Me and my wife have been married now half a year. It was time to take tour with motorcycle just the two of us. We had 5 days to do this trip and I chose western Finland.
Day 1 (May 9)
We started before the midday and I was very excited about finally going on a tour with my new bike “Optimus”:
After filling the tank it felt very nice and relaxing to ride the bike! The first leg was 120 kilometers and the the first stop was at Koski (english: Rapids) and there is also quite nice rapids there (Rapids at Rapids…)
Then we stopped at the grocery store in Oripää to buy some sausages. Next stop & break was at “Kekkosplassi”. It is very nice area with a big fireplaces to grill some food, we had sausages, sandwiches and also something to drink.
Then in Säkylä we checked Katismaa and Eenokki (harbour and beach) but these were just very short stops. Finally in Kauttua Ironworks area we stopped for awhile to examine the area. Like all old ironworks areas this has also many very nice old buildings and rapids with some small dams and old bridges.
This was the first time when we noticed that it was quite hot! Weather forecast had promised very nice and warm weather for us… and it was Summer coming already before the middle of May! It was too hot to walk with all riding gear.
The last leg was about 60 kilometers and we arrived to Nakkila where we were supposed to stay for the first night. After we took all the luggage away from the bike we still checked the dam and powerplant of Harjavalta and the medieval Church or Ulvila.
The route for the day 1 was like this:
Travel
It’s been quite many years since we had a real winter here in south Finland. Now we have! The snow came finally in the end of January… and now we have about 30-40 cm’s of snow. You can do cross-country skiing almost anywhere and the lakes and the sea has a thick layer of ice.
First picture from Hirsala (Väransby) is taken in 31st of January
Here I also made quite nice Droneflight:
8th of february we visited on the ice in the near lake. Took this picture:
And this video:
It was a long time when temperature was around -5° centigrade and when it was sunny it felt quite nice!
This picture is taken in 18th of february. So is this next one:
Video was taken in 17th of february:
Last week the temperature went down! -24° centigrade was the lowest we had. But it was very nice that we had better weather in the weekend… So again I got some very cool pictures:
On sunday we took a walk around the lake nearby (Meiko lake). It wasn’t totally sunny day but quite nice anyway. My wife was shooting a video in many places… Now we can enjoy these snowy landscapes:
We would leave this beautiful island… oh yes. It would be wise to stay for example 1 week but we want to spend more time those roads in Europe! So early in the morning it’s time to choose same route back to Bastia -harbour. And then take the boat-trip to the mainland (Savona this time). One last picture from Corsica:
This is from this here. We’re riding so early we actually had time to have some kind of breakfast in the cafe near the harbour before the check-in to the boat.
But the trip takes more than 6 hours this time… so definately if you don’t want to put all day to your boat trip it’s better to choose Livorno – Bastia route.
We will be in Italy mainland about 6 a’clock in the afternoon… And the food is not cheap i the boat!
Then from Savona we had a nice ride through countryside… Lots of nice twisty small roads with nice scenery every now and then.
The hotel was in Ovada… Pretty nice hotel with garage but without restaurant.
This day is impossible to show in the map! Googlemap doesn’t simply show any routes that follows D81b (From Galeria to Calvi) but this is the route we took and we really enjoyed it!!
First we stopped for a swim in the lonely beach! There were other people too but really not too many! Then we kind of separated… I found a castle that was very interesting!
There was a group of tourists listening on a guy who was talking and talking… But finally I got some information that this was a castle of Pierre Bonaparte who was a “ruler” of a Corsica for awhile.
Little bit north from this castle there was also a Chapel in a very beautiful area. There was also a beautiful road to this chapel with a huge helmet!
Besides these the road D81b offered very beautiful views to the sea in many places!!
In Calvi we chose pizzeria to eat something -it was one of the best pizzas is this tour. In the evening we choose a restaurant near our hotel -it was a beautiful place but for me the salad was very bad choice! (Restaurant Grill Ponte Vecchiu is recommended by my friends but not by me!)
It was monday the 26th of June when me and 3 friens of mine took the boat from Helsinki to Travemunde (Germany).
We had 4 red bikes (Ducati Monster 695, Ducati Streetfighter 1100, Yamaha MT-09 Tracer and BMW S1000XR) to ride with next three weeks.
The boat trip takes over 1 day and there’s nothing to do (except to eat!) And maybe go outside and take some pictures:
This was 4am in the morning when the sun was getting up from the northeast. One of the most beautiful sunrises I’ve ever seen! Tuesday 27th of June the boat was almost 1,5 hours late in the harbour of Travemunde and we had 70km’s to ride to our first destination. It was a beautiful city of Schwerin where we had a place to stay for the night. The route was like this:
With motorcycle
This was a dream come true finally for me! I’ve been to Åland few times with a car (last time was 17 years ago!) but now I got there with my motorcycle. This is the 4 days trip to Åland (Swedish)/ Aland (English)/ Ahvenanmaa (Finnish).
