It was a big pity that we were so late in the Hotel Diadem in the south side of Chojnice. It was very nice small hotel with swimming pool inside.
We started riding about 9 am and it was quite boring day riding through Poland. But luckily I had chosen the small roads so we got some interesting surprises.
Here’s resting place with 3 cannons and 1 tank.
Big size and very rusty steam locomotive in the middle of Polish countryside. And beside it there was abandoned train station.
Here’s a picture of a typical Polish countryside road:
The road goes often between the trees and it’s nice on a sunny day because you’re in the shadows… And when you take the picture the sunny fields behind the trees looks like bright light celebration!
Then we took some time to get to know the Fortress in Kostrzyn nad Odrą. We walked on the walls and admired Germany on the other side of the river. We also checked the ruins and some of the catacombs that still remains in the area.
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Made few mistakes! Planned a long route with 2 times crossing the Russian border… Ooops! But I’ll tell you later about it.
First there was a ride from Plinkses to Klaipeda harbour, and from there we took a ferry to Curonian Spit. Ferry costs 3,35€. And after we arrived the spit there was a roadtoll (5€/ bike). And we also had to pay the toll again in Russian side (that was a little bit more than 4€). The road in Curonian Spit is beautiful, it even has some corners and uphills-downhills.
We stopped in one beach to take some pictures of the Baltic ocean. We also stopped in Nida to buy something from the shop.
After Nida it was time for the first border check-Ins! These first check-Ins took about 1h 30mins! Then we’re in Russia!!
This is Amber museum in the center of Kaliningrad.
And this is the worlds biggest castle in Malbork Poland.
But before we could ride in Poland we had to cross the border again! The Russian side of the border was ok, (quite fast) but then the Poland side of the border-check was with a very long line!!! We had to wait more than 2 hours!!! What a catastrophe! We were so late in our accommodation! It was 9,30 pm and we started 8.30 am and there in the middle we moved from timezone to another…. so it was more than 14 hours of ride!!!
Note to myself:
– If you’re about to ride Curonian Spit, you better have 1 whole day to do it!
– If you’re about to cross the Russian border twice a day, don’t ever think it’d take 2-3 hours! It will take more!
The route was Kirkkonummi – Espoo – Helsinki – Tallinna – Pärnu – Riika – Saldus – Plinkses and about 500 kilometers like this! It was mostly big road and very boring day, the only merrier road was the Old Pärnu Road on the southside of Pärnu. There we also stopped ro take a swim in the Bay of Riga. The water was very warm!
Here is the parking area about 100m away from the sea. The day was HOT (about +30-32 celsius) so swimming was a very good idea!
This is a view from the resting area just outside Saldus -city. It was a Beautiful place.
Here is a picture of our MOST BEAUTIFUL hotel!
You can follow this trip in facebook (https://www.facebook.com/PVTourinki/), mostly in Finnish.
In instagram (https://www.instagram.com/gozamite/) and in moottoripyora.org forum (http://www.moottoripyora.org/keskustelu/showthread.php/289047-Parlez-Vous-TouRinki), only in Finnish!
And as you can guess the trip is called “Parlez-Vous TouRinki”!
FInally I had a chance to take a weekend tour!! I started on Friday 27th of May and I choose the route and the direction where I had motocaching spots as many as possible to find!
This was my route on Friday. The first motocache I marked as “found it” was from Urjala to Huittinen, it’s a panoramic route in a typical Finnish countryside landscape.
This is called “Road of the Magic Night”
Later I stopped in a cafeteria with a beautiful location beside the lake and a bridge.
Sadly this Otamus Cafe wasn’t open so it was no snacks for me! Quite soon after this cafeteria it was one of the twisty roads that I had been waiting! But (WTF!?) it started raining! I had to put on my rainsuit to avoid getting wet and I didn’t really enjoy the corners… Ok, few kilometers in tho north part the road was dry again.
Friday I added 7 new caches to my list. Last one was the cafe beside the militarybase Niinisalo, It’s called a Sotilaskoti in Finnish and I think the English word is naafi(?)
These cafes are usually quite cheap comparing to ordinary ones.
The route for the second day (Saturday 28th) was like this. Again I was choosing roads and spots I could mark as found in motocaching.net. The first one was very old road from the middle ages called “Kyrönkankaantie” (Cache only in finnish). The first time it is mentioned was in 1556, but today it is only rarely used road in the middle of the forest. It would be great ride for a endurobike!!
At 02:00 I choose the wrong road and at 02:30 I stop to wonder why the GPS shows that I’m somewhere in the middle of nowhere??!! And I make the U-turn!
The second spot was a tower in the top of the mountain in the national park (Lauhanvuori national park). I have a physical fear of heights (not mental), if I go to a high place I haven’t been before I start to feel it on my stomach and in my feet. When I was younger I’ve even passed out few times. In this tower I had some trouble to stay on my feet but after a couple of minutes it was ok. I think the tower is over 20m high!
