ciechocinek murzynowo
82km 324 alti meter
along the way we meet a writer of a regional historic book and his friend who tell us some things about the area. at the river marina we get invited by peter and his friends to camp there and met a cycling couple who cycle from warsaw to kopenhagen.
bienkowko ciechocinek
89km 255 alti meter
we take a look at copernikus birth place torun and try to follow the river. that is sometimes difficult as the traffic on the main road is fast and there is not much space for cyclists. the alternatives are secondary roads which turn sometimes into just a sandy path through the forest. pushing a heavy loaded bike through sand and getting attacked by aggressive mosquitoes is not the best part of cycling around here. we stop to check out the thermal pools which this area is famous for.
koniecwald bienkowko
118km 319 alti meter
we follow the vestul river. sometimes on the dam sometimes on allee roads. we pass the nice old towns grudiadz and chelmno.
gdansk malbork (by train) koniecwald
24km
we left late after another walking tour around gdansk and took the train to malbork to look at the castle there.
jagodno gdansk
72km 173 alti meter
we found some nice side roads and crossed the vestula river (the queen of polands rivers) the first time before getting to the impressive old town of gdansk.
worlawki jagodno
96km 562 alti meter
we tried to get a boat from frombork to the mierzeja wislana but contrary to the information we got from the tourist information in braniewo, there was no boat that day!? so we checked out where copernicus used to work and continued cycling.
gizycko worlawki
110km 510 alti meter
nice day on the road, although the tourist information is closed and we couldn´t get more information about the area passing to the nice old town of ketrzyn.
wydminy gizycko
30km biking 15km kajaking 182 alti meter
we used the nice weather for a kajak day trip on the lakes and canals. (after realizing that there is one hour time differenz and that we got up at 5 o´clock!?)
suwalki wydminy
76km 301 alti meter
some more rolling hills on which we meet joel from paris who walks from tallinn to spain in 6 month!? we stop to take a look at the bunker / "defenssystem the germans build in WW2.
jurbarkas suwalki (poland)
155km 539 alti meter
a long rainy day on the roads. we leave the flatlands behind us and are getting more and more into rolling hills.
jurbarkas rest day
it started to rain in the morning and it was cold . not exactly inviting for a long day on the road. so we decided to make use of the free internet at the guesthouse / campground to update our blogs.
pasyiai jurbarkas
99km 293 alti meter
nice blooming rape fields along the side roads.
i scream for ice-cream!
the 3 man from bremen on their way to riga
the rolling bike shop at work .. broken derailer!? leatherman and a little piece of wood .
the skeptic look . will this work?
still skeptic . but riding .
curonian spit pasyiai
63km 258 alti meter
we checked out the border to the russian province and the sand dune before taking a sail boat to the main land (uostadvaris). we met a woman who imigrated to the usa 30 years ago and commented sadly about the economic changes of the area under soviet and now under eu influence.
we all scream for ice-cream!
lithuanian border curonian spit
98km 224 alti meter
nice bike routes to klaipeda where we met steve from the uk. we took the ferry to the curonian spit where we cycled down to the border to the russian exclave kaliningrad.
jürmalciems border lithuania
46km 190 alti meter
we tried to stay on the sandy gravel roads along the sea shore and through forests. the deep sand and mosquito attacks made us ride on the beach (same sand but no mosquitos). which was nice along amazing lonely beaches, but turned difficult as the high tide forced us to go through the loose deep sand close to the dune.
riga jürmalciems
27km 54 alti meter
re the tour-guide and flera gave us a ride to the west coast with lots of latvia background informations and secret windsurf / kite spots.
riga rest day
in between french croissants for breakfast and tibetan lunch i did some serious extrem-couching while alex went sightseeing with flera and re.
kabli riga (latvia)
after a nice camp at the beach a nice ride along the coast to riga. along the way we meet rinrin, a japanese cyclist who is on the road since 3 years. re and flera pick us up at a beach about 35km north of riga. we watch re doing some kite-surfing and hang out at the beach.
kurgja kabli
121km 263 alti meter
nice day on the road with good cycling and a nice lunchbreak in the old town of pärnu.
soodla river kurgja
115km 289 alti meter
the mosquitos here show a impressive appetite and agressive behavior.
helsinki tallinn soodla river (estonia)
61,5km 226 alti meter
rainy morning in helsinki. on the ferry we met 3 cyclists from canada who are also on the way south. after riding through the old town of tallinn we rode east. or originally planed route over the saaremaa island was not possible the way we wanted because the ferry on the south of the island is not operating at the moment.
helsinki rest day
the slow ferry to tallinn was full, so we stay here in helsinki another day and take the ferry tomorrow . sightseeing on the the fortress island
helsinki rest day
a rainy day after 2 sunny and warm days back in urope. riding around town and collecting some informations about the further route options.
helsinki sightseeing
riding around town with markus along the shoreline to a very nice spot. great for a swimm and a nap afterwards.
beijing helsinki
8,5 hour flight from beijing to helsinki. after putting the bikes back together at the airport we rode towards downtown helsinki where markus (our nice warmshower host awaited us). what a change from hot, humid and polluted beijing to clear blue sky finnland!
beijing rest & pack day
getting ready for the flight to helsinki .
beijing sightseeing
59km 168 alti meter
after 6.000km it was time for an oil change a new chain. we spent a relaxing afternoon in the park of the summer palast and on the way back we passed the nest olympic staduim.
beijing sightseeing
18km
back to the antik market panjiayuan where 90% of the goods are fake (as we have been told). the market opens at 4.30am on weekends so if there are any bargains they are long gone when the day trippers arrive.
bejing sightseeing
35km 81 alti meter
the park of the temple of heaven is a nice place to hang out and to watch the people practise kungfu, taichi, juggling, diabolo, dancing, singing . or just walking backwards!? we passed the antik market panjiayuan and decided to come back tomorrow morning as there is just to much to see. in the evening we went to the red theater to see the legend of kungfu show. which was nice and touristy with playback voices in english and chinese subtitels on a screen.
the CCTV building
a big group of chinese cyclists on the supported tour to shanghai
beijing badaling beijing
we took the bus to badaling which is about 70km north east of beijing to see the great wall there. although it is called the great wall, it was almost hard to see the wall because of the masses of tourists!? alex made some great crepes for dinner back at davids place.
