No Cakes or Ale

We have just arrived in Kongsvinger in Eastern Norway after a wiggly journey across central Sweden. We can't post pictures here. ( a very kind receptionist has let us use the office computer in this 110 pounds a night hotel. It's the only one for miles - honest) Main roads in Sweden are not for cyclists We'll post a picture when we get to Oslo to give you an idea. So we have had to zigzag around, through some fantastic countryside. Norway is very hilly, not a surprise, but we think tomorrow will be downhill to Oslo.

Ted has understated the horrors of the Route 61. We were on a perfectly nice cycle path out of town and were debouched onto a two lane dual carriageway which rapidly went down to one lane and the space for bikes to about 12 inches. Our panniers were scrapping along the crash barrier and the vehicles coming past us at 100 KPH were scrapping the central divider. We came off at the appropriately named Kil and took the back roads through some beautiful countryside adding 30 Km to our journey. You might ask why we didn't do that in the first place. We did today - this involved 20 Kms on a dirt road which was amazingly smooth and infinitely better than any of the Russian roads we went on.

Now to the cakes - or lack of them - and even worse the complete absence of cold beer in regular supermarkets in Sweden. I thought the archaic rules about buying liquor in the state stores had long since disappeared - but no. It was not possible to buy beer stronger than 3.5 % in the supermarkets. That would have been OK but it seems that supermarkets aren't allowed to sell cold beer. Apparently most of the beer sold in Sweden is this low alcohol stuff - it would be interesting to find out if it is the solution to binge drinking. We certainly saw a lot of drunks in parks - and Ted had a very nice chat with one of them when we were having our lunch. The next day we were back in the bus shelter! Cakes are also seemingly impossible to find and Ted needs his fix every night. We found shelves of crispbreads and other healthy foods but no unhealthy sweet stuff.

A quick picture based session from Sigtuna

This will be a picture intensive bulletin. we are in Sigtuna, about 60 km north of Stockholm. Apparently the oldest town in Sweden. We picked it as a close place to Stockholm as we thought that getting out of Stockholm by bike would be difficult. It was! lots of well marked cycle tracks that take you off into housing estates and then dump you. No moaning, the provision is miles better than the UK and these tracks, we think, are meant for locals.

Sigtuna turned out to be a wonderful place, but we won't go on about it.

Here are some pictures. We mentioned the tortuous route our ferry took through the islands, this is another ferry boat taken from ours as we approached the half way mark. We were both doing 40 km/hr at the time(my GPS). It's a crummy pic but it conveys the excitement.

Here are a batch of brides in St Petersburg

Here is Sarah retrieving some banana skins from someones post box which she thought was a litter bin.

For the haystack fans here is a Finnish haystack field

Has winter arrived?

So now we are in Stockholm and it's cold and wet. We got the ferry across from Turku. We are having a day off here and will be heading west tomorrow.

Finland continued to be a very comfortable and delightful place. Towards the end though we felt there was a touch of Pleasantville about it. Mind you we didn't get to Helsinki, where Sarah assures me I would have been able to feed my desire for graffiti. Despite the wonders of Stockholm the only internet Caff we could find doesn't support pics but we will try another later.

My love affair with the Finns nearly took a jolt at an unfortunate hotel we were obliged to stay at a few nights ago. Dinner was an eat as much as you want buffet affair. and after we were seated for a while a couple arrived with their child and sat unnecessarily close to us. They proceeded to pile plates with enormous amounts of food, and as soon as each plate was half eaten dart off and bring back a new one. I was delighted to discover that they were Russians, (and they cheated on the bill.)
Don't get me wrong (we are still going on about Russia). We had a great time on the train out of St Petersburg. We took an outgoing suburban train at 08:10 and got on in good time, parking our bikes, one in the vestibule and one in the half empty 120 seater carriage. After a few stops the carriage was swamped and then had a about 240 people jammed in, much like the Northern Line on a bad Monday morning. There was not a single moan from anyone as we juggled the bikes around to let people on and off. People were tripping over the bikes, getting their bags caught in the handlebars, which everyone thought was very funny. Perhaps all those years of communism has given the people a capacity to suffer with good humour.


Da di da, dida, dida (for those Archers fans ...)
If you are on the edge of your seat for the latest news on Nordic haystacks - there were none in Russia but much to our delight they reappeared in Finland. Sadly we can't upload a picture but they are like miniature sugar loafs built up round a central stake. We left a rather disconcerted Finnish farmer with a strange impression of mad English people when we came across our first field and screeched to a halt and got the camera out.

