The Dark Destroyer: Moto Gypsy Biker

It's 5.45 am for Pete's sake...!! The last time the Big Fella had been on the road this early, was when we left Egypt to ride to the Libyan border...

Piotr begins stripping the Big Fella down...

I was up at 5.00am, stumbling around the room, gathering up the things I would need at BMW… Service manual, registration certificate, set of brake pads that I had carried all the way from South Africa… I drew the curtains open and saw that the rain that had fallen throughout the night had not gone away, and if anything, it was raining even harder than yesterday…

The streets were slick with water as I rode to Auto Fus, yawning inside my helmet, and wondering why the heck these guys started work so early…!!

At 6.00am I was sitting opposite Lukas Marszalek, explaining all the things I wanted checked on the bike, besides those that needed to be taken care of during the 80 000 km service… It was hard to believe that I had ridden this bike for so many kilometres, half of them on this journey alone…

Harder still to believe, was that it would be another 80 000 km before we got back home…!!

Lukas rode the bike down into the underground service centre and I joined him there, meeting Piotr Federczyk, the technician who would be responsible for servicing the bike…

For the next seven hours I watched as the Big Fella was stripped down and then re-assembled… I could not help but marvel at the intricacy of the wiring; fuel, oil and brake lines; and all the other electronic gizmos that it took to make this the wonderful machine that it is…

...until all all his innards were exposed for inspection...

Setting the valve clearences... The left hand cylinder was seriously out of whack...

Filling the rear drive oil reservoir while Lukas tapes up some wiring that looked a bit suspect...

It was like watching a close friend or family member being operated on…!!

With each piece that was removed, I studied Piotr’s face, looking for signs that he might have found something that was of concern to him…

He spoke very little English, but took the time to show me what he was doing and explaining things in a mixture of Polish, English and sign language… We got by, somehow…!!

Lukas came down to assist from time to time, and I stood by, watching the care they took to ensure that every part was properly cleaned before replacing it on the bike…

Company rules forbade customers from being in the workshop while services were being carried out, but the rules had been bent to accommodate me… I made sure that I did not get in the way, but was close enough to see what was being done every step of the way…

Lukas and Piotr agreed that my back brake pads had finally run their race (after nearly 58 000 kms, I should think so…!!) but suggested I wait until I got to Turkey to change the front ones…

“I am not sure how you are stopping this bike, but you still have a few thousand kilometres to go before the front pads need to be changed,” said Lukas, showing me the linings… I could hardly believe my eyes, as I peered at the pads… The wear on them since Chris in Nairobi had shown them to me had been negligible… How was this bike stopping…??

Remnants of the Sahara and Sudan's Haboubs still linger...

Piotr checks the engine readings on his computer...

There had been a recent recall on the ABS braking system, and a few brake lines were replaced under guarantee. Then the engine, gearbox and rear drive oil was changed, the alternator belt replaced, the cylinder heads came off and the valve clearances were adjusted… When the old spark plugs were removed, we discovered why the engine had not been running as smoothly as it usually did… The spark plugs from the left cylinder were blackened and burnt, while those on the right were relatively clean…

“The system is out of balance…!!” Piotr explained, showing me the diagnostic reading on the computer…

After a few minutes of adjusting, the bike sounded a lot better than it had in recent times… While Lukas opened and shut the throttle, taking the revs up slowly, Piotr checked the readings on the little screen of his diagnostic tool which was plugged into the Big Fella’s electronics…

The roar of the engine reverberated around the workshop… The vibrations running through the concrete floor and up through the soles of my shoes into my chest… My heart beat faster, knots tied and untied themselves in my stomach, and a huge smile spread across my face… My companion was happy again, his faltering power restored… If it hadn’t been for the other guys in the workshop, I think I would’ve thrown my arms around his tank and hugged him…!!

Re-assembled and almost ready to roll again... Just a few electonic adjustments left to sort out...

After a trip to the wash bay, the bike seemed to stand taller, looking stronger and tougher, ready for the next long run… All he needed was a new pair of shoes, and they had not arrived by the time the workshop closed.

GS celebrates 30 years of motorcycling...

Dariusz Oskroba, who I had met in Wadi Halfa in Sudan, lived here in Warsaw, and had very kindly arranged for a set of Michelin’s “Anarkee 2” to be ordered and delivered from Germany for me, but they had arrived in Warsaw a day later than planned, and could not be at Auto Fus in time for the service… While I waited for news on when they would arrive, I went to take a look at the new Limited Edition 1200 GS that was standing in the showroom… It looked awesome…!!

BMW, in celebration of 30 years of GS production, have released a small number of them with a red seat and white tank, and the “30 Years GS” logo… All three models on the Auto Fus showroom floor (800 GS, the 1200 GS and the 1200 GS Adv, which I had watched being assembled) would not be there for very long… I am sure they’ll be sold by the end of the week..!!

The R1200 GS "Limited Edition" model... I was glad that the Big Fella could not see me drooling over his 2010 counterpart in it's special livery... He gets a bit jealous when I ogle other bikes...!!

This beautiful Cruiser was being collected by its owner...

I waited for Dariusz’s son to deliver the tyres, and then had them taken down to the workshop so that they could be fitted first thing the next morning… We rode back to the hotel, the rain that had fallen all day not letting up for a minute…

Caesar salad as a starter...

Schnitzel and fries, with a healthy dollop of fried cabbage on the side... The cabbage would aid propulsion for the next few days...!!

