Baltic; July 2017
Germany
In 2016 I rode to Serbia visiting the four Danube capitals Vienna, Bratislava, Budapest and Belgrade. I wanted to do something similar for 2017. I had never visited the countries around the Baltic so I came up with a Baltic loop route. Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Sweden and Denmark were all countries I had yet to visit. The plan was to take ferries to get from Estonia to Sweden and from Denmark to Germany. The route would also mean crossing the famous Øresund bridge connecting Malmö in Sweden with Copenhagen in Denmark. The planned route would be around 3,500 miles (5,600 kilometres).
This time I had a friend along with me, Steve White on his Honda CB500X. The plan was to leave the 10th July and return in 2 weeks’ time, the 23rd July. On Monday the 10th we met at my place in Wimborne and rode to Folkestone to take the Eurotunnel. From Calais we rode to the Bastion Hotel at Eindhoven where we spent the night. It turned out that the Bastion Hotel had only been open for 3 days and as one of its first week’s customers we were each given a free bottle of wine. That was a good start to our ride. (The wine came with us around the Baltic so it's well travelled.)
The following day, Tuesday, we rode to the Mohne Dam of The Dambusters fame. It was nice weather and a nice spot. Romantic imaginings of Lancaster bombers making bombing runs on the dam were tempered by the fact that 1500 civilians were drowned on the day the dam was breached. After the dam we rode on to Hartz. Most of the riding was on the autobahn and we made good progress. We eventually settled on a hotel at the town of Goslar. Goslar is typical of the towns in the Hartz region and we spent a pleasant evening there.
For Wednesday the plan was to ride the 150 miles to Berlin starting with the promising Hartz roads and stopping off at the site were the V2 rocket was made. We would then spend a couple of nights in Berlin. That was the plan! The heavens opened up on us that day and that’s when Steve found out that no matter how many times he had treated his gear to make it water proof, it wasn’t up to the job. He got very wet that day. The roads in Harz are great but they were awash and it wasn’t a day for getting your knee down on the corners. There was definitely no chance of Steve blistering his front tyre that day.
We rode on to Mittelwerk (Central Works) near Nordhausen where the Germans built their V2 rockets at the end of WW2. It’s actually a huge factory where the Germans manufactured many of their WW2 weapons, including the V2. It was located in a vast tunnel complex under a mountain to prevent the Allies from bombing it. It’s where Wernher Von Braun of Apollo fame started out and I was looking forward to visiting the place where the American and Russian space programmes sprung from. Unfortunately once there, you discover that the Germans achieved this through the utterly despicable and inhumane treatment of the many prisoners of the nearby Mittelbau-Dora concentration camp. It really is unbelievable that people can do such things to other people. Herr Braun is no hero of mine that’s for sure. For me, it was depressing to be where so many people suffered. Many lived and died in the tunnels never seeing the light of day. The Americans liberated the place acquiring their rocket technology and scientists, including Von Braun. Subsequently when Germany was divided up between the Allies it became part of East Germany and the Russians did the same. The Russians semi-successfully blew up the tunnels to stop anyone else acquiring the technology.
After Mittelwerk, we rode on to Berlin in the continuing heavy rain. We arrived at the Ibis hotel around 6 pm and found it be fully booked. After trying some other hotels and consulting Booking.com it appeared that there were no beds to be had in Berlin that night (under £500 / night at least). Apparently it was fashion week and Bono was in town. We decided to abandon our plans of staying at Berlin and to continue to head east where we felt we had a better chance of finding accommodation. (At least we rode through the middle of Berlin.) We kept going east for miles but potential accommodation was either full or closed. Go east of Berlin and you are in the backwoods where nobody seems to speak English. (All I know in German is to count from 1 to 10 and Achtung Spitfire but these were of no help.) Eventually around 10:30 pm we got to the small town of Strausberg and I went into a small hotel where the couple who run it were having dinner with some friends. They had no rooms but they were lovely people. They sat us down, got us some coffees and started calling around to try and find some accommodation for us. The lady made four calls with no success but on the fifth call they said they would call back in 10 minutes to let us know. After an agonising wait they called back to say they had a room. We breathed a sigh of relief. When we got there we found a nice hotel called Landhaus Villago but there was only one room with a double bed. We had said we would share a room but I was expecting twin beds. Oh well, when needs must! It was 11 pm and we were wet, cold and tired. Apparently I snore like a pig.
Poland
Next day is Thursday and time to hit Poland. We head for the town of Gniezno with stops at Seelow Heights and the Miedzyrzecki underground fortifications. Seelow Heights was where a bitter battle was fought between the German army and the Soviet and Polish armies at the end of WW2. It was the last defensive line before Berlin where the Germans managed to hold up the Soviets for a few days and inflict heavy casualties. When it became part of East Germany after the war the soviets built a monument there that was often used as a rallying point. The guy who runs the museum there lived through the Soviet occupation and told us that attendance at such rallies was compulsory.
The Miedzyrzecki underground fortifications are a local attraction centred on a German WW2 bunker complex. We took a quick look around it, had a bite there and continued on. (Reading the blurb now it appears there is more to it than we realised at the time.) We arrived at Gniezno and thankfully booked into the Pietrak hotel without any trouble. It’s nicely located in the main street where people dine outside on raised platforms. It also has a guarded parking space which is where we left our bikes. It was a lovely evening as we walked around Gniezno centre and had dinner outside.
Friday comes around and it’s onto Warsaw. After Berlin, we use Booking.com to make sure we have a place to stay when we get there. A Best Western not far from the centre. The currency in Poland is the Zloty. When we get to Warsaw we attempted to use a Crédit Agricole ATM to get some Zlotys. We weren’t having much luck with the ATM so we went into the bank to get some help. I asked the teller if she spoke English and she just turned her head away and ignored us. Exasperated with her attitude we went to the bank next door where a very helpful guy showed us what to do to get our Zlotys. I shouldn’t generalise but further experiences with the Warsaw locals split them into two groups, those who were extremely friendly and those who ignored us.
We took the tram into Warsaw centre. Steve was keen to visit the place he had seen on TV where Donald Trump and the rest of the G20 leaders had gathered the previous week. He thought he knew where it was so we jumped into a taxi and Steve pointed to the spot on his map. The driver was bemused as to why we wanted to go there but took us anyway. When we got there, there was nothing to see. The helpful driver listened attentively to Steve describing what he saw on TV and worked out where we should have been and took us there. Turned out to be the Warsaw Uprising Monument and very impressive it was to. After that we walked around Warsaw old town taking in the sights including the Presidential Palace and returned to a noisy Best Western on the tram.
On Saturday morning we booked the DFDS ferry from Paldiski to Kapellskar before riding to Lithuania. Before riding all the way to Estonia we wanted to make sure we had a ferry to Sweden. Treblinka was on the way and it was something Steve very much wanted to visit. We spent a good few hours there. There’s nothing left of the concentration camp but there are signs describing what used to be there and telling of significant events that happened there. We walked through the forested location where the huts used to be. There are many memorials to the people who suffered terribly and died there. Personally, it wasn’t something I was keen to visit and in the gloomy light of the forest it was a very sombre experience for me.
Baltic States
After Treblinka we pushed onto Lithuania where we eventually found a guest house at Alytus. Stasys was in charge and he and his family extended a warm welcome to us. He poured me a huge Jack Daniels which I enjoyed. The place was East European quaint and suited us perfectly. Alytus seemed to be doing well for its self and we had a great meal of local dishes at a restaurant in town.
The following Sunday we visited Ninth Fort at Kaunas and Trakai Island Castle on the way to the Comfort Rock n’ Roll Hotel we had booked into at Vilnius. At the Ninth Fort there is a huge high Soviet-style reinforced concrete memorial to the many thousands of Jews and others who were brutally murdered by the Nazis and their Lithuanian henchmen. A museum there also documents the grim 20th century history of Lithuania’s struggles beginning with the Soviet occupation in 1940 - 41, the Nazi occupation during WW2, the return of the Soviets following WW2 and finishing with independence in 1990. Trakai Island Castle as it name suggest sits impressively on an island. It’s a big attraction so on a very busy Sunday afternoon we settled for parking up, taking some photos and having an ice cream.
The Rock n’ Roll hotel is a peach. It has a secure underground car park where we left the bikes and the décor is something else. As the elevator opened onto our floor we were greeted with Michael Jackson in a superman outfit. My room had a huge psychedelic picture of a DJ above the bed and was very comfortable. Free coffee was on tap downstairs. We walked into Vilnius old town passing through Dawn’s Gate and took in the sights. As with all the Baltic States, the churches are incredible. After a bite to eat and a walk around we had a pint in a British style pub. They were serving Badger Hopping Hare so I had a pint of that. Supporting Dorset beer in Lithuania!
The following Monday morning I was in the underground garage thinking now would be a good time to check and adjust the bike’s chain before we set off for Riga, our next stop in Latvia. As I was putting force on the Honda toolkit spanner it fractured and I crashed nose first into the back of the bike. It didn’t hurt much but it took a time to stem the blood coming from two gashes to my nose. I looked like I had been in a bar fight! As we were leaving Vilnius I stopped at an automotive garage where a mechanic lent me a socket spanner to allow me to finish the job of adjusting my chain. He wouldn’t take anything for it. Nice people and we liked Vilnius. It was Steve’s favourite of the Baltic States’ capitals.
On the way to Riga we stopped off at the Hill of Crosses which is a pilgrimage site in north Lithuania. It’s quite a sight. A hill covered in millions of mostly wooden crosses. Some very large, most hand sized. If you so wish you can buy a wooden cross and make your contribution. We met a couple of German bikers there. One was married to a British girl and spoke good English. Apparently he’ll be returning her as part of the Brexit deal. We had a good chat with them and during it he warned us that Sweden was unlikely to be a great motorcycling experience. Wise words as it turned out.
We had booked ahead again for Riga and stayed in the Bellevue Park hotel. Quite a nice hotel as it turned out and very convenient for getting into Riga centre with a tram stop just outside. Once again Riga was filled with magnificent buildings and monuments particularly the Cathedral and the Freedom Monument. The recently built National Library towers impressively over the city. We walked around taking in the sights, had a bite to eat and finished off listening to a couple entertaining people at open air tables. She had a great voice. We liked Riga.
On Tuesday, we set off for our last Baltic State, Estonia, and its capital city Tallinn. The route took us close to the shore of the Baltic and we stopped to take a look. Beautiful golden beaches with nobody around but the water looked so cold. In Tallinn, we had booked the Pirita Spa hotel. What a place that turned out to be? Basically it’s a Soviet-style building with a huge accommodation block on top of which is perched a large restaurant. On the second floor is a large inside swimming pool, sauna and other facilities. Elevator access to most rooms was not possible and with ours being located at the very end of the accommodation block it was a very long walk involving climbing spiral stairs. The place had a charm of sorts and it was interesting to see the Soviet thinking behind it. Breakfast was very good.
We took a taxi into Tallinn where we were dropped off at a vantage point which affords a great view of Tallinn old town. I liked all the Baltic State capitals but Tallinn was my favourite. At 59.5 degrees north it’s further north than John O’Groats so that’s the furthest north my bike has been. The old town has a square and the streets around which house many of the embassies are very impressive architecturally. As with all the Baltic States’ capitals, there are a lot of impressive churches notably the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral which we went inside.
We ate at McDonalds a fair bit along the way and whilst we were tucking into our burgers at the Tallinn McDonalds a young policewomen came running in and shouting at us to get out. It seems there was a suspect package in the nearby public toilets. We ended up eating our McDonalds outside in the street whilst the police dealt with the situation. Happily it turned out to be a false alarm.
Our ferry left the Estonian port of Paldiski Wednesday 23:00 and arrived at the Swedish port of Kapellskar Thursday 07:30. The time difference between Estonia and the UK is +2 hours and between Sweden and the UK is +1 hour so this meant a sailing time of 9.5 hours. Paldiski is about 30 miles west of Tallinn and we had all of Wednesday to get there. We left the Pirita Spa around midday Wednesday and made our way to Paldiski. On the way, we came across another Holocaust site at a place called Klooga. There are so many of them in the Baltic States all of them telling the same grim story.
We arrived at Paldiski around mid-afternoon so we had plenty of time in hand. We were hoping for a ferry terminal of some sort to wait in but there was just a large truck park and a small DFDS check-in hut. Paldiski is a ferry port with a military base on its outskirts. It has a few shops and rough looking tower blocks. That’s all there is to it. We managed to get something to eat at a service station on its outskirts and then went and saw the local attraction, a lighthouse. After that, we returned to the truck park. In fine weather alongside the Baltic we sat on the ground and waited for our ferry. We were at our furthest point from home at this northerly outpost and it’s a surreal memory for me. A DFDS car with Lithuania plates arrived a little later on and we got chatting with the driver who seemed to be a DFDS manager of some sort. If you listen to the news you’ll know that the Baltic States are a bit concerned about Russian aggression. You may also know that Russians represent significant minorities in the Baltic States. During the conversation I asked the guy if he was concerned about the Russians and Putin. I got a strange look from him as he replied that he was a Russian born in Moscow. Whoops, diplomacy never was my strong point!
