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 Tuesday, August 5, 2003
Today's statistics:Total Distance: 341.4 KM Goodbye Poland - Hello Lithuania! A nice ride this morning - cool and pleasant. It did get a bit warmer after our lunch break. We decided to tempt the Gods and arrived at the border late in the afternoon - just before 4:00 PM. We were flagged down by several gentleman who were offering Green Card insurance for Lithuania - we stopped and purchased our insurance and then went on to the border. This was a bit different. Usually these places are located at the border proper but here it all happens before the border. Then we sat in a line of about 25 cars for more than hour waiting our turn to be processed. For some reason unknown to us everyone goes through the same process twice. Passports, papers for vehicles and insurance must be given to a man in a building who then puts information into a computer. Well, he puts it in if he is not too busy talking to his buddy’s in the building with him. This is our first taste of true border bureaucracy. It sucks! We finally we finished at 6:00 PM and rode on to the town of Marijampolé where we found a nice hotel that had a nice restaurant next door. A good meal with our first taste of Lithuanian Beer (good stuff) and we had the ending of a good day. The day was one of contrasts. We found a nice hotel and restaurant at very good prices which is not what we anticipated. And, at the border we encountered the worst bureaucracy we have found since arriving in Europe - also not what we anticipated. Interesting. Wednesday, August 6, 2003Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 140.2 KM To things popped into Jim’s mind this morning as we left the hotel. First, is the word flat. Lithuania is flat; but, having said that, it is not pancake flat. There are rolling hills and the elevation varies as much as 200 or more feet. So, every once in a while we would find ourselves on top of a crest were we could see the surrounding land and this reinforced what our tour book said about Lithuania - fertile. But the second thing that came to Jim’s mind was that the terrain is very much like the Dakota’s and eastern Montana in the U.S.A. And, the way the sky looked this morning made him think of the Montana state motto, “Big Sky Country”. A short ride and we were in Vilnius by noon. Somehow we managed to get lost - we think we know where we went wrong but the road system just did not match anything we had in the way of maps. Oh well. Fortunately we arrived between rain showers which made our task of getting settled fairly easy. After we found a place to spend the night we headed our on foot to explore the town. While doing this we found a small cafe for lunch. We have discovered that spare ribs a a good thing to order on the local menus. Lamb is not so good. The we managed to get caught in several huge rain showers. One benefit was taking refuge in the local gelato cafe. We even managed to find a sticker for the bikes with the Lithuanian flag on it (we still do not have one of these for Romania). Thursday, August 7, 2003Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 199.4 KM
While we were checking into the hotel today there were two other couples there who were talking about how bad the roads in Lithuania are. She also expressed their unhappiness with the conditions of the roads in Poland. We looked at each other and smiled. And said to them that we thought the roads in Poland and Lithuania were OK - if they wanted bad roads they needed to visit Romania. From what we have seen so far the roads in Lithuania and Poland are in generally good condition. We have found a few places, roads that are not even on our maps, that were in very poor condition but these appear to be the exception. We have decided that your experience defiantly has an impact on your view of the world - not really and earth shaking statement but it is amazing how many people have never traveled outside of the U.S.A., Canada and the European Union and, as a result, have a somewhat distorted view of what the world is like. We suspect that we are not any different. We then rode north and west and arrived in Kaunas in the late afternoon. We want to ride west tomorrow and reach the town of Klaipėda which is located on the east cost of Lithuania on the Baltic Sea. Friday, August 8, 2003Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 220.9 KM Our ride to day took us on a four lane divided highway - the first time we have traveled on a highway like this for such a distance all summer. It was a beautiful day with puffy white clouds all over the intensely blue sky. When we arrived at the coast the clouds all disappeared and we had a beautiful afternoon in which we explored Klaipėda. Tomorrow we will catch the ferry that will take us to Curonian Spit which is a thin bid of sand that runs parallel to the Lithuanian main land running south from Klaipėda and then connects with the shore in the Kalinngrad Region which is a part of Russia. Just about all of the land that is part of Lithuania is designated as a National Park. We will ride the length of the Lithuanian portion south and then back north in order to see the sand dunes that are here and then continue our journey north. Saturday, August 9, 2003Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 275.5 KM
See the car in the picture? When we arrived at the ferry destination the driver put his car in reverse and almost knocked Verna and her bike down. Jim was pounding with his fist on the passenger window while Verna was doing the same to the rear windows trying to get the idiot to stop. He finally did, about two inches short of hitting Verna’s bike. Grrrr. We rode the 50 kilometers to Nida at the southern end of the Lithuanian portion of the Spit and then headed north. In Juodkrante we found a nice little cafe for lunch. Our timing on the return trip was perfect. We arrived at the ferry just in time to ride on and then the ferry left port. The ticket we purchased for the ferry to the Curonian Spit was good for the return trip - something we did not understand because we have not been able to decipher any of the Lithuanian language we read or hear. Then we rode north for a few kilometers and pointed ourselves east for the next 125 kilometers and rode to Šiauliai where we are spending the night. Tomorrow we enter Latvia and ride to Rīga. Sunday - Wednesday, August 10 -13, 2003Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 135.7 KM We woke to blue skies and sunshine but when we got on the road we were in our rain gear. Fortunately it did not rain long and it had stopped by the time we were 10 kilometers north of Šiauliai for our visit at The Hill of Crosses. Every time the Soviets demolished the crosses and sealed off the area (planting a cross was an arrestable offense during the Soviet era), overnight more crosses appeared. See the Lithuania page in the Baltic Countries section for more information. We