31 July 2008

Thursday 31 July 2008

We've been away 6 weeks today! Yay!

Started the day with an attempt at breakfast in the Butlins canteen. Suffice to say, our first impressions didn't change with repeated exposure. Cereal was OK mind.

The plan today was to reach Banska Bystrica, Slovakia. A distance of approx 60 miles and the last instalment of the Tatra's for us.

The day dawned hot again though more overcast than of late which helped to keep temperatures more manageable on the ascents.

We left the hotel at around 09:30 to pick up Route 537 where we left off yesterday and straight into a delicious descent. This helped us to knock out the first 10 miles or so with little effort and in very short order. About bloomin time!

We crossed the main E50 motorway (uuugh) and continued on our way via Routes 18 and 72 in very light traffic.

Once complete, these two roads would see us traverse the Low Tatra's to add to the High Tatra's already knocked off over the past two days.

Shortly after crossing the motorway the road headed in an upwards direction from which it didn't deviate for the next 15 miles and nearly 700m.

We spun away with tired legs and flagging spirits until about halfway to the summit. A roadside restaurant beckoned.

Coffee, pop and choccy later, we were re-energised enough to complete the rest of the climb.

As the road levelled we took in the view, sipped some water and pointed Disharmony II downwards for the mother of all descents. 20 miles and 750m of descent later, the road levelled out.

At a confusing set of roadwork's, we attempted to make life difficult for ourselves by taking a wrong turn but after a couple of miles we discovered our error and turned tail.

We passed through the town of Podbrezova which appeared to have the biggest steel re-processing plant in the known universe. In fact, the plant seemed to be the whole town. When we get proper Internerd access, we'll check out what secret mission is being carried out there.

A few miles later we pulled over for the obligatory CAKE, coffee and weeee break. Shortly after stopping, we were sent a message from the Big Man and the heavens opened.

What followed was an uninterrupted couple hours of the heaviest rain, the thunderiest thunder and the ...oh you get the message!

We waited out the storm for a suitable lull and in full Gore-Tex, made a break for freedom.

30 seconds later, it all came down again. How we laughed.....

Within minutes we were drenched and had to pull in again as we could see neither the road nor the other road users.

We were still in good spirits though having effectively 'finished' the Tatra's on schedule and the warm rain and head to toe bath did nothing to dampen our mood.

Happily, in a slight let up, we spied a big orange sign advertising an hotel in a small town that we had just passed.

Our plan to reach Banska Bystrica was rapidly abandoned 10 miles from target in favour of an earlier finish with half a chance of drying out before morning.

'Abart Tarn' instructed Tracey and we legged it back up the road and splished and sploshed our way to the digs for the night.

We were pleasantly surprised with the hotel, the food and the price. Three out of three ain't bad.

Bet you can't guess what we had for dinner!? You bet, that Eastern European staple.....pi...oh you've guessed already!

Back to the room for a well earned gonk. Hopefully tomorrow will see a reduction in the climbing for a bit.

Today a moderately hilly, spectacularly descending and jolly damp total of 53 miles and 745m of ascent! Total trip 2181 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

30 July 2008

Wednesday 30 July 2008

Another hot and sunny day dawned very early for us due to noisy helicopter activity over and near the campsite.

At first we thought it was the Feds air patrolling Dogsthorpe until we remembered we were in Poland....

Turns out the helicopter was ferrying building materials up to the mountain huts in the Tatra's but they could have started their racket a bit later on....

The plan today is to carry on our traverse of the High Tatra starting in Zakopane, Poland and ending 50 or so miles later in Podbanske, Slovakia.

The eagle eyed may have spotted another border crossing and this will be our 7th country notched up on the tour.

Headed off into the bedlam that is Zakopane at 09:30 and stopped off for daily supplies from Tesco's (yeah we know, lack of imagination or what?). This included a significant supply of their fake Mars bars to get us over the big mothers to come.

Made short work of the 3 miles or so we had to backtrack to pick up Route 961 that would lead us into more trouble than we could imagine.....

The main benefit of our taking this particular route was a significant reduction in traffic as most of the roads are too steep or narrow for anything bigger than a car.

Just starting the first climb of the day, we heard a rather unfamiliar, for this trip, pfffffft noise from the back tire.

Our first puncture was mended by Miles at the roadside and involved replacing the inner tube as the valve stem had ripped away from the surrounding rubber.

Within a few hundred metres of taking the 961, we started climbing and that seemed to set the scene for the day.

The first climb was a couple of miles of 1:10 that had the sinews popping and veins on our temples standing out.

There followed a number of other very steep climbs, mostly long and happily often shaded. However we were still dripping with the effort and had to make frequent stops to take on liquids and calories in various forms.

The continued ups and all too short downs started to knock the bejesus out of our legs and even though this may not have been our longest day or one with the most climbing, it was certainly our hardest yet.

Around midday, the Polish/Slovakian border was crossed at a scabby little bridge with nary a murmur. No fan fare, no trumpets, nothing. Tsssk.

After passing into Slovakia, the surroundings became very Alpine and we rode through a number of lovely high villages not unlike those in the Western Alps in France or Switzerland.

This area is very popular with walkers and climbers both active and would be. Each village was bulging at the seams with day trippers out doing their thing.

We continued to grind the miles out crawling our way to our destination. Due to the hills, the average speed was very low and it was taking us hours to cover ground we would normally knock off much more quickly.

Approaching Stary Smokovec, about 15 miles from our destination we were both running on empty. Emergency CAKE and coffee was consumed in the town before we coaxed our quads into taking some more punishment.

After another 10 miles or so of hard effort, the road levelled out then swung steeply downhill. TFFT!

We dispatched the last 5 miles at an average speed of 30 mph almost without turning a pedal.

Presently we found ourselves stood in front of what purported to be Slovakia's equivalent of a 4* hotel....yeah right.

Despite all the hard miles, we couldn't resist cycling to the hotel door which involved riding up 500m of 1:10 ramp. That did for what was left of our legs and we dismounted like a pair of crippled John Waynes.

We checked into and checked out the facilities of the hotel. Nice in parts but no luxe fest. Dinner was eaten in the hotel restaurant which was doing a good impression of a Butlin's camp canteen but we had no legs left to carry us anywhere else.

Yesterday and today we have dispatched the High Tatra's, tomorrow, the Low Tatra's are on the cards. Lets just hope they are slightly less damaging to our poor beleaguered quads...

Today a massively hilly total of 58 miles and 1300m of ascent! Total trip 2128 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

28 & 29 July 2008

Monday 28 July 2008

Rest day in Krakow. The day dawned hot and sunny again, bit of theme developing here.....

Today we had elected to take a side trip to the Auschwitz memorial museum and concentration camps.

Those that have been will know what a harrowing experience it is and how difficult putting this into word is.

Suffice to say, it is very difficult to comprehend the extent of mans' inhumanity to man and this all happened within a generation.

We spent most of the day at Auschwitz I and Auschwitz Birkenau where the majority of the prisoners were kept (read 'processed').

On our return to Krakow, we had a very nice meal at an Argentinean restaurant which we rounded off with Argentinean Pancakes. Be assured, these are just like normal pancakes and nary a mention of the Malvinas!

A very enjoyable day off. Back to the grind tomorrow.

No miles ridden and no height gained. He he.

Tuesday 29 July 2008

Today is our last full day in Poland. Our plan is to ride approx. 60 miles south from Krakow to Zakopane on the Polish/Slovakian border.

After a humoungous Ibis breakfast we winched our straining bellies onto Disharmony II and set off at the sprightly hour of 09:00....straight into the Krakow rush.

The day was set in the now familiar pattern of very hot and very sunny.

Throughout we were accompanied by the three H's; Hills, Heat and Horrible Traffic.

We dodged the traffic along the main E77-7 and subsequently Route 47 only stopping for lolly and bum breaks every hour and a half or so.

Today was the hilliest so far and this plus the heat knocked the stuffing out of us. Fortunately, we were fresh from our rest day so were able to still make our planned destination.

As a testament to steepness of the ups and downs, we recorded another trip highest speed today; 46mph!!

We arrived at Zakopane at around 16:30, called into Tourist Info to find where the camp site was and cycled a couple of extra miles to our preferred choice.

YES! We are back in the tent tonight (by choice). Campsite quite busy but large enough to absorb the numbers booked in.

Miles did a bit of tandem fettling whilst Tracey showered. He then spent 45 minutes removing all the post fettling tandem filth.

Dinner was eaten at the site café (quite nice) followed by blogs, notes and an earlyish night.

Tatra's tomorrow, we can feel our collies wobbling......

Today was a real grind with the horrendous traffic, heat and hills. We knocked out a total of 67 miles and 1425m of ascent! Total trip 2070 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

27 July 2008

Sunday 27 July 2008

Breakfasted at our hotel that was once again deserted after all the frivolity of the previous evening.

