Today’s general theme; damn good trip.

We left the guesthouse (see above) near Ape late at around 10.30 since we had to wait for the morning fog to clear or to be more correct; because I was kind of slow:-) The 24 kilometre trip to Alūksne was near-perfect; the Sun was shinning, we had back-wind and my problems with my left leg was basically gone. Only the road could have been better paved, however the surrounding nature clearly compensated for that – great hilly nature here;-)

In Alūksne we found the local Tourist Information, which did neither have a map of the west part of Latvia or the whole part of Latvia, however the guy working there was very friendly and pointed towards a bookstore where we subsequently found the map. The guy also told us that Alūksne had Europe’s only Bible museum and pointed to the other part of the Tourist Information – a building approximately the size of a two 20” shipping containers (however much nicer). He was by the way also very interested in languages and told me that Latvian and Lithuanian can be traced back to Sanskrit, which is or was spoken in India (do not know much about it).

After chewing a bit on the language information we checked in to the café Pajumte for some tonics, beer and some local food, which was very tasty by the way. Next and final stop for today was the city of Balvi and the around 40 kilometres to there went as smoothly as coming to Alūksne. The only difference was that more nature was changed into farmland and that the terrain levelled out.

Note about the above picture: A could also be for “Anders”:-)

Upon reaching Balvi we almost biked through the city before realizing that finding a hotel was maybe more difficult than first imagined. I asked a random guy working on putting a fence up. First he could not understand why we did not want to continue further, the time was only around 16.30, it was still so early, however we wanted to relax. He did not want to tell us where the hotel was, he jumped into his minivan and showed us where the hotel was. We thanked him and stood a bit puzzled when he drove away again; damn such things just never happens at home (in Denmark I mean).

The hotel was upgraded-USSR. I asked the lady who was watching Russian television whether she spoke English or Russian; after a minute of thought from her side she said Russian would do. Next step; any available rooms. Yes. She showed me a room for 25 lats – nicely renovated. I said that would do and anyway asked whether they had anything more basic (= cheaper). No, those rooms where already taken. While walking down the stairs she said suddenly that they actually had a cheaper room for 20 lats. The difference was that that one was only half-upgraded from the USSR-style but it was a total bargain and took it. The bargain later became even better after I realized that the rooms had free WIFI.

After walking through most of the city in search of a restaurant we ended up eating some pizzas together with the local teenagers at a local pizzeria.

Tomorrow our goal is Rēzekne some 80 kilometres to the South. We wish ourselves good luck;-)

A hot shower is a very nice thing especially if it is deserved. After 84 km I think it is. Today’s journey took us from the superior breakfast at Piusa Ürgoru, over tough hills near Rõuge to a long decline with good pace towards Mõniste, a small town near the Estonian-Latvian border.

I purchased my bicycle around half a year ago and have been riding it from time to time, however I never changed other than the 8 back gears. After 600 meter we faced harsh uphill (see below) and I began playing all the lower combinations of my gear shift and – the chain went off the gear wheel. I can just as well learn it the hard way I guess.

The weather was worse than the previous days however we managed to keep dry – even without praying to our respective Gods (we were under a lot of threat).

The Latvian-Estonian border was just as I like it, just a boundary post and a sign (see below); no border guards, no passport control, no Osama-control only worse road on the Latvian side. A few kilometres after we hit the city Ape (yes that is its name).

At first Ape looked a deserted and quiet, however a kilometre or so further we came to something like a square where all the roads met. On the one side there was a shop with everything from wheel barrows to milk, but unfortunately not the map of Latvia we so urgently needed. One of the customers there were helpful and directed us to the nearby Turist Information – to which my brain was repeating in itself Tourist Information HERE!!!

It was not a joke since the local library of this one thousand citizen city had a rather big office with a very friendly lady and a good stockpile of tourist maps and brochures. Experience tells me that it is often better to start the conversation in English, even though sometimes it is quite clear that Russian is the only way forward. I guess I was the only client today since she was very enthusiastic about all the sights of Ape (not a lot to be honest) and of Alūksne where we actually wanted to go. Most importantly we got the necessary maps.

At the cross road with the sign 24 kilometres to Alūksne we choosed the easy variant – the nearest place to stay for the night. The place was indeed difficult to find and several phone calls to the owner also showed that we were totally off track, however we finally found the several houses proving as a kind of guesthouse named ”Grūbe”.

We got the key to room number 4 which was a nice room with three big windows on the second floor. Soon after the owner arrived, who was a friendly half Estonian half Latvian man with the name Zintas who showed us the facilities.