Ted thinks Finnish towns were like Pleasantville - I got the distinct impression at times we were in the Truman Show and that we would be turned back at the city limits.

We were extremely lucky with the weather - beautiful clear skies and warm sunshine. However rain returned yesterday on the way over to Sweden. The morning newspaper here had headline news about the "Skyfallen" in England. That sounds a bit turky lurky but there were pictures of Tewkesbury under feet of water. The ferry trip was brilliant. 11 hours through the Aland island and the Swedish archipelago - quite exciting as we had a grandstand view from seats in the caff right at the front of the boat. The channel at times was incredibly narrow and the ferry only just fitted between the channel marker buoys - woe betide any little yacht that wasn't keeping a good look out behind them (and there were several). If you should ever want to got to Stockholm, and are not in a hurry, go to Turku and get the boat over. It only cost us 51 Euros and that included the bikes. It was a great day out.

Ted has just bought me a Guardian so I'm off for a read.

Finland - what a fantastic place

Before we start we are in Lahti about 100 km north of Helsinki.
It is really great to be in a place where everything works all the people are nice. A preconception is that Finns are withdrawn and gloomy. Maybe this type are all out of the country right now. we are heading west towards Turku to cross to Sweden. Still lots of headwinds. yesterday and today was the first time that my knees have ached at the end of the day.

To continue about St Petersburg. Would I recommend anyone to go there - definitely yes. I think I sounded a bit gloomy about our experiences yesterday. We did enjoy being there and it did grow on us. Our flat was only a couple of minutes from the Hermitage and in spite of the dire prognostications in the guide book we got in to the museum without having to queue for more than a few minutes. It is an amazing building but being philistines we ignored the galleries of European art and concentrated on the Russian stuff. We did come across two Breughels that seemed to have been stuffed into a corridor but mainly we were admiring the ostentation of the building. The Romanovs seemed to have the Windsor gene for dressing up in ridiculous uniforms and decking themselves in bling. We preferred the Russian Museum but were disappointed that there were not more Soviet pictures of the 9th cadre tractor factory.

Probably the main problem was that the language (our lack of it ) was quite isolating. On the way to the border we bumped into a lovely Italian couple on a motorbike who were parked on the hardshoulder. They greeted us like long lost friends - they were so desperate to talk to some one. They spoke a lot less Russian than we did and did not have a very nice time. Even in a big fat motorbike they found the roads very dangerous. In fact one of the first things we noticed when we crossed the border was the sudden appearance of motor bikes - something we just didn't see in Russia at all. The italians were making their way to the North Cape.

Apart from whatever St petersburg does, the two most apparent industries are tourism and weddings. Outside any attraction were stacks of tour groups ( mainly Russian) waiting to follow the umbrella waving guide. Many more than you see in London. However the wedding industry was vast. Wherever we went there were wedding parties stacked up waiting to be snapped at the appropriate scenic spot. At one place on a wet Wednesday afternoon we counted six stretch limos parked up and six bridal groups all releasing the standard pair of doves.

We went to Petrodvets, one of the Romanovs waterside palaces. I am amazed that they weren't taken out and shot earlier: it was outrageous.

Finland what a busy place

We escaped from Russia yesterday into Finland. I imagined that it would be full of bumpkins chewing straws, what a mistake. Sarah, who knows better informed me that the Finnish economy is almost entirely industrial and post industrial. the bottom line is the road that I thought would be a quiet country lane was a roaring highway. Mercifully Finnish drivers are very lovely so the only challenge on today's run was a 20km/hr headwind. What do you expect when you start to go west?
never mind all this Sarah wants to talk about St Petersburg and Russia.

If we were culture shocked leaving Russia we were even more shocked when we arrived in St P. I suppose it was our first large city since leaving London but first impressions were not good - noisy, dirty and hard work to do anything. However, we revised our views. It is a huge place - there are so many beautiful buildings that you become used to passing palaces and cathedrals at every step. It was very nice to have an apartment so that we could escape and cook our own food for a change. We were amazed at the security arrangements. The agent took us through the drill of locking the courtyard door (most St Petersburg flats are in a series of buildings all at the same street number and arranged around a courtyard), then the iron door of the building, then the steel enforced door of the flat with at least three huge bolts that fitted into sockets in the reinforced steel doorframe. Here's the picture of the crumbling courtyard in which our flat was located. The stairwell was the sort of place you could imagine a junkie flaked out - and in fact on our last day there was one. Ted had to virtually lift the bike over him as he didn't want to move.
Have to stop now as we are in a public library and it's closing time.

No pics we are in the Hermitage Internet caff- no cameras. So we made it. We will give chapter and verse on St P later when we have had a chance to digest the impact. Our crossing into Russia was uneventful, but visually very impressive. We crossed on foot wheeling our bikes across a bridge over a gorge with matching viking forts on both sides of the border. Paperwork was a doddle. We had planned to stay in Kingisepp ,only 35 km away as we didn't know how long the crossing would take. Surprise, surprise, there were no rooms in any of the hotels in the town. A very obliging receptionist at the the main (bus terminal) hotel telephoned around and found us a room in a petrol service station 20km down the road in the direction, we were going any way, so all the better. The road was quiet and in good condition. The trucks that were backed up on the border were coming through at a rate of about one every 6 mins. so God help the drivers at the back of the 8km queue.

The border crossing was reminiscent of Funeral in Berlin and we felt as if machine guns were being trained on our backs - but instead of heavies in dark cars there was loads of the ubiquitous ladies with bulging carrier bags going in both directions (Citizens of the former CIS can move freely between Estonia and Russia). We wheeled our bikes through the metal detector machine and like everyone else sent off a massive signal that was ignored by all the guards. The difference in economic activity and wealth was immediately obvious, the moment we were in Russia. The road gradually deteriorated and there was no sign of any agriculture (the area is a complete bog which might explain the latter). The motel was a truck stop - our room was nice and clean and had its own bathroom. The walls were pretty thin but the snores of the next door occupant did not keep us awake. We had some fun with the menu in the caff - point and be surprised - but we managed to dredge the word for potatoes into our vocabularly so we were OK. Next morning off into the drizzle. We took a quieter road which started well but got more and more rutted. We were heading for Gatchina - the southern suburb of St P and also the site of an enormous palace. The route was pretty dismal - endless birch forest and the largest angelica plants - big as triffids. We had our usual endless wandering about town when we got to Gatchina trying to locate a hotel that would be able to register our visas. Eventually after asking many people and going backwards and forwards over the same ground we were guided by a man on a bike who took us off into the suburbs and deposited us outside a decaying tower block. Ted went off inside whilst I stayed to look after the bikes. He disappeared for a very long time. It turned out he was closeted with a female member of the Russian athletics team. He eventually emerged somewhat frazzled. Apparently the US/Russian athletics teams were running a joint training session and all the hotels in Gatchina were fully booked - this was established by another receptionist manking loads of phone calls. At that pont we decided to contact the agent through which we had booked our appartment in St P to see if she could fix us up with accommodation in the City. Larissa came up trumps - 2 different flats for the 2 nights we needed before our original booking became available.

Just a quick one on russian roads. The surface is as if there were two layers, the top one about an inch and a half thick. The top layer is absent for about 50% in gaps about 12 inches in diameter. Don't swerve to slalom past the pot holes as the driver behind will wipe you out. Russian drivers pass with a few inches to spare ; they only avoid things that might damage their cars. Often it is better to cycle on the gravel verge. We'll be getting the train for the first 100 km out of ST P on our way to Finland!

The train journey from Gatchina to St P was interesting. The suburban trains are completely different to the intercity ones. The carriages are almost level with the platform and we had the usual helpful person to give us a hand - something that fills me with dread as my bike is bristling with oil. The carriages are also incredibly wide - double the width of a Metropolitan line carriage. We became the object of many dropped jaws as we stood at the end of the carriage reserved for luggage - very convenient for bikes - in our plumage and helmets. A succession of accordion players, magicians and travelling salesmen passed through the carriage to provide additional entertainment.

St Petersburg not bust

No pics we are in the Hermitage Internet caff- no cameras.
So we made it. We will give chapter and verse on St P later when we have had a chance to digest the impact.
Our crossing into Russia was uneventful, but visually very impressive. We crossed on foot wheeling our bikes across a bridge over a gorge with matching viking forts on both sides of the border. Paperwork was a doddle.
We had planned to stay in Kingisepp ,only 35 km away as we didn't know how long the crossing would take. Surprise, surprise, there were no rooms in any of the hotels in the town. A very obliging receptionist at the the main (bus terminal) hotel telephoned around and found us a room in a petrol service station 20km down the road in the direction, we were going any way, so all the better. The road was quiet and in good condition. The trucks that were backed up on the border were coming through at a rate of about one every 6 mins. so God help the drivers at the back of the 8km queue.