On our way down, we heard such a commotion we thought 2 dozen guests were trying to check out and were all querying their bills simultaneously.

Turned out, the 3 hotel kitchen staff were having a very high volume discussion about something obviously very important. This continued throughout our breakfast and had us on our way sharpish with the beginnings of headaches...

Our plan today is to reach Krakow, Poland a ride of about 50 miles. This will be followed by our scheduled rest day which we are both looking forward to as the legs are starting to feel a little heavy.

Weather once again very hot and sunny - scorchio! Wind, either across us or somewhere on our backs.

We easily found our way on to the E77-7 and followed this south westerly all the way to Krakow.

Though the planned mileage for today wasn't particularly high, no one mentioned the flipping hills!

The landscape was very pretty with all the crops ready for harvest, rolling hills and lots of woodland.

The hills were a mixture of short/sharp little tinkers and big grovelling, drawn out monsters. Happily most were followed by fantastic, speedy descents and we recorded our top speed of the trip so far; 41mph!

We made the customary stop after 1.5 hours for the triple delight of ice lolly, choccy and pop. Don't tell our dentists!

This stop was followed by another an hour or so later for more pop and choccy. Sadly, as per yesterday, no CAKE.

After grinding out a couple of real mingers of hills, we arrived at the outskirts of Krakow.

Unexpectedly (for Tracey), Miles pulled over to the side of the road and gesticulated wildly at the cycle computer. No, he had not gone mad(er), we had just clocked our 2000th mile of the trip. Hurrah and double hip hip hooray!

Without too much of a do, we followed the main route into the centre of town, spotted a likely IBIS hotel and checked in. No grief, no aggro just a nice cool, clean room for a couple of days.

This is by far the easiest city and/or large town we have visited yet for cycling access. Minimal pot holes, no cobbles, very few (so far) tram tracks and little traffic insanity. Lovely.

We watched the last stage of the TdeF live (in French for extra atmosphere) then explored the Old Town for a likely suspect for the nights dinner haunt.

We walked along the bank of the river Wista into the Old Town. (yes, yet another Old Town) and onto the Market Square.

Apparently, this is the biggest market square in Europe and it certainly..... was.

After our very quiet journey down the eastern side of Poland when we were often the only guests in the only restaurant or hotel in town, we were suddenly faced with an absolute hubub of people, restaurants and bars.

Wow! What a tranformation, Poland had come alive.

We ate a lovely meal on the square and watched the tastless horse drawn Landau's go past complete with their payloads of tourists.

Later we watched fire eaters doing their thing (obviously hadn't seen the Gaviscon ad on British telly) and then we saw a Romanian Gypsy band performing the closing set of the '10th Crossroads Festival' whatever that was (is).

The music was very much like South American Salsa complete with full brass band section so David P would be happy enough....

After a last couple of (alocohol free) beers on the square, we walkede back to the hotel somewhat happy with our lot.

Rest day tomorrow - happy days....

Today we knocked out another red hot and flippin hilly total of 49 miles and 720m of ascent. Total trip 2002 miles. Ye haw!

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

26 July 2008

Saturday 26 July 2008

Had a reasonable night in our grotty motel, well we didn't seem to catch anything which counts as a real success!

Passed on the supplied breakfast and did our own thing. This involved sparking up 'Big Thunder' on our balcony (ooooerr, very posh. Errrr, no) to boil water for tea and solids were cereal with dried milk and local Jaffa CAKES

Fuelled up, we wheeled Disharmony II out of her overnight lair and started out at around 09:30.

Today's plan is for us to reach Jedrzejow, Poland en route to Krakow. This will (hopefully) be our last stop before reaching Krakow on Sunday.

This will be a major double milestone as arriving in Krakow will be halfway through our planned number of days and we will log our 2000th mile during the day's cycling. Woot bloomin woot!

We easily found our way out of Opatow, picked up Route 74 and travelled due west towards Kielce 30 miles away.

The weather today was very hot and sunny with no repetition of the afternoon storms of the past couple of days.

The first 30 miles seemed to take forever. The scenery was lovely and traffic very light. However, an aspect of this did slow us down and that was the blimmin hills.

These plus a very gusty cross wind and too many miles in our legs from the past few days, had us crawling along (or so it seemed).

Eventually we reached Kielce and rapidly found our way through the town and out of the other side.

We had our second stop of the day on the outskirts of the town and refuelled with pop and choccy. We were drinking more fluids as temperatures were much higher than of late.

Sadly neither of our two stops yielded the much needed daily ration of CAKE.

Back on the bike, we then turned due south along the E77-7 heading for Jedrzejow.

The turn had the benefit of the wind moving around onto our backs and we now had the mother (and father) of all tail winds.

Unfortunately, this only lasted 20 or so miles before we arrived at our destination for the day.

We slow cycled through the town looking for the day's digs and ended up biking straight out of the other side for a mile or so when we came across the hotel.

First impressions were good, though it looked deserted/shut. This suspicion proved unfounded and we booked into to a very sizeable suite and settled down for the remainder of the day.

Things got a little busier later when a Polish wedding party arrived to celebrate the happy couple's nuptials.

We felt a little out of place, so walked back into the town for yet more pizza. Seems the only restaurants open in these parts serve pizza, pizza or pizza.

After our Billy Bunter spread, we took a quick spin around their branch of Tesco (no kidding, just like the real thing) then walked back to the hotel where the party was now in full swing.

Today we knocked out an extremely hot total of 63 miles and 560m of ascent. Total trip 1953 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

25 July 2008

Friday 25 July 2008

Up and at em ready and raring to go at the very early time of 08:30. This was principally due to us skipping breakfast at the hotel and hitting the road without proper early morning fuel. We couldn't stand another altercation with the frosty bint at the hotel.

The plan today was for a 70 miler via Lublin, Poland ending in Sandomierz also Poland. The advantage of this, is it has us using secondary roads for the next couple of days which should help avoid some of the traffic.

Today, perfect cycling conditions; sun, roaring tail wind and few hills (to start with).

Dispatched the 10 or so miles into Lublin and battled through the rush hour and outskirts until we worked our way into the Old Town/town centre.

En route, we had our first altercation with Polish authority when we followed a bus through a no entry/buses only restriction to the Old Town.

Luckily this level of misdemeanour does not warrant 6 months in the Gulag and we were allowed on our way when we promised to walk the tandem through the pedestrian zone.

Breakfast was taken at a pavement café. This was somewhat unorthodox and involved large helpings of CAKE rather than any crappy cereal or whatever

Once complete we found our way to the IT (Tourist Info) bureau for details of accommodation on our planned route.

Horror of horrors, there was not just a lack of room at the stable but no blimmin stable(s) either!

OK, faced with a simple choice, we revised our plan to follow the bigger 'A' roads that we knew would have suitable digs somewhere along them. Unfortunately this also meant TRAFFIC though hopefully this will settle down over the coming weekend.

After spending far too long in Lublin, we hit the road again and battled our way out of the city.

The cycling was pretty straight forward and mostly with a really good tail wind. We stopped a couple of times in the heat for drinks and ice lollies whilst making steady progress towards our revised goal.

All was going well until around 14:30 when the heavens opened, again. There followed a violent thunder and lightning display accompanied by much wind and rain.

Fortunately, Tracey (Michael Fish) Goff, predicted the rain and we were (just about) safely in a bus shelter when the worst hit.

The wind was so bad, a number of trees lost limbs and we had a narrow squeak when a branch fell close to where we had just passed by.

After an hour or so, the rain eased and in full wets, we set off on our way again.

At this stage, we had about 25 miles to knock out before arriving in Opatow We were both feeling the effects of the heat, yesterday's high mileage and the reappearance of those pesky hills.

We dug in and damply dispatched the final miles before arriving at around 17:00.

On first pass, we didn't find any of the accommodation promised during our visit to Lublin IT and eventually we called into an open Pizza joint to track somewhere down.

A nice man 'kidnapped' Miles and drove him off in his car apparently to suitable digs. Tracey was left holding the tandem in the pizza restaurant car park.

In a jiffy, Miles was back and we cycled to the Motel and settled in. 'Luxurious' is not a word one would use, more like 'grim'.....

Dinner was taken in the aforementioned pizza joint and we walked back to our digs for a well earned early night.

Another significant milestone was reached during today's ride when we passed the halfway mark for our planned mileage. It's all down hill from here let's just hope the plan is accurate......!

Today again we put in a very respectable though damp total of 78 miles and 680m of ascent. Total trip 1891 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

24 July 2008

Thursday 24 July 2008

A pleasant evening was had at our hotel during which Miles made full use of the internerd facilities and Tracey enjoyed Eurosport. Later we both reported in to our respective mission controls in the UK - all seemed well enough at home.

During breakfast we were somewhat bemused when the Polish newscaster was replaced with a humping and groaning couple on the 52" plasma (that's a telly BTW not a porn star vital statistic)! Seems we had a bit of porn 'breakthrough' which would have made Tracey choke on her cornflakes if she had any.

