to keep alert for reindeer crossing the roadway. We even saw a baby moose.

The speed limit on the highways in Sweden that we have been traveling is generally 90 kmh as opposed to the 70 kmh in Norway. Many people travel faster than the speed limit on the highway in Sweden. But not in Norway. Norway has many curves and tunnels and it has more traffic. Even when the road is straight and wide with no traffic, people rarely travel over 70kmh (45 mph) and they don’t pass. There are apparently stiff fines for speeding. This is why some people say to drive through Sweden if your destination is North Norway. But if you want to enjoy the scenery and take your time, go through Norway.

We stopped at Sandsjogarden.net for something sweet to eat after about 5 hours of travel. We had pie. It was wonderful. This place has camping, camping huts and full cabins. We would have stayed the evening if they had internet. They expect to have it soon but not yet. So we proceeded on. But not before we spent an hour talking to Caroline, one of the four new owners of the place. They are fixing it up and it is really nice.

She is of Philipino/German heritage, grew up in Sweden and previously lived in Prince George, Canada. She had a management position in the Swedish banking business but life was a grind for both her and her husband; they would say hi to each other in the morning, go to work, come back for dinner and go to bed. They wanted more from their lives. They love dogs. They, with another couple, bought an existing camping, restaurant, in Sweden. After some bureaucratic red tape they made it up in time to go through their first winter. Now they are preparing for their first summer tourist season. We wish them success in their life dream.

We ended up in Arvidsjaur for the evening after traveling 300 miles.

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Laponia Hotel

5/28/12


One could say that it was shockingly cold to walk outside. Not like you would be shocked with sub-zero temperatures, but certainly, it was below freezing.

We had a nice breakfast and dressed for the cold. Over the next 200 miles to Haparanda, we ran into a bit of snow and lots of wind. We adjusted our clothing a couple of times to stay warm.

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Hundreds of miles of Swedish roads look like this

We stayed in Haparanda at the Haparanda Stadshotell, about 100 years old.

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Haparanda Stadshotell

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We had a Jacuzzi and steam in our bathroom.

There were very few hotels in the area, so we didn’t have much choice. The hotel rate was high because it is the business rate time. Even though the demand is higher in the summer, the rate goes down because people are paying from their personal budgets. So much for supply and demand. They don’t lower their rates if their hotel is empty.

The owner of the hotel proudly had the hockey jersey of the local team. He was proud to point out that a local kid was the goaltender for the New York Rangers

5/29
The weather was cold and overcast and we had only 75 miles to the Arctic Circle so we hung out at the comfortable hotel until noon. The drive to Rovaniemi was a chore. Windy, rainy a temperature of 38F or 3C. It went quickly as we could drive 65 to 70mph. The driving in Northern Sweden and Finland is mostly trees and reindeer. There were many signs for moose but we only saw one. The next leg of our trip will be to take a train to Helsinki, so this riding in the Arctic Circle is done.

We arrived in Romaniemi , checked into the Borealis guest house and went to check out the town. Rovaniemi is the largest city in Europe by area. There are only 60,000 people and the rest are trees.

We walked to town, saw the river, had a drink and a bite to eat and went back to the room. There is a strategy to sleeping here. It is truly disorienting to have sunlight all the time. The sun sets at 12:30 and rises at 2:30. Even then, it doesn’t really get dark. We are more north than Fairbanks Alaska or Mackenzie River in the Northwest Territories.

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Rovaniemi

People use bicycles quite a bit for transportation. They are parked at the malls, schools and where ever. The bikes are rarely locked. Even in this bike store, the bikes are on the sidewalk without locks.

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Bicycle parking without locks

We went to the train-station to try to get change our train to Helsinki one day earlier but the answer was “no.” Do you have room on the train tomorrow? “Yes.” Can’t we go a day earlier? “No.”

We checked out what the transport cars look like. They are two levels.

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Upper level of the train transport car

The Trondheim to Rovaneimi leg of our trip was over 700 miles and because of the potential for cold, rain and even snow, we built an extra day into the time we thought it would take to ride. The weather ended up being quite nice for most of the trip. It was only cold and not fun for the last 100 miles. Consequently, we have an extra day in Rovaneimi. A good time to get caught up on our blog and read more about Russia before we get there.

