This guesthouse “Azymut” in Stary Folwark was interesting. It was very new but quite many things didn’t work at all. The most disturbing was that when you took a shower the water came also to the bathroom floor. But there was no floor drain from where the water could go out!! So the bathroom was very wet and very slippery! In the beginning of our day we rode through Grajewo -town. We made a short stop in a small park with few old military “things”.
MiG-15UTI in Park Wojsko Polskie
The route of the day was about going south. We didn’t choose too much big roads and sometimes it felt like we didn’t move at all. But finally we reached the Veiksel river and beautiful Kazimierz Dolny town. We had very big room from the hotel with thick walls. The mobile network was working only if you were reaching out from the window!
In internet! (The hotel WiFi didn’t work)
Of course we went out to check the city! But just to find out that everything costs (even parking!) and cash only! We even walked up to the castle just to find out that no credit card…
Kazimierz Dolny castleKazimierz Dolny cathedral with nice view to the riverMarket Square
From the market square we found quite many restaurants. But we didn’t find english menu. Yes! I can use google translator but because it seemed that they dodn’t like tourists here we de decided to test their attitude. Finally in one restaurant there was a waitress who was at least smiling nicely and they had the menu partly in english -so we decided to stay there. Unfortunately I got quite terrible food even it was just a pizza. I think they fried a frozen one…
We continued riding west and soon we’re filling the tank near Haapsalu town. I noticed that I didn’t have my wallet in my pocket and also that someone was trying to call me… I called back and it was the owner of the previous BnB and she told that my wallet was there! First I was little bit in panic -I thought we needed to go back to get the wallet but then we tried my wifes Debit card if it was working in Estonia… and it was perfectly ok. She also said that she had some cash so we could easily get along next 2-3 days and we could go back to get my wallet on saturday evening when we were already coming back. So now with full tank of 95 octane gasoline we checked the Haapsalu castle.
Quite a lot of renovation going on in the castle
After about 20 minutes walk around the area we continued to the airport:
Kiltsi airport
This is old military airport and it is not in use anymore. Sometimes they are having some dragraces for cars or for bikes… but mostly it’s empty and you can easily try how fast your bike can go! I didn’t take my bags off so I did only 120km/h. Just beside the airport is quite nice ruins of old manor (Ungru manor). The owner started to build the house for his loved one…. But then she died and soon the owner died too and house was never finished!
Then we rode to the Port of Rohuküla to wait for the ferry to Hiiumaa. It gave is nicely about 40 minutes time to relax while the ferry was sailing to the port of Heltermaa. But already before 3pm we were checking the next place: The abandoned church of Paluküla.
Church was abandoned during WW II but nowadays it has new roof!
Then we took the road “Tahkuna Tee” or road number 113. This is definitely the best ride in Hiiumaa island. It takes you to Tahkuna lighthouse and behind this lighthouse there is memorial monument of M/S Estonia accident that happened in September 28, 1994. This memorial is especially for the children who died in this tragic disaster.
Very nice location for a simple memorial!
Next we checked some kind of adventure park (?!)
Santa MariaSome kind of castle/ maze (?)…and the EIffel Tower, size is 10x smaller than original
This park is built by one person and it is kind of private place. But after he built this Eiffel everyone wanted to see the place and climb to the tower! We didn’t climb there because we had another tower to climb!
Built in 1531
Kõpu lighthouse is probably the third oldest lighthouse in the world that is still operational! It is 36 meters high and the first staircase is about 22 meters straight climb. 1 stair is about 40 cm’s high so it is quite difficult climb for a small person. The railing on the top is totally too low (for me) -I was only sitting beside the tower and not going close to the edge. I think I would’ve fainted if I would go there!
Views from the top are amazing!
We had a nice Guesthouse in Kassari village and we were very lucky about dinner! The only restaurant in this village was closed but we got food anyway. And this was because there was some big group eating and they served us the same food -and it was even very good! Nicely done and good service, thank you Lest & Lammas!
My wife’s video of the day 2
Third day morning it was raining so we didn’t start riding too early, we took it very slow!
After this chapel we found something very spectacular! One of the most amazing places I’ve ever visited is the Sääre Tirp -peninsula. We left the bike to the parking area and started to walk south. After 2 kilometers walk there were no trees anymore only very narrow piece of land and it was going more narrow all the time. I took my drone up!
Nice sunshine after the rainy morning…
It took about 2 hours for us to walk to the end of treeline and back. There was still quite long distance to walk until there was no land anymore, maybe something like 5-600 meters until the total end of Sääre Tirp. Next we checked the small lighthouses on the westside from Port of Sõru.
Then it was time to take a ferry to the bigger island: Saaremaa.
We stayed in a nice Guesthouse and enjoyed dinner in Saaremaakera in the center of Kuressaare (Big recommendations!)
VIdeo of the third day (by my wife)
Fourth day started also with the rain but it ended soon. We went to check Kuressaare castle when it was still little bit foggy. Now it is possible to walk around the castle on the top of the surrounding wall. From there you can see the castle from every possible corner!
