Two days in Helsinki

What a fun short visit to Helsinki. Since we were in Tallinn, we figured we ought to make the trip, but I must admit that I wasn’t so excited about the Finnish capital. The ferries wanted too much extra money for the bicycles so we decided to leave them in Tallinn. That was fine. It’s easy to get around central Helsinki on foot. Also we used the tram twice and took a ferry to visit Suomenlinna.

Finland’s history seems similar to Estonia’s. The Swedes were ruling until they lost the Northern War to Russia (Peter the Great), and then Finland became part of the Russian Empire. Finland became independent in 1918, but unlike Estonia did not become part of the Soviet Union. Suomenlinna (UNESCO-listed) is a fortress built on four islands by the Swedes. It protected a city larger than Helsinki (at the time) but wasn’t strong enough to keep the Russians from taking it. It’s a pleasant area to walk around.

This must be Vallisaari Island. by bryandkeith on flickr
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Train touring Estonia: Valmiera to Narva

From Valmiera to Narva we traveled largely by train. The only bicycling was two days from Tartu to Viljandi and a little bit in the cities of Valga, Tallinn, and Narva. It was a good call as we would have really been pushing the fall weather this far north (60°) by the end of our trip (beginning of October).

The train from Valmiera in Latvia actually crossed the border to Valga in Estonia, and we had a little time to look around Valga/Valka (Estonia/Latvia) before catching another train to Tartu. Interestingly here on the border with Latvia we saw a red brick Catholic church:

Valga Pühavaimu kirik by bryandkeith on flickr
Valga Pühavaimu kirik

A week later in Narva on the border with Russia it was a red brick Orthodox church:

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Bicycle touring Latvia: Pilsrundāle to Valmiera

Wow, Latvia was great — good riding, excellent sites, friendly people, nice forests. Rīga turned out to be one my favorite cities, and I also really enjoyed Rundāle Palace and Gauja National Park.

Crossing a border without any border posts always makes me happy. We crossed the border from Lithuania on a dirt road near the Sarkaņu kapi cemetery. The only post was this one:

IMG_20240829_151927 by bryandkeith on flickr

Our campsite near the school in Pilsrundāle had too many mosquitoes, and that, I think, was my biggest complaint in Latvia — mosquitoes, sometimes even during the day in the forests.

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Bicycle touring Lithuania: Vilnius to Kriukai (Joniškis)

Bicycle touring in Lithuania was fine. There was some nice scenery, a few kind of interesting sites; we swam in some reservoirs. But it was hardly spectacular or amazing. Perhaps this shouldn’t be surprising. I never heard anyone say, “wow, you really must visit Lithuania.” From my notes I am reminded that we had a fair bit of wind and too many mosquitoes at some of our camps.

Trakai is known for its castle on an island in a lake. It was crowded with tourists enjoying the hot weather on a Sunday afternoon. It’s only about 40km west of Vilnius, but the recommended bicycle route was on a busy narrow road.

IMG_20240818_154729 by bryandkeith on flickr
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Bicycle touring the Baltics: The Upper Daugava to Vilnius

It wasn’t surprising that there weren’t so many bicycle tourists in Belarus. But then we crossed into Schengen, into the EU, into Latvia’s Upper Daugava River valley, a UNESCO World Heritage Site with a marked bicycle route all the way to Daugavpils. It will be crowded with tourists, I’m sure.

20240807_172033 by bryandkeith on flickr
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