5/30

Today was a no travel day. We went to the Arctic Circle Park and Santa Claus village. The Arctic Circle is a theoretical line where the sun never sets for one day (June 21) and never sets for one day (Dec 21). Today, sunrise is 2:20 in the morning and sunset is 12:40. Sleeping is an issue.

Santa’s village is apparently where Santa lives and has some displays and information about the Sami people or Laplanders. You can send out post cards postmarked from Santa’s village in the Arctic Circle. And of course we did that. Sent cards to mom and the grandkids.

In any tourist area, there is plenty of shopping. We bought the grand-kids something authentic from Lap Land and had the elves send it home.

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Mike and the elves at the post office

It costs 25 Euros to have your picture taken with Santa – 45 Euros for a digital picture. We took our own tourist pictures.

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Cheesy tourist pictures

The oldest building at the Arctic Circle was built in 1950 to honor the visit of Eleanor Roosevelt. Since she is someone I admire, it is only fitting that I should follow in her footsteps to the Arctic Circle.

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Beverly at Eleanor Roosevelt Cabin

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Mike at the Arctic Circle

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Beverly at the Arctic Circle

5/31
Today is museum day. Rovaniemi has a good museum, the Arktikum, that covers life in the far North and the local area.

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Mike at the Arktikum

Rovaniemi was a major military post during the 2nd world war period and the area was under siege from Russia. Russian wanted use of Northern Finland land strategically because Germany’s expansionism. Finland wanted to maintain their neutrality and said no. In 1939, Russia attacked Finland but Finland fought back to the point of humiliating the Russians. But the Russians came back the following year and attacked the Karelian Isthmus in North Finland. This time the Finnish army was on the verge of total collapse. Finland was saved only by agreeing quickly to Soviet terms in a “peace agreement.” Russia got a lot of Finland land and 400,000 refuges had to be moved out of the ceded territories. Russia kept pushing Finland beyond the terms of the agreement. Finland didn’t trust the Russians so they allied with Germany. German forces moved in to help protect Finland…that is until England declared war on Finland for allying with the Germans. US didn’t declare war but still, Finland was forced to kick the Germans out of their country. The Germans were very pissed off. They mounted an attack in Northern Finland that wiped out almost every building in Rovaneimi. The museum has two models of the city: one before the attack and one after the attack. There are only a few structures remaining after the attack. There are other twists and turns but that is the short version of their history. When we talk to people there is always mention of “the war.” And although the feelings appear not to be gone Finland understands its vulnerabilities and emerged from the war determined to establish a new and constructive relationship with the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union got the Korelian Ithmus plus more valuable Finnish land. The Finns refer to the shape of their country as resembling the Finnish maiden. But the maiden lost one of her arms in the deal.

The museum also had quite a display on the effects of global warming on the Arctic Circle.

And a special exhibit with dolls – special dolls with interesting faces, poses and some sayings. Here is one that was appropriate for our travels.

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The museum covers among other things, the history and culture of Lapland. The Sami people are the indigenous people and are close relatives of the Inuit people of Canada. Lots of good information on the Arctic and its people.
There are no historical buildings in Rovaneimi and the town looks a bit non-descript. It is a center for adventure travel in the north with hiking, dog sledding, and the like.

Then we got on the train.

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Loading on the upper deck


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The car car on the train to Helsinki.



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Our berth.

Black out blinds. Yeah! There wasn’t much going on in the diner car but we had a drink before retiring to our berth. The scenery was just thousands of small birch trees so we closed our black-out blinds for a night’s sleep.

6-1-12
The train arrived in Helsinki about 8:30. After finding our bikes, we drove to town and had a nice breakfast. Anu, our waitress, shared stories about Finland and Russia. We went to the store to get a map of St. Petersburg because we aren’t going to have GPS while there.

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Helsinki

Then we drove about 80 miles to the Cumulus hotel in Kotka. I ran for about an hour – the only time this trip. Then we were treated to having the sauna room for an hour to ourselves. It was quite luxurious.

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A breathalyzer? in the hotel hall

6-2-12
We were still smiling at the end of this day. We made it into Russia and we had a place to stay for the night. How we got here is the adventure. Isn’t that how it always is? We probably should have included Russia in the title of our story. It took more preparation than the other countries.

When we started this day we looked out our hotel window and saw heavy rain and wind. We decided that the weather wasn’t going to stop us. The Russian border and 150 miles separated us from St. Petersburg.