Our bags left in our rooms we biked the five kilometres back to Ape in order to find an ATM and a place to dine. The dinning place was unfortunately closed and looked like it had been so for weeks, so we bought food from the local grocery store, biked the 5 clicks back and cooked some great spaghetti in the nice kitchen Zintas kindly told us to use.

As small bonus information the guesthouse was right next to a small hydroelectric station with a capacity of 250 kilowatts. Zintas told that originally 200 – 300 years ago the Swedes had built a water mill, which was later turned into a cellulose plant. This plant was destroyed during the Second World War and in Soviet times a hydroelectric turbine was installed. In 1975 it was considered too small and taken out of operation, but 12 years ago a new full automatic Austrian made turbine was put in its place. Nice:-)

See you on the road.

Leaving Russia from Pskov via the border point at Sumilkina was like a walk in the park – go straight about 20 km, turn a bit to the left, again go straight about 20 km, turn a bit to the right and go straight for another 20 km on some relaxed hills.

Oh well it would have been a walk in the park if my left-leg pain did not strike back again around seven kilometres from home base (Pskov, see the picture above). Incidents seldom come alone and after resting my leg while announcing some key Danish words for dissatisfaction we continued. One more kilometre further down the road the police was jumping around measuring some distances between a badly damaged Russian Volga and a Renault with a big blow to its back. Luckily it did not look like any like anybody was injured.

At mark 8 km on my bicycle computer it malfunctioned and turned off. If my temper was not cooking before it was now (I bought a new battery just a few weeks before). Some readjustment of the battery seemed to solve the issue. Some guys here will probably ask why a bicycle computer reset can prove annoying, but it goes down to simple monkey business; I want to know how far I have biked and thus how cool I am:-)

The road out of Pskov was superb the asphalt was as if it was rolled on to the ground yesterday and the heavy traffic declined sharply around 10 kilometres after Pskov. This could not be said about the last 10 – 15 kilometres before the border here pot holes were the norm, however to give the authorities credit, the road was actually being upgraded with new asphalt.

At the Russian border post (see picture below) we jumped the queue or rather we did not consider joining the car queue and went directly to the border. We were waiting for ages (at least according to my dad) for her to process our passports and she even said that there was a spelling mistake in my dad’s passport, but no worries she would fix it. ”She would fix it” I thought for a moment until I came to the conclusion that my dad is pretty lucky he even entered Russia – normally such ”small” mistakes cannot just be fixed here. The Russian Embassy in Denmark had ”only” made two spelling mistakes in the transliteration from Danish.

We entered Estonia while we enjoyed the hot rays from the sun from an half overcast sky and even my left leg was not giving any problems any more. After stocking up on food in the nearby bigger town Vastseliina (or as my dad said Vaseline for simplicity) we understood that this was a very good idea as we ended up driving five kilometres on a gravel road into rural Estonia. Our destination was a nature resort called Piusa Ürgoru puhkemaja which according to their website can accommodate 77 people.

What we found was a collection of incredible nice and well maintained cottages near a small river surrounded by forest and hills (see the picture below). A great place for nature lovers and us! For ten minutes I was walking around looking into windows, knocking on doors and windows, but there was just nobody to be found. At last I found somebody in the kitchen of the dinning building. She did not really speak English but luckily she understood some Russian.

She showed us our room and the bathroom in the corridor, everything was remarkable clean and empty – thus I asked; ”are we the only ones here”. ”Yes, it is the end of the season” she said. Wow.

The only thing we are sure about tomorrow is that we will avoid gravel roads and go south.

As was expected with Chudskoe Holiday resort many things did not work as intended. We could not lock our hut from the inside, so we ended up locking it from the outside and then jumping in through the window which in fact also was falling apart. Russian customer service at its best. On the other hand the weather was perfect for our next journey. Sun and not single cloud to be seen.

After repacking our stuff we hit the road around half past ten and quickly reached cruising speed. My dad first to begin with and almost all the way:-( After around 40 kilometres my left shin bone was in pain and I had to slow my pace to around 10 km/h – something which quickly began to annoy my dad (which I can understand). To be honest I have not been doing any real bicycling before I left for this trip for around a month, due to the usual excuses as being to busy, doing other things.

Luckily this pain almost disappeared after another 15 kilometres and some leg massage so I could get back to normal ”operating” speed. Actually our average was much slower today; 18 km/h contra 22 km/h yesterday – some of this can partly be explained by headwind and a more hilly terrain towards Pskov.

After many kilometres with good pace my pain came back with some fifteen kilometres left to Pskov, so it was very nice for us both to see the domes of the Pskov monastery. In fact I think we could see the domes some 7 kilometres before we reached the city sign – a magnificent view.