then continued north and reached the Latvian border where we purchased Green Card insurance for the bikes and completed the border formalities in about 30 minutes. It’s so much nicer when there is no one at the border in front of you. ☺ We then rode on and arrived in Rīga, found a place to stay and set off to find a bite to eat. After lunch we joined the thousands of people who were out and about to see the tall ships that had arrived in the port today - Rīga is one of the stops on the annual tall ships race. See the Latvia page in the Baltic Countries section for more information. Thursday, August 14, 2003Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 239.6 KM Today’s Score: Radar Detector 1, Police 0 Today was the first time we had encountered instant on radar since we arrived in Europe - a hand held radar gun being operated by the officer in the passenger seat of a small car that was traveling the opposite direction. “Rain drops keep fallin’ on my head...” - we had to sing this song today. The good news is that the rain started after we packed the bikes and were on the road and it stopped before we arrived at the Latvia/Estonia border. Our plan was to ride east to Sigulda (which we did) and go to the bobsled course (which we did) and go for a bobsled ride - which we did not because we learned that the only days you can do this are Saturday and Sunday and you can only go for a ride between 10:00 AM and 12:00 noon. This being Thursday and not between the hours given, we headed for the west coast and rode north in some very heavy rain - even the cars were driving carefully because of all the water that was on the road. Oh, and about that rain. When we were putting on our rain gear Jim managed to put so much pressure on the right foot peg of his bike (it was parked on the side stand and he was using the foot peg to raise his boot off the ground while he attached the strap to the gaiter that runs under his boot) that the bike fell over on him! Smooth move, eh? Perhaps he will be a bit more careful about where he parks from now on. We had to wait 40 minutes when we reached the border before we arrived at the head of the line. Then it was the usual - passports, vehicle papers and purchase insurance. Once again the authorities at the border were very confused by the registration paper we each have for our bikes. The only thing we can think of is that there are no markings from rubber stamps on them and this is definitely different - everywhere we go we find people do not do anything without using a rubber stamp. We finished the day with place to stay on the beach at Pärnu, Estonia. A beautiful beach but a bit cool and windy. There were several board sailors with kites to propel them through the water - these guys were really moving! Friday - Saturday, August 15 -16, 2003Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 135.3 KM A short and uneventful ride today. We arrived in Tallinn shortly after noon and found that the guesthouse where we wanted to stay was full. To bad really - they offered free internet access with the room. But, as luck would have it, there was another place just around the corner that did have a room, but no internet access. After we settled in we walked one block to the bus stop and headed into the center of town. We found the information office and then a place to eat lunch. And then we spent lots of time walking all over town looking for an internet cafe where we could update the web site and download some software. While we were in Rīga we found the internet cafes to be priced less than one Euro per hour and we downloaded some new software. After installing it we discovered that some old software would not work with it. We were able to find an updated version and downloaded it here. See the Estonia page in the Baltic Countries section for more information. Sunday, August 17, 2003Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 354.8 KM We left Tallinn and headed south not really sure where we would go today. Our initial destination was to ride to Tartu for lunch. Which we did. And we were very lucky all day. Many times we came into areas just after the rain showers had passed through - water everywhere with lots of water on the highways. And our luck eventually ran out - we were headed south from Voru intent on finding a place to stay somewhere in the area around Plaani when we realized we needed some cash if we wanted to pay for a room. We had met a couple on a BMW R1100RT in Tartu when we stopped for lunch and also saw them at a gas station in Voru and learned that they were planning on staying in a guest house in the Plaani area. We decided to look for a room there as well. So, we turned around to go back to Voru and visit an ATM when the next rain shower drenched us. After we collected our funds we rode to Plaani and found a church and a house - and nothing else. No place to stay. So, we then rode to Rōuge to try for a place to stay there. No place to stay there either. So, it was back to Voru and into yet another downpour which drenched us once more. We did find a place to stay in Voru, and dripped water everywhere we walked while checking in and going to our room. Tomorrow we will leave Estonia as we continue our ride south. We really like the geography of Estonia - it reminds us of Sweden and Finland. And no wonder when you consider the proximity of the three countries and the Baltic Glint - a limestone formation that runs north/south from Öland in Sweden to Lake Ladoga in Russia. Monday, August 18, 2003Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 562.5 KM Today’s Score: Radar Detector 2, Police 0 (One in Estonia, one in Lithuania) We woke to fog and not much visibility. Fortunately it lifted before we left the hotel. We rode south east wanting to see that part of Estonia and then turned west near the border with Russia to reach a border crossing into Latvia. This was our 14th border crossing this year where we have had to give the border guards our passports and vehicle papers. This was the first border guard who noticed that the license plates on our bikes were reversed - the plate of Verna’s bike belonged on Jim’s bike and the one on Jim’s belonged on Verna’s. Once we understood what they were on about Jim started laughing because it had taken this long for anyone to realize this and got off his bike and started to swap the license plates. Verna thought this would make a great picture and got her camera out and took two pictures. As soon as the female border guard saw her taking pictures she went a bit over the top in her reaction and demanded that Verna give her her camera. Needless to say neither of us had a clue as to what she was so upset about but we finally decided that they just don’t like people taking pictures at the border crossings. Who knows why. Verna had to show her that she had erased the pictures, and this was a bit difficult because the woman was demanding that Verna give her the film in her camera.
