I am in Latvia.
Today’s riding was 188 miles (mysterious – I thought it was going to be more) 4 hours and 10 minutes riding time.

Last night’s hotel near Tallinn: you’d have to call it traditional in design and style (like my hotel in Germany). Keys on heavy weights, hotel information in a heavy plastic folder in the room with every sheet in a separate A4 sleeve, the scent of air-freshener and other cleaning fluids, a feeling that the building has been heavily smoked in for years and that deep cleaning has been used at some point in the past to expunge those unenlightened years but not quite managed, the universal soapy dispenser in the bathroom with the optimistic ‘body/hair’ label. In other words is concentrated detergent with some scent thrown in. There was a restaurant and I was not optimistic. I arrived upstairs where the restaurant is behind a door identical to all the guest rooms. The lights were off and a waitress sat at a computer screen giving the impression that no one expected anyone to arrive. In the end I ordered only what seemed to be local dishes: pork with sauerkraut and potatoes with some picked gherkins thrown in and it was delicious. Washed down with a local beer. I did wonder whether these places are much better off serving local food instead of some invented cosmopolitan dishes. I followed this with a glass, down in the bar, of Estonian vodka.
At night, I seem to sleep poorly and dream of the next day. I had to achieve the journey but somehow not by travelling but by some other abstract activity.
Breakfast was mediocre and there was a heavy mist when I left. I got so soggy that I stopped at a bus stop half an our down the road to Riga and climbed into my Mr Balloon man overall which also kept out the cold. I was warned by the paranoid WikiTrip that driving in Estonia was very poor and often dangerous. I found it fine and I was the one breaking the very low speed limit.
The border into Latvia took me by surprise. I thought it would be very close to Riga. It was marked by two large ALKO stores with full car parks at each one.
I bought petrol once over the border and for the first time had to pay, using an automatic machine which asked me to say how much fuel I wanted before filling up. So I guessed – low – not wanting to pay for petrol that I couldn’t squeeze into the tank (I no longer have a large 33L tank which I had on my old Adventure – which I miss). I had heard of this on YouTube vids of journeys into Russia and far beyond.
I arrived in Riga about 3pm, feeling that it was much later in the day, and kept to a route that one day I will find out on the GPS track.

Actually, here it is – very direct as it turns out:

Riga, or the slice I saw, was a mixture of decrepit building, dug up pavements and some occasional very obvious investment. Again, I am grateful for the GPS that brought me through completely impenetrable one way systems (I can see that wasn’t the case) to the door of the Two Wheels hotel. I got a key to the large gate and could park at the back and under cover which I appreciated as it started raining an hour or so after arriving, but not before I took a fascinating stroll to a supermarket about a mile away, past the same mixture of falling down buildings and some beautiful renovations. I bought some supplies for my many hours on the boat tomorrow night. I learned that there is a huge variety of vodkas on sale and bought three different brands all at about 7 Euro each.
I then set off on foot in only a light jacket toward historic Riga a mile or so away down a busy dual carriage way. But it started to rain and I was badly dressed. I sheltered under an underpass then ventured out again but the rain was heavier so I turned back to the hotel to pick up an umbrella. Once back in my room with the rain sounding harder and the light starting to fade, I decided I would miss out on exploring my second Baltic city. But I got a real taste of it and its ‘lived experience’ that perhaps a stroll through its pretty historic centre would not give me.
Back in this highly themed and small hotel I optimistically headed to the bar – the website did not give much hope of a square meal but I had a passing burger and local beer (about 9 Euros in total). I seem to be the only guest.
Tomorrow heavy rain seems forecast all day so I anticipate a wet ride. I am not worried as I have the right stuff to wear and from what I can see the DFDS terminal at Klaipeda has buildings (unlike Viking Line inStockholm) – a shop, a cafe where I can spend my time waiting to get on the boat that leaves at 9pm.
I will not be in a hurry to leave. Breakfast starts here at a decadent 9am. The ride should take 3 and a half hours. So there is plenty of room for manoeuvre.
As I said the hotel is themed for motorcycle adventure. There is a motorcycle in the corridor downstairs. The room is a little overdone but has a great shower room, a large glass box. The bed is highly inviting.

I’m back on the road, well 12 miles today plus a few hours on the boat from Helsinki to Tallinn. I’m in the hotel that I booked a while back. I knew it was not in central Tallinn but I was more interested in getting off on the road to Riga the next day and in somewhere with secure parking. I imagined dropping in to the local supermarket or taking a walk into the centre of town from here. Actually I am 5 and a half kilometers from the centre and actually not near anywhere at all. This is a pleasant place, where the slightly affluent suburb meets the country with rather attractive villas and allotments – but not much else.

