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GoZa Mite

Tag: Motorcycle trip

  • North Adventure 2024 getting ready

    gozamite

    On the last days befere my “big adventure” I changed the tires to my bike. Metzeler MC 360 Mid Hard was already pretty much gone from the front. Rear had still about 5-6mm of knobby.
    New tires were Heidenau K60 and they were quite perfect for me in this situation!
    Then started packing:

    I was very happy about the size of all the luggage! Even I decided to take my tent and camping mattress with me (and I didn’t need them!) I was ready for my biggest adventure so far.

    First leg was to ride to Helsinki and put my bike to the train (Helsinki – Kolari). And after 15 hours in the train I was far north in Lapland!

  • Hela-Tour Day 4

    gozamite

    After a good sleep and breakfast in our hotel (in Seinäjoki) there was one (a little bit strange) church we wanted to check.
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    This building was built first as a gunpowder warehouse but in 1864 it was changed as a church.
    Then we were climbing to a “very high mountain” in Pohjanmaa. It is even 145 meters above sealevel (!!!) But in this area it’s a lot and from the top of the “mountain” there are very nice views over the “flat land” of Pohjanmaa!

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    The wooden tower on the top of Santavuori is very old! It was built in 1965 and for me it looke likes some parts of the tower is already falling apart.
    Little bit further I chose the gravelroad that would go over the rive, I was thinking this would be a nice route to shoode. And it was!

    There are some museums about waterpowerplants just after the bridge.
    Then it was about riding the quite booring roads of Pohjanmaa (& Satakunta and Pirkanmaa) towards south. It wasn’t until we reached Siuro when we made a longer stop to enjoy some snack and admire the views.
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    There is quite famous bar just beside the rapids.
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    It was quite a big surprise that there was only a few bikes here with us. But quite many rode by -it was so beautiful day!
    After Siuro we visited one abandoned graveyard and in the most famous tower of Pyynikki.
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    The tower in the lowest picture is “Näsinneula” -it’s the most famous tower of Tampere. But this “Pyynikki tower” is much older and in much more beautiful area.
    After meal we still went for a walk in a park of Hatanpää:
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    The summer was definitely in Finland!
    The route of the day was like this:

  • Åland/ Aland/ Ahvenanmaa

    gozamite

    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!
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    And then 10am it was time for a boat (ferry). This trip (to Föglö island) takes 4 hours!
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    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.
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    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.
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    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).
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    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.
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    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).
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    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).
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    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!
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    And then we went to the castle! There is only 1 middleage castle in Åland, it’s called Kastelholma.
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    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).
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    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!)

  • 2nd day of the jumping starters

    gozamite

    This wasn’t that interesting day. Road was straight, not much to see (except the castle!) and one missed crossing and 30 km’s gravel road after that.
    This was the route.
    We stopped in the city called Cesis (in Latvia) and there is an amazing old castle.
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    And we also checked the castle in Sigulda:
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    I still think that Sigulda is a very special town. There’s so much to see and so many places to visit. Maybe the best city to spend few days in whole Baltic countries!

  • Tour In Easter Europe Summer 2015?

    gozamite

    Would it be something like this?
    Helsinki – Tallinn by boat, then ride to Sigulda Latvia. Then Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, maybe Bulgaria, Serbia and Bosnia. Then by Adrian Sea to Croatia, Slovenia and finally to Italia and Milan. From there the bikes would go by truck back to Finland and the riders takes the flight back to Helsinki.
    This is the plan now, lets see how much it changes until the summer 2015 is here.
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