Sweden and Home
The ferry, Liverpool Seaways, arrived and unloaded a never ending stream of huge trucks. Then we ride on and strap down our bikes ourselves. (A tip, take your own ratchet strap as the ferry supplied ones are not that good.) We were the only bikes with a few cars. The rest was all trucks. Our cabin was quite spacious and comfortable and I was impressed with it. The ferry basically was a floating trucker stop for Baltic truckers which suited us fine. For 15 Euros we had a huge all-you-can-eat 3 course dinner. Somewhat bloated we retired to our cabin and I slept like a log until it was time to get up for breakfast. The best ferry trip I’ve had.
On Thursday morning at Kapellskar we set off for Stockholm. We had a Best Western booked and we decided to avoid the motorways on the way to take in a bit of the real Sweden. Big mistake, the speed limits are ridiculous on Swedish minor roads. Where a minor road would be 60 mph in the UK or 90 kph in the rest of Europe the Swedish equivalent is 70 kph and below. When you get to a town you can be crawling along at 30 kph for miles. Their roads are littered with speed cameras.
When we arrived at Stockholm we find that the Best Western is not the best. We were told that there is no parking for our two bikes and we were redirected to other nearby parking which cost us £20 for 24 hours for each bike even though we only occupied a single parking bay. We were expecting great things of Stockholm but we were disappointed after the Baltic State capitals. There are some nice buildings but the place was choked with large coaches which seemed to be allowed to park anywhere. It is much more commercialised than the Baltic States’ capitals. Expensive eating places and tacky souvenir shops are everywhere. I suppose it would be fairer to compare Stockholm with London but after watching the changing of the guard at the Palace it was clear it’s not London.
After Stockholm we resolved to make our way home and in retrospect the trip had been about our outward ride through Germany, Poland and the Baltic States. Our German friend’s warning words about riding through Sweden came true. We booked accommodation at Helsingborg, Southern Sweden and rode the 350 miles there sticking to the motorways on the Friday. The place we stayed at is called Sundsgården Konferens. It’s a Christian college out in the countryside that is being used as a hotel while it’s being refurbished. With dinner and breakfast thrown in, it was just the job.
We left Helsingborg on Saturday heading for home. The plan was to see how far we would get so we didn’t book ahead for accommodation. We left Sweden and arrived in Denmark via the Øresund bridge otherwise known as The Bridge by fans (like me) of the series. It is a very impressive engineering feat. I should have been charged 29 Euros for the privilege but was instead charged 56 Euros. It seems the guy had classified my bike as a car? Anyway, I stomped back and spoke to a very nice Danish lady who sorted it all out for me.
After the Bridge it was a quick dash on Danish motorway to take the Rødby –Puttgarden ferry back to Germany. It’s like the Isle of Wight ferry and runs regularly. Back in Germany, Steve wanted to keep going, so we sat on the autobahns doing 130 kph until we were back at the Bastion hotel in Eindhoven. Apart from some roadworks around Hamburg and Bremen and, some very heavy thundery showers, it was a straightforward ride. We had done 580 miles in about 11.5 hours when we arrived at Eindhoven around 8 pm. We greeted the guy at reception as old friends. Steve pointed out that as a recently opened hotel we were their most frequent customers.
Next day Sunday, we headed for Eurotunnel with a stop at Adinkerke for Steve to replenish his fag reserves. Such a bad habit! (Any stop turned into a fag stop. Not that I minded!) Pretty soon we were back in the UK. On our way home to Dorset and Devon from Folkestone we encountered the worst weather of our trip on the M3 and M27. It absolutely chucked it down and made riding conditions very tricky. So that was Stockholm Friday to home Sunday.
Summary
I had ridden 3,495 miles and Steve a bit more being based in Devon. Both bikes gave no problems. Steve doing it on his little Honda CB500X is an amazing feat. On the autobahns at 130 kph for hours on end I was waiting for the pistons to pop out. I know Steve would prefer the seat to be little more comfortable and the front pegs a little lower but it didn’t stop him putting in some long stints including the 580 miles from Sweden to Holland. So that was 10 countries visited involving two time zones and 4 different currencies. In order along the ride they were:
- France
- Belgium
- Holland
- Germany
- Poland
- Lithuania
- Latvia
- Estonia
- Sweden
- Denmark
For us I think visiting the Baltic States and their capitals were the highlights. Poland and Warsaw were good and I know Steve enjoyed them very much. The overriding impression for me is of the emerging independent Baltic States. There is no doubt that they are scarred by the terrible events of the 20th century that led to their independence but I think if left alone and given time they will do well for themselves. The people may be more reserved than those found in other parts of Europe but they are OK. A ride I’ll long remember. My thanks to Steve for keeping me company.