The Baltics and South

We had a great time with Heinz and Martina during the late 10 days, it's nice to have a couple of extra bikes along and we enjoyed their company in the evenings playing cards and sharing an nightcap(we discovered a liquor called Vanna Tallinn, yummy, great to sip and great in coffee). We made our way up to Tallinn, Estonia and were very impressed with the city. Its is very different from the other historical cities we have been visiting. The first thing was, I think, it is a little older, some building dating back to the 1200 and 1300's. The second thing we noticed was the white...most of the buildings are white and the third thing was, it's a bit more artsy than the others. Many little streets and markets in the citz are full of artisans painting, knitting, sewing or making something!!!Unfortunately we are all on bikes and there is no room for taking anything with us.

From Tallinn we headed east to Lahemaa National Park were we did a little free camping along the coast of the Baltic Sea, the government free campsites were very nice, clean, most had a cover over the table and they all had either a camp cooking stove or fire pit with metal grates. The only thing that was not very nice at all were the pit toilets...yuk!(the bush looked better). The water was a little too cold for us to go swimming but the view was great. We enjoyed riding along the coast, visiting some of the old estates dating back to the 1300's and driving through small villages, checking out everyones back yards and the town squares. Everyone has a garden growing, potatoes are number one producers and a close second is cabbage, both are the stables in their everyday diet, I'm loving it.

We made it as far east as Narva on theEstonia-Russian border where there is a castle on the Estonian side and also one on the Russian side. From there it was down through Estonia and back across into Latvia to the Slitere National Park which is located our on a tip of land in the Baltic

Sea from where you can see the sun rise on one side and set on the other.

The hill of the Crosses in Lithuania was our next big stop. It was here that the Lithuanians had a graveyard which the Russians continuously destroyed and the Lithuanians turned around and rebuilt, today there are millions(no exaggeration)of crosses piled into a hill where the Lithuanians still come to place crosses in memory of their deceased loved ones.

We enjoyed the Baltic countries, they were not 'wow' countries but the food was great and countryside with the many, many km of farmland and all the coastline to the Baltic Sea was very nice.

We said good bye to Heinz and Martina yesterday as they headed home to Germany via Klaipeda and we headed south into Poland. Tonight we are staying in a hotel in Lublin after searching for two campsite that never were! Our back tire is in need of being replaced and we thought maybe we could get one here but...no go! Most bikes here are either scooters or sport bikes not adventure bikes, we need a different tread pattern on the tire than they do so ours is a little harder to find. We will have to make a few phone calls and see if we can find one in maybe Krakow...we liked that city and it wouldn't be too bad going back there for a second time.

The dome on one the cathedrals in Tallin looks like the tiles are made from onion skins.

The Hill of Crosses

Ken and I on the Baltic Sea, on the northern side of Estonia the beach is rockier than on the west coast where you can walk for miles on beaches of powder fine sand.

Tallinn, from a view point in the old city.

Heinz and Martina take a little walk on the beach.