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Ride Tales Post your ride reports for a weekend ride or around the world. Please make the first words of the title WHERE the ride is. Please do NOT just post a link to your site. For a link, see Get a Link.
Photo by Giovanni Lamonica, Aralsk, Kazakhstan.

I haven't been everywhere...
but it's on my list!


Photo by Giovanni Lamonica,
Aralsk, Kazakhstan.



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  #1321  
Old 13 Aug 2015
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Getting on the road about 10 we continued south. We had thought to camp on the coast, but there were not really any nice places and we decided that if we wanted to make Helsinki the next day it would be 488 Km. This would not leave us much time to try to organize the bike fork repair. We decided to go another 160 KM to Seinajoki for a total of 582 km today.


Screen Shot 2015-08-08 at 7.28.58 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

There was a great camp spot here, with lush grass and a river running thru the site. The lounge and kitchen was very nice. They had decent Internet also and we found a repair shop 178 KM away in Tampere. We figured we could stop here since it was on the way to see if they could repair the fork. If not we had BMW Helsinki as a back up.


DSC03036 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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  #1322  
Old 13 Aug 2015
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Arriving at ALL RIGHT Bike in Tampere they were super awesome and found the BMW original seals for us at a shop 20 km away. They dropped everything and repair the bike for us! We were on our way again by 4 pm.

DSC03039 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Screen Shot 2015-08-08 at 7.33.05 PM by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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  #1323  
Old 13 Aug 2015
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The nice campground in Seinajoki has a sister in Helsinki and so we headed there. The place was packed mostly since it has a great location on the water and right at a Metro station. There were about 8 other bikers here too. We also met Paul and Sarah who are friends of friend in Seattle!

DSC03042 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03041 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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  #1324  
Old 16 Aug 2015
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Helsinki

The rain, thunder, and lightning started at 4 am and it was truly unbelievable. That said we had no sleep because of the noise until after 7. We rolled out of the tent at 11. The Metro ride to the city is about 20 minutes to the Central train station. Here we could arrange a VISA FREE trip to Russia to see St Petersburg. Conveniently the boat was leaving the next day. We had decided that the hassle and expense of the visa for a 5-6 day trip was not worth it. The overnight ferry ride return was about the same price as the Visa fee. We did a bit of a walking tour of the downtown and then headed back to the campsite.



DSC03426 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03427 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03046 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03430 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03435 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03049 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03431 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03436 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03438 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03434 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr


DSC03045 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03415 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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Last edited by saralou; 16 Aug 2015 at 21:13.
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  #1325  
Old 16 Aug 2015
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The ship did not leave until 6 pm so we had a lazy day and got the laundry done. The campground has a vehicle storage area that we could leave the bikes for the 4 days at 16 E per day. Not cheap, but at least they are secure.

DSC03416 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

DSC03418 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr




We took the tram to the harbor and checked in at the St. Peter’s line. You have to go thru Finish passport control and we got an exit stamp. The ferry is a bit of a mini cruise with casino and discos and the like, but we had a drink on the sky deck, some dinner we had brought on board, and were in bed by 930.


DSC03055 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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  #1326  
Old 16 Aug 2015
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The ship left an hour late at 7 pm, but still arrived to the port of St Petersburg on time at 930 am. The number of cranes on the skyline was incredible!



st petersburg 1 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Getting off the boat the arrivals hall is totally chaos. You have to line up to get your tourist card. Lets say the Russians are Not like the uber friendly Brazilians! They photocopy every page of your passport as well, which was a bit creepy.


st petersburg 5 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 6 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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  #1327  
Old 16 Aug 2015
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We had arranged a driver and guide for a city tour. Maria was awesome and very knowledgeable. She was of an age that she remembers a lot of the events that have shaped this country in the last 50 years.

st petersburg 32 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr


We took in most of the major sites in the downtown area. Including the Egyptian sphinxes, the Winter Palace, the Peter and Paul Fortress, the Catherine palace, the Nicholas statue, St. Isaacs Cathedral.


st petersburg 10 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 11 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 12 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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  #1328  
Old 16 Aug 2015
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The Peter and Paul Fortress is the burial place of the Russian royalty. So that means all the Nicholas and Alexanders and their wives “Maria”. There is a cannon salute everyday at noon. The entire crown flinched when it went off it was SO loud.

st petersburg 13 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 14 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 16 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 17 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 18 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

Clip #2 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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  #1329  
Old 16 Aug 2015
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The blue of the Catherine Palace is stunning.

st petersburg 22 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 23 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 24 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

The statue of Nicolas I is in St. Isaac’s Square.

st petersburg 27 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 29 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 31 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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  #1330  
Old 16 Aug 2015
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We took some time to rest and then set out again to the Main square of the city at the winter palace.

st petersburg 33 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 34 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 35 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr



Walking past the Admiralty it started to torrentially rain and we had to hide out under the trees, but got drenched anyway.

st petersburg 38 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 39 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 42 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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  #1331  
Old 16 Aug 2015
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There are hundreds of bridges in this city and a number cross the Neva River.


st petersburg 43 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 44 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 45 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 46 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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  #1332  
Old 16 Aug 2015
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The bronze horseman is the monument to the founder of St. Petersburg, Peter the Great. It stands in Senatskaia Square facing the Neva River.



st petersburg 47 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

For our second day we spent the morning in the museum of the winter palace with thousands of others.

st petersburg 53 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr


st petersburg 52 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr


st petersburg 51 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr


st petersburg 49 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 57 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 56 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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  #1333  
Old 20 Aug 2015
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In the afternoon we did a walking tour of the city sights. This included walking along the canal and a visit to the Church of the Spilled Blood.

st petersburg 99 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 103 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 100 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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  #1334  
Old 20 Aug 2015
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It was Harley-Davidson Days here in Petersburg so we checked it out. There were a lot of very loud bikes being driven very fast all over the city as well. Of course they were handing out condoms!


st petersburg 115 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 116 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr


Several venues had military bands playing and this group was very good. Here they are doing an awesome rendition of “We will rock you”.

st petersburg 119 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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  #1335  
Old 20 Aug 2015
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This city is also spectacular by night. There are fireworks in St. Isaac’s Square every night.


st petersburg 126 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 127 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 128 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 129 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 130 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

st petersburg 131 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr

IMG_4258 by Sara & Daniel Pedersen, on Flickr
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