We stopped for gas and then saw them again later stopped at a gas station and they arrived at the border about two vehicles behind us. We are amazed that we saw each other so often. The odds surely were against this happening. We saw several interesting gasoline stations today. There was a small building that was used as an office - about 3 meters square. and there were four large rectangular metal boxes about the size of a medium shipping container but a bit taller. Each of the boxes had a hose and nozzle at one corner. From what we can tell, these are large tanks that each contain gasoline. No tanks buried in the ground. The new stations we have seen all have buried tanks. We cannot help but wonder how many of these places have burned and led to injuries and/or loss of life. The eastern portion of the Baltic Countries is almost entirely Russian and that is the only language spoken. When we stopped for gas Verna was able to converse in English with a young man working there. He told us he was very surprised to see us and our bikes because no tourists ever come to that part of the country. Verna asked about his English and why it was so good. He told us he had lived in Ireland for six months - part of the time in Cork and the other part west of Dublin. We continued traveling south east, crossed into Lithuania and rode to Marijampole, the town north of the Polish border where we stayed when we first came into Lithuania when we were traveling north. We were lucky to get the last room in the second hotel in town that we stopped at - the first was full. We can thank our late arrival (8:30 PM) to the second radar trap we encountered today. This event is why we use a radar detector. Several factors were in play when we encountered the police; they did not use the radar gun until we were right next to them and we were passing three cars and a large truck. This was on a divided highway, two lanes for travel in each direction. Speed limits on this type road is 110 KPH for motorcycles, 130 for cars, and 90 for trucks. This is the first time we have had the police stop us anywhere in Europe. The police officer just about got himself run over when he jumped out onto the highway in front of Jim. He spoke no English and wanted us to speak to him in German. He was insisting that we were going 90 KPH. He also pointed out a sign just down the road from us that had 70 KPH on it and insisted that there was one just like it a short way behind us on the highway. There probably was but we never saw it because the large truck in the right lane was blocking it from our view. There was no sign on the left side of the road indicating a change in the speed. This is not the first time we have encountered signs only on the right side of the road that cannot be seen by the drivers in the left lane if there are large vehicles in the right lane. Any rate, he was insisting that we were going 90 in a 70 zone. We kept telling him that it was impossible for us to see through a truck and that we were not going 90; what he measured for 90 was the truck. We did not tell him but we were doing 110 KPH, the speed limit for this type of road. We rode away with nothing being done. The most interesting part was the second officer who was in the car filling out a report for an accident. We think that he was telling his partner to let it go and send us on our way. We knew they did not have a case and we suspect that the officer in the car knew that also; we also think he understood every word we said to his partner but when we asked him he just smiled and kept his head down working on his report. This entire episode did make for interesting entertainment for a group of 5 boys along the side of the road who spent most of the time checking out our bikes. Tuesday, August 19, 2003Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 562.5 KM It only took about 30 minutes to get through the border formalities entering Poland this morning. We did have to purchase insurance for Poland again - the policy we had purchased when we entered the country for the first time expired yesterday. We had to stop after a few kilometers and take off some clothing. We had been riding in 20 degree weather in the Baltic Countries and now that we are south of the Baltic Sea the temperature went up about 10 degrees centigrade and we were warm. We visited Wolfsschanze (Wolf’s Lair) this afternoon. This was the place in the Polish countryside that Hitler used as his headquarters during the Second World War. The Nazi’s blew up all of the concrete and brick buildings and bunkers when the Russian’s started to advance on the area before they abandoned it. This is the place where an attempt was made to kill Hitler in an explosion that was planned and set off by members of his general staff on July 20, 1944. Hitler was not one of the four people who lost their lives in the explosion; he suffered minor injuries. See the Wolfschanze page in the Poland section for more information. Then we rode south to one of the many small towns located on one of the numerous lakes in the northern part of Poland. We followed some signs down a dirt road and came to a nice little hotel right on the lake which looks north - we can see the town of Mikotajki from the hotel. Wednesday, August 20, 2003Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 224.9 KM Some things were meant to be. While we were stopped at a small gasoline station