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Mike loading up in the rain at hotel Cumulus

After about a half hour of driving rain, we discovered that our water-proof boots are not water-proof. We had been in rain on several other days but not this much rain for this long. Time for new boots. We were still Gung-Ho for our border adventure.

Well an adventure it was. It turned out that although we had two registrations for two bikes, we didn’t have the registration for the red bike. Instead, the second registration was for a bike at home. Of course, they tried to verify the numbers at the border and of course, they didn’t match up.

After several hours of trying to figure out how we could get the bike into the country we gave up and repacked one bike for the both of us. We went into St. Petersburg 2-up.

The border officials might have accepted an electronic view on the ipad – except the ipad had copies of the documents we had with us – not the needed registration for the red bike. Beverly turned on her data roaming (she had paid for a data-roaming package before leaving) and we brought up the email where the registrations were copied in the insurance application application. The red bike attachment was html for some reason and the iphone couldn’t open it. We considered going back to Finland to get all the paperwork and then come back later. But our VISA’s were for single entry only; if we left Russia, we couldn’t come back. Eventually, after waiting for the slow data service, waiting in lines, waiting for answers from border officials who could speak English, we loaded up the blue bike and Mike went to park the red bike. It is in limbo between two borders.

Attachment 6865
Beverly waiting at the Russian border

We have talked about having a bike problem and throwing one in the ditch and continuing on. We get to test that.

The bike is parked in the border control point. It was interesting going through the process. After about 20 different pieces of paper and many discussions among the Russians on how to accomplish this we put the bike in a locked yard and agreed to pay 460 rubles ($14)/day for storage.

The Russian border officials were really trying to be accommodating to the extent that they could. We just broke one of their major rules and could not come up with anything to prove we had registration. Not until we could call home and get people at home to help.

There are very few non-Russians crossing the border. This would support our assumption that most Finns have never been to Russia. We came to this assumption by asking Finns if they had ever been there. They would always say no.

Before our adventures with the border buracracy in Russia we had to wait at a few stop points. At the Finland border, they let cars out in a group of about 15


Attachment 6863
Beverly waiting to exit Finland

The next stop point was Russian though it was just a shack with a barricade letting cars through in groups.

Attachment 6864
Mike at Russian barricade

This is where the driving changes. Russian drivers are nothing like Scandinavian drivers i.e. waiting in line, always passing on the left, etc. Once we got out on the highway, the free-for-all continued. The cars will pass you on the right just to get in front of you – even when you are right on the tail of the car in front. Oh well, Mike easily got into the swing of it (remember we are 2-up now.)

The good news is that the new GPS that we bought in Germany finally proved that it is good for something. It led us perfectly to our hotel, Columb on Kazanskaya street, which is within a few blocks of the major tourist sites in St. Petersburg. The hotel has an inner courtyard where we could park the bike.

When I got to the hotel, I called the local Washington State license office and Pam answered the phone. I had dealt with Pam over the years on license and insurance issues. How lucky to hear a friendly voice. Pam got a new registration, Cassidy our neighbor went to the office to make it as legal as possible, and I got a new registration as an email attachment. With friends and technology, we will win over Russian bureaucracy.

Oh yes, and get these soggy boots and socks off our cold wet feet.

Stay tuned. It is about 120 miles back to the border.

Something happened to the picture attachments. The internet connection keeps turning on and off here. Maybe that has something to do with it. Will try again.

6-2-12
We were still smiling at the end of this day. We made it into Russia and we had a place to stay for the night. How we got here is the adventure. Isn’t that how it always is? We probably should have included Russia in the title of our story. It took more preparation than the other countries.

When we started this day we looked out our hotel window and saw heavy rain and wind. We decided that the weather wasn’t going to stop us. The Russian border and 150 miles separated us from St. Petersburg.

Attachment 6866
Mike loading up in the rain at hotel Cumulus

After about a half hour of driving rain, we discovered that our water-proof boots are not water-proof. We had been in rain on several other days but not this much rain for this long. Time for new boots. We were still Gung-Ho for our border adventure.

Well an adventure it was. It turned out that although we had two registrations for two bikes, we didn’t have the registration for the red bike. Instead, the second registration was for a bike at home. Of course, they tried to verify the numbers at the border and of course, they didn’t match up.

After several hours of trying to figure out how we could get the bike into the country we gave up and repacked one bike for the both of us. We went into St. Petersburg 2-up.