I had not eaten all day, and decided to spoil myself with a decent meal from the room service menu…

The waitress had to come up to the room to get the order, because she could not understand what it was I was reading from the menu…!! Polish pronunciation was clearly not one of my strong points…!!

Dariusz had booked me into a hotel about 40 km south of Warsaw, close to where he lived in Celestynow, and I plotted the address into my GPS before packing my laptop away in preparation for another early start tomorrow, first to collect the Big Fella, then back to the hotel to reload the bike from scratch…

I fell asleep, content that the Big Fella was in good nick again, ready to take me another 10 000 kms through Eastern Europe and into Asia…

GBWT 2010

The Polish frontier, where I sailed though without buying the "Viniette", a kind of toll permit to ride on Polands Highways...!!

We crossed the border into Poland near the village of Podwajponie, midway between the Russian and Belarus borders, those two destinations still on my mind, the disappointment of passing them by a sour taste in my mouth…

I couldn’t quite put my finger on why this was… Maybe it was the rebel in me…wanting to ignore all the good advice I had received and be able to say that I had made the rides anyway, despite the supposed dangers involved in riding alone through these countries…

I felt I had to rid myself of these thoughts… They were interfering with my focus, the enjoyment of the ride…

I pulled over north of Szypliszki to give myself a talking to, pacing backwards and forwards, running through the reasons for my disappointment, and finally coming to terms with the fact that obtaining permission to ride in Russia and Belarus was beyond my control…

The hardest thing to swallow was the feeling that I would never get the chance to ride here again, to be so close to something you want, yet not being able to reach out and touch it, experience it, was the hardest thing for me to accept…

I also knew beyond any shadow of doubt that if I had the necessary paperwork, I would have ridden there despite all the warnings…

That thought was enough to satisfy me, and with my mind temporarily cleared of the disappointment, I got back onto the bike and rode deeper into Poland, taking a keener interest in my surroundings once more, seeing the lush green fields again, the stands of pine, spruce and fir trees, the herds of cattle grazing peacefully in their paddocks and all the while keeping an eye on the darkening clouds above me…

We rode through the first major town of Suwalki, and then south down the E67 to Augustow, a town surrounded by three large lakes, joined together by a series of canals. Then on to Grawejo, where we stopped to refuel, and met a young couple of Kawasaki, heading home after visiting friends in Eastern Poland… We chatted for a while, discussing routes further south, and checking them on their map that was falling to pieces, and had a large section missing from it… We laughed as another piece came adrift while he was handling it, agreeing that this particular map had seen better days…

With the weather closing in, and still a few hundred kilometres short of Warsaw, I began riding a little harder, pushing the Big Fella, feeling the power coming up through the seat of my pants as we overtook long lines of trucks and cars, whizzing towards Warsaw…

I kept my eyes wide open until I had cleared the village...

Some roads are bad enough to have your car tossed about, like a boat on rough seas... And pouring rain doesn't help matters...

We crossed the Bug River, just south of Wyzskow, and then settled in for the final run into Poland’s capital city…

The roads were clogged with traffic for the last 60 kilometres, and to make things worse, the rain started falling in earnest…

Trucks had damaged the road surface in many sections of this area, and the bike bucked and wobbled as we encountered potholes, cracks and ruts caused by the heavier vehicles that seemed to frequent these country roads to avoid the main highways…

I arrived at the Felix hotel, on the eastern bank of the Wisla River that divides Warsaw almost down its centre, checked in, and then rode to BMW Auto Fus a few kilometres away, still fully loaded, wanting to ensure that they had the Big Fella booked in for the following morning, and also wanting to check that they really were open at 6.00am…!!

Pronunciation was going to be a problem...

Auto Fus is perhaps the biggest BMW franchise that I have ever seen… They even have a section that sells and services helicopters…!! I watched as a little red two-seater rose into the dark grey skies, wondering who would be crazy enough to fly in this weather…!! At the motorcycle section, a lone salesman sat at his desk, and as I walked up to him, he greeted me with,

“You must be the Gypsy Biker…!! We are expecting you…!!”

Relief flooded through me… This would not be a repeat of the Helsinki fiasco…!!

“Our service department closed at 2.00pm, but they will be ready for you at 6.00am tomorrow morning, and will take care of all your needs…!!”

I rode back to the Felix, unloaded the bike, removing the panniers and storing them in an office near the reception, something I did not want to be doing at 5.30am the next morning…!!

Auto Fus Warsaw... The Big Fella rejoices at the thought of a long overdue service...

Back in my room, I switched on the TV and watched the EuroNews channel for a while, seeing again the devastation that the floods had caused in Pakistan, the imminent eruption of a volcano in Java, the ongoing attempts to rescue the miners trapped underground in Chile, and a segment about a lunatic that had gone on the rampage in Bratislava, capital of Slovakia, killing nine people with an automatic rifle before shooting himself… I would be riding into this city in just a few days time…!!

I have hardly watched any TV in the last few weeks, and felt disconnected from it all, interested only in the weather forecasts for the next few days…!!

I watched and listened as politicians played their little power games, using the media to sprout speeches that made a lot of noise, but meant nothing to the average Joe… Thought about the billions of dollars wasted on useless wars and the millions of lives these wars affected… And how all that money could have been spent on improving the lives of the people whose countries I had crossed in the last six months…

A magic wand would have come in handy as I sat wondering at the madness of it all…

GBWT 2010

Leaving Vilnius... The clouds hung low over the city...