Nice houses just outside the castle when entering from the city
The we were already riding towards the harbour of Kuressare, but we took one stop on the way:
Kaali Crater is the only known major impact that has occurred in a populated area!
Then again one ferry, this time from Kuivastu to Virtsu and we were back in the mainland. We checked the ruins of Lihula castle. There’s not much left of this castle.
Then we needed to ride to the first Guesthouse we visited because my wallet was there. But we stopped in Padise monastery on the way. Here was also some renovations going on so we couldn’t get in.
Our last night was in very siple cabin without water. My wife didn’t like this idea at all. But I liked the place!
Cheap Guesthouse in Lohusalu.
And I got my wallet beck! The dinner we had in a place called Günther kohvik. No recommendations from this place. Fifth day we only needed to reach the ferry from Tallinn to Helsinki and there was plenty of time… In the boat we took the buffet lunch and ate totally too much. But when you pay you have to get the maximum benefit! Right?
Easter we spent in Imatra. Riding there was like this:
The nicest place to stop and look around was in Taavetti. There is an old fortress that was originally built in the end of 18th century.
In Imatra I had to take the picture of the famous “Valtionhotelli” (State Hotel)
Next day we did some riding near Imatra but also to the middle of Saimaa (The biggest lake of Finland)
This is from IRRC track. The Imatra IRRC is in June 14-16thVery nice (and old) Belltower in RuokolahtiSome war barricades in SyyspohjaAlone in the ferryThis is from Jäppilänniemi -very beautiful lake views!
On the day when we had to ride back it was quite cold so we chose mainly the big road when we started to feel too chilly. The way back to Helsinki was something like this:
At least I took 1 picture of 1 church (in Miehikkälä)
Here is the video compilation of the drone flights I made in Easter:
This time it was very interesting! There was so many new models it felt like there’s no time enough to get to know all of them. Luckily I’m not a big fan of sportbikes… So few bikes wasn’t so interesting to me.
1. KTM 790 Adventure Maybe the biggest group of interested viewers was around this bike. It’s no wonder. The bike looks very good! It has hew parallel twin engine that KTM introduced last year. The engine has little bit less power than in 790 Duke but of course the torque is better is all rpm’s. Bike has almost all possible electronics: traction control, cornering abs, offroad abs, ridemodes and so on. It has 20 litres tank that gives the bike easily more than 400 km’s range on the road. Tank is placed around the engine so the center of gravity is very low. Price for this bike is 18500€ in Finland!
Tank around engineIt was difficult to take pictures of this bike! There was so much people all around it all the time.
2. Yamaha 700 Tenere Another adventurebike but totally different kind of idea! This is simple, not too much electronics and it looks more ready for an OffRoad ride! It’s almost 6000€ cheaper than KTM! The final price is still open but they said it will not be more than 12800€! 200mm travel is not much but they’ve tested this bike quite long time so I guess they think it’s enough. 16 liters tank gives this bike more than 300 km’s range.
It should’ve been white-red bike in the show!But this look very good! It calls me to make an offroad ride right now!
3. BMW R1250GS And here is another adventurebike but yet again totally different kind of thinking. This is legend of all touring/ adventurebikes but now it has bigger engine, more power and torque and it’s again more expensive. It has simply everything you can ever imagine the bike could have… -Ok, no reverse gear or automatic gearbox but anyway. The price for adventure version is more than 31000€ in Finland
Big bike to make long rides and tours
4. Suzuki Katana Suzuki makes a nice return to interesting and “modern” bikes. But the funny thing is that the design is very retro when it is based on 80’s Katana. The engine they take from GSX-S1000F so it delivers very nice power and easy riding. And the way it looks it will always give strong feelings to all pure motorcyclists!
Katana
5. Triumph 1200 SpeedTwin Triumph presents new line with 1200 Twin engine. The bike still looks totally retro but the engine is now more like modern and sporty. It delivers 96 hp with 112Nm torque in 4950rpm. Compare this with T100 engine: 64hp and 80Nm in 3800rpm -you can say that there is a big difference.
Took a test ride of this nice bike last september. The first feeling was only about how great bike it was!! I had my wife sitting behind me and even without adjustments to the suspension felt great!
After 20-30 kilometers I was already thinking that this bike feels so great that I should change my XR to this… But then we took the narrow, bumpy and curvy road (Immersby road) and I started to think something else
Östersundom Churc
BMW XR is definitely better to gain speed after corners – The suspension is much better for 2 passangers – And XR simply makes you smile in every different situation… Tiger (only) makes you feel comfortable. Tiger is very nice bike! Maybe I should have tried the adventure version (800 XCA) and I would have found more positive things compare to BMW S1000XR.
But this road-version of the Triumph 800 Tiger is very good bike with very reasonable price and I can totally recommend it!