The border crossing was reminiscent of Funeral in Berlin and we felt as if machine guns were being trained on our backs - but instead of heavies in dark cars there was loads of the ubiquitous ladies with bulging carrier bags going in both directions (Citizens of the former CIS can move freely between Estonia and Russia). We wheeled our bikes through the metal detector machine and like everyone else sent off a massive signal that was ignored by all the guards. The difference in economic activity and wealth was immediately obvious, the moment we were in Russia. The road gradually deteriorated and there was no sign of any agriculture (the area is a complete bog which might explain the latter). The motel was a truck stop - our room was nice and clean and had its own bathroom. The walls were pretty thin but the snores of the next door occupant did not keep us awake. We had some fun with the menu in the caff - point and be surprised - but we managed to dredge the word for potatoes into our vocabularly so we were OK.
Next morning off into the drizzle. We took a quieter road which started well but got more and more rutted. We were heading for Gatchina - the southern suburb of St P and also the site of an enormous palace. The route was pretty dismal - endless birch forest and the largest angelica plants - big as triffids. We had our usual endless wandering about town when we got to Gatchina trying to locate a hotel that would be able to register our visas. Eventually after asking many people and going backwards and forwards over the same ground we were guided by a man on a bike who took us off into the suburbs and deposited us outside a decaying tower block. Ted went off inside whilst I stayed to look after the bikes. He disappeared for a very long time. It turned out he was closeted with a female member of the Russian athletics team. He eventually emerged somewhat frazzled. Apparently the US/Russian athletics teams were running a joint training session and all the hotels in Gatchina were fully booked - this was established by another receptionist manking loads of phone calls. At that pont we decided to contact the agent through which we had booked our appartment in St P to see if she could fix us up with accommodation in the City. Larissa came up trumps - 2 different flats for the 2 nights we needed before our original booking became available.

Just a quick one on russian roads. The surface is as if there were two layers, the top one about an inch and a half thick. The top layer is absent for about 50% in gaps about 12 inches in diameter. Don't swerve to slalom past the pot holes as the driver behind will wipe you out. Russian drivers pass with a few inches to spare ; they only avoid things that might damage their cars. Often it is better to cycle on the gravel verge. We'll be getting the train for the first 100 km out of ST P on our way to Finland!

The train journey from Gatchina to St P was interesting. The suburban trains are completely different to the intercity ones. The carriages are almost level with the platform and we had the usual helpful person to give us a hand - something that fills me with dread as my bike is bristling with oil. The carriages are also incredibly wide - double the width of a Metropolitan line carriage. We became the object of many dropped jaws as we stood at the end of the carriage reserved for luggage - very convenient for bikes - in our plumage and helmets. A succession of accordion players, magicians and travelling salesmen passed through the carriage to provide additional entertainment.

1 km to the Russian Border

We have reached Narva the Last city in the EU and are staying in a hotel less than 1km from the border. Tomorrow we cross back into the world of Visas, migration forms and finding some hotel that will register the migration form each night, still that's what we came here for. Crossing the border might be fun. The queue for trucks started 8km outside the town and the border is 1km on the other side.





It's not always sunny. Here's a picture of Sarah in her wet weather kit, note the sexy neoprene booties









We've had a really nice time in Estonia. Attractions include excellent cakes, proper cups of tea to go with the cakes, good roads, good drivers, cafes with tables outside and menus we can read and of course cakes.


We spent a few days resting in Tartu and went to Tallinn on the train. Both really interesting but the little villages along Lake Peipsi were the best. You can see from the map that we rode along the side of it for about 50 km - you can't see the other side which is in Russia. The villages are inhabited by Russian Old Believers. Back in the 17thC the top beard in the orthodox church decided to change some of the rules. The Old Believers weren't having any of it so were persecuted and settled by Lake Peipsi. It seems they were still persecuted and the Soviets repressed them too. In spite of all that they survived and live in beautiful wooden houses. They fish and smoke the fish. We bought what we thought was their product in the supermarket only to discover that it was made in China. Along the way we overtook 2 runners from Belgium. They hadn't run all the way from Brussels - only Tallinn a mere 175 kms!

Some towns have no restaurants so we have developed the 'room picnic' to a fine art. Here is a picture of the gorgeous collection of E numbers we ate our way through last night.

We keep saying this, but I think we will quiet for three or four days as we don't expect much in the way of internet caffs until we get to St Petersburg which, as you can see from this picture is now not too far. We visited Sillamae on the sign which was a top secret location for the extraction of Uranium from oil shale. Stalin had the town built from scratch in 1949 and laid it out in a Soviet version of a 19th C Baltic town complete with pastel stucco and a recorded Big Ben type chime on the town hall clock.