The biggest thing on my mind when it came to getting to Warsaw in Poland, was having the Big Fella serviced… Looking after the bike is as important as looking after myself, as without each other, there can be no fulfillment to our dream of taking each other around the world…

Marijampole was where I was heading, but took a longer route to get there to experience more of the countryside...

Perhaps it was my imagination, or perhaps it has been the rainy conditions I have ridden in lately, but I began feeling sluggishness in the acceleration, and a change in the note of the engine…

Maybe knowing that my tyres were on borrowed time has had me riding a lot slower and that is why I am hearing a different sound from the engine…!! The usual growl of power seemed absent, and in its place was a less confident and rougher noise…

Or maybe it was just Big Fella letting me know that he was getting fed up running on old oil… Either way, the message was coming through loud and clear…

Early morning starts haven’t been as smooth as they usually are, and this morning, there was a bit of “throat-clearing” before the Big Fella came to life…!! For a second I thought the battery had died on me, but then the engine turned over and relief flooded through me… It was another reminder that my friend needed a bit of TLC…

Just as I was about to leave the Europa Hotel, Heiner Kranz, a German, working in the legal field, came up and after introducing himself, we got talking about journeys and trips that we had made and were still planning to make… He was very interested in what I was planning over the next few weeks to get myself and the bike to Turkey, and he mentioned that he had taken a large group of lawyers on tour there…

Early morning in the village of Trakai...

When I mentioned that I was going to try riding through the western section of Belarus to get into Poland, he became quite animated…

“No, don’t do it…!! You will not get in under any circumstances…!! I tried a while ago, and on the Polish side they told me to go back, as I was wasting my time… I had to ride over 100 kilometres to the Polish border north of Belarus…! I too was hoping I could cut across a small section of it to shorten the distance into Poland…”

His face had such a look of concern on it, that I knew I would have to take his advice seriously… Sometimes you get the feeling that the people giving you advice are just passing on second or third hand hearsay that they had picked up, but in Heiner’s case, I knew immediately that my plans for a quick, “under the radar” sortie into Belarus were dashed…

He then gave me some details of places that I should rather visit and urged me to ride down into the National Park that straddles the Polish and Belarus borders… “It is really beautiful there, you will enjoy it if you can make the ride…”

The sun came out and shone down on the road leading through heavily forested areas...

We shook hands as his taxi arrived to take him to the airport, and he has subsequently emailed me on a number of occasions to give me further advice and clear up my confusion on the strange statue I had seen in Riga, the one with the Rooster on the cat on the dog on the donkey… It’s about a German fairy tale known as the Bremen Town’s Musicians…

Great meeting you Heiner, and thanks for the information and the advice, much appreciated…!!

The clouds hung low over Vilnius, as I made a slight change to my route, but still planned to ride south through the countryside near the Belarus border, avoiding the main highways as much as I could…

I passed abandoned farmhouses like this one... Evidence that many Lithuanians have given up farming and moved into the towns and cities...

An hour after I had left, I rode out from under the clouds and into bright sunshine… It was still cold enough however for me to keep my rain gear on, and the heated grips on the bike functioning… The well paved road led through a thickly forested area where plenty of warning for deer crossings had me scanning the bush on either side of me in an effort to get a glimpse of the elusive beasts…

At Birstonas, I stopped for a short break and a cup of coffee....

The proprietor gave me a complmentray meat pie to go with my coffee, while she and her co-workers stood around the bike pointing out all the flags to each other...

Near the little town of Birstonas, close to where the Nemunas River makes a big loop, I stopped to have a cup of coffee ant a quaint roadside inn…

The three woman who ran the place, spoke not a word of English, but made every effort to understand what I wanted, and even gave a complimentary meat pie to go with the coffee I had ordered…

I sat under a bright yellow umbrella in the courtyard, scanning my map of the Baltic States and wondering if I should try and make a run through the Russian province of Kaliningrad…

It lay directly west of where I now sat, and would add an extra 200 kms or so to my ride to Warsaw, presuming they would let me across the border and give me a transit permit or visa to ride the 150 kilometres to the Polish border at the Gumbinska road that ran south into Poland…

There was only one town or village along the route and this concerned me more than a fruitless ride to the Russian border…

Little church in the country...

This mansion is in the process of being built... I wondered who would come and stay in such a large house, out in the middle of nowhere...?

I decided to think about it while I rode on towards Marijampole, where I would have to make a final decision, as the road here split south going directly into Poland or continued East towards Kaliningrad…

I rode across the bridge over the Nemunas River and continued through the farmlands of Eastern Lithuania, enjoying the ride and taking in all the farming activity around me… Much of the countryside lay under water, and I recalled reading that Lithuania was a “swampy country”… There were large areas of standing water on either side of the road, and my windshield and visor began collecting hordes of mosquitoes that met an untimely (but well deserved death!) on them…

We rolled on, through the villages on Asiukle and Margava, then through Meskenai and Patasine, and just before we entered Marijampole, the Big Fella hit the jackpot… In his own mind anyway…!! The odometer read “77777″, and he figured that this counted for something…!! Reckoned I should given Southern Sun or Sol Kerzner a ring…!!

I took a photo of the instrument panel, promising to do what I could, patted him a few times and sat thinking about a run into Russia again…

Just outside the town of Marijampole, the Big Fella hits the jackpot...!!