Åland is here and to get there with a motorcycle you need to take a ferry from Stockholm, Helsinki or Turku… Or a small ferry from Korppoo (Galtby) or from Kustavi (Vuosnainen). If you use these ferries the idea is to spend the night in some small islands before you go to the main island -and that’s what we did.
But before we took the boat from Korppoo we spent the night there in Faffas. They had a very nice cabin near the sea!
And then 10am it was time for a boat (ferry). This trip (to Föglö island) takes 4 hours!
In Föglö we had lot of time to get to know the island. It’s not very big! There’s actually only 1 road that goes through the island.
But there is also a very beautiful church and quite interesting hiking path in this island. Our accomodation in Föglö was Degerby Mat & Cafe.
Next morning the ferry to the main island left the Föglö at 9am. This was 30min trip.
And the first route was a detour from the mainroad to some villages in Högskär.
Then we rode to the southside of the “capitol of Åland” (Mariehamn), this was a beautiful road through islands.
After this road we rode to the eastside of the main island. First we had this very nice road with some nice bends and then we visited the fire station museum (but it was closed).
Then sun was shining so brightly and weather was too hot (about +13 celsius) so I had to go swimming! Did it here. Water was maybe +8… (You can also see a picture of me going swimming here!) We took a short break in Käringsund.
Then we visited Sålis Batteri, this is some fortifications that Russians built even they should not do it. Åland was a demilitarized already 50-60 years before!
From the east parts of the main island we moved to north with this road.
In the north we visited the Getaberget (and the tower), Havsvidden (with some nice views too) -this place had a great road!
And finally visited the Stallhagen Brewery and I bought 2 bottles of beer.
This was the first day on the main island of Åland, we spent the night is Strandnäs Hotel.
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Next morning I took a short tour in Mariehamn (This city has about 11500 inhabitants).
Then we started the ride of the day. First we rode to north (again) because there was still few places to visit. First there was Road of Tjudö -this is maybe the best road (for motorcycling) in Åland! It’s definately worth riding!
Then we rode to one small harbour again. This was Hamnsundet with small cafeteria (not yet open).
After this we took the most famous cafeteria in the island (Uffe På Berget). The altitude in the top of the tower is more than 50 meters above sealevel!
And then we went to the castle! There is only 1 middleage castle in Åland, it’s called Kastelholma.
This took about 1 hour to walk through the museum and there was some very interesting stories about the people who lived here (or were prisoners). After castle we rode this road: Road of Sund. This was with 2km’s of gravel.
And for the last place we visited Bomarsund fortress. This has very interesting story which ends with Ålands demilitarization in 1856 (In Treaty of Paris).
Then we took the ferry to Kumlinge island at 5pm and we stay the night in Kumlinge Stugor. Next morning we visited Kumlinge church, Kumlinge mountain (Vårholmsböte) and rode the best motorcycle road in Kumlinge…
The ferry took us to Brändö islands (4-5 islands in group) and there you have to ride through these beautiful landscapes of the archipelago sea. What a road this is!
Our trip in Åland ended about 3pm when the ferry arrived in Vuosnainen in the north side of Turku. (But there is still 1 more ferry after this!).
You can ride the most beautiful places in the main island of Åland in 1 day. But I really recommend that you take your time at least in Kastelholma castle and in Bomarsund fortress. So it should be at least 2 days. And if you have the possibility to visit the small islands too… Then you’ll really know what is it all about! ********* (Gotta go there again some day!)
I did a post in august 2013 about the best motorcycleroads in Finland -now it’s time to make the same in English.
I have chosen only the routes that are longer than 10 km. You can also find the best roads from motocaching.net but there the most of the introductions and comments are in Finnish. And my list is not the same!
- Porkkalantie
Pros: Nice corners and landscapes Cons: Few parts only 40km/h speedlimit - Fagervikintie – Vanha Rannikkotie
Pros: Some parts are challenging some parts are with nice landscapes, nice corners Cons: The pavement is in bad shape - Trollshovda
Pros: Maybe the tightest corners in Finland Cons: Ends in gravel, blind corners - Vihti – Road 280
Pros: Nice speed, lots of other good roads near Cons: – - Hämeen Härkätie (Somero – Porras)
Pros: Nice speed, nice pavement Cons: Low speedlimit near Somero - Marjoniementie
Pros: Nice corners and hills (!) Cons: Ends in gravel - Puumala – Sulkava
Pros: Nice speed and quiet road Cons: – - Hamina – Virolahti museumroad
Pros: Nice corners and challenge Cons: at weekends lots of traffic - Kuninkaantie ABC – Sarvisalo
Pros: Nice variable corners, nice landscapes Cons: – - Niska-Pietiläntie – Miettiläntie
Pros: Challenging Cons: The pavement is in bad shape
Somebody might think that there are other roads in top 10, but this is my list. Please leave a comment or if you have any questions!
My country, Finland is celebrating its 99th independenceday today. This is a good country and I’m proud of it. Together we can still make it a better one.
It was just after the october ended and november started… Suddenly there was snow everywhere! At the moment it seems that this snow is here to stay but if I had to bet I would say that it’s gonna melt away before december starts (I hope I’m wrong!)
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)
GoZa Mite 