The last day of our nice tour in Western Finland was about getting back home. Only few stops in the way and then back home in the afternoon.
First stop was at Observation tower in Lempäälä (Pyhällön lintutorni).
Very nice views from the top!
Then we stopped at Toijala train museum, pitty it was closed!
And finally we stopped at Saaren kansanpuisto in Tammela. It’s recreation park with nice swimming beach.
Water was so warm… It totally felt like summer! (And it was only May 13!)
We were home about 4pm so there was still nice time to relax and getting ready for monday at work…
The route for the day 5 was like this:
And the route for the whole tour looked like this:
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:
I had this bike about 3 seasons (more than 2 years) and I simply love it!
During this time I was able to catch few nice pictures of it… Enjoy!
Full size here.
Full size here.
Full size here.
Full size here.
Full size here.
Full size here.
Full size here.
Full size here.
Full size here.
Full size here.
For season 2018 I will have the same bike but different color…
I got these small boxes awhile ago. I made the order from Estonian motoshop Motokaup. The finnish reseller of SW Motech also has internetshop but this sucks! (R.M. Heino you can do better!!!) First item:
I never had sidestand extend before, but now I got one. I hope it will help to keep my bike up! Second item: This is the ring that you must have if you want to use Bags Connection tank bags. I have one. I also had the ring in my previous bike but it wasn’t the original -it was a little bit modified by me. Bags Connection bags are made by SW Motech.
Day 21 We rode from the northern parts of Poland through Lithuania to Latvia, like this. It was the longest ride in this trip but it didn’t feel like it at all. First of all it was a great weather!
We made a short visit to the hill of crosses and that made a nice break in the boring ride in those endless straights in Lithuania (and the road A12).
And in the beginning of the day we had some nice small roads of Poland and Lithuania!
We also stopped for awhile in the tripoint of Poland, Russia (Kaliningrad) and Lithuania. Here’s a short video:
And then about 150km’s later it was time for the “Hill of Crosses” (which I think is a junkyard!) Here is the link to all the pictures I took in this strange place in the middle of Lithuanian countryside.
Here’s one excample:
In Latvia we stopped in Riga dam, it’s a huge reservoir & dam with powerplant and there’s a road going on the top of the dam. The views over the reservoir are quite nice!
We had a room from the nice Hotel Sigulda (my fourth time here!)
Day 22
This was 300km’s from Sigulda to Tallinn (and ofcourse the ferry Tallinn – Helsinki and the final ride from Helsinki harbour to home!)
First break was ofcourse in the border between Latvia-Estonia and the legendary Hesburger!
After this break it started raining! And we waited about 1 hour for it to stop (in Pärnu). Soon after Pärnu the road was dry again and we had time to visit the sandpit-lake near Saku. And I made some SocialMedia updates there (again!)
The final trouble we got in the harbour while waiting the ferry. We noticed that Ducati’s rear tyre is almost empty! But luckily there were many american cars trying to get to the ferry and some of them had the tyreweld-stuff. So Maria could ride her red Monster in to the ferry and then From Helsinki harbour to home!
Thank you for ALL the readers who have been following this trip!! There will be more!
After rainy Day 19 this was easy! And it was about this: Polish countryside road is like this.
We had 520 km’s to ride and the route was like this. It was raining every now and then but it didn’t bother much because they were only short showers. This day we had mostly only the “bigger roads” and even some new highway (with roadtull).
It was abaout 1,7€ to ride 30km’s in that highway. Luckily we also had some quite nice road from Olsztynek to Szczytno. It’s road number 58 and it’s a very good choice after many boring roads in Poland!
Here’s a short clip from that road.
We arrived in our accommodation quite early so we had plenty of time to take a walk in a beautiful city of Mrągowo and we had a dinner in Mercure Mrągowo Resort&Spa.
Day 18 was a little bit different than other days. We actually had a place to visit and it was going to take at least 1,5 hours. Here’s the route for day 18.
This was a break in a small city of Großköllnbach.
I took only 5 photos before we arrived to Nationalpark Bayerischer Wald where we took a walk in a special path or a Sky-Walk in 8-25 meters above the ground among the treetops.
So we rode 300 km’s and we walked 1300 meters.
Here’s entering the Sky-Walk:
I have a fear of heights. In my case it means that I’m not afraid but my body reacts strongly when I’m high! My stomach goes upside down, I’ll start to feel dizzy, my legs feels weak and I might even fall down when loosing all the strength from the legs. I’ve also fainted 2 times when I was young.
So this Sky-Walk wasn’t easy for me (in the beginning!) I felt pretty unsure and unbalanced but slowly it became easier.
At the end of the Sky-Walk there is a wooden tower with a spiral-path to the top. It is 44m high and ofcourse the view from the top is simply amazing!! (Even we had quite cloudy weather)
I’m not sure if we spent 1,5 or 2 hours in the path but it was quite special experience! I really would recommend it to visit in some of quite many Sky-Walks in Europe (In Finland we have non!)
Couple hours later we arrived in our place to stay in Czech Republic and during the last hour it had started raining…
Day 19
In the night it didn’t stop raining and we had a hard day ahead of us! It was raining all day! The rain was hard and heavy! Maria’s new waterproof riding shoes gave up after 30 minutes (the water came inside the boots!) My boots were a little bit better (It took about 5 hours when the water started to get in).