My heart told me that I may never have the chance to ride in Russia again, but then, as a gentle drizzle began settling over us as we stood there, my mind clicked in and common sense prevailed… I did not have a visa, and if I managed to talk my way into the country, what would happen if I couldn’t talk my way back out of it…? Visions of having my bike and all my gear confiscated flashed before me…

Also, if I was turned back from the border at Kybartai, it would mean two hours of wasted time to get back onto the A5 leading to Poland… And it was now beginning to rain again…

There are a few ways of spelling of Warsaw...!!

I kicked the Big Fella into gear and somewhat reluctantly, turned south for the Polish Border…

GBWT 2010

Leaving Riga on the A7, heading southeast for Vilnius...

With only a 300 km ride ahead of me today, I decided to take it easy. Leaving the Centra Hotel at 10.00am, and heading out of town and onto the highway leading to Lithuania… In the past, very little of Latvia was industrialized, and the majority of the population were kept busy in the agricultural sector, tilling the soil to produce barley, oats, potatoes and flax…

They have also been traditionally involved in the forestry and fishing industries in the Baltic Region… Much of this has changed, and now almost 70% of Latvians are to be found in the towns and cities of the country… However, with a population of less than 3 million people, you can imagine that the cities and towns are small, so within minutes of leaving Riga, I was out in the countryside…

In Latvia, bus-stops are a spartan affair... You sit, you wait, and you freeze your tits off...!! Or, if you're already freezing after your walk to the bus stop, then you sit, freeze your tits off and then wait for a passing ambulance...!!

The weather was perfect for riding… The sun shone for most of the way and there was only a light breeze blowing in from the Baltic, which faded away the further inland we rode…

After riding on average ten hours a day through Scandinavia the previous week, these shorter stints felt like a trip down to the corner café…!! There was absolutely no pressure and this had me in a good mood from the outset… There was also no need for bulky rain gear, which restricts the smaller movements you make on the bike while you are riding…

The countryside was much the same as that of Latvia, except there were even more farms lining the road here in Lithuania… Tilled and planted fields stretched for miles, with the occasional patch of indigenous bush breaking the monotony…

Vast improvements have been made in the agricultural sector, since independence from the Soviets...

Farming is a seven day a week affair, and this Saturday morning was no different to any other for the farmers and their families… I came across many women picking potatoes by hand in smaller fields alongside the road, and close to where I presumed they lived… The potatoes were being put into small cotton bags and then lugged to the edge of the field, were a cart was being stacked high with them…

As I slowed down to watch them, I wondered then, as I do now, if the world wouldn’t be a far better place, if more women spent their spare time picking potatoes, and less time on other pursuits… (And if that doesn’t get me a comment or three, then NOTHING will…!!)

Just before crossing the Latvian and Lithuanian border, I stopped to have a cup of coffee at a little roadside diner… There I met a couple from Belarus who were on their way to visit friends in Estonia… We got talking about officialdom and the difficulty in getting visas for Russia, Ukraine and Belarus…

“It took us almost six weeks to get our visa to leave our country for this visit…” he told me. “You have to wait two weeks just to get authorization for an application form…!!”

I stopped just short of the Lithuanian border for a a cup of coffee...

King Fu Chef.... Coming soon, to a theatre near you...!!

I left them after finishing my coffee, and rode the short distance to where the border was. The old border post with its extensive layout of buildings and parking areas, lay abandoned on the side of the highway… Broken windows and cracked walls, and weeds growing up among the paving stones, gave the place a desolate look…

The old Latvia / Lithuania border post stands empty and abandoned... Surely this could be converted into a school or a clinic...!!

Crossing in Lithuania, the 40th country on the GBWT...

This tiny bank was where I managed to change my Lats into Listas...

A few trucks were lined up for the inspection of their paperwork, but just as I was when I crossed into Latvia from Estonia, I was waved through by an official who didn’t even bother to get up from the chair he was sitting on..

I knew I would have to refuel before I got to Vilnius, and when I came to the first big service station complex after crossing the border, I stopped to enquire whether or not Lats or Euro would be accepted here in payment for fuel… The manager in the tiny kiosk said that only Litas were accepted here in Lithuania and directed me to another small kiosk a few metres away, and this proved to be a fully functioning bank… The Lats I had on me were quickly changed into Litas, and I rode on into the countryside…

Lithuanians seem to enjoy their wood carving… At many of the truck and picnic stops along the road, I came across huge carvings depicting scenes from the Bible, as well as many others of everyday scenes in the lives of the country’s people… Entrances to farms were often marked with these carvings, depicting the family’s names or just an abstract form of art…

Massive wooden carvings such as this one can be seen at many of the stops along the road...

Here's another of a woman looking none too happy with her current state of affairs...

"Go south Gypsy Biker...!! All the way to Turkey, where thou shall surely find the sun...!!"

I can't be certain, but I think that this area's history might be closely interwoven with that of the horse...

Vilnius was only a two hours away, but I was taking my time, enjoying the ride too much to rush it...

