Arctic Circle via Eastern Europe

I have not long returned from a 7100mile trip to Nordkapp, Norway via France, Belgium, Holland, Germany. Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland and Norway. I have finally had time to stick a few pictures and brief description of the trip, I wasn't sure whether to stick the thread in Eastern Europe or Scandinavia so I stuck it here with a pointer thread in Scandinavia.
Sorry if the thread is a bit long winded but it was a fairly long trip (at least in my world)

Eurostar booked for 07:00hrs Saturday morning (2 hour delay due technical fault on train). Hit Calais at 10am.
Chugged through Belgium, Holland and Germany reaching Frankfurt-Oder on the German/Polish Border around 9pm. Treated myself to a night in the Ramada Hotel mainly in the hope of a bath to relieve the saddle soreness.
Up before sunrise Sunday morning crossing in to Poland at about 5.30am, in hindsight this is a very good time to avoid delays at border crossings. I had been warned numerous times about the roads in Poland but in fairness I fairly hurtled through the first leg averaging 85mph, you need to keep an eye on the road surface but a GS should be able to handle most of the perils of Polish Roads.
Picked up the A2 Motorway near Poznan and made good time to the end of it just short of Warsaw.
Headed north at Warsaw and crossed into Lithuania around tea time, sorry no pictures of outward leg of the journey (didn't get time/forgot). By this time my rear end was very tender and I knew I still had three more hours of hard riding to reach my target of Liepaja in Latvia, gritted my teeth and carried on finally reaching Liepaja about 10m.
My wife and children were in Latvia for the summer, which guaranteed me a welcome that cheered me up no end. Stayed with the family for a few days, enjoying scorching hot weather while Britain was suffering torrential rain. Managed to get out on the bike and explore.
Found a derelict soviet air base

Complete with the aircraft bunkers

The runway was good fun, managed 130mph before the bumps tamed my bravery

Latvia has loads of off-roading, I just found some logging tracks and followed them


At this point I give up, how do you post more than five pictures?

Right, this is how I can carry on with the pictures I hope.

The B roads in Latvia are great for practicing speedway type riding, definitely time to turn the ABS off.



Day 3 proper of the trip started bright and early from Liepaja up to Riga and over the border into Estonia, I kept fairly good time although the average speed was less than previous countries, stopped just before Tallinn and spent the first night under canvas, nothing spectacular about that.
Got the early boat from Tallinn to Helsinki

From Helsinki headed north keeping a steady 80mph, I didn't know a great deal about Finland so the roads were a nice surprise, good A roads with plenty of room for overtaking. Weather was changeable so I opted to find a hotel just north of a place called Oulu which I reached at about 9pm.
The hotel had a bar where the locals were bashing out Karaoke in Finnish which was enlightening to say the least.
Set out bright and early and basically followed a river which seperated Finland from Sweden for about six hours.

The terrain started to get more rugged and I saw what I think was a moose


Time for the next post

Finally reached the Norwegian border around mid afternoon having first seen a moose and then some reindeer

The road between Finland and Norway is pretty bleak and I was well above the Arctic Circle by now. The terrain is like a high altitude plateu and I would have thought it pretty impassable for a good deal of the year, the roads are good but if you are pushing the speed be carefull because if the pot holes don,t get you the bloody reindeer will.

The scenery got better and better as I rode north untill I reached this huge gorge which just took my breath away, the pictures don,t do it justice as there was no where to stop for most of the pass.


Decided to carry on right to the top and reached Nordkapp about 8pm on the fifth day of the ride.

Time for a new post.

Found a site with wooden cabins close to Nordkapp

Set up the cabin and then climbed a mountain to appreciate the midnight sun


I was soon joined by more bleedin reindeer


Next morning I was off bright and early, got a rude awaking bombing through a tunnel only to be met by this lot at the end.

Apparently they prefer the cool of the tunnel to the heat of the sun or so I was informed by the road agency guy who turned up to shoo them out. I reckon they are part of a reindeer conspiracy to reclaim the roads of Northern Scandanavia