After calming down, we left around 09:00, planning to reach the unfortunately named Polish town of Kock, approx. 60 miles away.

Clearly, our choice of destination had all to do with it's name and we have scoured our maps to plan similar visits to the towns of Tits, Bum and Fanny! Incidentally, we had already tucked away the town of 'Arce', whilst in Latvia. Double points to us.

Dry weather greeted us though rather overcast and very humid. The other major positive today was the reduction in the volume of traffic. This meant we could relax a little and enjoy both the cycling and the scenery.

We belted along Route 19 due south. After a couple of hours or so, we stopped at a roadside services for pop and choccy then later at a café for a coffee and more choccy.

Exchanged pleasantries with a group of Polish HGV drivers who were interested in our endeavours. We managed to conceal the fact that we now consider this breed to be on a par with the anti-Christ!

More cycling followed and we reached Kock around 15:00. We were disappointed to find another 'One Whore Town' that didn't seem to offer accommodation.

We opted to carry on and see what popped up.

A couple of miles later, what popped up on our radar was a very fancy restaurant indeed. We screeched Disharmony II to a halt and the mother of all CAKE fests followed. Fantastic quality CAKE later, we were ready to carry on.

During our feast, we'd been given some info on places to stay in the coming towns and villages.

We carried on, inspected the first recommendation and found it wanting so carried on some more.

This process was repeated a couple of more times until we decided our best bet would be to make for the next 'mega' city; Lublin.

Fuelled up at our recent stop, we got the hammer down and started to grind out the remaining 25 or so miles.

This plan came royally unstuck when 10 miles from our destination the heavens opened. Fortunately, we had just enough time to hide in a bus shelter but we still got soaked by all the standing water when we recommenced cycling.

A hurried plan review was carried out and we dived into the next hotel we passed. Luckily this looked both habitable and quite nice.

This view was somewhat tainted later during dinner when the snooty cow who was serving us decided being very rude was the Polish way to treat foreign guests. Well boo hoo to her!

All these shenanigans meant, today we put in a very respectable total of 91 miles and 345m of ascent. Total trip 1813 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

Miles taking Disharmony II for a spin in the lobby of the fanciest hotel in Bialystok, Poland

Not the RED phone.......!

It rang, a voice said "Yuk yuk, howdy, Is thay't yooo Mayster Presidant Pootin? George Doubleya here......" etc etc.

Storks doing a stock check of undelivered infants....

Miles' natural home....

22 July 2008

Tuesday 22 July 2008

Just when the Lithuanian's had upped their game and sorted out the first meal of the day, the Poles go and let the side down. To ensure we were fully fuelled, we majored on the cereal part of breakfast and the cold meats/cheese/sloppy stuff was given a wide berth.

Hit the road shortly after 09:00, for a planned 60 miler to Bialystok, Poland.

Managed to avoid most of the morning hazards as we negotiated our way out of Augustow through their version of rush hour.

Even the weather played ball as we had some clouds, some sun and a side wind that didn't slow us up too much. Above all, it was DRY!

Hit the main A8-E67 and dug in for a good couple of hours graft before our first refuelling stop. Scenery very reminiscent of where we do most of our biking in the UK. i.e. Just like the countryside around Stamford and very nice too!

The café stop was considered a great success as we again both had double portions of CAKE and not just your common or garden Statoil cake but the real deal.

Feeling somewhat queasy, we put in another couple of hours of HGV dodging and arrived in Bialystok in the early afternoon.

We tried to get into our destination before the witching hour of 14:00 when swarms of nasty HGV's seem to take to the roads.The drivers having seemingly slept off their last great Yorkie indulgence or whatever else it is that seems to keep them from a normal days work.

We made straight for the IT (Tourist Info) bureau where we received exemplary help and booked into another very fancy hotel, apparently the best in town.

Within short order we had seen the end of the days Tour de France stage, showered, sauna'd and Jacuzzi'd and returned to our rather splendid room for some concerted gonking.

After a couple of hours, we took a turn around the town to spot somewhere nice for dinner. In this task, we failed miserably which proved to be a blessing in disguise.

Somewhat crestfallen, we returned to the hotel to eat. WOW!

Most will know, Tracey and Miles are foodies on the not so quiet and the meal we had tonight was FANTASTIC.

We've eaten in some pretty fancy places in our time and tonight's feast was as good as any of the Michelin star peppered places we normally frequent.

Bellies full, we returned to our room for some serious digestion.....

Total today another HGV infested 59 miles and 305m of ascent. Total trip 1656 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

23 July 2008

Wednesday 23 July 2008

Breakfast in our very nice hotel reinforced the view we formed yesterday evening. The food was again very, very nice. Shame it's a bit of a one off though we could organise a few day rides around Bialystok! Somehow, this wouldn't help us towards reaching our goal in Greece.

It was also good fun watching all the be-suited business drones spouting corporate bullsh!t to each other whilst we sat loading calories into our 'calorie/forward motion conversion devices' (AKA gobs!).

Today's plan has us dispatching another 60 plus miles hopefully ending in the well known Siemiatyceze and not the Polish equivalent of A&E after being squashed by an over enthusiastic HGV driver.

Late start for us as we let the nice business people check out and get on their collective way to their important meetings without having to 'interface' with two tandem riding 'oiks'.

We rolled out of the hotel around 09:45 into Siemiatyceze's morning rush. We then did a couple of laps of the city through a navigational faux pas that would have Marco Polo turning in his grave.

Presently, we found ourselves on Route 19 and heading South once more.

There followed a sobering experience when we came across the immediate aftermath of a pedestrian/car altercation on a zebra crossing.

Thankfully, the only evidence left of what had gone on was the broken handle of a shopping basket, a bloody tissue and a large queue of traffic and police.

In the queue, we were able to leap frog all the hullabaloo and get ahead of most of it.

This must have doubly infuriated for the stuck drivers as they then had to overtake us on difficult roads adding more time to their already delayed journeys (he he).

Our customary morning CAKE stop was taken after an hour or so at a completely deserted roadside hotel. Good CAKE though....

We carried on the good work under leaden skies and the blustery wind had swung around to a full on side wind. Luckily this didn't slow us up too much though we did miss the turbo effect of yesterday's tail wind.

As the day passed the clouds attempted to release their contents but gave up after half an hour or so of half hearted feeble spotting.

An afternoon recharge in lolly form was taken at a roadside bar followed by whizzing legs that had us in Siemiatyceze in very short order.

Our efficient IT lady from yesterday had booked ahead for us today so we located the hotel and settled in to watch the TdeF animals dispatch the incredible Alpe du Huez stage.

That'll be us next week that will....in the Tatra's.

Total today a quieter 65 miles and 300m of ascent. Total trip 1722 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

20 and 21 July 2008

Sunday 20 July 2008

Rest day today - Marijampole, Lithuania.

Slow start to the day followed by a surprisingly (based on recent experience) decent breakfast at the hotel.

Did a few ablutions/chores, dodged the rain showers and went for a walk into town around lunch time.

Called into the local Pizza joint for late lunch. Miles, being a pig, ordered a 'Maxi' that was almost the same size as the crap British Leyland car of the same name!! Suffice to say, a large proportion was boxed for emergency dinner rations to be consumed later.

Quick stroll around the local shopping centre to admire the best supermarket ever seen by Miles or Tracey.

Now we're not really supermarket aficionados but one that sells live Carp for customers to select gets our vote as a good one. Reminded us of choosing live Garoupa in the seafood restaurants of Hong Kong. Aaaah, nostalgia.....

Back to the hotel to see Hamilton win the German Grand Prix followed by more dossing....

Evening Scrabble followed in the local restaurant/pub which Miles won by a very convincing margin. Honours now 4-3 to Miles.

Finished a very slothful day by watching Rossi cane Casey Stoner's bum in the Moto GP race from California.

What a pleasant day off and as Rossi would say 'we're very very appy' and are ready and raring to go tomorrow.

Bring on Poland!

Monday 21 July 2008

Up and at em earlier than usual, must be ready to go!

Plan today; Marijampole, Lithuania to Augustow, Poland. Roughly 55 miles.

Another superb breakfast at the hotel, so good we can now forgive Lithuania for it's earlier breakfast time misdemeanours.

Hit the road unusually early i.e pre 09:00. We must have been spurred into action by a pair of Austrian cycle tourists staying at the same hotel

We met these two yesterday evening and exchanged war stories (oops!) whilst one of them seemed to think mastication should be a spectator sport (uuugh!).

The Austrian's got away from the hotel half an hour or so before us but we caught them and left them in our wake within 10 miles or so. Us competitive? Nah, surely not...

Stopped for the usual mid morning break at our favourite roadside services; Statoil.

Here our daily ration of CAKE was consumed. The first instalment was a little disappointing though normal standards were reinstated by the second helping!

