Wednesday, 9 July 2025

The Baltic states and Poland

This is a quick update as we are a bit weary after riding every day in all weather. Hot, Sunny, cold and wet. You never know what the day will bring. We left Estonia and rode to Latvia staying in the capital Riga in a hotel, my Impression was the people were  not open and friendly. The Hotel was  overrun by coaches of Chinese tourists, very strange. 
We then rode through Lithuania en route we met a  nice local couple and we spent a while talking to then but we had to get  to Kaunas the capital, another capital and prices to suit. We met 3 guys from Inverness in the morning on 2 GS's and a triumph Scambler, good to talk Scottish pish with them.
Onto Poland and spent a night camping around the Wolf's Lair, the place where they tried to blow up Hitler, they could of left him outside for the mozzies to do the job.
Then via the small roads to just outside Gdansk including passing by the Russian enclave of Kalingrad , I was careful not to take a wrong turn, 
we camped again and got soaked and gave the mozzies another chance! A couple of days on the back roads through Poland, roadworks everywhere and miles of off road diversions, it was fun at first but after waiting for hours at traffic lights to get through it ceased to be fun. Into Germany now and we are staying on the small roads so far. 
waterproofs stop again
Rooftop Dining in Rija
The Hill of Swords in Lithuania 
our new Lithuanian friends
Kaunas 
camping at the Wolf's  Lair
one of the Bunkers
me Having a pee on Hitlers Bunker 
Raining 
Great for the mozzies  again
Leaving our hotel this morning 
And waterproofs again 

Thursday, 3 July 2025

Tallinn

A few photos of Tallinn, my phone keeps crashing trying to load too many photos .
outside our hotel
Freedom tower
You get the idea
That's all for now 



To the North and then South

We left Ostersund in pouring rain and that was all there was to say about the next few days, rain and more rain and quite cold, to be expected though. What wasn't expected was some stupid football tournament at Pitea, after a 400 mile plus day there was no room at any of the Inns for us so we had to ride another 60 miles North to find a hotel. Expensive and also full of kids, somedays you can't get a break. By now we were in Lapland and we were lucky enough to see a herd of reindeer, luckily despite all the warnings nothing else of note.
At the Arctic Circle we had a cuppa and bumped into a Scotsman in a van going fishing up north.
Then the run South, we stayed that night in a posh cabin next to a Ice Museum which was cool, in fact we paid to get in to see how cold you can get! 
The rain eventually stopped as we rode South and it actually got warm, Finland was nice but not as spectacular as Norway and Sweden but very slightly less expensive.
Another two stays and eventually we caught the ferry from Helsinki to Tallin in Estonia. Helsinki felt strange to us, traffic lights every hundred yards for miles.
Today we had a day off in Tallinn, the old town is nice but full off tourists. I'm never Happy, either pissing of rain and quiet roads of Sunny and busy, I think we prefer the former.
It's been pretty full on hence the scant update,  I will put together a proper story when we get back, in the meantime some photos and back on the road tomorrow 😀 
Roadside eating
And again
reindeer 

Wondering where to go
time to head south now 
Nice Cabin on the Baltic
Ice display 
another meal stop
Finland, typical scene
funny
On the ferry
And again