Time for the next post

Spent another couple of days in Norway but the weather worsened day by day and I realized the original plan of getting back to London through Norway may take a mite longer than envisaged and would mean getting very wet so I hot tailed it south, back through Finland and spent a miserable 16 hours riding through wet weather from the tip of Finland to 30miles short of Helsinki. Booked into a hotel in a place called Lahti which is the last place I saw my phone.
Got the ferry back to Tallinn and rode non-stop down to Liepaja to give my family a surprise (a nice one I hope).
Saw the first UK number plate for the best part of three weeks just north of Riga. Whats the odds of it being attached to a GS in the same livery as mine, stopped the two lads for a chat. Can,t remember their names but they hailed from Northern Ireland and had been to St Petersburg.
Went to a beach party in Latvia attended by ten thousand people and headlined by (wait for it) Kim Wilde and Right Said Fred, I,ve always wondered where old pop stars live out their later years. Spent the weekend with the family before saying goodbye for the second time.
Day 10 of the ride saw my departure from Liepaja heading south back towards Poland, I didn,t fancy the road side motels in Poland so I just kept going till I hit Germany, another long day of 15 hours riding, treated myself to a four star hotel for what I thought would be the last night of my trip.
Another early start saw me on target for the channel ferry at tea time. Making good time I started thinking I might get a pint in tonight but disaster struck just outside Gent in Belgium, the battery just died with absolutely no warning, the bike came to a standstill.
Having lost my phone I then had to try to contact BMW assistance from one of those motorway phone things, two succssesive tow trucks attended before they gave up. Unfortunately the third tow truck couldn,t take bikes so I had to borrow his car battery and strap it to the back of the bike, we then connected it to my battery terminals and I rode to the nearest hotel. I was then taken by another tow truck the next day to a local BMW bike dealer who in fairness stuck a new battery on and had me back on the road in less than an hour. You wouldn,t credit it though, all that way and I break down an hour from Calais
A quick hours blast saw me at Calais and on the ferry back to Blighty, a day late, but never mind.

13 days in the saddle, not to mention exploring Latvia by bike and in addition managed to spend a week or so with the family. I was away for two days short of four weeks, not something I will be able to do every year but a trip I won,t forget. There was obviously lots of stuff I have not mentioned and lots of pictures I haven,t shown but the gist of it is here.

Sorry if its a bit long winded, I still haven,t worked out how to get more than five pictures on one post.

great post, lovely pics....I'm so envious

That's what I call a trip

Four weeks certainly qualifies it as a good trip. More pics needed though.

Learn how to post multiple pics in a thread here.

superb

Thank's for the great write up and pics. I see you have the superfast red 1200

Some trip
How are the border controls heading out of the EU?

"How are the border controls heading out of the EU?"

To be honest the only border guards that asked for my registration docs was the Estonians. I sailed through most without even taking off my helmet.
Most borders have seperate lanes for lorries which is just as well because my route seemed to be the favoured route for most truckers.
Poland is over run with bloody great trucks which would have been a nightmare if I had been in a car. Poland, Latvia and Estonia are predominately single lane main roads and being on a bike meant I could get round the thousands of trucks on route.

Good inspiration

Great post, not long winded at all mate.

Very envious.

Great post, I go a week on sunday, Norway, Finland Russia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland germany etc home. Cant wait, still lots to do before I leave. Have a list as long as my swingarm and will be fun getting it on the bike.

Top Post

Brilliantly done ..... may thanks for the great commentary

Jef, I put all my gear in piles and then when I thought I had everything I got rid of 20% of it, I can,t think of anything I needed that I had left behind.
Gaffer tape and tie raps are a must. If there is any info you need, if I can help, I will.

Thanks for the feedback chaps, it was difficult to know whether anyone would be in the slightest bit interested but the comments have made the post worth while.

I am taking the kids camping in Dorset this weekend, nothing to do with bikes, but shall I post a thread anyway or is that pushing my luck?

Thanks for the write up and pic's.

I have been thinking about doing musch the same trip in 2008.

I go to Sweden / Finland a lot on business and am thinking about going right to the very top, way past the arctic circle, next stop Japan!

I know abot the Reindeer / Moose... some people think they are a joke but I wouldn't want to hit one...

Wapping said:

Thanks for the write up and pic's.

I know abot the Reindeer / Moose... some people think they are a joke but I wouldn't want to hit one...

Click to expand...

I have had a moose cross in front of me in Norway: they have no road sense at all and are the size of Horse: I would say they have even less brains than a leeds united supporter, watch out for them

Excellent, V. jealous!!!

Hi Steve

Sounds like you had a good trip. I also got back from a trip to the Baltic states recently. I was away for 4 weeks- didn’t spend as much time in Latvia as you but spent a couple of nights in Tallinn and visited the island of Saaremaa off the west coast of Estonia. I liked Lithuania, especially Vilnius. We also visited the Hill of Crosses and the Curonian Spit.

They’re certainly interesting countries to visit but rather flat. I rode through Norway and Sweden on the way there and of course Norway is stunning. Your pictures here should give others a flavour and encourage them to make a trip there. I rode to the cape a couple of years ago and was speaking to Tractor Pilot the other day- he wasn’t long back from his trip there and we were in agreement that Norway is really worth seeing.

Your bit about Kim Wilde & Right Said Fred rang a bell- must have been some publicity about it. I take it you had a lot of the same warm weather I had as it looks like we were away around the same time. So where next Steve?

Gav