It was easy to find the our Pskov hotel, Hotel Favorit, since we both were here in the early summer one year ago. A hot shower was unbelievable nice after spending the last 30 kilometres with heavy traffic consisting of old polluting trucks (an example shown below) combined with our tired bodies

We chained our bikes to the fence outside the hotel, however it did not stop the hotel receptionist from calling us and explaining that such actions were not safe in Russia and soon thereafter we were showed a place in the corridor where our bicycles would be safe – nice.

Such things should be rewarded and we went to the restaurant Dvor Podznoeva which I have been dreaming about trying out since we discovered it although without dining there last year. The expectations were outlived; the food and service there was high-level at reasonable prices.

Tomorrow we will face around 80 kilometres from Pskov through the border into Estonia where we (hopefully) will find an in-nature holiday resort to stay for the night. Honestly speaking a this particular moment it seems an impossible long way which all our current short comings.

Listen to today’s status just after arrival to Pskov (in Danish only).

Day one is always special and this Monday equally as much. I woke remarkable early at eight in the morning and we immediately began preparing for todays trip from Slantsy to the holiday resort Chudskoe Podvore in Spitsino some 70 km to the south of Slantsy.

After driving my car to site and taking care of some few final issues at work I got back a bit late to the hotel. My dad was already relaxing in the sun – the weather looked to be fantastic, no rain and almost no clouds to see anyware and a bit chilly but on the other hand not cold.

I spent a bit more than 22 months at Hotel Kirovskaya so I kindly asked the receptionist and all the cleaning ladies for a group photo both inside and outside the hotel. The nice receptionist also kindly asked me to write in their guestbook which in fact is not a guestbook but a book which every hotel and store should have by law; for complaints and suggestions, however I could and would only write nice things.

A final photo (see above) and we hit the road towards the new cement plant only seven kilometers from the hotel. This was actually the first timed I was trying out the two new side bags and handle bar bag for my bicycle. The good news was that all my stuff could fit and the handle bar bag did not make problems controlling the bike.

At site we gathered the colleagues which at that time was in the office for a group photo outside on the parking lot. I wished my colleagues good luck with the plant and they with our trip – my guess is that we both need the luck. We drove off to an anstonished grin on the face of the security guard controlling the check-point – two cyclists with a lot of bagage is not the standard around here.

After some steady pace and examples of Russia’s worst roads we finally reached Gdov some twenty kilometers before of final destination. Here we stopped by a grocery store to stock up on water and food (the restaurant at the holiday resort sucks big time). In front of the store a lady geting ready to bike away on her foldable bike asked from where we came and to where we are heading. Slantsy – Esbjerg (in Denmark) I said. I do not think she understood or heard the Denmark thing, since she continued asking whether I was local, which I guess is a appreciation of my good Russian?!? In the end I underlined that we were going to Denmark, and she wished us a good trip in astonishment and drove off. We shortly did the same.

The next twenty kilometers were a bit hard. I had some light pain in my knee shell on my right leg and my dad was complaining about a painful ass.

We reached Spittseno and immediately bought ourselves to cold cans of beer to celebrate. The first kilometers where driven without any problems or disasters. The holiday resort turned out to have kept the poor level of service of last year. In the showers the cold water was fluctuating so severely that often no cold water was present. And could we lock the door to the hut, no of course not, the lock was fucked up.

Russian service when it is normal unfortunately.

Take care og see you on the road.

Dear everybody,

Welcome to my blog which is here to tell you and everybody about my bicycle trip from Slantsy in Russia to Esbjerg in Denmark. Slantsy where i have been working for the last two years and Esbjerg where I have been born and lived the first … I guess 21 years.

As many will already know I am not doing the trip alone, since my dad has joined in which I am really happy for. We expect to be on the road for around 5 weeks and some 2.500 km through the Baltics, Kaliningrad, Poland, Germany and the west part of Denmark. The planned route can be found on Google Maps.

My dad and I arrived to Slantsy today around seven o’clock in the evening after a trouble free crossing at the Narva-Ivangorod border. It was probably the fastest ever crossing I have made from Estonia into Russia by car – only 1 hour and 15 minutes – almost a pleasure. The weather was magnificant and we got a nice picture of us in front of the castle on the Russian side. I will try to remember to post the picture here, however below you can find me and my dad in front of the (huge soviet) city sign in Slantsy:

Tomorrow we will begin our bike trip from my work place where I have been working the last 22 months. We expect this to happen just after 13.00 hours local time.

Before that can happen and we can I unfortunately have a tight schedule of packing and other smaller things to do, however if everything goes well we should be having a nice view of the Chudskoe lake some 70 km to the south from Slantsy in Spitseno.

Oh… one last comment, some of you are probably thinking why am I not writing this in Danish. Ask my Russians and foreign friends:-)

Take care…

Anders