Marching About

Well, we made it back to Berlin and I tallied up the results: Total Distance: 1831.63 (including trips around cities) Total Ascent: 13482 m (44,232 ft) Average Speed: 20.8 km/h (12.92 mph) And I found a cool application that ties the maps with my pictures. Check it! If the flash doesn't work, or you don't want to see it in Flash, click this link here. Berlin to Helsinki Baltic Bike Tour

We woke up (relatively) early on Saturday because we needed to get bike boxes to put our bikes on the plane. Fortunately, there was a bike shop close by and we were directed to the dumpsters to pick a box that we liked. But it was biking home carrying an unwieldy box that was the challenge. Especially for Mylène simply because her bike is lower to the ground, but we managed to bike the short 2-mile ride back to our hosts' house, a little bit north of the city center. We didn't want to box our bikes immediately because we couldn't take the bus on such a nice day with such incredible bike paths. We headed towards the dock to take a boat to Suomalinna, an island in the archipelago just south of the center. There are actually several thousand people who live on the island, which used to be a fortress to protect Helsinki in medieval times. There are fortified walls mixed in with people's own houses. Tourists go there to see museums detailing the kings of Finland. Finnish ...

Helsinki, une ville idéale : beaucoup d'îles, des pistes cyclables formidables, un magnifique coucher de soleil qui dure 3 heures et des concerts gratuits dans les parcs... Ne serait-ce la bière à 3 euros en supermarché, on y resterait presque pour continuer nos vacances... Photos: île de Suomenlinna petite pause coucher de soleil vers 20h30, le ciel restera clair jusqu'à 2h du mat

Mylène riding her bike onto the ferry in Tallinn We made it! It's been a couple days since I've made a post and now our Helsinki experience is over and we are in the airport. We were hosted in Helsinki by Juha, an electrical engineer at Helsinki Technical University. In terms of bicycle paths, I have never seen such a well laid-out network of beautiful bike paths. They criss-cross the streets using tunnels and bridges, are often situated far enough away from the street to avoid noise and exhaust, and are even lighted with street lamps at night. I imagine that this is the compensation for having 6 months of blistering cold and dark winter. Bikes go everywhere in the city. The first day after stepping off the boat, I was so excited by the paths that I just rode aimlessly for 40 miles around some forests and in the city while Mylène, frustrated by having brought only one change of clothes for the entire trip, went to get some new threads on sale (if you pay...

We completed out last big day of cycling for this trip, how sad. We biked 132km from Pärnu to Tallinn and tomorrow will be taking the ferry to Helsinki. This ride probably took us the longest amount of time because we were hit with enormous headwinds as soon as we started out and rain as soon as the wind died down a little bit. But at this point we are so used to it, we just pushed through to our couchsurfer's doorstep. Yesterday we hung around the very large old town, most of it was preserved during the Soviet bombings so, as many guide books state, it has charm by the bucket-load. There is a lot going on in the old town and a lot to see. So we took another free tour like the one in Rīga to sort of get our bearings.Estonia is one of the least religious countries, between 10-16% actually identify with some kind of organized religion, the rest are atheists. We saw an old church that had been destroyed in a fire, then rebuilt by the Soviets as an Atheism museum, but now it's a ...

Quelques spécificités d'un supermarché estonien: d'abord, le rayon alcool est disproportionné par rapport à la taille du supermarché: environ 3 fois la taille standard en France, avec un choix immense. Ensuite, voilà bien un rayon inconnu en Europe de l'Ouest: le rayon sauna, avec les brosses, les louches à eau, les paquets de feuilles sèches à appliquer sur la peau, les huiles essentielles. Nous avons déjà eu l'occasion de tester un vrai sauna dans une maison de Pärnu et attendons la Finlande pour compléter notre expérience ! le rayon sauna d'un supermarché standard Position: Nunne,Tallinn,Estland

Dernière journée de trajet hier pour arriver à Talinn !!! Vent et pluie, mais maintenant on y est habitués. Nombre d'animaux rencontrés: En vrac, -plus de 300 cigognes avec les bébés dans leurs nids, qui s'effraient quand on passe en vélo -200 vaches qui, elles, ne s'effraient pas quand on leur crie dessus -55 grenouilles écrasées sur la route -40 mouettes qui crient très fort -1 élan, un vrai, pas peureux - 30 oiseaux de proie inquiétants - d'autres oiseaux indéfinissables écrasés sur les routes. panneau de signalisation Andrew essayant de communiquer avec les vaches en letton. Peu d'intérêt en retour.