The border officials might have accepted an electronic view on the ipad – except the ipad had copies of the documents we had with us – not the needed registration for the red bike. Beverly turned on her data roaming (she had paid for a data-roaming package before leaving) and we brought up the email where the registrations were copied in the insurance application application. The red bike attachment was html for some reason and the iphone couldn’t open it. We considered going back to Finland to get all the paperwork and then come back later. But our VISA’s were for single entry only; if we left Russia, we couldn’t come back. Eventually, after waiting for the slow data service, waiting in lines, waiting for answers from border officials who could speak English, we loaded up the blue bike and Mike went to park the red bike. It is in limbo between two borders.

Attachment 6870
Beverly waiting at the Russian border

We have talked about having a bike problem and throwing one in the ditch and continuing on. We get to test that.

The bike is parked in the border control point. It was interesting going through the process. After about 20 different pieces of paper and many discussions among the Russians on how to accomplish this we put the bike in a locked yard and agreed to pay 460 rubles ($14)/day for storage.

The Russian border officials were really trying to be accommodating to the extent that they could. We just broke one of their major rules and could not come up with anything to prove we had registration. Not until we could call home and get people at home to help.

There are very few non-Russians crossing the border. This would support our assumption that most Finns have never been to Russia. We came to this assumption by asking Finns if they had ever been there. They would always say no.

Before our adventures with the border buracracy in Russia we had to wait at a few stop points. At the Finland border, they let cars out in a group of about 15

Attachment 6867
Beverly waiting to exit Finland

The next stop point was Russian though it was just a shack with a barricade letting cars through in groups.

Attachment 6868
Mike at Russian barricade

This is where the driving changes. Russian drivers are nothing like Scandinavian drivers i.e. waiting in line, always passing on the left, etc. Once we got out on the highway, the free-for-all continued. The cars will pass you on the right just to get in front of you – even when you are right on the tail of the car in front. Oh well, Mike easily got into the swing of it (remember we are 2-up now.)

The good news is that the new GPS that we bought in Germany finally proved that it is good for something. It led us perfectly to our hotel, Columb on Kazanskaya street, which is within a few blocks of the major tourist sites in St. Petersburg. The hotel has an inner courtyard where we could park the bike.

When I got to the hotel, I called the local Washington State license office and Pam answered the phone. I had dealt with Pam over the years on license and insurance issues. How lucky to hear a friendly voice. Pam got a new registration, Cassidy our neighbor went to the office to make it as legal as possible, and I got a new registration as an email attachment. With friends and technology, we will win over Russian bureaucracy.

Oh yes, and get these soggy boots and socks off our cold wet feet.

Stay tuned. It is about 120 miles back to the border.

Hi CaperMike. I have been following your trip. Your route is what my wife and I would like to do next year. Last year we used Stefan, and will be using him again. He and his place was great. I have PM'd you about the Russian crossing. Good luck.

6-3-12
Our errands for the morning were to get cash, water and a print-out of the registration that Pam sent last night. All were within a few blocks of our hotel. The copy store, although in a main street mall of lots of shopping, had a buzzer to get in. And then through a cluttered courtyard which led into a nice store.

Attachment 6875
The copy shop entrance

We walked and walked to see the tourist sites in St. Petersburg.

Attachment 6876
Beverly at the Winter Palace

Attachment 6877
Attachment 6878

I had always wanted to see the church shown in tourist photos for Saint Petersburg. I didn’t know it but the church’s name is “The Church of our Savior on Spilled Blood.” That name does not match the magical look of the architecture. It was built in honor of Alexander II after he was assassinated in 1881. Alexander II worked for government reform and signed the Emancipation Edictfreeing the serfs. Had he lived, Russia might have followed a path to constitutional monarchy instead of the long road of oppression that defined his successor's reign.

Alexander II initiated several reforms increasing Finland's autonomy from Russia Alexander II is still regarded as "The Good Tsar" in Finland.


Attachment 6879
The Church of our Savior on Spilled Blood

We walked the main street of St. Petersburg, Nevsky Prospekt. We then got on the tour bus and rode it for almost 2 hours seeing the sights and learning some history.

We also researched the best way to get back to the border. With registration now in hand, we should be able to get the bike into Russia.