By now you will have noticed that I tend to while away my time in the saddle by taking snaps of road signs I find entertaining, and making up alternative meanings for them as I go along…

On many occasions I have found myself doubling back to take a photo of a roadsign which I found particulary funny…

I always look forward to comparing the road signs of countries that I have ridden through, to the ones I see in whichever new country I travel in…Colours change from white backgrounds, to yellow and blue, and sometimes green…

The manner in which people are depicted at pedestrian crossing varies enormously, and some of the designs are far more details than other…

Often, roadsigns gave me a small insight into the character of the people who I now found myself amongst… In some countries they are more than a little economical with their roadsigns, while in places like Scandinavia, I felt there were far too many signs in some places…

Sitting under a falling tree can't be a good idea...!!

For over 50 kms, heavy trucks had damaged the road surface... At least here you received ample warning... In Kenya there were no such road signs...

A lot of "nai-ing" seems to go on in Lithuania...!!

Yeah, I must agree... Pedestrians can be a pestilence...!!

The notorius Lithuanian Leaping Deer... I kept my head down as we rode through this area...!!

If I was going to get any, then this just HAD to be the place...!!

I turned left and went to see for myself... There were a few, but I suggest a name change to prevent lonely travelers from becoming unneccesarily excited...!!

Not to be outdone by the Finns, Lithuania weighs in with a few tongue-twisters of it's own...!!

With the ride sliding by without incident, I had plenty of opportunity to laugh out loud at some of the ones I saw… My twisted sense of humour was working overtime here in Lithuania…

Each district welcomes visitors with colourful markers such as this one...

People crossing with gay abandon...

I stopped for fuel and another cup of coffee at the town of Ukmerge, where a large group of Russians gathered around the bike, pointing out the flags and all the extras on the bike… None of them asked any questions of me or indicated that they wanted to strike up a conversation, so I just left them to it, leaning against the building a short distance away, all the while keeping a beady eye out for those who might have had “long fingers”…

I then noticed with a start that the clouds had closed above me and were far lower than when I had stopped half an hour ago… The temperature dropped just as suddenly, and I knew that rain was not too far off…

A big shiny welcome to Vilnius...!!

Shaking the lead out, I rode the last 64 km to Vilnius in just 25 minutes, caning the Big Fella in an attempt to avoid having to put on rain gear… The temperature dropped with every kilometre we covered, and even heavier cloud now hung darkly above us…

For a change, I made it into Vilnius without getting wet… I could not find the hotel that was first on my list as either the sign had been taken down or the hotel itself had closed… The area I was in seemed very run down, with crumbling buildings and overgrown open areas… I didn’t like the look of this at all, and rode closer to some taller buildings that I could see not too far away…

Graffiti appears on many buildings... The author of this one puts his message forward in no uncertain terms...!!

Wilma of the Europa City Hotel, smiling and laughing throughout the ordeal of checking me in...

There, in what was more an area filled with office blocks and small enterprises, I found the Europa City Hotel, a medium sized modern establishment, catering for businessman more than it did for tourists I presumed…

Wilma the young, blonde receptionist was very helpful and had a great sense of humour, giving me as many wise cracking answers as those I gave her…

We agreed on a reasonable rate, which included use of their internet services, and just a short while after unloading the bike and getting the cover onto it, the rain came down…

I had timed my arrival perfectly, even though it meant riding way above the speed limit on the run into the city…

I got the cover on the Big Fella just in time...

Today had been a fun ride, and I felt as fresh as I did when I had woken earlier this morning… I discovered that I was only a short walk away from the city’s own “old town”, which was not as extensive as that of Tallinn and Riga, and planned to visit the area the next day…

But for now, with the rain teeming down in Vilnius, a warm room indoors was the best place to be…

But it's not all fun and games you know...!! There's laundry to be done as well...!!

GBWT 2010

I went to collect the Big Fella from the “Ritz Parking Lot”, where he had spent the night playing host to a pair of cats that were still crouched on the seat under the bike cover when I began taking it off… I am not sure what the attraction is, but cats have taken up residence on the bike on at least a dozen occasions on my journey so far…

This pair, were quite brazen, and rather than dash off as was usually the case, they slunk away slowly, giving me dirty looks over their shoulders as they did so… I’m thinking of turning a few of them in seat covers…

View from directly in front of the Centra Hotel... Normally, this scene would be packed with tourists, but after a hard night out on the town, many were still tucked up in bed...

The streets were deserted at 9.00am on this Saturday morning, so I took a detour back to the hotel, taking a few photos of buildings that I had missed the afternoon before…

Narrow cobblestoned streets with restaurants spilling over into them...

I rode down narrow alleyways, which would normally be crowded with tourists and locals going about their business, but on this morning, there were no such obstructions to concern ourselves with…

Wandering down these little alleyways brings you to into contact with the early history of Riga...

Some of the buildings have been restored on the sight of the original ones... The foundations and walls of this restaurant date back to 1221...!!

In the main square, just south of the cathedral, I squeezed the bike between a few poles erected to prevent cars from riding onto the square (and bikes perhaps…!!) and idled into its very centre, marveling at the buildings that surrounded me… The most impressive being the House of the Black Heads…

This was the second time I had come into contact with a building named in this way, and I discovered that the “Guild of the Blackheads” was formed by unmarried German Traders centuries ago, who sailed these waters exchanging goods with the Estonians and Latvians of the time…

Restoration of this, the most beautiful building in Riga, was begun in 1995, and completed in 1999, having been bombed by the Germans in World War ll, and then completely demolished  by the Soviets in 1948…

The sun was in the “wrong” place for me to get a decent photo of it, but I snapped away regardless, avoiding the icy stares of a group of early morning tourists who did not seem to think the Big Fella was an appropriate subject to include in their own photos of the building…

House of the Black Heads in Riga... In a word... "Stunning...!!"