Caked up, we hit the road again and returned to dice with the HGV's...

Presently, the Lithuanian/Polish border hove into view and we entered our sixth Country of the trip. Bye bye Baltic's, hello Eastern Europe.

Again, there was a complete absence of formality as we passed from Europe to Europe. However, there was plenty of evidence of how it was in the Soviet controlled days including watch towers, border fences etc.

Our first port of call in Poland was the town of Suwalki where we stopped again for a coffee and called into Tourist Info (IT as it's funkily known now) for accommodation details for tonight. We also spotted our first Polish Plumber, presumably on leave from the UK......

Looks like we might be able to get back onto the camping track as there seems to be a reasonable camping infrastructure in Poland. Unfortunately, the sites are not shown on the maps we have so we'll have to play it by ear.

Our caffeine levels replenished, we hit the A8-E67 again heading for Augustow.

En route, we had another 'strange themes' experience when we passed a rocket themed restaurant surrounded by deactivated missiles. We also spotted a tent pitched on top of a car (deliberately so it would seem) strange lot these Poles.....

A further brief stop was made for the customary afternoon lolly and we rolled into Augustow really early on account of the combined effects of a lovely tailwind and our gaining an hour due to the time difference with the Baltic's.

Biked straight into the centre, found the IT bureau by complete chance, and then (dodging a mahoosive rain shower) biked straight out again to our third choice of hotel. This involved a bit of off roading as the road became an unmade sandy track. There followed the 'save of the century' as the front wheel washed out in the sand and we, somehow, managed to get the old girl straightened up and back to pointing and going in a forwards direction....

To our surprise, we seem to be on a bit of a tourist trade route here and the hotels are doing much better business than in Lithuania.

After a shower and tidy up, we taxied back into town for dinner and multiple delicious Espresso's then retired for the evening to our room feeling somewhat content with the world.

Total today a tailwind fuelled though HGV infested 60 miles and 335m of ascent. Total trip 1598 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

19 July 2008

Saturday 19 July 2008

To prove we're nothing if not persistent, we again tried breakfast in our nice hotel. Persistence doesn't always pay as we found when our rank start to the day meal was delivered to our room.

Good news? We were able to break open our secret emergency CAKE supply to compensate for the lack of hotel provided calories. A good start to any cycling day.

Our plan today had us cycling South West along the A5-E67. Initially to Kaunas, Lithuania's second city then on to Marijampole, our destination for the day. About 60 miles and followed by a rest day. Yippeee!

Made a swift exit of both hotel and Kedainiai, stopping for a bottle of pop and packet of (local) Jaffa CAKES at the first services we came to. We must be getting soft as this was only 15 minutes into the riding day!

Refuelled, we blasted the 'A' road, pummelling it beneath our Amazonian thighs (ahem).

What we mean to say, is we got a fair lick on to dispatch this traffic infested bit of the road before joining Route 222, a delightful secondary road.

This completely avoided the hustle and bustle (not to mention the HGV's) of the main road and was a repeat performance of the pleasures we enjoyed yesterday.

All too soon, we arrived at the outskirts of Kaunas. Now we've seen our share of cities in the past couple of weeks so we elected to take the very busy 14 mile by-pass instead of going slowly through the middle of town.

Again, we got the hammer down, and dispatched this section not only with alacrity but also in a highly Billy Whiz fashion.

The by-pass was mainly OK for cycling, however part was under re-construction and we had the pleasure of 6' HGV wheels passing our noses inches away...

The upside to all this, is we had a 'free' 35mph descent for what seemed like miles and miles. All without the usual sinew popping and lung bursting 5mph endless ascent as pre-payment.

Shortly after Kaunas, we again had the option of a smaller secondary road vs. the Big Bertha 'A' road.

Predictably, we chose the former, AKA Route 230 (which apparently is also the time to see a Chinese dentist....).

Imagine our dismay when what seemed like all road traffic in Western Lithuania did likewise.

We concluded, the main road must have been shut or word was out that two loonies on a big bike were putting on a show on Route 230!

What followed was probably the worst couple of hours cycling imaginable. The downside of the secondary road was a complete lack of shoulder and it was just wide enough for two vehicles i.e. not two vehicles plus one tandem.

We lost count of the number of times the kamikaze HGV drivers came bowling up behind us at their maximum speed, overtaking in the face of oncoming traffic and then pulling back in at the last possible moment.

We know the 'might is right' rule of the road but this was taking the pi$$.

All this activity 'encouraged' us to redouble our efforts and turbo charge Disharmony II which had the beneficial side effect of an early arrival in Marijampole though with somewhat shredded nerves.

On closer inspection, it seems Marijampole is not kitted up for the tourist trade as it appeared devoid of any visitor resources whatsoever.

In the absence of information, we slow cycled through the town centre until we came upon a likely hotel.

We stopped, booked in and zoned out. Additional Valium supplies are now on order...

Rest tomorrow. Formula 1, Moto GP and Tour de France, ahhhhh bliss.....

Total today a nerve wracking and downright dangerous 67 miles and 185m of ascent. Total trip 1538 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

18 July 2008

Friday 18 July 2008

We breakfasted at our nice hotel. Tracey had extra leather with her Lithuanian omelette, Miles had additional rubber. Accompanying the egg confections, were lettuce, slices of orange, gerkins and half a tin of peas each....! Hmmmm, the orange juice was nice.

We got away at the slightly sprightly (I'm a poet and I don't know it...) time of 09:00 to blue skies with WARM SUNSHINE. Where will this end?

Our plan today is to knock out 50 or so miles to Kedainia, Lithuania. This town is described as 'one of the oldest in Lithuania' dating back to the 13th century. Lucky it was in our way really as we can't claim to have hand picked it!

We rejoined the main A10-E67, again due south and complete with nasty headwind as per the last few days. Traffic much lighter and glorious sunshine.

Shortly we passed an aeroplane themed motel. That is a motel with several ageing planes from the Soviet era plonked outside. We tucked this away in our 'unusual themes' file along with the bell themed services we came across in Finland.

We battled against the wind and ground out the miles into Panevezys at around the 30 mile mark.

We called into the Tourist Info bureau for accommodation info about our days destination then spent a delightful hour or so in a pavement café drinking coffee and eating our daily ration of CAKE.

All too soon, we were back in the saddle when we abandoned the main highway for a secondary road that led to our ultimate destination.

What followed was the best cycling of the trip so far. Lovely scenery, gently rolling hills in lovely open countryside, almost zero traffic and warm sun. We were even able to forgive the evil sh!t who was supplying the headwind for his misdemeanours.

Stopped for an ice lolly and bottle of pop mid afternoon at Krekenava, middle of nowhere, Lithuania.

Arrived into Kedainia late afternoon having added 61 miles to our tally and it felt like it.

Rolled through the extended suburbs to the Old Town and another Info Bureau for more accommodation details.

Picked a nice hotel very nearby, booked in and settled down to the Tour de France. In case our readers (assuming they haven't dozed off yet) think we've gone soft, we haven't found any camping grounds in Latvia or Lithuania (so far).

A very nice dinner was had at the other 'very nice hotel' nearby. That'll be the one with the Scottish theme due to the residence of a number of drunken Glaswegian's back in the 17th century. Happily, deep fried anything wasn't on the menu!

Back to hotel for a bit of EuroSport (BTW, this is a TV station and not a euphemism) and some shut eye. On the way back in, nodded to the two nice ladies who'd been hanging around the entrance all night. Wonder what they were up to.....?

Tomorrow, our last day in Lithuania as we plan to end the day a few K's short of the Polish border.

Total today a very pleasant though hard 61 miles and a 150m of ascent. Total trip 1471 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

17 July 2008

Thursday 17 July 2008

After our decadent night in Riga, we didn't want to return to the fray...howsoever....

The plan today was to knock out 60 or so miles taking the A7-E67 from Riga and ending somewhere just over the Lithuanian border.

After an extremely handsome breakfast in very pleasant surroundings we made good our exit at around 09:30.

The timing was spot on as we woke to very overcast skies and it was raining chats and chiens at our usual departure time. Even so, we set off in waterproofs as there was a fair amount of standing water on the roads.

The route out of Riga was reasonably straight forward despite the heavy rush hour traffic and the poor road conditions.

Traffic and road quality varied enormously today. At times we had good quality, Euro donated blacktop complete with shoulder and at others, we appeared to be travelling in Latvia's past. Initially the traffic was extremely heavy and the road conditions very poor.

This horrible state of affairs was eventually upgraded and the traffic quietened as we got further from Riga.

Happily, at times, we were sheltered from the vicious headwinds we have been experiencing for the past few days. Later in the day, the wind swung round a to more 3/4 on the bow which helped the legs a little.

We stopped for the customary breaks at roadside services, though CAKE was significantly absent. Happily the weather improved enough for us to abandon sweaty waterproofs and to sail along in our sun togs.