The plan is for Mike to take a cab, arranged by our hotel, to the bus station. We went by it on our tour-bus. He will then take the Helsinki bus to the border. Everyone gets off the buses at the border. He simply won’t get back on.

Although we watched this process in our several hours at the border yesterday, the hotel verified that it would be ok to do that. He will then show them the registration we had printed out and bring the bike back to St. Petersburg. It seems so simple but will it work?

The bus leaves at 7am tomorrow morning. Stay tuned…..

6-4-12
Mike left early to catch the bus at 7am.

-----Beverly waits for Mike to come back-----

The morning was leisurely writing the blog, reading, computer stuff etc. Then I went walking.

I wanted to go back to the Church of Spilt Blood and see if I could get a decent picture. I have been discouraged with my learning to use the SLR camera ever since my Nikon D5000 took a flying leap off my bike last year on the Italian autobahn going 80mph. It did not survive. Several months later it was replaced with the D3100 which has most of the features of the D5000. Miraculously, the telephoto lens did survive and it fits the D3100.

Before I went out with my camera, I looked up on the internet what the best settings would be.
ISO 200-400
Aperture Priority F/16 F/22
Increase color saturation in shooting menu which I did by putting it on vivid
White balance -- auto

Here is the result

Attachment 6903
The Church of our Savior on Spilled Blood

Attachment 6904

----Mike goes to the border -----

Today was the day I had to fix my paperwork mistake at the border. The border is 120 miles away. My plan was to take the Helsinki bus, get off at the border, do the paperwork dance and drive back to St Petersburg. The bus was a van; crowded and bumpy but after a few stops, we arrived at the border.

Attachment 6905
Mike’s bus back to the Finland-Russian border

Went through customs control, then customs, paid my storage fee of 1160 rubles ($34.00) and through customs again. It took about two hours and the administrivia was interesting, but the people were helpful and curious. Ai am calling this a good experience.

Attachment 6906
Bike in Customs

I drove back without stopping. I am getting into the Russian way of driving. I was home by 3:00.

-----Touring the city together----
We went touring the city. St Petersburg rivals Prague in building architecture. Most of the buildings were built by the Tsars. The excesses were incredible.

Attachment 6907

Attachment 6908

We had dinner at one of the in-places, the Singer Cafe and people watched for a few hours. We had the best seat in the city. All in all another very good day

Attachment 6909
Singer Café

Attachment 6910
View from Singer Café
St. Petersburg is called the Venice of the North because of it’s canals.

Attachment 6911
Canals in St. Petersburg

6/5/12

St Petersburg is like a lot of big cities (5 Million people) although it is more beautiful than most. There is more to see and do there but we decided to go to a smaller town to get a different view. We headed for Pskov which is an historic town south on the way to Lativa. It took about 20 miles to get out of the city of Saint Petersburg. The traffic was heavy but orderly. We must be getting used to being passed on the right. Beverly is getting used to keeping cars from separating us. The heavy traffic continued for about 80 miles on the mostly two lane road. Lots of passing. Lots of making 3 lanes out of 2.

The road Pskov was pleasant but uninspiring. It seems our expectations are set by roads in the Alps, or Norway, or the Black Forest.

Attachment 6918
A snack along the way at the gas station

We arrived at our Hotel Golden Embankment, had borsch for dinner and visited the tourist spots. The Pskov Kremlin (fort) dates back to the 13th century. The town itself alternates between interesting historical sites and crumbling buildings. It was a pleasant few hours and all the Russian Tsars and princes are scrambled in our minds.

Attachment 6919
Mike at the walled fort

Attachment 6920
Beverly with our hotel (the orange building)


Attachment 6921
The view

We have a few extra hours in our next two days of travel so we are talking about going to Riga tomorrow which is apparently a must see city. We would have to cut across Estonia to get there. We'll decide in the morning.
We tried some Russian wine. We will probably stick to Italian or Spanish.

6/6 Part 1
The next morning we went to Breakfast and the power went out. I think we had a peak into Russian life. Everything stopped, and no one took notice. It appeared like a common occurrence. All we could have was tea and a cheese sandwich.
We got going early and decided to go to Riga, Estonia which was not on our schedule. Riga was tempting us. We couldn't have a must-see so close and not go. So we made a quick drive to the border.

There was a huge backup of traffic. People were saying there was a 3-hour wait. We questioned ourselves whether motorcycles were allowed to jump to the head of the line like they are in most instances of car cues. We decided to go for it. Other cars moved aside and allowed us to move through so it must be the expected thing to do. We were happy about that. Things are looking good.