Again they promised rain! But it didn’t look too bad when we started riding. Short stop to take a picture in Col de Eze:
500 meters above Mediterranean
We were riding around in Monaco and checked few places there. But didn’t take any nice pictures. And after Menton we continued to Italy… but there it was raining!
View from Sant’Antonio to Latte village and Mediterranean
So we didn’t stay there too long. We came back to La Turbie and decided to go and check the Trophy of Augustus. Just beside the entrance there is a nice viewing point and a perfect view to Monaco!
All those “poor” people down there…
Then with the fee of 6€ we checked this Trophy that was built 6BC!!! Read more about the trophy here.
Trophy is just a “small” building with balcony for the Emperor Augustus
Then it was already quite nice weather and we continued riding to the mountains. Right from the La Turbie village starts nice road to Peille village and we chose this one!
Tha Balcony road to Peille village
After Peille it was time for Col de Braus.
Serpentine road to Col de Braus
And right after this Col de l’Ablé.
Road to Col de l’Ablé is very narrow (from south)
Pitty that it was already afternoon and we had to return the bike to MotorBikeTrip. But we had very nice time riding the roads near to City of Nice! We will be back! In the evening we were walking in the city and we saw this beautiful Church -Notre-Dame de Nice:
Full name is Basilique Notre-Dame de l’Assomption
Next day it was only about breakfast, packing and flight back to cold Helsinki… And my wife made a nice video of this day:
We woke up quite early and went to the breakfast. We saw from the News that it had been snowing in France (in northern parts) -There was hundreds of cars stuck in some highway. Weather forecast promised us a beautiful sunny day so I wasn’t worried… F700GS started after 9am and we were heading west/ northwest. First stop was at Col de Vence. The views to the mediterranean sea were very nice when we were climbing up. But on the top we couldn’t see the sea any more. The nature was interesting -especially the rocks!
Col de Vence (962m)Strange rocks
Col de Vence has own webpages. It’s because people have seen quite a lot of paranormal activity here. Stories has been collected in coldevence.com.
Soon after this mountain Pass it was time to stop again. This is the beautiful village of Coursegoules.
Even the sun was shining it didn’t feel too warm…Short stop after Andon, temperature was about +4Autumn colors and snow…
Few kilometers before our final destination it was about the time to stop again. There was a beautiful view to the village Trigance.
From here started maybe the most amazing 80km’s of my life!!
7 kilometers from this view was another view. This time the road was on the edge of Verdon Gorge! It was about 250 meters down to the river Verdon… At one spot there was a balcony (viewing place) to look down -There I almost fainted! Last time this happened to me in 2013 in Dalsnibba (Norway).
Verdon Gorge (southside)
The Canyon of Verdon is one of the most spectacular river canyons in Europe. On the northside it is 700 meters deep! On the northside of the canyon there is a looproad starting from the Village La Palud-sur-Verdon. This is about 25km’s of spectacular views -not recommended for those who has the fear of heights! In one viewing point we even had eagles flying over our heads!!
700 meters above river Verdon!
It took about 3 hours all together to ride both the south and the northside of Verdon Gorge. Then it was time to ride back to Nice! On the way back we chose the big roads… But it didn’t mean that we didn’t see anything special… Just it wasn’t as good as that Canyon! Here is the video my wife made about this day:
After very good sleep and breakfast we took a morning walk in a little bit wet streets of Nice. Rue de Rivoli was the direction about 2km’s away. There was MotorBikeTrip store where I had reservation for bike (3 days) -This was the bike:
BMW F700GS
I didn’t ride this bike too much before and I have to say that the suspension is not good enought for 2. But I tried to adjust the preload tighter so that it wouldn’t hit the bottom all the time… Then we changed the full riding gear and started riding!
It was still little bit wet in 500 meters high Col d’Eze between Nice and Monaco.
In Menton the beach Boulevard is called The Sunny Promenade -but we had a little bit of rain…
We were standing in the mediterranean beach for awhile and I made a video there.
From Menton we started to climb up to the Mountains. I have been riding here before but back in 2016 it was too hot! Now it was quite nice weather.
This bridge is a part of an old tramline between Menton and Sospel. Tram was in use from 1912 to 1930. This bridge is called “Viaduc du Caramel”.
We stopped at Sospel to take few pictures. This made me think how sad it is when every place is now closed. No open cafeterias or restaurants… These cities and villages live only in the summertime.
Climbing up to Col de Turini… Beautiful nature everywhere!
Up on the top of of Turini it was raining quite heavily and we were inside the cloud.
The visibility wasn’t too good!
Luckily under the clouds we could see some more… But the rain didn’t stop.
The steep mountain walls of this area are amazing… even on a foggy weather! This is Col Saint-Roch.
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. This is from Library Square Bike parked at Hyvinkää Beautiful Pulkkilanharju Amazing Canal of Kalkkinen Art in Heinola (ITE puisto) Bike in Heinola Aurantola Cabin Aurantola sunset
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.
I rode the bike from Lappeenranta to home and I really was enjoying enduroriding again!
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…
GoZa Mite 