(Here is some news about the rain in Poland that day!)
We had 475 kilometers route including riding through Prague (That was actually one of the very few “Not so bad part of the day!”) After Prague there was a bad traffic jam in the highway and Maria and I got lost from eachother!
I tried to wait for her in some gas station every now and then but i just didn’t wait long enough! When she took a break it took a really long time for her to find the mood to continue riding! When we finally found eachother she had to have at least 30 minutes break… or maybe even 1 hour! But she is a fighter! She knew we had to continue so she did… And somewhere after we crossed the border to Poland she said “Let’s ride all the way to the end!!!”
It was almost dark and about 8.30 PM when we arrived to our destination, the small city of Bojanovo and very nice Villa Aurora. She had a big portion of Polish duck as a dinner and in the bed the blanket was thick!
So in the morning everything was ok again (even the shoes were still wet!)
This was the worst day ever of riding for me too!
Here’s our house in Villa Aurora where we slept after this hard day… in the morning it was easy to load all the stuff in to the bike. They were right in front of the door!
This day was riding from Lörrach to Aystetten like this. The weather forecast didn’t promise too much (but the rain) but actually it was like the first half of the day there was no rain and then the rest… yes it was raining. And now it was only me and Maria.
Pretty soon after we started from Lörrach we found the Wehra valley and the road L148. What an amazing road it was!! It’s like from a fairytale…
Some might say that the corners are not too tight here… But I don’t think you can ride like a crazy! Some of them are pretty tight and with no visibility at all!
On the north side of Bannwald Wehratal the landscape was still very nice all around and the road was interesting and not boring at all!
This area has a lot of nature and forestpaths to visit and see very beautiful areas of Germany!
As we continued to east we didn’t know what to expect. So what we found next was a total surprise for both of us!
It was just a small city (called Zwiefalten) among many others and I stopped there to have a break. Then we noticed a very big building on the other side of the square and we started to walk closer. Then we thought “Let’s go inside…” -And there was the surprise!
I’ve never ever seen anything like this before!
It was an old abbey and this was the church hall. It had German Baroque style interior that looked very expensive with gold (looked like gold!?) all around! I was totally speechless.
There was 4 side-altars on the both sides of the church-hall. Then there was the “second altar” (here in the picture) and behind the fence and 2 gates was the first altar. I was thinking to myself “After seeing this I can’t imagine what St. Peter’s Basilica looks like from the inside!! This abbey in the middle of south Germany was already something beyond my imagination!”
When we came out from this amazing abbey/ church it was raining. Finally after 3 hours of riding in the rain we arrived in the small city of Aystetten and we had a room in a small (and outmoded) Hotel that I cannot recommend (Hotel Sohnel).
This day we were riding in the Jura mountains in Switzerland and few km’s in France and few in Germany. The 266 km’s route was like this.
First it looked like the weather would be as hot as it had been many days before, but actually pretty soon it was cloudy and +25 celsius felt quite nice!
The views were still very impressive in Jura mountains! It would be nice to spend more time riding here too.
After couple hours of riding there was a raincloud following us.
And soon it was raining.
The most beautiful part of this days route it was raining so I didn’t take too many pictures. But that ride very near to Ch-Fr border (Cote-du-Doubs in the north side of La Chaux-de-Fonds) is a very nice road!
After 3 hours of rain it finally stopped and we switched to France to avoid the traffic in Basel. And after a short visit in France we switched to Germany and that was the last time in France in this trip for us!
We had an apartment in Lörrach to stay the night. So we made the dinner and breakfast ourselves! That was nice for a change…
Next morning Timo would go on his own way (straight to north and taking the ferry from Travemünde to Helsinki) and me and Maria would go on riding slowly home.
In the morning we didn’t think about it. But later in the afternoon it was obvious -The Alps are now gone! Here’s the route for the day 15.
At first it was the big road (but not boring!) to north and Briancon-town and still after that the big road continues until Col du Galibier. We did ride this just few days earlier (Day 10) and I think it was a good idea to come here again! It is a great mountain Pass!
On the nort side of Valloire we took the highway A43 to the small city of La Chambre and from there the last mountain Pass in the Alps -Col de la Madeleine
We had a break in the top of Madeleine, Me and Timo ate some soup!
Riding up:
Riding down:
This was also a very hot day… So after mountain passes we had to ride through Albertville and on the north side of the Olympic City there was a valley and quite a lot of traffic when closing the city of Annecy… luckily the Lake Annecy was soon just beside the road and we took a swim in the beautiful clear turqoise water -nice refreshment in the middle of the day!
Then after city of Annecy I finally realized the the Alps are now behind!! We had some very nice mountain roads… but the views were quite boring comparing to the Alps. It was in the north side of Lake Geneva and it was the Jura mountains!
This road was very nice… It was mostly in the shadows of the trees and it didn’t feel too hot! Finally we arrived to our destination: The city of Les Rousses, and we ate dinner in very famous burger-restaurant, Chalet Regain!
Polish countryside road is like this.
GoZa Mite 