Attachment 6925
Waiting in line before we decided we could jump ahead.

We still had to wait but just near the front of the line. The driver of a car waiting in line near us was helpful when he checked to make sure we had all our papers. We didn't. But he just happened to have forms in his car. We filled the extra form out while waiting in line. It was an exit form for the bikes identical form to enter -- just a different box checked. No problems going through the Russian side of the border. We made it through everything in less than 2 hours.

Then a quick cross the no-man’s land between the borders. There is only a short line on the Estonian side of the border. Things are still looking good.

Things turned not so good while checking in to Estonia. They didn’t like the look of our registration so they checked the “Interpol database” and one of the bikes showed it was exported to Germany and then never registered. I thought Interpol was all about James Bond stuff. The army border guard along with another official to translate came out to talk to us. Then entire border stopped. No cars were processed for about 20 minutes as they talked to us. All the other employees were standing around to watch the excitement.

They said that that Beverly’s bike was ok but Mike’s bike was not. She joked that she should just go on. They went along with it for a moment then said “no, you should stay with him.”

We had to wait until they could call the US to verify our registration. As I write this, We have been waiting 5 hours. We are in the truck terminal so we have comfort, food, bathrooms and internet.

Attachment 6922
Beverly waiting at the terminal

Attachment 6923
The terminal

Attachment 6924
The Estonian border where our bikes are parked -- taken from the terminal

We have been very calm and smiley, but I think I will walk over there and make an AH of myself.

6/6/12 Part 2

I went over to the border office and the two border guards came out with big smiles on their faces. Although they looked like hardened guys, especially the heavily armed military guy, they acted like little kids who had just solved a problem. My registration checked out OK but apparently the US customs have this bike noted as being exported to Germany. I will need to fix that when I get home.

I went to get Beverly at the terminal to tell her the good news. We walked back to get our bikes.

Attachment 6939
Bikes in the distance parked at the Estonian border

Attachment 6940
Beverly loading up the bike

We were very happy to get to Latvia which was only about 25 miles.

Attachment 6943
The Latvian border

It was about 7:00 when we left the Estonian border so we decided not to go to Riga. Instead, we wanted to get to the nearest hotel and hoped we wouldn’t be camping. We drove about 60 kilometers on some beautiful back roads to the nice little town of Aluksne where we found a wonderful hotel.

We will head directly to Vilnius on the back roads in the morning.

Attachment 6941
Our hotel

The town has an ancient history and belonged to Germany, Sweden, Russia and others but it was also the site of a secret Soviet missile launch site.

We had a great dinner, walked around. On the side of the road, some local people were turning a crank to haul water out of a well. They said the water was good and anyone could get it. Though our waitress said she wouldn’t drink it.

Attachment 6942
Locals getting water from the well

We went back to our beautiful 30 euro room. We feel like we salvaged the day. Instead of a big city adventure, we had a border crossing adventure and a small town adventure.

Mike noticed a welding shop behind the hotel. He is thinking… Hmmmm maybe Beverly’s kick-stand can be fixed. Will have to check it out tomorrow.

6/7/12

Breakfast was a treat with the usual fare, including fresh tomatoes and cucumbers from the garden. Mike went out to the shop out back where they were working on cars. They have a MIG welder where, in just a few minutes, they lowered my kickstand about 2 cm.

Attachment 6947
The shop behind our hotel

Then he started up a conversation with Janis, one of the sons of the owner. Another of the owner’s sons races small hydrofoil boats. In fact he was the European champion.

Attachment 6953
Hydrofoil trophies

Attachment 6952
Shortened kickstand

We said our goodbyes much later than we had planned but it was such an enjoyable morning, it was difficult to cut it short. We left town at 12:30 for a ride of 240 miles to Vilnius.

Attachment 6948
Mike Janis and Beverly

The ride was almost all countryside roads. Fields of grass and crops surrounded by copses of trees. Sometimes a tree-lined road. A few giant white storks with red legs and huge stick nests. A small town here and there. A speed camera in one of the towns where we both got our picture taken. We don’t have front plates on our bikes and wonder what will happen. We learned to spot the warnings and the cameras. Traffic was almost non-existent in the first 100 miles except for some local traffic around the towns. After that, traffic was still light. The drive, although longer than our usual drives, was pleasant and enjoyable. The border to Lithuania was deserted just as the border into Latvia. After stops for lunch, gas and to buy batteries we arrived in Vilnius at about 6 but we didn’t get to our hotel until 7. The delay was because our hotel is in the old town, full of one-way streets. The GPS does’t know about the one-way streets. A local biker noticed us wandering around and offered for us to follow him. Thank you anonymous biker.