At the 40 mile mark we rolled into Bauska our last significant Latvian town, though significant is probably overplaying it somewhat.

The Lithuanian border was crossed 10 or so miles later and we immediately witnessed a change in the scenery and terrain. Latvia has been significantly flat, in fact flatter than we're used and we live on the edge of the Fens!

Lithuania, by contrast, started with some delightful gentle rolling mini hills which will hopefully develop into more interesting (though not toooo interesting) 3D terrain.

After a couple of more showers and a goodly slog at the pedals, we arrived into Pasvalys, Lithuania at around 16:30 with over 70 miles on the computer.

For the first time this trip, we had no prior information regarding potential accommodation at our destination. We'd hoped to either bump into something suitable or visit an information Bureau.

Both of these options came to nought and we visited the local Plod instead. They directed us to what is probably the worst hotel we have ever seen. On closer inspection, it was actually a cheapo doss house with 20 or more people sharing one loo and shower....

Suffice to say, we did an about turn and hightailed it out of there. Good news? The nice lady in the horrible hotel, directed us to a much more suitable place a couple of K's down the road.

We booked in, made ourselves at home then visited the equivalent of the local Spar for dinner. The two girls in the shop probably didn't know what hit them as two stinky, knackered Brits feebly pointed at and demanded various sugar laden goodies.

Back to the hotel where we ate our booty and Miles spent an hour or so changing both the drive and timing chains on the bike. Both had worn to their service limits in the 1400 or so miles we've done so far.....Not sure how common bicycle maintenance is in Lithuanian hotel rooms, perhaps this was a first?

Total today a hard won 72 miles and a 115m of ascent. Total trip 1410 miles.

16 July 2008

Wednesday 16 July 2008

Good news! After a very nice walk along a Baltic beach bathed in sunset (please note, any romantic inferences should be ignored....!), yesterday's Scrabble result had Miles closing the gap to 3 games all by a very sound thrashing of Tracey.

Breakfasted in our hut and benefited from the output of 'Big Thunder' though this time sparking up took place in the safer environment outside the cabin.

Today's plan is a 50 mile run into Riga, Latvia though this is somewhat dependant on the weather (i.e. whether the blummin headwinds let up. Ha! See what I did there?).

In order to have some time to enjoy the spoils of Riga, we upped and abandoned the camp shite (N.B. This is not a typo it is Tracey's joke and she is very possessive of it.....) at the earlier time of 08:20.

Again we followed the main A1-E67, Euro provided trunk road. Happily today, funds had stretched to providing a decent shoulder so we were healthily separated from the busy traffic. Additionally, drivers were showing reasonable restraint and more than a modicum of common sense.

Our good friend, the head wind, accompanied us for most of the journey though we bit the bullet, thumbed our noses at it (apologies for the mixed metaphor) and bashed on regardless.

Pop, chocy (and an ar$e break) was taken on the hour, followed by coffee and CAKE at another services an hour later. Grinding out the miles on the flat and into the wind requires frequent stops to coax the gluteus maximus back into life.

Presently, we turned due West along the A2 for the final 10 miles into Riga.

Traffic was heavy and unpredictable but we stayed with it and pedalled on. Miles stopped at what turned out to be 'the best bike shop in the world' to buy a couple of new chains to replace our timing chain which has gone decidedly soggy.

We walked the last couple of K's into the Old Town Square and visited the Tourist Info office for accommodation details.

As this is almost the end of our 4th week away, we splashed out on a fancy hotel in the Old Town which turned out to be a converted printing works.

Now this may not sound so fancy, but the owners had incorporated a lot of the period details into the individually designed rooms which made for a classy experience with lots of character.

The other positive was the chaps even looked after Disharmony II, taking her away and tucking her up for the night in her own quarters.

After a very rapid shower we scuttled out to double time round the various sights of Riga. A very nice Italian meal followed by ZZZZZZZZ's in our super King Size which is almost as big as some of the cabins we have rented to date.....

Tomorrow; Lithuania....probably.

Total today another grovelling, bum burning 54 miles and a heady 95m of ascent. Total trip 1338 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

Wednesday 16 July 2008

Good news! After a very nice walk along a Baltic beach bathed in sunset (please note, any romantic inferences should be ignored....!), yesterday's Scrabble result had Miles closing the gap to 3 games all by a very sound thrashing of Tracey.

Breakfasted in our hut and benefited from the output of 'Big Thunder' though this time sparking up took place in the safer environment outside the cabin.

Today's plan is a 50 mile run into Riga, Latvia though this is somewhat dependant on the weather (i.e. whether the blummin headwinds let up. Ha! See what I did there?).

In order to have some time to enjoy the spoils of Riga, we upped and abandoned the camp shite (N.B. This is not a typo it is Tracey's joke and she is very possessive of it.....) at the earlier time of 08:20.

Again we followed the main A1-E67, Euro provided trunk road. Happily today, funds had stretched to providing a decent shoulder so we were healthily separated from the busy traffic. Additionally, drivers were showing reasonable restraint and more than a modicum of common sense.

Our good friend, the head wind, accompanied us for most of the journey though we bit the bullet, thumbed our noses at it (apologies for the mixed metaphor) and bashed on regardless.

Pop, chocy (and an ar$e break) was taken on the hour, followed by coffee and CAKE at another services an hour later. Grinding out the miles on the flat and into the wind requires frequent stops to coax the gluteus maximus back into life.

Presently, we turned due West along the A2 for the final 10 miles into Riga.

Traffic was heavy and unpredictable but we stayed with it and pedalled on. Miles stopped at what turned out to be 'the best bike shop in the world' to buy a couple of new chains to replace our timing chain which has gone decidedly soggy.

We walked the last couple of K's into the Old Town Square and visited the Tourist Info office for accommodation details.

As this is almost the end of our 4th week away, we splashed out on a fancy hotel in the Old Town which turned out to be a converted printing works.

Now this may not sound so fancy, but the owners had incorporated a lot of the period details into the individually designed rooms which made for a classy experience with lots of character.

The other positive was the chaps even looked after Disharmony II, taking her away and tucking her up for the night in her own quarters.

After a very rapid shower we scuttled out to double time round the various sights of Riga. A very nice Italian meal followed by ZZZZZZZZ's in our super King Size which is almost as big as some of the cabins we have rented to date.....

Tomorrow; Lithuania....probably.

Total today another grovelling, bum burning 54 miles and a heady 95m of ascent. Total trip 1338 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

P.s. The pic below is of a milk carton and it appealed to our childish senses of humour!

The Dyslexic Anagram Competion Winner

15 July 2008

Tuesday 15 July 2008

Our plan today has us following the Western Estonia coast approx. 50 miles South into Latvia via the E67-4.

Yesterday evening our choice of cabin proved to be a Godsend as a tempest of biblical proportions was unleashed during the evening and night.

The wind howled around the hut as the rain lashed down. How we laughed at the intrepid campers gamely hanging onto their tents to avoid the indignity of losing their abodes for the night.

The upside to all this weather was a clear, warm and blue sky start to our day. Unfortunately, yesterday's rain has been replaced by an evil little headwind that had our quads burning as we fought to make headway against it.

The riding proved to be a little nondescript. The terrain was again as flat as a very flat thing and the road, arrow straight pointing due south.

After an hour or so, we pulled into a lay-by (narrowly avoiding the Police speed trap on the opposite side of the road) for a slurp and chocy bar. No sooner had we stopped, when another mad Brit. c/w caravan in tow pulled up for elevenses.

Turned out he was road testing the van on behalf of that well read publication; 'Practical Caravan'. We exchanged war stories, had our photos taken for inclusion in his future feature and bid our farewells.

We continued due South, battling the fierce headwind eventually crossing the Latvian border around midday at the 30 mile mark. These days, the border is a complete non event and is deserted.

This is probably due to the fact one is now actually passing from the Federal European Republic of Estonia to the Federal European Republic of Latvia..open borders and all that.

We found the immediate difference between the two countries to be the quality of the road surface. We'd been used to high quality, EU funded blacktop and it appeared the influence of the EU wallet hadn't quite reached border country yet.

However, as in Estonia, we later found large sections of highway had benefited from the generosity of the EU and we had supersmooth, brand new road to follow.

Good to know our EU contributions are being spent so wisely and we look forward to seeing Latvia reciprocate and help Lincs. County Council fund the new Crowland by-pass so the damn thing gets finished!

We dropped into the Tourist Info point in Salacgriva to pick up accommodation info for the area. We opted for a campsite at around our 50 mile mark and celebrated our choice with double helpings of CAKE from the local shop.

Refuelled, we ground out the last 10 miles or so and arrived at our choice of seaside campsite at around 14:00.

Our initial choice of 3 bed cabin was rapidly upgraded to a traditional log 4 berther when we realised the combination of high volume Trance music from our would be neighbour and the 3 bedder being a complete sh!t hole made our first choice most unsuitable.