Thankfully there is a restaurant here though I don’t have high hopes. As long as it is not an alcohol free establishment (unlikely) I will be satisfied. It is sweet here but slightly odd. The person on the desk speaks great English and is very keen to be helpful leading to some comedy misunderstandings which I won’t go into. My bathroom has an odd smell as if people have been using it to go and smoke cigars for generations. I paid an extra 8 Euro to bring the bike inside the gates (everyone warns me about theft in Estonia and about dangerous driving so I am extra careful on the road) and another 8 Euros for breakfast. There are no other vehicles inside.

The sun is shining into my attic room and the weather is showery and a little cold.

Tomorrow I head down the coast to Riga which is just over the border in Latvia. Its just over 300k and Google maps says about 4 hours.

Today’s journey from my Air bnb in Lautassari went extremely well (I always imagine every possible disaster – the bike has disappeared, it wont start, I slip over on the cobbles, the terminal has mysteriously relocated hundreds of miles away, it will be pouring with rain, the bike falls over on the boat, there is an unspecified problem on disembarkation, I have a heart attack, I lose my sight suddenly, I am hit by a reversing truck at the terminal…) They fitted my bike in behind the trucks which is where I am comfortable. I was the only bike rider on the ferry. I felt so organised. In my small rucksack I had a packed lunch and remembered a beanie to fend off the wind. I managed to spend most of the journey on the sun deck though the wind was fierce and most people emerged in shirtsleeves for a minute or two then retreated. Inside was heaving with people forced to constantly consume because the only inside seating is in restaurants. There was a ‘family cafe’ area and at the end of the trip the floor was covered with food (I remember that). Given what I had read about bad Estonian driving the trip from the port to here was very easy.

So my regret today is not tarrying in Tallinn before heading over here. I had plenty of time. I should have planned it. WikiTravel paints a rather bleak picture of Estonia and warns travellers about saying anything to locals about the former USSR because of ‘sensitivities’. I just hope I can order my meal tonight and a glass of wine without needed to refer to this.

Here is the odd GPS trail for today.

The little blob on this map is my 3.9 mile journey from the Viking Line terminal over to Lautassari where I am staying until next week.

The most challenging part of the last few days has been finding out where to park. The last yellow squiggle on the second map is me finding somewhere suitable. I have made a study of parked motorcycles in this neighbourhood and my conclusion is that bikes don’t have to display permits to park. So fingers crossed.

Helsinki is an undemonstrative city. For example, this is design week but they keep the events hidden. On Saturday morning, after my week at Metropolia, I retrace my steps to the port and get on the 2 and a half hour trip down to Tallinn. I’m hoping for some dry weather – at least for my setting out. From then I head down through three Baltic countries and sail off from Lithuania back to northern Germany.

Day 5 On the boat to Helsinki!

Out of my porthole (I paid 10 Euro to upgrade to an outside cabin and I am so glad I did) I am watching the many Islands of Sweden go past as we navigate out into open sea. So many summer houses by the sea that I can imagine in Bergman films. I am watching our progress too on Google maps.

The boat docks somewhere at 9pm – I hadn’t realised. At Marienham I think, an island in the middle of nowhere. I wonder why you would live there

This is my first experience of Viking Line. I liked being offered the upgrade – I presume they had empty cabins to fill but I didn’t like having to wait nearly two hours in the rain sitting on my bike waiting to be called on to board. Boarding seemed – I was going to say disorganised as one moment a truck rolled on (carefully I noted the drivers slowing down as they boarded with a huge thud for each wheel moving from the dry land to the ramp of the boat) but actually they wanted to fill up the space carefully with a particular combination of shapes so it was not disorganised from their point of view – just frustrating for me in the rain. Actually it was motorbikes – me and one more BMW GS being ridden by a couple of Finns went on last – sideways behind a trailer. It took a bit of working out how best to lash it down. There was a big bucket of straps but nowhere obvious to fix the bikes. But I did myself proud and I think set an example to my fellow bikers. The wind and rain on the quayside made me anticipate a not smooth crossing so I wanted to get this right. With all my care and unpacking exactly everything I needed for the crossing I was the last off the car deck. They were starting to turn off the lights while I was there. My cabin is fine. It has one sofa and the beds are still folded up – sleeper train style. Everything is unpacked and all the wet things are hanging out to dry and the things that need charging are plugged in (one by one). I’m showered and munching the roll I made at breakfast – German guest style.

Today’s ride was fine – two and a half, nearly three hours riding in the rain. But I had exactly the right clothes on so felt completely sorted along with extra layers underneath, waterproof on top and high vis and finally worked out how to turn the extra fog lamps on.