We walked around old town, went to cash machine and had some dinner. Vilnius is far enough south that it actually got dark and the street lights came on. It has been several days since we have seen darkness.

We are looking forward to visiting tomorrow with Martynas and Migle, a couple we met in Spain a year ago. They were very helpful in planning this part of our trip. In fact, our hotel, Mana Liza, at only about $60 was a result of his sleuthing. Rooms are usually over $100 in this area.

6/8/12

Martynas came to get us at about noon. He took us for a tour of the city sharing history, stories of growing up here, pointing out the sites, and showing off his comedian side. As a Canadian, you would think that Mike would have heard all the Canadian quips but Martynas had one he had never heard. “What is it that they have on the Canadian flag that they have to cover it with a leaf?”

Attachment 6969
Touring in Vilnius

He told us of when the Russians came in with their tanks and destroyed the communications tower and 13 people were killed. This happened in January 1991 after Lithuania declared independence from the Soviet Union on March 11, 1990. We talked about the economy, social systems, and government transitions.

Attachment 6970
Overlooking Vilnius with communications tower on far hill

We had lunch at Belmontas, a tourist site that originally was a site of an old grain mill run by the river. Mike had Cepelinai a traditional Lithuanian food with ground potatoes stuffed with meat. He liked it, especially after getting some spicy garnish, much like Mexican salsa, to put with it.

Attachment 6971
Cepelinai a traditional Lithuanian dish

Attachment 6972
Lunch at Belmontas

We went back to the hotel and a few errands, until 7pm when both Martynas and Migla came by.

Martynas leads a development team for an IT company Headquartered in San Diego, and Migle is a heating and air conditioning engineer. Building in Lithuania is slow so she is doing IT project management.

We went out to a fabulous in a beautiful setting outside on a cliff overlooking the city in the valley below. We ate and drank and talked for hours before going elsewhere for mouth-watering desserts. We said our good-byes and are hopeful that we will have the opportunity again in the future to get together.

Attachment 6973
Fried bread

Attachment 6974
Martynas, Migla Beverly Mike

5/9/2012

We had two easy days ahead of us. We needed to drive 250 miles to Klaipeda to get the ferry to Germany where we then spent 24 hours.
In the morning we found that someone had broken into the locked panniers on Beverly’s bike. We had been warned about security in the middle of the city so we cable locked the bikes but it looked like they hack-sawed the lock clasp. Beverly lost her rain suit and we lost the camp mattresses that Kendra and Jerrol got for us that we had never used.

Attachment 6984
Our hotel

Our ride was part on highway and part on country roads. Nice weather and good roads made it a pleasant trip. The ferry was leaving at 1:00 am but we could start loading at 10:00.pm. While waiting to load, we met some German bikers Andre, Miguel, Ulrich who drove from Germany through Poland all on dirt roads. We also met Andrew who lives in London, but drove to his home in Lithuania on a 125cc bike. I guess you can drive small bikes in the UK with a learner’s permit. He was adamant that the L on his bike was for learner NOT for loser.

Attachment 6985
Meeting the German Bikers

Attachment 6986
Lithuanian sunset at the ferry dock

We loaded in the lower most bowel of the ship.