Dinner was had at the campsite café (mmmm lovely fresh greens) followed by more Scrabble in the hut.

Yesterday Tracey took advantage by 'narrowly' pinching yet another game from Miles by a massive 50 points.

Miles' only consolation was to immerse himself in old recordings of R4's 'I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue' brought along for just such emergencies.

Total today a hard fought and bum searing 48 miles and only 30m of ascent. Total trip 1284 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

12/13/14 July 2008

Saturday 12 July 2008

The digs we'd booked turned out to be a disused school closed up for the summer. Whilst it was clean and tidy, it proved to be a little soulless and austere. The upside? Every room equipped with its own piano!!

After we'd breakfasted at the hostel we set off to 'do' Tallinn. Our digs were right in the middle of the Old Town so we didn't have far to find the most interesting bits.

For those that haven't been, Tallinn Old Town is very picturesque bordering on self parody. Great to walk around for half a day though the other 100,000 tourists seemed to agree with us.

Cruise ship Oriana had docked also overnight so were overrun with middle aged, frustrated cruisers who had escaped the confines of the ship the day.

Pleasantly there were few badly behaved British Stag or Hen parties in evidence. We saw a couple of rowdy Brit. men groups out for beer and the other less obvious delights of Tallinn and a group of girls out Henning who seemed to think dressing themselves in canary yellow somehow added to their occasion!

We did all the usual sights and stayed in the Old Town for dinner in The Old Hansa, a fun medieval themed restaurant serving 'authentic' food from the dark ages. Dunno if they had Filet Mignon then but ours were pretty good!!

Back to the digs at a reasonable hour for shut eye as we're back on it tomorrow,

Sunday 13 July 2008

After two days enforced grockling, bums back on saddles today.

We have planned a 50 miler ending up at Jarvakandi, mid no-wheresville, Estonia.

Breakfasted at the Hostel with a nice group of Franco/Germans who had cycled the 600 km up from Riga and had just finished their tour. They were travelling superlight having booked all their Bed & Breakfast accommodation in advance.

This approach, though offering certainty at the end of each day, would be a little inflexible for us as our itinerary is a bit fluid.

Away from Tallinn at the customary time of 09:15. Had an easy run through the city to pick up Route 15 heading due South to Jarvakandi.

Got a good lick on and arrived into Rapla, 28 miles away, in pretty short order. Dropped into the Tourist Info office to enquire/book accommodation in Jarvakandi.

Opted for the option that was directly on our planned route and narrowly avoided
what was described as 'luxury' accommodation 10 or so miles off it.... a decision we would come to regret....

Whizzed on in high temps, lovely sunshine, completely flat terrain and a b'stard of a head wind.

Hmmmm, for cyclists, a bit of sun, temps in the low 20's, no hills and a tail wind are all we ask for. Not too much is it?

Arrived into Jarvakandi at around 14:00 and spotted our intended resting place for the day.

It was supposed to be a Bed & Breakfast with a bit of camping on the side. It was actually a grotty old cinema with café attached and a bit of random grass out in front to pitch a tent on.

Our spirits were further dampened by the 20 or so pi$$ed up locals hanging around where we were designated to camp!

A simple decision was taken; carry on young man.

We belted out another 20 or so miles to the next town of Vandra. Fortunately, this had us turning from the headwind and we had divine intervention pushing us along for the last few miles.

Vandra apparently had a pukka hotel/hostel - the two words are interchangeable when describing Estonian digs.

We tracked the little tinker down and then spent a good few minutes trying to raise any human who might have an interest in letting us a room for the night.

Turns out, it was a quiet night in the Vandra hotel trade - we were it! The place itself was nice, bit like a Travel Lodge which is a bit of a bonus in these parts. Alan Partridge would be in his element!

As is becoming our custom, dinner was purchased from the local supermarket and, unusually for us, we then spent a couple of hours vegging in front of an American film on the TV.

A reasonable end to what could have been a prize crap situation.

Total today a further than anticipated 72 miles and 140m of ascent. Total trip 1195 miles.

Monday 14 July 2008

Breakfasted handsomely at our digs before making our getaway at the usual time.

Our plan today sees us rolling into Parnu, the Blackpool of Estonian beach resortage. This is only about 35 miles from where we finished yesterday therefore we will let accommodation availability (and the elements) dictate where we finish today.

Good news; the wind has bogged off to the rear and we now have a delightful tailwind to go with our super flat, East Anglianesque terrain.

Bad news; its big brother AKA bloody rain, has come to stay.

As we set off, the rain started and waterproofs were quickly donned as would be the custom for the rest of the day.

We soon knocked out the 30 or so miles to Parnu with the combination of flatness and tail wind complementing our speed.

En route we passed lots of Storks nesting or otherwise going about their Storky business though we didn't see them delivering any newborn infants - perhaps tomorrow.

We also passed a number of 'Built with the support of the EU' signs by the newly laid (and fantastic quality) road.

The combined effects of the Finnish road builders shovel and the collective EU wallet were very marked particularly when compared directly with the output of the Estonian Highways Agency (or whatever it's called here...).

Stopped for a coffee, CAKE and WARM at a roadside services and watched the hustle and bustle of the holiday makers of Parnu go about their business.

All too soon, we were back on the road (and in the cold and rain) turning due South on the E67-4 heading for Tahkuranna, our destination for the day.

As we neared our destination, the rain let up a little and, on arrival, we made our usual choice of a cabin (AKA shed) as preferred accommodation for the night.

Mileage was a bit short today but this resulted in an early arrival that helped us catch up on some domestic duties (i.e. dealing with stinky washing) that we couldn't sort in Helsinki or Tallinn.

We tucked ourselves away in our (roomy) shed in the middle of a deserted site, upped the heater and concentrated on creating a lovely warm fug away from the nasty rain.

Dinner was provided by our campsite hosts (no nearby supermarket) followed by continuation of the all comers Scrabble championships...

Total today a rather tardy (and damp) 41 miles and 25m (yes 25m! Well it is flat) of ascent. Total trip 1236 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

Tracey with our first Helsinki roadsign - a milestone!!

11 July 2008

Friday 11 July 2008

Illicit rest day, Helsinki - Finland. We've brought forward this weeks rest day to coincide with our arrival in Helsinki.

As this is our first visit to the city, we wished to take advantage of the opportunity and have a good nose around!

Got out and about before the locals seemed to stir though not particularly early - around 10:00.

Walked into the city to see some of the major tourist sights; Senate Square with Tuomiokirkko Church (with it's delightful 1960's minimalist interior decor), Cathedral Uspenski (which might have 13 golden cupolas but looks to have been built from 13 million Longueville Commons), Esplanade, market square and port etc.

After compulsory CAKE and coffee,
we ferried over to Suomenlinna island which has served Finland's various masters over the past centuries as a military fort. Had a good waddle around the island poking our noses hither and thither, then ferried back to the mainland for a delicious curry lunch.

Spent a final couple of hours making full use of Helsinki's tram system by using almost every tram route (though not by design) and so catching any minor detail that may otherwise have escaped our attention.

Packed the bike and gear, and pedalled off to the port to catch the 21:40 Sea Cat to Tallinn, Estonia.

After an uneventful journey, we arrived in darkness, that is DARKNESS, the first for nearly four weeks. Looks like we can abandon they eye shades from now on.

We'd booked ahead to ensure we have digs in Tallinn, not far from the ferry port and in the Old Town area.

Somehow, we managed to find the correct building in the appropriate street and had our heads touching pillow by 00:30.

Tomorrow ANOTHER rest day exploring Tallinn and planning our escape and return to the bike.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

Miles idiotically pointing to the NordKapp sign....

Tracey modelling the latest Givenchy mossie net.....

Disharmony II at rest outside our cabin in the woods

Tracey & Disharmony II on the Finnish border...

Rest Day in Sodankyla

Tracey in the 7km NordKapp Tunnel

10 July 2008

Thursday 10 July 2008

Our plan for today sees us reaching Helsinki. This involves around 65 miles of riding South along Route 130 which is a little bitty yellow road running alongside the gargantuan E12-3. A horror show of a major motorway.

Somewhat surprisingly, we managed to get on the road at the 'must have wet the bed' time of 08:30. This had the benefit of skipping whatever passes for rush hour in Hameemlinna as we had a very straight forward exit from the city.

Turning due South onto Route 130, let battle commence....

Very little traffic as most had diverted to the nearby highway. We also had the pleasure of a reasonable shoulder therefore any traffic that did put in an appearance had little effect on us.

Stopped for a CAKE and coffee at a roadside service after an hour or so and rejoined the fray for more....

As we toiled South, the weather improved and that yellow UFO returned for an encore which lifted our spirits.

We seemed to be Billy Whizzing the miles away today, probably in anticipation of a decent meal and a rest in Helsinki.