with a tiny restaurant having lunch, Francisco and Simonetta rode in apologizing for arriving late, again. They had already eaten their lunch - in Mikotajki where we had spent the previous night. This the first time we have met the same people in so many different places while traveling. They were headed for Toruń and we were headed a bit further north to Malbork where we want to see the castle that dates from the 13th century. We parted company at the gas station. We arrived in Malbork late in the day and stayed in a highly overpriced hotel situated next to the castle. See the Malbork page in the Poland section for more information. Thursday, August 21, 2003Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 276.2 KM After breakfast we spent two and a half hours touring the Malbork Castle. Then we got on the bikes and started riding southwest. We had talked about going north to Gdansk but decided not to go there. We hope we have not made a mistake. We stopped for the day at 5:00 PM about 100 kilometers from the German border. This is the last night we will see hotel prices like we have experienced during this part of our adventure. Tonight’s room is €36.00 for a very nice room including breakfast. We are in the country adjacent to a small lake. Quiet, serene and picturesque. Tomorrow we will cross the border into Germany about 90 kilometers east of Berlin where we would like to spend the the next 3 to 5 days. Friday, August 22 - Sunday, August 31, 2003Today's statistics: Top of PageTotal Distance: 180.0 KM We arrived in Berlin just after noon, stooped at the Brandenburg Gate to get a photo. We found a very nice hotel that gave us a room at 40 % of their regular price because there were no businessmen in town, this being the “silly season” as the Irish call it, when everyone is on vacation. And, the hotel had a built in ethernet connection in the room running 100MBS for no charge. Life is good! This is the first time in three years we have had internet access that did not cost us by the minute. We took this opportunity to upgrade some software and completely reinstall the web site and menus. We have tested everything and believe that it all works - if you find anything that does not or typos, etc., please send the web master e-mail. We have been wondering why it is taking the hotel industry so long to offer this type of service. Looks like the Germans have figured it out. Not much competition for rooms in the city at this time of year which makes good news for us. We planed on being here for the next five nights but decided to stay for ten days. Ten days in Berlin - wow! Berlin is one of Jim’s three favorite cities in the world. The other two being London and San Francisco. From a photography stand point Berlin does not have much in the way of historical structures - the entire town was completely bombed and burned to the ground during the Second World War. We were last in Berlin in June, 1997, and the city has changed dramatically since then. At that time the city was suffering tremendously from the impact of the wall coming down. Comparing what was the Soviet zone in the city to the other three zones (American, British and French) left us very depressed. But times have changed. We rode into Berlin from Poland riding on the city streets so we could see what the eastern part of the city looked like today. The transformation is nothing short of wonderful. While there are vestiges of the communist era (those ugly concrete high rise apartments continue to dominate many areas) there are gardens and flowers and trees and new buildings everywhere. Also, much of the construction that was going full blast in 1997 is, of course, now completed and Potsdam Platz is a wonder to behold. There are construction projects that still go on in the platz but the majority of the work has been completed and the new buildings that house Mercedes Benz, Sony and others dominate the skyline. See the Berlin page in the Germany section for more information. This concludes our Eastern Europe adventure. From Berlin we will ride east to Neuss where we will leave the bikes for the winter. See the Berlin to Neuss page for this, the next part of the adventure. |
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We woke to overcast skies with lots of low clouds along the coast. Our first thought was that we made a big mistake by not taking advantage of the weather yesterday to visit the Curonian Spit. Bu the time we arrived at the ferry at 9:00 AM the skies had cleared and we had beautiful weather for our ride down and back up the Curonian Spit. This is the first ferry we have been on that had more pedestrians on it than vehicles.
We headed south after crossing into Latvia on a dirt and gravel road just after crossing the border and then reached a paved road after about 20 kilometers and arrived in Balvi at lunch time. We stopped at an internet cafe and discovered that there was a small restaurant next door. As we were preparing to move the bikes to the restaurant we heard a horn honking out in the street and it was Francisco and Simonetta, the Italian couple we had met yesterday, apologizing for arriving late. It was a good joke. We asked if they would like to join us for lunch, which they did and then after a good meal (the two of us ate for 1.13 Lati [about $2.00]) we continued south together. We parted company in Rēzekne so they could take a different route.