Another vowel please Carol

As we get closer and closer to Finland the language becomes more and more impenetrable - we now don't even recognise the word for beer. Luckily most people we come into contact with now can speak excellent English so we aren't going thirsty. One of our blog readers kindly said it was more exciting than the Archers - probably he was being ironic but for all our fans of the everyday story of country folk we have exciting news about the evolution of the Baltic haystack. Wheras in Poland the hay was collected into little heaps the stacks have become more elaborate as we've gone north. Latvia had stacks with a hole in the middle and now Estonia has gone one better and they look like little cottages. We met a lovely Frenchman called Pierre. Guess where? In a bus shelter. He had been following a route much like ours but was heading off to Finland. He hadn't noticed the haystacks but had an interesting series of photos of strange towers which we hadn't seen at all. We had a jolly lunch together in the bus shelter and met him again by accident in Tartu where we are staying now.

Here's a picture of the lunch.

For students of economics or sociology, we were amazed by the step change when we crossed from Latvia into Estonia, which we did on the quietest border crossing I have ever seen. In about half an hour only three vehicles passed us in any direction. It's a cliche but it was like passing into Switzerland. Beautifully kept farms wide and empty roads and drivers with great manners and patience. We can now pass parked cars without think our time might be coming. We are staying in a Soviet era hotel which is very calm quiet and comfortable. As we write our bikes are parked, next to the piano in what we think might be a ballroom. It seems that the swankier the hotel the more accommodating the staff are about our bikes.

We are Tartu which is Estonia's University town and is well worth a visit. We are staying here for a couple of days; tomorrow we are going to Tallinn on the train for the day. We are currently puzzling about how to get to St Petersburg. It's only one day's ride from the Estonian border and we have spent some of this morning trying to see if there is nice tourist detour we can make. It's not looking to good, so we think we will make the one day dash to the southern suburbs and take the train the last 20 km

For our Archers fans here's a picture of Estonian haystacks.














And finally a glamour shot

Who would have thought we would find an Internet caff here

We are now in Aluksne in the northwestern corner of Latvia. Tomorrow we will cross into Estonia, Inshallah.
You can see from the map that our route is a bit zigzagging. We are aiming to enter Russia at its western border with Estonia. We have to find a route which is not too busy and has a sealed surface and the potential of a hotel every 90 km or so. Anyway there is no rush; our flat in St Petersburg is booked from 12 July and we are very close. Today for the first time where we are are and St Petersburg are on the same page of the map we are using. This installment is going to be more boring than usual. We have found a hotel every night, not much rain no interactions with visa hungry border guards. just cycling along roads like this. This is actually quite an important picture for us. It was at our 2000 km mark. It is at a bus shelter which are our favourite venues for meals and hiding from the rain. Amazingly, just after I took this picture a vision in high heeled ankle strap silver sandals, wearing a very short tight black skirt appeared from nowhere. She ignored my greeting. The nearest "village" was 10 km away.

We enjoyed our stop in Vilnius. We stayed in a really nice hotel with a convenient striptease club in the basement. Fortunately one of the best things we have brought with us is a set of wax earplugs that even the most persistent base line does not penetrate. Vilnius was well provided with bicycle shops and even had neoprene booties so we will never have wet feet again - in fact they are already working as it has not rained since.

We did not plan to visit Vilnius but were really glad we went there. As a consequence of our immaculate planning we arrived on the Midsummer holiday and all the museums etc were closed - just as they were in Gdansk - however Ted will not escape museums in St Petersburg




Finding somewhere to stay is part of the fun. Hereš the hotel we stayed at last night. An old country house 4 km down a dirt road that has recently been converted from an orphanage. A beautiful house furnished with local antiques. If you look carefully you can see my yellow shirt hanging up to dry in the top right window.




In complete contrast but just as nice was this place we stayed in Lithuania - the guest house was on the top floor over the DIY shop- they kindly let us bring the bikes inside - although transporting them up 2 flights of stairs was a bit of a hike. We made our own supper rather than go out - there was a good kitchen. The other residents were a bunch of blokes - all of whom must have been provided with a weeks supply of garlic sausages by their wives or girlfriends as the fridge was packed with them.






Unless you really, really have to, don't ever ever go to Daugavpils!


We plan to cross into Estonia tomorrow and will make our way to Tartu on Tuesday, where we spend a few days. Sarah has kept her word and hasn't gone on about Latvian drivers. Their special skill is just missing us.