I cruised slowly around a two or three block radius, keeping an eye out for patrolling policemen, as I did not have my helmet on… Naturally I received a few very strange looks from the few people I did come into contact with…

Some smiled, and other grimaced in consternation at the intrusion of the big bike in their narrow little streets…

Cowgirl waitresses make this establishment a very popular place to eat at...!!

I had been told that Vilnius in Lithuania would be a better place to spend an extra day, but looking around me at the streets of Riga’s old town, I could easily have spent the day walking around here and taking it easy…

Christmas Tree with a twist...!! Erected in the main square just off the river...

Tallinn, in Estonia, and Riga here in Latvia, being only 300 km apart, would be a great place to spend a week touring through, especially in the warmer summer months of June and July… In August, the weather is a bit iffy, warm and sunny one minute, and raining like hell the next, but for the most part, it is overcast and cool…

There was no plaque that I could see to explain this one...!! A chicken, on a cat, on a dog, on a donkey...!! Go figure...!!

If the attraction of all the usual European destinations have got you looking for new places to visit, then the former Baltic States of Estonia and Latvia are well worth a visit… Just remember to choose your seasons carefully… Apparently this area has very long, and bitterly cold winters…!!

GBWT 2010

The Lillekula Hotel, great value for money, in a quiet neighbourhood with safe parking to boot...!!

After my visit to Tallinn’s old town, I decided to do a little preventative maintenance on the Big Fella…

Getting down to some overdue maintenance in Tallinn...

I topped up the oil, and re-glued the stone guard that he had broken in Addis Ababa with that silly maneuver into the wall…

I also tightened up the screws holding the wind deflector onto the windshield and the windshield onto the console frame. They had begun rattling after a few sessions on the cobblestones of the European villages and towns we had ridden through…

I then checked the tyre pressures and found that I had lost almost 20% of the pressure I usually kept them pumped to, and got the compressor out of the pannier to pump them back up to where they needed to be…

I puttered around for another half hour or so, pretending to know what I was doing, and ignoring the Big Fella’s sniggers every time I reached for another spanner to tighten up a bolt or nut…

Speak about “ye of little faith”…!! We will see who has the last laugh when he starts losing bits along the way…!!

I spent the evening planning my route down to Istanbul in Turkey, where I would be completing the European, and third leg of my tour… I emailed the list of countries in the order I wanted to ride them, to my mate Tibor in Budapest to see if he had any info that might be useful to me, before I plugged my route into Gi-Gi’s tiny brain for her to work with…

Tibor replied in a very short space of time, advising that there was no way I could enter Albania from Serbia, as there was a little disagreement between these two countries regarding Kosovo and their claims to independence… More political clap-trap…!! I would now have to enter Albania through Montenegro…!!

Tibor also agreed that my planned route looked like that of a “drunken snake”…!! I might have to “straighten it up a bit” as time goes on, depending on the time it is taking me to get to Istanbul, and how much I am “enjoying” the weather on the way down… The long term forecast along my route has convinced me to keep my rain suit handy…!!

One of the places I wanted to see was Bucharest in Romania… I quite like “Budapest to Bucharest” as a title for a post… It has a pleasant ring to it, don’t you think…?? I might have to replace it though, with something like “Bugger Bucharest”, if I am running out of time…!!

My planned route through Central and Eastern Europe...

My Japanese friend, Yasuo Naruse, was most impressed with the Big Fella...

Just as I was leaving the Lillekula Hotel, a Japanese businessman who was also staying there came over to chat, and we spent a pleasant half hour discussing my journey, as well as one that he had undertaken many years ago…

He had hitchhikes from Tokyo, through Russian and into Europe, to satisfy his own “wanderlust”… We laughed and joked about the difficulties we had experienced and before I left, I took a snap of him with the Big Fella… Nice meeting and talking to you Yasuo… Domo arigato…!!

A short day in the offing... Riga, capital of Latvia, is spelt differently in Estonian, and had me guessing for a minute...

Often when I am leaving a major city, I spend more than just a few minutes taking an unplanned tour of the area before finding my way onto the correct road leading to my next destination… Leaving Tannin in Estonia was different…

I managed to find my way onto the correct road leaving the city, and despite having to travel across the complete width of Tallinn in order to get onto the E4, I managed to catch every traffic light on green and motored out of town without stopping once…!!

We skirted Lake Ulemiste, and then headed southwest to Kanama before boring south to Parnu, on the Gulf of Riga, which forms part of the Baltic Sea…

Parnu was exactly halfway on my route between Tallinn and Riga in Latvia, and we rode through a flat and fairly featureless landscape for most of the way… Agriculture forms the backbone of the Estonian economy, and maize, potatoes, linseed; or flax as it is known here, and vegetables, seemed to be the main crops… Small herds of dairy cattle also grazed contentedly in the green fields bordering the highway…

This old abandoned barn and farmhouse, was one of many I saw along the road to the Latvian border...

But It's my first visit...!!

Much of Estonia is forested, and although none of it looked as if it was properly planted, pruned or thinned, I did see a number of small bush-mill operations, cutting and sorting logs that were too small for lumber, and probably bound for a pulp or paper mill somewhere…

Parnu is supposedly the “tourist capital” of Estonia during the summer months, and while it looked like a nice place to visit, I did not see enough of it to convince me to ever spend more than a day or two there…

Ever since arriving in the “Baltic States”, I have looked for signs of the old Soviet influence, and found some of it on the way to Parnu, as well as in the lesser visited parts of the town…

What was I doing in these “lesser visited” areas…? Getting temporarily lost, of course…!!