There was one road in the national park that I took. This was fun!! (And pitty I didn’t have my KTM!)
In the routemap it shows that I’m making U-turn at the end of this road, but since there are no traffic signs I just ride through to the bigger road (at 11:00 in the video)
Little bit later I took another tower, this was not as high and it was new. But when I climbed to the top I could feel the tower moving!! That didn’t feel ok at all!! They built it too light!
Then there was few rural roads, one of them had so big stones in it and I really didn’t like it at all!! (With my KTM Enduro it would’ve been ok!). Then I arrived in Karijoki, there’s a very old cave called “susiluola” (Wolf cave), it is the only place in northern Europe
where they’ve found some evidence of humans living before the ice-age! Although the evidence is not certified to be as old as they say (120 000 years old)! Here’s some info in english.
It was a disappointment that you coudn’t visit inside the cave!
Just few kilometers from the cave there’s a skiing center where you can ride your bike to the top of the mountain -and there’s a great view!
Not far away from here is the city called Kristiinankaupunki, I’ve actually never been here before and there’s one strange alley… It’s very narrow and it is still a 2-way street! This is the most narrow 2-way street in Finland!
The name of the road is “Kissanpiiskaajankuja” (Catwhippersalley… Yes, a guy who’s whipping the cat!!)
From Kristiinankaupunki I was riding straight south following the coastline. The road to Siipyy, Merikarvia and Ahlainen is not extremely good… but it’s not boring either.
This is the belltower in Siipyy.
Late afternoon I was finally arriving Tahkoluoto and Reposaari. These are outer islands but possible to reach by road. I was lucky to have a beautiful sunny weather while riding the road to these islands. I found the beautiful restaurant on the south-end of Reposaari called “Merimesta”. I choose to eat the buffet even it was not cheap (27€) but it was all worth it!!
Finally spent the night in Pori and woke up next morning in cloudy west-coast city.
Sunday (Third day) route was like this, still choose the roads following the coastline. Visited the harbour in Luvia, I had never actually been there before. Usually there’s a new sailboat in the pier called “Ihana” (Wonderful) and I was so early in the morning it was not out in the sea and I was able to see it!
I rode to Vuojärvi Mansion -that is a very big and beautiful old mansion in the westcoast!
Stopped in Rauma to check the old town and it still is so beautiful and amazing area!
Then slowly I arrived to Turku and I checked few places before I chose the highway to Helsinki and the way home. It was pitty that Sunday was cloudy… I even had some drops of water in the morning but I didn’t get wet.
Here’s one picture from Turku… One of the most famous buildings in Finland:
Turku Castle!
This last day I had the longest route but it was the shortest day… And it’s because I choose the highway Turku-Helsinki, almost 170 kilometers of 120km/h speed. I was home at 4pm.
Now I’m waiting my next trip which is starting on 26th of June. That will be 3 weeks in Europe and maybe more than 7000 kilometers!!!
Motorcycle Survival training course is held by MP69. MotOrg has never had any training courses in gravel or off-road riding. But now we had the first one ever (together with MP69 trainers). There was 3 different training spots: braking in gravel road, turning your bike in a sandpit and turning your bike in the forest.
Here are the videos (Sorry about the finnish language):
Here is braking in the gravel, I have good control but it seems that I have difficulties to keep my eyes on the horizon.
Here’s the sandpit where the sand is surprisingly soft (and in my first attempt my engine stopped)
Here’s the forest spot. The discussion after my ride is about turning your head before the turn and sitting or standing while riding (I was standing). But there is no right or wrong about that matter…
Then after these 3 spots we had a little bit longer ride in the forest:
The uphill is quite steep and my engine stopped just after the most difficult part.
Then we had lunch in Gasthaus Wäinölä. And after that we took a ride in the Finnish forestroad. These were not too often used roads so the surface was quite challenging (with big round pebbles).
With the biggest pebbles I had difficulties to keep my hands relaxed. I was afraid about the front tire going crosswise so I had to squeeze… I know I shouldn’t do it!
It is quite obvious that we will have more of these training sessions! Maybe without help from another team. Looking forward to that!
Day 4
Sunday morning was still nice and sunny. First we took a ride to Piirsalu village with the old nuclear missile base (https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id6344)
Then we continued to Rummu Quarry. It’s an old mining quarry and a prison area but it’s been closed many years now. The quarry is filled with crystal clear water and I took a swim!
(https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id6257)
All the gates and possible routes through the old prison area were closed, so we choose to ride to the “backstage” and from there we could see the area nicely!
The white mountains on the left is the waste material from the limestone mining.
From Rummu we took a ride to Paldiski and the lighthouse on the north side of the (ugly) city. The cliffs to the Gulf of Finland are spectacular here!
(https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id5019) Nowadays you can also visit the Pakri lighthouse!