We have been sailing for over an hour and we are still passing beautiful old summer houses by the sea front or hidden by trees. Most are painted a deep orange but some are a grey-blue. They are actual islands that you have to get to by ferry. I wonder who lives here or owns them. I imagine established old Swedish families. We are travelling north between two of them. Today was a motorway day. I don’t think there was any other route from where I was staying to Stockholm. Getting in to the city was also fine with completely accurate instructions from the GPS that took me exactly to the ferry check-in. I had an hour or so to spare so perched in a bicycle shelter by the car park with my carton of Oatley and some of my stashed food supplies. There is a car alarm going off on the deck below. I will venture out to see what is on offer for dinner. This view is astonishing – to think that I would be completely ignorant of it if I had been inside the boat. So now we are travelling northwest. We go north for quite a way before finally turning east toward Finland.

Today was 136 miles riding and it took 2 hours and 40 minutes.

One Viking Line buffet dinner later. A mass of humanity. So many people have odd walks of one kind. Helsinki time is another hour ahead. Why are all these people going to Helsinki?

Later still…

Oh dear, this is a rough crossing. We are heaving and banging. We dock at Marienham in a while.

Day 4 in the motel

Phew! I enjoyed staying at the Hotel Finn. Breakfast was fun – completely self-service great coffee from a machine, croissants (no one knows how to make proper croissants apart from the French and those who copy them), muesli with yoghurt and orange juice. I paused a while in the room to get calm before I set off. The bike was still where I left it, entirely unmolested. I decided that today would be my non-motorway day and put in a direction of Vaxjo which I have no idea how I would pronounce if I had to ask someone the way to it. I was taken onto and across on the route 23. It was a beautiful ride, lovely calm scenery and on a beautiful sunny Sunday morning. Fields, dwellings, lakes and of course pine trees. The only downside was the incredibly low speed limits in this country that most people seem to stick to with a few over-takers. Plus some agricultural vehicles but once the first 40 or so miles were done, things speeded up and I was going at not much less than I rode on some of the way over here through crowded motorways in Holland and Germany. The roads are mostly good though with those nasty dangerous wire barriers in the middle of some.

The bike was running well, the hotel was good and I was pleased that I decided to avoid all motorways.

Looking for what I thought was a picnic area I ended up in a small town that had yet another unattended machine in the town square – this time one that served petrol once you had worked out that you had to put in a credit card in a separate booth. Fuelled up I headed off again. My next stop was in a small layby by a wood. I also had some food and Mango flavoured Oatley in its land of origin. Not much but enough to feel thoroughly sorted and ready for the rest of the trip. The map told me that after Vaxjo taking the 31 and 32 in a northerly direction would take me right here – another 200k.

I suppose the scenery got progressively less scenic and a little more industrial at the same time that the weather got worse. We were promised cloud but we got rain. So stop number three was at a rural bus stop to pull on the huge Mr Balloon Man rain suit. As fortune would have it someone had left a single chair just next to the bus stop making the ridiculous procedure of climbing into the suit very slightly less awkward. Eventually the GPS put me onto the E4 motorway which I had been avoiding all day but just for 5 miles before depositing me outside the hotel on a rather forlorn country road. I had to double check I really had booked this place and I had. The person at the desk who spoke impeccable English told me that the motel rooms were round the back and I should drive round there. I remembered that this is what attracted me to the place and being able to park the bike under its own veranda out of the rain is perfect. The cabin is cute. I’m not sure when they were built but they have been renovated recently and have the same bathrooms as the Hotel Finn with great under floor heating. I had a meal of white fish at 4.30 because the kitchen closes at 5 on Sundays. The restaurant reminded me of similar roadside places in Norway that seem to attract families out for a rather casual eat. Only if it were Norway the food would be covered in cling film. Here it wasn’t.

I have the radiator on in the room. It was 14 degrees outside earlier and the places are built of wood. Each cabin has an electric supply for electric vehicles. I wonder how much that is used. There seems to be only one other vehicle here. It is pretty bleak outside now in the wet.

Tomorrow my ferry for Helsinki leaves at 4.30 and so I have an easy journey from here to Stockholm. The forecast shows very dark clouds and rain so it will be a matter of wrapping up and keeping my head down – not even hoping to avoid it. I hope there is somewhere under shelter to wait at the ferry terminal. And I wonder what time they board the ship.

So far I think my planning has paid off well. The distances and routes have been fine and the hotels good. So, after tonight, one night on the Ferry and then I arrive in Helsinki that will be my home for nearly two weeks.

240 miles (again) taking 5 hours and 4 minutes.