From time to time, Gi-Gi attempts to prove her worth, by giving me the silent treatment, and “forgetting” to activate the speakers in her system… She usually chooses to do this, when I am riding slowly enough to hear her “advice”…

Like when we are cruising through the busy streets of a town or city, and I am doing all I can to avoid cars, trams, buses and pedestrians…!! Trying to remain upright and avoid an unplanned for collision in all of this, is difficult enough without having to still peer at her screen in order to figure out when the next turn is coming up…

A split second is all it takes for face to meet cobblestone…!!

In Parnu she decided to go “all quiet” on me again, and I took a “wrong” turn while trying to avoid a date with an undertaker… I found myself in a tree-lined back street and there came across some very old buildings that most certainly date back to the old Soviet Era…

This old wooden apartment building and another next to it, was in need of a bit of TLC...

Wooden apartment buildings in much need of a lick of paint and a sack of nails to keep the boards from being blown off their walls; small engineering and motor “workshops”, operating out of concrete bunker-like structures without any doors or windows… Piles of rubble and other rubbish littered the area, and metal wrecks stood silent in empty lots, weeds growing through their frames… This was an area that had been forgotten by those intent on developing the country into something resembling what we were used to in Western Europe…

But having said that, huge progress has, and is being made… The main streets in the town have been transformed into modern replicas of any you will find in Europe… Boutiques, banks, restaurants and stores… They’re all here… And these streets are as clean as any I saw in Scandinavia, which was for me one of the most litter-free areas I have ever ridden in or seen…!!

Cozy little pub on the main road leading out of Parnu...

I had crossed the Parnu River on my way into town, riding over an old metal bridge, from where I saw a number of large barges and fishing trawlers, all moored in the harbour on the river, which leads out into the Baltic Sea… Judging by the rust that enveloped most of these boats, the fishing hasn’t been that good lately…!!

Entrance to the Alevi Kalmistu, the large cemetery in Parnu that also houses the Independence Monument...

Although Latvia is a member of the European Union, it has not as yet adopted the Euro as an official currency, and many of its citizens think it should stay that way...!!

The E4 ran south, alongside the Baltic, although I hardly ever caught a glimpse of it through the stands of Aspen, Pine and Birch trees that grew right down to the water’s edge…

After looking at my map, I had hoped to be riding along the seashore, enjoying sweeping vistas of where the water met land, but I was to be disappointed in this regard… The road bore away from the coast and continued through farmland all the way to the Latvian border and beyond…

The border with Latvia is marked by the little village on Ikla, and a huge open area where trucks were lined up waiting for inspection by a group of Custom’s officers…

Normal traffic bypasses all this and but for the prescribed slowing down (and a little jink to avoid one of the officers who stepped into the road), I was in Latvia…

A name like that deserves to have a line drawn through it...

The E4 became the A1, and if anything was in better condition that its predecessor… We picked up the pace, crossing the Salaca River which splits the town of Salacgriva in two, and then the Guaja River, before running between two big lakes that empty into the Daugava River, on whose banks the capital city of Riga is located due south for Riga…

The first establishment I stopped at was Frank’s Hostel, but the climb up to the third floor on a narrow winding staircase already had me dead against the place before I discovered that there was no place to park the Big Fella besides out in the busy street where I had left him…

Just behind the hotel, I could see the tall spires of a church or Cathedral, and judging by some of the rooftops of the building surrounding it I knew I was close to the old part of the city… I rode into an area whose cobblestones were as rough as a badgers bum, causing me to stand up on the pegs to avoid cracking my teeth and having a my rear spring inserted into an orifice that was not made for that sort of thing…!!

Clearly the road builders of Riga had not been properly supervised in “olden times”…!! It was the “Road to Dodoma” in Tanzania all over again…!!

Parked outside the Centra Hotel in Riga, Latvia...

The entire area has been converted into pedestrian walkways, and cars are only allowed into the area to drop off passengers and luggage and then are chivvied back out of it by police officers, who patrol the area in pairs, dressed in fluorescent green jackets… After a few blocks of teeth-rattling, sphincter clenching riding, down narrow roads and even narrower alleys, I came out onto a little square and in front of me, beheld the Centra Hotel…

That would do for me…!! After all the ducking and diving I had been doing to avoid hordes of tourists in the last ten minutes, I had had enough of the cobblestones and wanted the ride to come to an end, even though the hotel’s glass fronted interior and the minimalist furnishings in the reception area, spoke of a price that I probably would not enjoy…!!

Latvia has a very strong currency, which I discovered when the receptionist quoted me a price of 48 Lats for a night…

“How much is that in Euro…?” I asked, thinking that the price in Lats seemed very reasonable for this modern and up market-looking hotel…

“That is €66.00 per night, sir…!” she said sweetly, ignoring the pained expression that had crossed my face… “We have only two rooms available and if you want a room now, I suggest you take it, as we are certain to be fully-booked in a few hours time…!” she continued…

Just then a guy walked through the glass doors, dragging a massive suitcase behind him…

“Good afternoon sir!” the receptionist greeted him, “Do you have a reservation…?”

