Three Days - Three Capital Cities

Am posting this blog in a bit of a hurry.....

Here we are in mad Moscow. A huge city buzzing 24/7. Needless to say we had a bit of an initial culture shock but after a self-learning crash course in the cyrillic Alphabet we found our way around and had a great couple of days mostly travelling via Metro, which runs something like over 9000 trains a day - an awesome system.

Moscow was/is hot - our hotel room had a consistent 34Degrees and today we had 38! in some places.

There was a motor racing event in the city centre when we arrived.

We planed and stocked up on all things necessary for te next phase of our trip. Here is Sara, writing one of her lists.

We visited the obligatory Red Square and Kremlin. Amazing, everything is so big, full of Architecture - we were tired just from taking it all in...wow!

However Moscow is not that cycle friendly as Scandinavia, so we had adventurous times navigating around the city.

We left Helsinki a three days ago - the city is trendy and glam with a nice hostel, huge department stores and all you can eat Pizza. We spend a few relaxing hours and a morning stocking up on esential items such as water containers for Mongolia

Then we hopped on the 10-storey Viking Line ferry to Talinn. A nice ride in beautiful sunshine, although a booze-cruise for most locals, who nip over to Estonia to buy cheap Alcohol.

We only had a few hours in beautiful, tranquil, romantic Talinn. We enjoyed wondering around the old towncentre . We explored the maze of cobbled backsreets and ended up on staircases a few times.

We boarded the train to Moscow in the early evening and found there was no luggage compartment. So we made do with the space next to our bunks.

Very Cosy. The 15hours ride was a good prep for our 4day train trip. We had some nice Russian Cabin - mates and the border crossing went smooth although something to get used too, with plenty of inspections and sniffer dogs etc.

So now we are about to board Trans-Mongolian!!!

The Finnish Sizzler

Helsinki - we have made it! 2535km pedalled in Scandinavia, particularly sizzling Finland.
The last days cycling from Oulu via Savonlinna to Helsinki we had some epic riding.
Many lakes to jump in and cool off during the hot temperatures.
















Challenging, fun and very undulating gravel roads (whoever said Finland was flat??)















Always making sure we have our comfort breaks - the obligotary "Kahvi" (coffee) and icecream at Service stations.












































We fitted in a bit of Education, as we cycled to Valamo, a Russian Orthodox Monastry and one of the main tourist attractions in "Lakeland", the Southeast of Finland.
















Our guide explained it also is a "miracle making" Monastry with three icons that pilgrims visit and pray to for miracles. It's a great place to come for some peace, contemplation and great food!














Aprospos food, Scandinavian campsites are fantastic as most have a kitchen and eating area for campers, so we hardly ever had to use our own stove.















And festivals....this is during the Garlic - Festival in Oulu. Finland has got some interesting festivals on offer...so far we have missed the air guitar festival, the wife carrying festival, the mobile phone throwing festival...and the list goes on.















We love that everyone cycles. This was in Oulu, which has a brilliant infrastructure for cyclists (and really should be on that list of the best cycling cities)















So now its GOODBYE Scandinavia - we had a fantastic month!
Hello Estonia and Russia. Today we take the boat to Talinn and then the train to Moscow. Exciting times ahead.

The Underworld - Sunshine! and the land of forests and lakes

It's been a while and we are now in Finland. We left Kiruna in Sweden after a day of relaxation and a visit to the world's biggest underground mine.















We literally drove in a bus to 540m underground. Our guide provided us with some mind boggling facts. The mining happens at 1km deep and they ship out about 100 000tonnes of magnetide (magnetic iron ore) per day. At level 540m they have a staff cantine, visitor exhibition and it feels like a city under ground which gets pumped with fresh air at 100.000 cubic metres per minute!














Overall there are over 400km of tarmacked road underground and most diggers and drills are operated via remote control above ground. All that digging underground means some of the ground crumbles and they now have to move the entire city of Kiruna within the next few years or it will fall in the hole!!!















We then went back on the road. The long straight open road to Finland - Rovaniemi, it's capital of the North - also known, because that's the official residence of Santa Claus.
















Sunshine is now with us and since the cold coast of Norway the temperature has tripled! from 8degrees to 24! There is still occasional rain, but summer has truly arrived.
















To get to Finland we cycled over the bridge across the mighty river Tornionjoki (Finnish) or "Torneälven (Swedish) in Pello.
















We also got to test the bikes for the off-road capibilities and reckon they are fit for Mongolia.

















As said Finland is the land of forest and lakes. Long stretching roads, often flat sometimes undulating. A dramatic change from the fjords in Norway or the tundra-esque, rocky landscape in Northern Sweden.































Fishing is the National past -time. The Tornionjoki has some big Trout and Salmon to catch.

In Rovaniemi we enjoyed a visit to the brilliant (interactive)museum "Arktikum", which is all about life above the Arctic Circle. And we met yet another bear!

Now - it's sunny and lovely - but this brought about the Mosquitos! Biting and merciless, leaving us slightly crazed during pitching and packing up.

Have we mentioned we meet lots and lots of other cycle tourists? Here we have Klaus, on his way to Nordkapp via Murmansk (http://www.rad-fernweh.de/).

Apart from that not much has changed, we cycle, we eat, we sleep, we chill - NICE!

The roads are not always quiet and are getting busier as we head South. They like their double trailors in Finland.

Overall we have ridden over 1000 Miles now. Today we are having a day off in Oulu, a mini-Venice at the Gulf of Bothnia. It's a lovely town and there is currently the Garlic-tasting Festival...so we'll check that out today. Last night we thouroughly enjoyed a chill out in the Finnkino (cinema) watching the A-team. Luckily the films here are just subtitled in Finnish. Off to the beach now!