And here we go again…I´ve got less than 2 months to leave to set off to the Baltic Sea!
This trip is definitely unique – I´ve started my preparations already last September and week by week another part of the puzzle comes along.
So – as you already know – my tent arrived at my home. I decided to buy a new one as I had so many times to do a decision about wheather to camp or to go to a hostel because of the bad weather. With this tent it isn´t that big problem as I can store my trailer inside.
And also my Flevobike GreenMachine wanted to get its yearly maintenance – a special recumbentbike should go to a special bikeshop.
At mbf in Bad Endorf Norbert Henkel got a solution for (nearly) every kind of problem and has a wide range of any kind of special bikes – recumbents, trailers, ebikes – have a look!
So perhaps you will ask yourself why this guy with the recumbent bike wants to visit the cold and windy Baltic States…When I left my hometown heading towards Rome last year I´ve met a cupple from Lithuania. They recommended me the roundtrip through Latvia and Estonia called “LatEst” – but unfortunately half of the way is on gravel. This is not possible with a recumbent – so I had to search for another trip.
In the end I found a long-distance cyclepath called “EuroRoute R 1” starting from Calais visiting Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Russia and finally the 3 Baltic States Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Another 173 km lead you to St. Petersburg visiting Russia again.
http://www.euroroute-r1.de/
So on the Monday evening I´m going to take the NightJet from Munich to Hamburg and further on to Kiel where I will have only a short look into the town.
I jump on the ferry in the afternoon and will arrive in Klaipeda/Lithuania where I set off to my cycletrip the next day. First I´d like to visit the Oceanic Museum of Lithuania.
I´m going to explore on a perfect cyclepath the Curonian Spit, a curved sand-dune spit that separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea coast.
Camping in Nida I´ll cycle the same way back on the next day heading towards the border
of Latvia.
Highlights of this part of the journey will be Liepaja on the west-coast, crossing the country visiting Kuldiga and Tukums. In the old town of Riga I´m going to stay on a camping for two nights to have closer look to this marvellous city.
Leaving Riga by train to get into the Gauja Nationalparc the main cities will be Sigulda and
Césis where you can find a beautiful nature.
Crossing the next border at Valga I´m entering Estonia where my cyclepath will lead me to the Lake Peipus – devided through the border of Estonia and Russia.
Getting there I will visit Tartu, a big city where students celebrate their lives. The ancient town is also very famous – of course I won´t miss it.
On the west coast of the lake you meet a group of people who live a very rural live.
The last border – via cycling – will be in Narwa where I´m going to enter Russia.
Here the cyclepath has to be build – but there are some alternatives on smaller roads
to get to Peterhof with its famous castle and finally – St. Petersburg!
I´ve booked 4 nights in this outstanding city where I´d like to visit the highlights like for instance the Eremitage. As far as my travelbook tells me this visit could be much longer but in the end every holiday has an end.
So on a friday I´ll take an over-night ferry to Helsinki and another one will take me back to Travemünde/Germany. Having a last night in the youthhostel the train is going to bring me back to my hometown.
This will be my biggest adventure which I´ve made till now – looking forward to it!
From Lithuania to St. Petersburg 