Monthly Archives: July 2014
Nordkap Torpo (1413)
Norway is Europe’s supermodel. Tall, slim, expensive and can’t drag your eyes away beautiful. The crinkly western edge goes on for miles, with deep fiords and high mountains leaving villages accessible only by ferry. It rapidly becomes clear my morning … Continue reading
Murmansk Nordkapp (490)
It’s odd how the landscape seems to know to change in a new country. I suppose normally this is because a hill or river made a convenient ceasefire line as some war ground to its conclusion. Between Norway and Russia … Continue reading
Rabocheostrovsk Murmansk (376)
The ride to Murmansk takes me into the arctic circle and though I don’t know it, I have the last night for almost a week in a hurried camp at the side of the road as the rain starts to … Continue reading
St Petersburg Rabocheostrovsk and the Solovetsky Islands (629 miles)
The M18 runs from St Petersburg right up to Murmansk and the top of the Kola peninsular, but I’ve done long straight roads between tall pointy trees so I mix things up a bit. By looping clockwise round lake Lagoda … Continue reading
Interval – Moscow
If we take the European City Tour to be Act I, and the Northern Wilderness Tour to be Act II, then it is time for the intermission. A chance to stretch out legs and have an ice cream. In living … Continue reading
St Petersburg
Since until now my experience of urban Russia has been limited to Rostov on Dom, a place that makes Blackpool feel happening, St Petersburg isn’t really what I was expecting. I know it was built out of a swamp by … Continue reading
Narva St Petersburg (98)
According to international protocol royalty, diplomats and motorcyclists are exempt from queuing. At least, that’s what I assume. I certainly didn’t. In Estonia, I breezed first through the holding pen, the traffic lights at the gate, the line at the … Continue reading
Warsaw Vilnius Riga Cesis Narva (313 + 237 + 76 + 234)
The last four days have been moist, and not in a good way. Grey skies unleashed frequent heavy showers and had me guessing where my waterproofs would give up the battle first. A well-gusseted groin has removed this classic chink … Continue reading
Warsaw
A week since Lille, and it’s really nice to stay in a real flat. Gosia, a friend of my brother, made me feel incredibly welcome. I barely made it into the flat before food, showers and laundry were thrust upon … Continue reading
Berlin Torun Warsaw (276 + 147 miles)
I arrived into Berlin on the opulent 17th June Allee. I left on its continuation, the broad, tank friendly Karl Marx Allee out of Berlin and through the forests to Poland. If they ever decide to give out prizes for … Continue reading
WhiteBike/WhiteSea 