Arrived at the outskirts of Helsinki after 60 miles at around 14:00 to be somewhat frustrated by the myriad of poorly signed bikepaths heading into the City centre.

After what seemed like an interminable period of going around in circles (and quite a lot of voluble vented frustration....), we popped up in what appeared to be an industrial estate and luckily, found the main road into town

Arrived at the main tourist info point in the town centre, booked accommodation for the night and a ferry ticket to Tallinn, Estonia for tomorrow night.

Apparently, Helsinki is all booked out tomorrow as 'The Boss' (AKA Bruce Springsteen) is giving a concert to the poor folk of Finland.

Booked into our digs, showered, changed and prepared to eat 'magic Thai' for dinner. We also took the opportunity to book ahead to ensure we have digs in Tallinn when we arrived on the last ferry tomorrow night.

Our plan for the next couple of days is to spend tomorrow grockling in Helsinki then take the 21:40 ferry over to Estonia followed by more grockling in Tallinn on Saturday.

For the eagle eyed, that is two days of REST! Shurley not Miss Moneypenny.... Never fear dear reader, we will back in the saddle on Sunday.

Good to have arrived at our last point in Finland after what seems like weeks of biking. It's taken us 19 cycling days to dispatch the 1100 miles from North Cape, Norway to Helsinki, Finland. At times, we've found the scenery and biking a bit samey so here's to a bit more variety as we say 'Goodbye' to the Nordics and 'Hello' to the Baltic's.

Finland is our single biggest country of the tour and it is a relief to have successfully completed this leg particularly with our limited (and somewhat unusual in Miles' case) preparation.

Total today a very pleasant 70 miles and 500m of ascent. Total trip 1123 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

09 July 2008

Wednesday 09 July 2008

Today we have planned to cycle from Orivesi to a campsite just South of Hattula, Finland. 50 ish of your English miles.

Made our usual start and headed off at 09:15 first picking up a lovely Route 58 into Kangasala. Fantastic cycling, traffic free and lovely surroundings though we had a repeat of the nasty little saw tooth, quad knackering hills. However, the descents were decent enough and gave us a little respite to clear the lactates from our abused legs.

A significant milestone was passed within the first 8 miles when we knocked off our first 1000 miles of the trip! Only another 3000 to go then.....

Romped through Kangasala, heads down, bums up and legs thrashing. Joined route 12 shortly afterwards and traffic volumes increased to yesterday's unpleasant levels. Fortunately 12 has a decent shoulder therefore we were able to cycle more comfortably and much more safely than recently experienced.

Stopped for a mid morning CAKE and coffee at a roadside Kioski shortly before Palkane where we picked up route 57 for our run into Hattula.

Our short time with route 57 was sheer bliss, very light traffic, a lovely shoulder, benign gradients and pretty scenery had us enjoying the moment.

Shortly before Hattula, eagle eyes were deployed for imminent campsite signage but to no avail. Our anticipated stop for the day was AWOL so we continued on to the next town of Hameenlinna hoping to find a suitable motel/hotel etc.

Stopped at a major services in Hameenlinna for a celebratory liquorice ice-cream (?) and picked up a town map for what proved to be a significant sized small city.

Fortunately our liquorice fuelled eagle eyes spotted a campground on the other side of the city and Tracey expertly (and with minimal drama)navigated our way across town to find it.

Dinner was had in the campground bar, followed by gonking and a duet of z's........

One more cycling day to Helsinki. Hip, hip, double bloomin hurrah!

Total today a pleasant though leg burning 60 miles and 515m of ascent. Total trip 1053 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

08 July 2008

Tuesday 08 July 2008

Today's schedule sees us cycling approx. 50 miles to Orivesi, Finland. This but two days cycling from Helsinki, let the countdown begin!

Packed and away at a slightly tardy 09:30. Temperatures still low though better than of late. Overcast again with a following wind. The day improved as it unfolded and we ended with WARMTH and a strange yellow/orange UFO made a guest appearance.

Cycling pretty straight forward. Good roads, pretty and open scenery, reasonable hills followed by delightful descents.

However, the local commercial vehicle drivers appear to have escaped en masse from the Finnish equivalent of Broadmoor. It's fair to say, we've had more close calls today than our entire prior tandeming career put together. Ho bloody hum.

Nice morning CAKE and coffee stop at a Transport café in the town of Mantta a couple of clicks off our route.

Rolled into Orivesi town at around 14:00 for essential supplies and more CAKE and a nice cup of Earl Grey.

Booked into the campsite 5 miles or so South of the town and enjoyed the company of a quad from Nottingham tucking into their supper of Pike. Seems, Pike and Pikey's go together quite well :-) (Snobs? Us?)

Total today a reasonable though scary 54 miles and 475m of ascent. Total trip 992 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

05/06/07 July 2008

Saturday 05 July 2008

Rest Day, yippee!!! Spent the morning catching up on admin (trip notes and Blog) and ablutions (laundry and servicing Disharmony II).

All Tracey's prayers were answered when she 'ran into' (read pursued relentlessly across the campsite) the 'Finnish Naked Man' all comers cup. This consisted of at least 20 blokes mitt choppers swinging in the breeze.
Now a double take of such events would normally be considered sufficient, however Tracey managed to get into triple figures.....just to make sure you know!

In the afternoon, we taxied into Viitasaari town for groceries and a skulk around. Well the skulking was severely limited by Saturday being early closing in these 'ere parts. This proved a novelty for us, having last occurred in the UK in 1952!

We scuttled around our favourite supermarket for a 'British is Best' themed dinner. Egg, bacon, beans, toast and fried snooker ball (tomato) washed down with lashings of Monkey Tea smuggled in by the Goff's. Ahhh, bliss.

Now we know a fry up is not Haute Cuisine, but compared to the shi....errrm stuff available here it is heavenly. Don't come to Finland for the cuisine, you will most certainly be disappointed.

More Scrabble followed the belly buster, resulting in Tracey taking advantage of Miles' replete condition stealing another game to make the score 2-2.

Back in the saddle tomorrow.

Sunday 06 July 2008

Today we have a planned 55 miler taking us to a small campsite near Paajarvi in the middle of nowhere, Finland.

Up and away at our usual time of 09:15 after briefly chatting to another (nutty) cycle touring Brit travelling North.

He set off 5 weeks ago from his home in Zurich (oooooeee!) and was a couple of weeks from North Cape, Norway. Good luck to him, he was 'doing it' to celebrate his retirement!

Weather forecast was dire, very cold and wet all day. We largely managed to dodge the wet bit only being caught in the first shower of the day. The cold bit stayed throughout and in a Northerly wind was blimmin cold!

We bashed out 56 miles on pretty, quiet roads though there were a large number of small, horrible, leg knackering ups followed by reasonable matching descents.

We both got that sinking feeling as we got closer to our destination due to the paucity of campsite roadside signage. In Finland, we have come to expect this to mean the campsite in question was deleted from the world several years previously. We were not disappointed....

Having given up on our intended destination and engaged in looking for a 'natural spot' to camp in, we ran (almost literally) into a sign declaring 'camping'.

We followed the direction of the sign down an increasingly unlikely dirt track to a site that looked to have been abandoned since 1963. In the absence of anything welcoming, we pitched our tent and made ourselves at home.

The evening followed fairly uneventfully though Miles was increasingly uneasy due to the presence of a couple of dossers who showed up and pretended to be staying there for the fishing.

Miles eased his unease (wow, see what I did there, almost poetry) by pretending to be Rambo and carrying a kitchen knife around ready to leap into action at the slightest provocation. Errrrm....maybe not.

The campsite owner also showed her face and relieved us of €15 for the privilege of staying at her closed down site.

The day was completed by the good news that Hamilton had, against all odds, overcome the two Finns in front of him to win the British F1 GP.

Total today a hard 56 miles and 495m of ascent. Total trip 895 miles.

Monday 07 July 2008

After a very good nights sleep despite the knife shaped bump in Miles' pillow) we were up, at em and away by 09:30.

Today we have a planned 45 miles to a campsite in Keuruu, still Finland.

Weather similar to yesterday, very, very cold, overcast but dry.

More gnarly hillocks bashed the bejesus out of our quads for the first 25 miles or so.

Our ride started with a bit of trick cycling that had us performing a 'tactical dismount' when the front wheel washed out in loose gravel. Fortunately, this was at low speed and had us rolling in the road unhurt but somewhat embarrassed.

Stopped at a nice (and now unexpected cafe) for lunch and a coffee 12 or so miles before our ultimate destination. The café owner was most interested in Disharmony II (who seems to get ALL the attention BTW) and he sniffed around her taking illicit photos for his bike porn collection. Dirty boy!

We rocked up at Keuruu at around 15:00 knowing we'd been for a ride even though the computer only read 46 miles.

Very nice site and back in our favourite cabins, we got unpacked then rode back into the town for the nights goodies.

For the record, Keuruu looks to be a genuinely nice place, with both history and character. Go there young man.