It was sad to leave all of our newfound Latvian friends. The ambiance of the festival and what was pretty much a yearly reunion between 50 friends made us want to stay and just hang out. But in just a few short kilometers we were already leaving Latvia. On the border coming into Estonia. We got onto a lovely rural road that took us along the sea and through the forest just to the side. Through the woods we could see little villages tucked away in the trees. A village in the forest, on the other side of the trees is the Baltic. These sights and the wooden houses were the first things that impressed us about Estonia. It provided a stark difference to the brick houses we've seen everywhere else, with a lot of space in between. We even saw some Hobbit holes. Although it's a little cold here, I think Peter Jackson had Estonia in mind if New Zealand hadn't worked out for The Lord of the Rings. Posing with the Hobbit hole in the Estonian Shire. When we arrive in Pärnu we were eage...

La variété de nos Couch-Surfers nous fournit une variété d'activités: ici, dans une maison en pleine campagne, Andrew aidant à l'arrosage:

Ces derniers jours, nous parcourons de courtes distances et avons le temps de visiter la région, au gré des panneaux touristiques que nous croisons: Turaida castle

There is one thing going on in Salacgrīva this weekend, the Positivus Music Festival. But to get there we had to brave a few harsh elements. It was raining when we left and shortly thereafter turned into a frigid downpour. Which of course we rode through, it helped being able to see the better weather at the other end of the storm clouds. But after the rain came the wind, loud and intense - probably about 20mph - blowing due east as we headed west towards the sea. To add insult to injury, the nice national route we were on suddenly turned from asphalt to dirt. Mylène approaching the long dirt stretch in the road, riding directly into the wind. There was no sign or warning, the pavement just stops as you can see in the photo Since it had just rained our bikes sank into the wet sand and we pumped hard to counter the wind. And then I saw the source of the deep, wet sands: Road maintenance, instead of taking advantage of the packed dirt, we were riding over the fresh layer. WTF. But then, ...

We woke up on the river bank and had a dip. But only because it looked so enticing, not because of the temperature which was quite cold. Then we rode into the wind and uphill for an hour. I'm not sure why there were so many hills since Latvia is fabled to be as flat as a board, the highest point of the whole country is 320 m, or less than 1000 ft. We stopped midway at a castle in Brivuldi. Although there was a wedding going on, that didn't stop is from going inside and checking out the decadent interior. Mylène dancing in the great hall at the Brivuldi Pils (Pils is Latvian for castle) Then we headed to a tiny village outside of Limbaži called Igate. We had been invited by a couchsurfer but it turned out that she was in Rīga at the time, so we were hosted by her lovely mother, Inta. Inta lives by herself in a house at the end of a dirt road bordering a forest. She grew up in Rīga but she bought this 200-year old house and property and left the city 13 years ago to pursue her pa...

Camping in a national park in Latvia next to the Gauja river: It wasn't super far away to get here from Rīga and we arrived in the early afternoon - enough time to wander around the park. We took some scenic bike trails through the forest, saw some old mansions in the hills and visited a medieval castle from 1244. View of the river and the castle ruins from the surviving watch tower. I think I spotted some attacking Visigoths. Mylène taking a break in the grass on the castle grounds. We also biked to a famous overlook called the Artist's hill because the view makes it look like a naturally framed canvas. Position: Peldu iela,Sigulda,Lettland

We started the day early and took advantage of Agita's work schedule to head out and get oriented with her. We started by going across one of the bridges spanning the huge Drauga river to check out the new National Library. The symbolism is supposed to be from Latvian a Latvian poem that says that the city will rise like a castle of light from the darkness (assumed to be the occupation). This was our most clichéd touristy day - Rīga is also the most touristy city we've been to. We wandered around the old town a little and latched on to a free tour where we learned lots of fun facts about the history and the architecture. Mylène doing the tourist thing in the middle of a square. The city is 800 years old and you can see tons of different styles from different periods. 3 houses from different eras: From the left 18th century when narrow was in because you were charged based on the amount of street space taken by you'd house, 17th century with a small attic/store room, 16th ce...

We seemed to have just arrived in Lithuania and now we must leave. We biked possibly the straightest, flattest road we've ever been on. Pretty much 130km straight from Šiauliai to Rīga. We later saw pictures of people who, in 1989, lined the same road we were on which connects Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius with 2 million people all holding hands along 600 km to signify the unity of the three Baltic countries near the end of the Soviet occupation. On the way we stopped at two sites. The first was a rather strange hill completely covered in crosses. People offer prayers by placing a cross on the hill, I suppose this would provide some sort of beacon because of the sheer concentration of crosses. But if god didn't hear about it, the pope certainly did and even came to visit (not while we were there). The hill of crosses, Kryžiu kalnas To balance out our religions for the day we also went to see some renovated Synagogues in Joniškis. They are currently renovating one of the...