Then we had only the final leg to the Tallinn and a little time to visit Lennusadam -the seaplane harbour. This is a huge museum in a spectacular place. I really recommend to visit there! (https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id6950)
We had 4 days ride through Estonia and a small part of Latvia. It was 1100km’s all together and still I can say… If you ever come to Estonia with a motorcycle don’t expect too much about the roads… But what you really should do is get to know the possible places and sites in every village and city beforehand! There’s something very interesting to see almost everywhere!
Day 3
We started the day by going to visit the 2 nice castles of Sigulda.
(https://motocaching.net/en/cache/viewb/id6980)
And also the cave down beside the river, this cave has walls of sandstone with many signatures from long time ago. (https://motocaching.net/en/cache/viewb/id6955)
Then we started riding the route for saturday. First we took nice road from Turaida to Saulkrasti. This would be very nice… but the pavement is so bad condition that you have to concentrate to keep the bike in balance and you can’t really enjoy the long sweeping bends. (https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id6830). From Saulkrasti you can find a monument of finnish bomber Junkers JK-274 crash in 1943. It is quite interesting to find finnish language in the middle of Latvia! (https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id6124)
Then after many kilometers of boring Via Baltica we took the old road of Pärnu. It is more pleasant ride because of the many small villages, old wooden houses and small shops. This 35 kilometer long road gives you some alternative route to Via Baltica. (https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id4794)
In Pärnu we took a short lunch-break in Aleksandri Pub (https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id6338)
And in the north side of Pärnu we took a short visit in Villa Andropoff, this has quite interesting history but it didn’t give me any shivers. Looked like old Spa or something…
The Beach in this Villa was fantastic! Many kilometers of white sand everywhere.
Finally after a long and quite hot riding-day we arrived to Haapsalu. We visited the Haapsalu Episcopal Castle. Last time I was here (20 years ago?) it was only the ruins of the castle but now there was a museum and many different parts of the castle where you can enter. The bell tower, the hospital, the cathedral, the dungeons… we’re almost running everyhting through and still it took more than 1 hour! The entrance fee to the museum is 5€ and I really recommend to visit there!
(https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id6310)
For saturday evening we choose to eat Pizza. There is 1 very nice pizzeria in Haapsalu, Pizza Grande!
Our hotel was the Spa by the ocean so we also enjoyed some jacuzzi and sauna (in Spa Laine)
Day 2
From Mustvee we rode south, first stop was in in a small village Kallaste. There are some special formations of sandstone, they are called Kallaste paljand (https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id6339)
After this interesting beach we rode more south. And after one pretty nice road we arrived in Kavastu village beside the river “Ema” and a small ferry going over it. That ferry had a very special engine!!! (https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id6318)
He made a very good deal taking 8 bikes together! Normally 1 car is 5 euros, now we all paid 5 euros (40 euros all together) so it was worth of the sweat he made!!
And after some riding we arrived to Otepää and Puhajarve. From there to Puka is maybe the best road in Estonia! (https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id6717)
From Puka we still rode more south and finally arrived in Latvia. There we made a stop in a nice town of Cesis and took a walking tour in the old castle. (https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id6718).
I’ve been in this castle before! And still I’m like Wow!
Finally we arrived in Sigulda and ofcourse we visited the bobsleigh track! (Been here many times!) (https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id3845). The view all over the beautiful area of Sigulda is simply magnificent!
(These pictures by Maaemo)
We stayed in my favourite Hotel Sigulda and had a great dinner in its restaurant!
This was the starter, Salmon Tartar… Omm Omm!
…to be continued
Day 1
www.motocaching.net -Check these pages to find places near you!
In 2015 we had a group ride with motocachers few times but we also decided to do it “bigger” in 2016. So we took the boat to Tallinn and spent 4 days outside Finland. We visited over 20 caches: 3 castles, 2 waterfalls, 2 special cliffs, an old submarinebase and an old nuclearbase and ofcourse many roads.
Boat arrives to Tallinn 09.30 (thursday morning) am and 10am we were already in the first place!
This is Tallinn TV-tower (https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id6336) where you can visit in 170 meters to see the view but we only visited the parking area and soon continued to the next place.
This is Jägala waterfall (https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id6334), only 30km’s east from Tallinn.
Then we also rode some nice roads with more corners than usually in Estonia:
From Leesi to Loksa https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id4975 and
from Loksa to Vihasoo (following the coastline) https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id4978
Somewhere there in the middle we visited the old submarine base (From the Russian rule).
This is amazing abandoned place where I have visited before. But it still makes me think about the working conditions during Russian rule! https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id4977
Here’s a video from Hara to Loksa village:
Next we had another waterfall, over 30 meters high!
This is Valaste waterfall quite close to Russian border, there’s also a beautiful view to the sea (Gulf of Finland) https://motocaching.net/en/cache/view/id6335
We spent the night in Mustvee, a small city beside the Lake Peipsi. This is a huge lake with half of it belonging to Russia.
Early morning in Lake Peipsi.
…to be continued
GoZa Mite 