Total today a paltry though quad burning 46 miles and 405m of ascent. Total trip 938 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

04 July 2008

Friday 04 July 2008

Independence Day, Yee haw!

After forming a two person escape committee, we made our break at the usual (and rather repetitive) time of 09:15.

Our cabin was immediately opposite the campsite owners house and he took every opportunity to come over and offer his helpful 'guidance'.

We had the last laugh though. The cabin was not equipped with the usual hotplate so we sparked up 'Big Thunder' our temperamental (and frankly downright dangerous) petrol stove instead.

Now we're no authority on the causes and circumstances of domestic blazes but a recalcitrant flame thrower and a tinder dry wooden cabin is probably not a preferred combination... We even had to silence the smoke alarms as they were putting us off our brewing!

Post script to this event was Tracey finding oily black smuts all over the cabin and our stuff so maybe we won't be sparking up again inside anytime soon.....

Anyway, back to the plot..... We set off back on the E75-4, our destination today approximately 70 miles away though, shhhh, Tracey doesn't know....

Hot dry weather, favourable winds and helpful gradual ups followed by yippeee downs had us in Phyasalmi, Finland in very short order. 20 plus miles knocked off before our first CAKE stop in the mother of all Service Stations just outside the town.

We stopped briefly at the bell themed (?) competition on the opposite side of the road. We had a play on the big bells despite the warning signs to leave well alone and Tracey took the opportunity to swing some big knockers to play her favourite tune(s).

Onwards....down the E75-4 playing chicken with the juggernaughts and enjoying every flavour of diesel particulate known to man. The riding at least was swift and we pulled into Pihtipudas for lunch.

There followed the worst pizza in Christendom though we dodged a couple of very heavy showers whilst we considered keeping or throwing.....

We arrived into Viitasaari, 4 miles from our campsite at around 16:30. Had a celebratory ice cream and purchased the days groceries from the supermarket.

After a short interlude, we knocked out the final few K's into Jurvansalo for the night. The joker who thought it would be amusing to put in some evil little stinkers (hills) in between these two place should be taken outside and shot. Bit extreme maybe but really....

We rolled into the campsite with the bike computer reading 80 miles for the day. This makes our tally 170 miles in two days or 3 days riding in two. Time for a rest methinks.

Tomorrow....REST after which we have 5 more cycling days to Helsinki. Hurrah!

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

03 July 2008

Thursday 03 July 2008

Following a delicious breakfast of bacon and scrambled eggs, away again by 09:15. Loaded up and set off....up a 1:3 muddy ravine to get out of the campsite. We soon had our heart rates bouncing as we span furiously from rest.

Planned mileage today around 55 miles ending at a campground at Pyhanta, Finland.

Headed off Southish on route 879 following the shore of Lake Oulujarvi. We kept getting tantalising glimpses of the lake through the trees as the road was separated from the water edge by a thin ribbon of woodland.

Eagle eyed Tracey was credited with our first Bear siting of the trip when she spied one amongst the trees. I stopped to take a photo and grew increasingly suspicious when it failed to move for five minutes. Perhaps it was in training to be one of those statues you see along the Champs Elysee....?

Stopped at a supermarket in Vuolojoki for morning snacks, 30 or so miles into the ride. This is definitely a 'One Whore Town' and even she had been abducted by Space Aliens....

Back on the bike to intersect Route 28 and then turned West for Pyhanta 25 or so miles away.

Good cycling conditions, warm, sunny, light traffic, few real hills and a cross wind from the North that we were sheltered from for much of the time.

Arrived into Pyhanta on schedule at 15:30. Shopped for groceries and left town looking for our evenings campsite. Oh dear.... Well, we looked and we looked and we couldn't find it. Possibly as the little tinker was no longer where it should have been. Another Michelin faux pas methinks...

We spent a good hour rummaging around in the woods looking for a suitable wild campsite until we decided to press on to the next marked site 20 or so miles away.

We fuelled up on some of the goodies we had purchased, to avoid carrying more than strictly necessary and made a bid for freedom.

Despite temperatures that continued to climb and flagging legs, we bashed out the last 20 miles in just over an hour arriving into our alternate campsite at 18:30 with just over 90 miles on the bike computer for the day!

A very quick, monosyllabic dinner was had before an early night and impending unconsciousness took over...

Total today an unexpected and hard 91 miles and 290m of ascent. Total trip 758 miles.

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.

02 July 2008

Wednesday 02 July 2008

Packed up and away by 09:15. Planned 45 miles today via route 800 to Kangaskyla campsite, Finland.

Point to note, Kangaskyla is next to the mahoosive lake Oulujarvi which may be Finland's largest inland, freshwater lake. If it aint, it blummin well should be...it's so big it looks like the sea.

Very overcast and a little cooler than yesterday. Day started with lots of little sharp ups followed by rolling descents. Wind buggered off somewhere beside/behind us so no problems there.

Lower temps meant Tracey's friends (the Hornets) were asleep today as was any other potential wildlife sightings as we saw zilch.

Route 800 much smaller than 78, very scenic with sparse traffic. Single numbers of vehicles per hour. Downside; no cafes or other rest stops available

30 June & 01 July 2008

Monday 30 June 2008

Managed to drag our sorry ar$es out of bed and get on the road by 09:30. Stopped off at the local Apothecary to load up with industrial quantities of Ibuprofen. Tracey has niggly Achilles and Miles has dodgey knees. The SPD adjustments yesterday didn't seem to help so I'll be going for wholesale saddle relocation later to see if this helps.

The day passed in a bit of a low tempo blur. Straightish roads, greenish trees, and minimal height gain/loss. Ran into (not literally!) a few more Reindeer, most solitary and a couple of small herds.

Also spotted the very flat Finnish Viper (a distant cousin of the Cobra I'm sure...errm, maybe not) on the road. Either it has evolved to avoid the danger posed by modern traffic or this particular one was an ex snake and pre-squashed.

Weather mainly fine with a couple of small bursts of rain, one of which we dodged by hiding in a bus shelter - the only one for a 100 miles !!

Arrived at a lovely quaint campsite at Pudasjarvi, Finland early, around 13:30 after a very gentle day. Most rustic (in a nice way) cabins yet - very 'of the forest'.

Got sorted, killed the resident hornets and mossies and biked the couple of miles into Pudasjarvi town centre to buy supplies for tonight's dinner.

Had a really good look around that occupied all of 37 seconds, avoided the inbred 'tards and beer mongers then biked back to the campsite.

A lovely evening was spent in an idyllic spot in the woods.

Total today a very gentle 46 miles and 210m of ascent. Total trip 567 miles

Tuesday 01 July 2008

Pinch, punch first of the month and no returns!

Managed to survive the night sharing our lovely rustic cabin in Pudasjarvi, Finland with various types of wildlife.

Tracey was quite concerned and thought she was going to be carried off by the (admittedly mahoosive) Wood Ants. I think she had visions of being put to work in their local nest as a human drone!

Away at 09:00 for a 55 miler to Puolanka, Finland. Left route 78 briefly by taking route 20 and then rejoining 78 eleven or so miles later.

How we laughed during our ride on the 20 when a few Hornets took great interest in our bike, panniers and, above all, Tracey. This lead to her leaping off the tandem squealing girlishly as they continued their interest in the bike and ignored her.

Miles was mightily amused as he was still on the bike and now surrounded by a cloud of inquisitive monster insects. This lead to what is known in tandem circles as 'separation'. That is, where the stoker is abandoned at the roadside whilst the captain pi$$es off trying to escape too much unwanted attention.

Suffice to say, we rendezvoused shortly after Tracey managed her PB for the 100m and bounced her heart rate to the highest yet for this trip, regained our composure and continued on our way. Turns out, the Hornets just want FOOD and are really quite docile (so far!).

They (the Hornets) stayed with us for the rest of the day which led to intermittent squeals and wriggles from the stoker compartment but no repetition of 'separation'.

Continued grinding the miles out in hot, sunny weather with occasional thundery showers. Head winds also stayed with us for most of the day.

Scenery much improved, more ups, downs and bends than we've been used to of late. The surrounding countryside is now peppered with frequent farms and homesteads to punctuate the green.

On the wildlife front, we spotted a couple more Flat Finnish Vipers, a cheeky red Squirrel and our first MOOSE! This beast had taken up residence in the middle of the road and was moving for no one. It was very docile and watched with some amusement as we trundled past with the stoker flapping at her entourage of insects like washing in the wind.

Arrived into the Puolanka campsite at around 15:00, booked in, unpacked and then waddled into town to buy more supplies.

Puolanka is another example of a 'One Whore Town' that may have been transplanted directly from the USA. Well it has a Bank and Supermarket at least so hurrah for that.

Total today a hardy 55 miles and 470m of ascent. Total trip 622 miles

More Southerly ramblings to follow.

Back soon. Miles & Tracey.