“Er… No…” answered the guy, and before he could say another word, I heard myself saying, “I’ll take it, I’ll take it…!!” There would be no negotiating today…!! That much was for certain…!!

The parking area where the Big Fella spent a night being closely guarded... At R135.00, I should hope so...!!

Once I had lugged my kit to my room, I was advised to ride the Big Fella down the road to where the “safe” parking was located… It was barely a block away, and on the site where a building had recently been demolished to make way for a new hotel that would be completed in a few years time.

This much was explained to me in a mixture of English and Russian, by the guy who used an old caravan as an office, and swore blind that this was the safest place to park in the city…

He asked me to step into the caravan to see for myself, and there, I found no less than six small TV monitors, all hooked up to cameras which showed every inch of the parking lot…

“You see..!!” he proudly said, hands on hips… “And for you a special price of just 10 Lats for the 18 hours you want to park here…!!”

“That’s R135.00 !!” I squealed…

“I do not know vot is zis “Rand” you are talking about, but to park here, you vill need 10 Lats…!!”

And that was the end of those negotiations as well…!! I paid the money over, at least secure in the knowledge that my Russian friend would be keeping a close eye on the bike, and walked back to the hotel to shower before going out for a stroll around the old town…

Riga is known as the capital of Art-Nouveau Architecture, and the differing shades of colour that these buildings are painted in are something to see… Every shade of pastel is represented here, and I discovered that many people come to Riga for this specific reason…

Many of the buildings are of the Art Nouveau style of architecture....

On every street corner, crowds were gathered with their guides, camera lenses pointing up at the buildings that were being described… My interest piqued, I tagged along with one group who had an English speaking guide, and got a 20 minute education on Art-Nouveau Architecture, for free…!!

.... and painted in a wide range of pastel colours...!!

Art Nouveau buildings are almost always asymmetrically designed with archways and curved surfaces. Statuettes are mounted in alcoves and every other nook and cranny. Most of the facades of the buildings we took in, had interesting bits of history attached to their origins, and if this type of architecture is your scene, then Riga is the place to visit…!!

The Riga Cathedral, built in 1211, with it's belltower that I used as a landmark to avoid getting lost in the narrow streets of Riga's "old town"...

The main entrance to the Cathedral... I think the City Fathers need to start budgeting for a little renovation of this beautiful Cathedral...

Two blocks from the hotel, stands the Riga Cathedral, one of the most recognizable landmarks in all of Latvia.

It was built in 1211, and modified and expanded upon over the next few centuries… It is also known as the Dome Cathedral, although it has no dome to speak of…

This name comes from the German word for Cathedral, Dom… Once again, the narrow street prevented me from getting a full picture of this magnificent, (but crumbling in places…!!) old Cathedral…

It drizzled for most of the evening, and a cold wind blew off the Baltic, making my time out on the cobblestones not as pleasant as I had hoped it would be…

It was however, a very interesting time I had, and in better weather conditions, I would have spent more time exploring the area… Close to the hotel were a few pubs with interesting names, and judging by the amount of people who entered them, very popular with locals and tourists alike…

Who knows what goes down after dark in Riga...!!

On closer inspection, I was surprised to discover that this was not a pet shop specialising in cats...!!

I wasn't sure if the guy in the sign had been shot, or hadn't enjoyed the ones he had...!!

Some of the bars had names that had me blushing...!!

Apparently mushrooms are the favorite item on the menu here...!!

Clever advertising for an Italian Restaurant...

Looks expensive, huh...?? And that's exactly what it was...!! A chicken breast stuffed with mozzarella cheese, and a large ball of rice...!! Washed down with a Stella... All came to an eye-watering R 175.00 !! And, I was still hungry afterward...!! Lucky I have that stash of Snicker Bars, eh...!!

I ate at a little Belgian restaurant around the corner from the hotel, where a patio had been extended out over the pavement and into the street… The waitresses tried to convince me to sit inside, probably because they were too cold in their skimpy uniforms, to venture out onto the patio…

Inside the restaurant, a large flat-screen TV was showing a football match, and I did not want this interfering with my experience of the old town, so I insisted on sitting outside in the cold and the wet, to enjoy my meal…

An American couple joined me outside for the self-same reason, mumbling about the TV spoiling their dinner…

The meal was delicious, albeit a bit on the small side, and afterward I left the waitress a decent tip for the trouble she had gone to, to make me as comfortable as possible, including brings me an extra cushion to sit on, and a blanket to wrap around my legs…

Yeah, it was that cold…!!

Down the road from the hotel was a multi-storeyed shopping mall, which was abuzz with the trendy folk of Riga… Seems this is where all the yuppies hang out before taking to the bars and clubs in the area… The bank in this centre stays open until 9.00pm, and I took the opportunity to change all the foreign currency I had in my wallet, into Lats…

I have been carrying Sterling, Krone from three different countries; Denmark, Sweden and Norway, and Kroon from Estonia around in my wallet, and was now finally shot of all of it…

Riga’s town centre is crawling with security guards… In every corridor a pair of them stand together, watching the crowds intently, occasionally speaking into their hand held radios… Surveillance cameras operate on every floor, throughout the building…

I have no idea what the crime situation is here in Latvia… I certainly did not for a second feel unsafe walking through the darkened streets back to my hotel, but I guess they have a reason for the very visible security presence…

Or perhaps in Riga, some things haven’t changed…

Sign says it all...!!!

GBWT 2010