Attachment 6987
Location of our bikes on the ferry

The ramps to the bowels of the ship, down to deck 1, included 3 u-turns. Cars had to do 3-point turns to make it around the turns. This is important because I (Beverly) have been working on improving my low speed maneuvering. After last fall’s trip to Eastern Europe (Chapter 2 ), I felt that I needed to improve my skills. I needed more training. Well, I got it. Holly with Fact motorcycle school in Yakima FACT Safety Home (where I dropped MY bike once) and Ed with Northwest Motorcycle school in Seattle Northwest Motorcycle School - Motor Officer - Advanced riding course - Ride Like A Cop (where I dropped THEIR bike – a Suzuki 1000 old police cruiser -- 3 times) taught me the basics of low-speed maneuvering. At the end of my lesson, I easily accomplished tight continuous figure-eight turns. Although I didn’t make all the sharp turns without putting my feet down on this trip, I did make several. What is even more important is that I was much more comfortable riding on this trip and I found many chances to practice rearbrake-clutch-throttle control even when I wasn’t in a tight turn. Our travels didn’t include many safe places for practicing the tight turns but I did get a chance in one of the ferry parking lots; I was driving around and around while Mike was taking care of some tickets. He thought I was lost wandering around in the giant lot. Back to the current ferry loading -- I did make the last turn with my feet on the pegs. Thank you to Holly and Ed. I look forward to going home and practicing even more.

By midnight we were in bed. We didn’t even feel the ship departing.

6/10/2012

We spent today on the ferry. We had our usual cozy cabin. We slept in, had breakfast in the room, and watched the ocean and read. No phone, no internet; nothing to do but rest and think. The resting is good but we prefer to avoid the thinking part.

The ship is full of trucks because apparently the roads in Poland are so poor, the truckers prefer to bypass it. Apparently, there are over 150 trucks on this ferry.

Attachment 6997
Trucks on the ferry

The ferry docked in Kiel about 10pm but it took an hour for all those trucks to get off. This isn’t the kind of ferry we are used to seeing in Washington State where you can drive through: loading on one end and unloading on the other. These big trucks have to turn around to get off. It appears quite a confusion but I am sure it is well orchestrated. They do this every day.

We drove not far to Molfsee where we had already stayed at Hotel Catherineberg on May 19 just before heading North to Oslo. It seems so long ago. The hotel was a familiar site. It was after midnight but the owners had our room waiting and we put our bikes in the garage.

5/11/2012

Sometimes you just want to get there. Today is a day solely with a destination in mind. We have over 400 miles to travel from Molfsee, just outside of Kiel, to Heidelberg where we will end the 3rd chapter of our European wanderings. Since this chapter won’t be over until we complete a list of maintenance and repairs, we have planned a day in Heidelberg to do that work. That way we will be ready for chapter 4 next spring when we are planning a trip to Bulgaria and Turkey.

We wanted to get an early start in the morning but we rarely set an alarm. If we are sleeping well we want to keep sleeping. Maybe that is because we are old but maybe it is just because we like to sleep. Today we must have been sleeping well so we didn’t wake until after 8. We were on the road by 10. Then it was 8 hours of autobahn driving except for a few stops for gas and eating. We arrived back at Knopf tours at 6 pm.

Attachment 6998
Bikes parked in front of their rooms at Knopf Tours

We got the BMW room this time

Attachment 6999
Even the toilet carries the BMW theme

A visit to Knopf tours always starts with meeting the other riders – those just leaving and those just coming back. This time we were just ending our trip. Mike Lewis (another Mike) was just coming back too. He embarked on his trip in 2009! He is staying another month before he ships his bike back. He just recently got a ferry out of Syria. And we think WE have an adjustment to make when we go back after only one month on the road.

Attachment 7000
Mike Lewis

Some of his equipment is attached firmly to his bike with bailing wire. He lightheartedly jokes that he should be sponsored by a bailing wire company. It would be a shame to have to make the repairs and take away the character that bailing wire gives his bike. He is riding with a purpose in mind: WriteAroundTheWorld.org. You can read more about his travels at BLOG

We also met Robert who is getting ready to go South: A ferry from Nice to Corsica and other destinations for 6 weeks.

5/12/12

Mike is not the only one putting on new tires. Stephan is getting some help from Robert to change the tire on one of his bikes. Mike replaced front tires for both of us.

Attachment 7001
Stephan, Robert and Mike changing tires


Attachment 7002A new tire

Mike changed the oil in both bikes and put on a new chain and sprocket on the blue bike. It had never been changed and was in surprisingly good shape after nearly 28000 miles. Time to change it anyway.

Attachment 7003
A new sprocket

The mileage for the trip was estimated to be just under 3000 miles. It ended up to be over 3300 miles. A few side trips and some extra side roads. And it was all good.

We spent the day getting the bikes ready to put away and talking to the new travelers, Charles from New Mexico and his cousin from Hawaii, just coming back from their trip on Corsica.

Attachment 7004
Bikes all cleaned up for our next adventure, hopefully Bulgaria and Turkey next spring.