Nice Trip (Day 1)

Posted by gozamite on 15.11.2018
Posted in: adventure, Kävely, Matkustus, Travel, Video. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

I made reservation for this trip in August. I was thinking it would be nice to spend some time with my wife when we’ve been married about 1 year… And even in foreign countries! (In the summer we couldn’t go abroad because the residence permit wasn’t ready yet) -So the destination for this trip would be Nice (Nizza).
We took the plane from Helsinki to Nice very early on Sunday morning.
nor
We landed to this mediterranean city about 10.30 am. Then we took the bus to the city center. It was still raining when we arrived (But rain stopped right after we started walking from the bus stop to the hotel).
This day we dedicated for getting to know the city. And there is one place particularly that gives you very good idea about what is this beautiful city all about: The Castle Hill (Colline du Château). There used to be also a castle but King Louis XIV asked it to be destroyed in 1706. In 19th century they started to design the park and fountain on the top of the hill. Also some parts of the olf castle has been renovated.
47584_o
We walked up to the hill from the east side. This side is not so steep and there are a lot of trees so the park looks kind of wild from this side.
28576_o
Restored parts of the old castle. This was maybe the inner yard or patio.
But when you finally reach the to of the hill the views are simply amazing!
48576_o
View to the east. It’s the harbour of Nice.
34048_o
And here’s the “famous view” to the beach boulevard of Nice. The mediterranean sea and the waves are very beautiful!
Ofcourse we took a walk also there…
rrem
We had small but very cozy hotel almost in the heart of the city (Vieille Ville). This area has very narrow alleys with many many restaurants and shops.
rrem
And our hotel room was in the 7th floor with the view to the Tête carrée (Cubic head in the modern art museum)
991936_o
I was restlessly already waiting for the next day!
You can check the video my wife made about this first day:

 

1 night mototrip in September

Posted by gozamite on 10.11.2018
Posted in: adventure, BMW motorrad, Make life a ride!, Moottoripyöräily, motorcycling, S1000XR. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

Me and my wife did a 1 night trip in 7th – 8th of September. I chose a small cabin from Aurantola and then it was only about how to ride there and back.
The first day ride was like this:


Here’s some pictures from Hyvinkää, Pulkkilanharju, Kalkkisten kanava, Heinola and Aurantola resort.
3968_o
This is from Library Square
67104_o
Bike parked at Hyvinkää
86624_o
Beautiful Pulkkilanharju
3168_o
Amazing Canal of Kalkkinen
463872_o
Art in Heinola (ITE puisto)
cof
Bike in Heinola
95200_o
Aurantola Cabin
692864_o
Aurantola sunset

Enduro autumn 2018

Posted by gozamite on 17.10.2018
Posted in: adventure, adventure bike, BMW, BMW motorrad, dirt bike, enduro, Extreme ride, gravel road, helmetcamera, kawasaki, KTM, Moottoripyöräily, motorcycle, motorcycling, Off-Road, videocamera. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

On august 17th I bought a new enduro bike! This time I chose BMW G650 XChallenge! It has the same 1-cylinder 650ccm Rotax-engine than in many many other bikes. It is known to be very trustful and you don’t have to make service all the time.
rrem
I rode the bike from Lappeenranta to home and I really was enjoying enduroriding again!
095432
During this autumn I’ve been riding few times with friends also and I’ve had videocamera with me. Here are some nice videos:

This was 2nd of september. We were riding mostly quite big roads/ easy roads so everyone could join the ride!

The roads in Kiikala area are very nice!! You really can enjoy the speed and essence of Finnish nature and adventure motorcycling!

This one is from Vihti/ Karkkila/ Lohja area (Rausjärvi). It is also a part of Trans Euro Trail route that I planned last spring. In this video there is a scary moment in 06:45 when a car comes from the yard straight in front of me! Luckily I had enough time to ride aside!

In the end of september we had a little bit different ride. This time mostly OffRoad. This was already in the beginning of the day… The most difficult parts! I can say that I was sweating like a pig… or a horse!

This path is quite well known route in Vihti. Not too difficult, almost quite ok for ordinary roadbike too.

This is one sandpit near Lohja. There is also nice small pond and we are riding around it two times.
And the last route is an old railroad (without rails) in Pikkala. The railroad was built by Russians when the area was part of Russia after the WWII.

In this video there is short break to take pictures under the bridge and then riding over the log. This log is not that difficult anymore…

Tour around Finland Day 16

Posted by gozamite on 16.9.2018
Posted in: adventure, Make life a ride!, Moottoripyöräily, Motorcycle Tour, motorcycling, S1000XR, videocamera. Tagged: , , , , , , , . Leave a comment

This is the last day of our tour around Finland. We didn’t try to follow borders as close as possible. It just came like this… We went north from the east side and came back from the west side. We tried to check nice places on our way but certainly there was many places that we didn’t see. So there will be many nice spots to visit in the future.
Quite soon after we started riding we had this road. The route has a very nice ridgeroad going through small lakes 2 times! These are very beautiful places to make short stop and take pictures.
408000_o
973760_o
These pictures are from Rantalansärkkä wich is the more beautiful one… or at least it is easier to stop the bike there.
492224_o
When we arrived to Ruovesi area we rode to the forest. With this bike and this load (maybe around 450kg’s) it’s not easy to ride on the forestroads if there is soft sand. We found this interesting “monument” or a memorial sign anyway.
742336_o
They put the sign because some war-veterans were planting this forest long time ago (I think it was 1972).
Couple hours later we took a short walk in the museum-bridge in Teisko.
427840_o
It’s called Aunessilta. It’s nowadays for walking only. Usually here you can see also some boats.
Then we checked one of the most famous place to have a coffeebreak (for motorcycle riders). It’s the Vehoniemi car-museum and cafeteria. This is located in a beatiful high ridge in Kangasala. The place is more than 40 meters higher than the lakesurface just beside the ridge! There is also a viewingtower.
648192_o
After this we didn’t make any stops anymore… We just ride back home!
Video of this day made by my wife:

The route for the last day was like this:

Tour around Finland Day 15

Posted by gozamite on 15.9.2018
Posted in: adventure, BMW motorrad, Matkustus, Moottoripyöräily, motocaching, motorcycling, S1000XR. Tagged: , , , , , . Leave a comment

The staright road home would be about 500 km’s -but not yet. We will still ride the small roads and explore this beautiful country.
On the southside of Pietarsaari is one of the most “Swedish” areas in Finland. Here we saw this:
703616_o
This “Klacken” is a big party place in “Lillby” (Small village). Most of these kind of places have died in Finland but this seems to be quite active!
8723584_o
Right beside this partyplace was the local shop. Seemed like an ordinary “K-Market” but actually it was more like a mall!
They had clothes, tools and almost everything you can imagine you will need while living in the countryside -even agricultural machinery!
51264_o
Soon after this “Lillby” we stopped at “Ilveskivi”. This is one of the biggest boulders in Finland. To get to the stone you have to walk almost 1 km and we didn’t change any clothes. It was still quite hot day so walking in riding gear was not a good idea!
1280_o
Luckily the place is very beautiful and the stone is huge! It rises 16 meters up from the groundlevel and they’ve even built the stairs there so you can climb to the top of the stone!
189184_o
After this stone we found nice beach to take a swim in Lappajärvi. And soon after the refreshing swim we checked the area full of war-machinery and trench in Menkijärvi.
This area is not actually a museum, but still it gives a good point of view how it was 75 years ago!
7421568_o
2792320_o
Just before we arrived to our next accommodation in Töysä village it was raining. Luckily it was just a short shower so we didn’t get totally wet. We just removed the bags from the bike to our room and changed to a little bit lighter clothing (it was still very hot after the rain) and we went to the small village shop…  We did some shopping and enjoyed the dinner in one of their restaurants.
951808_o
In the evening it started raining again but luckily it wasn’t heavy so we could take a short walk in totally dead Töysä-village. We saw maybe 10 people in the village (saturday evening 8pm).
rbsh
Töysä beach is in Lake Ponnenjärvi.
Video from my wife about this day:

The route for the day 15 was like this:

Tour around Finland Day 14

Posted by gozamite on 10.9.2018
Posted in: adventure, BMW motorrad, Make life a ride!, Moottoripyöräily, motocaching, motorcycling, S1000XR. Tagged: , , , . Leave a comment

This was about to be quite short day… (if you think about how many kilometers we made). But we saw many nice places anyway!
First was Kalajoki!
72032_o
It’s a huge sand-dune area and quite a lot of holiday activities around it. We were there very early in the morning but we took the swim anyway.
Then there was Ohtakari Island at the end of Vattajaniemi -area. These are the biggest sand dunes in northern Europe, the area is about 40 square kilometers wide! Here you can also park your bike beside the sea!
18112_o
I swam also here, my wife didn’t…
In Kokkola we stopped to check the longboat that was taken from the Royal Navy when they tried to conquer the city in Crimean war (quite a lot of the fights were at the coast of Finland).
95776_o
This is the Royal Navy longboat from Halkokari fight.
There is one abandoned lighthouse in the northside of the city. This is very interesting place! It would also be quite spooky place in the dark (I guess)…
153600_o
It’s called Harrbåda lighthouse.
Around 10 years ago there was quite nice motel, beach and restaurant and I spent quite many nights in this place long long time ago…
179584_o
But then slowly they didn’t have customers anymore, they should have renovate the place and make it modern but they decided to sell it (or it went to bankruptcy?). I think the price was something like 10 million euros first… but quite soon the price went down. The place was so terrible condition!
75200_o
2015 there was news that they have new owner and there will be totally new hotel and restaurant… But it seems nothing happened there yet!
Then we stopped at Öja fishing village and this beautiful cafeteria in the harbour. It’s called Bryggan café.
88832_o
Here you can easily spend many hours just sitting in the café and enjoying the atmosphere!
Then finally we arrived to Pietarsaari -this is one of the most beautiful cities in Finland!
022848_o
7728_o
But the hotel we had was totally opposite to all this nice surroundings!
We had Hotel Vega with quite nice price but there was simply nothing good the place!!
– Reception was totally dark when I went in
– They had lots of strange toys and items everywhere. And when I say “lots of…” I mean like hell of a LOT!
– There was dead bird in front of our door
– Room was dirty, there was sand in my wife’s bed
– The yard was dirty, I think it was cleaned maybe 10 years ago
– Breakfast was not fresh! There was lots of canned food!
– It was like the hotel from the movie “The Shining” but in small size… very spooky!
Here’s some pictures:

But at least I got one nice picture of my wife just outside our room!
124032_o
She’s the one who makes these videos:

The route for the day 14 was like this: