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Baltic States Cycle
  • The World on Two Wheels
Jun – Jul 2019

Baltic States Cycle

An amazing bike ride through the Baltic States of Lithuania,Latvia and Estonia. Our cycling adventure starts in Vilnius and ends in Tallinn. We will also be spending time in Warsaw, Helsinki and St Petersburg. Read more
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  • Trip start
    June 3, 2019
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    Five weeks and Counting

    April 27, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    After 18 months of planning it is hard to believe that our Baltic States Cycling Adventure will soon be underway. By now I hope that all the arrangements are just about finalised, although the Russian component is still something of a work in progress. Contact with the local operator has been rather "hit and miss", however I have been promised that I should receive the final documents sometime in the next week. Then perhaps I will relax. In the meantime I might even start packing.Read more

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    Underway at Last (well almost)

    June 2, 2019 in Australia ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    After over 18 months of planning and waiting, you reach a stage where you just want the thing to finally start. I suppose it's a bit like waiting for the birth of a baby - maybe not as painful, but twice the gestation period.

    Sitting upstairs in the family room, I am confronted by a sea of partly packed luggage strewn from one wall to the other. Even after doing a large number of similar trips it is still hard to always know exactly what items to take and what to leave at home. While some take pride in having the smallest and lightest bag in the airport, I can personally see no point in being so frugal with your packing that you make yourself uncomfortable by trying to complete the entire trip with only a toothbrush and one spare pair of underpants.

    I have to admit being something of a technophile. That means that about half of my luggage always consists of adaptors, chargers, cables, cameras and the like. By the time I add my notebook computer and all the cycling gear, there is no way that it is going to weigh anything less than 18 kg or so.

    Part of the problem is that we do not know exactly what type of weather we will encounter in the Baltics. Although we will be there in the "summer" time, I have learnt that the definition of summer can vary greatly from place to place. On our previous rides in Finland and Sweden, we froze under overcast skies for most of the time we were there.

    There may be an old adage "when in doubt, leave it out", but I have modified it to a much more intelligent version - "when it doubt, toss it in". No point in suffering unnecessarily.
    As long as the zipper can still shut, I feel there is no problem. It makes sense to me.

    The next update will be from Poland.    Read more

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    A Lot can Happen in 48 hours

    June 4, 2019 in Poland ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    Sometimes it seems like a lifetime can be crammed into a few short hours. The last couple of days has been a perfect example of how that can happen.

    After a rather restless sleep I awoke early on Monday morning to the sound of heavy rain outside. Considering how dry Melbourne has been over the past few months, this was something of a novel experience. I decided that further sleep was impossible, climbed out of bed and began the very long day that I knew awaited me. I was well aware that the next time my head hit the pillow would be on Tuesday evening when we finally reached our hotel in Warsaw.

    While having breakfast I checked the weather forecast. It was full of warnings about the huge band of violent rain, hail and gale force winds which were apparently going to impact Melbourne all day. That was not exactly the forecast you want when you will soon be heading off to the airport.

    It was a few hours later that things took something of an unexpected turn. One of the unfortunate aspects of the timing of this trip was that I would most likely be absent overseas when our newest grandchild came into the world. Since there was still around two weeks to go before the expected delivery date, you could imagine our surprise when we got a message from our youngest son that they had just gone to the hospital. Apparently the new baby was keen to meet Pops before he left.

    Although this sent the heart rates souring, it also threw something of a curve ball into my plans of getting to the airport. Since first babies can be notoriously slow in arriving, there was still no real indication of how long the labour would take.

    With no further news in the next couple of hours, we had to revert to my original plan of getting a lift to the airport with Sue Brown who lives not far away at Narre Warren. As we headed along the Monash Freeway the rain was still sheeting down making visibility poor. I wondered if the flight would be delayed.

    Somewhere in the middle of this deluge,my phone rang. It was a video call from my son at the hospital. He excitedly told me that their son had just arrived a few moments ago and they wanted to tell me before it was too late. It certainly was a moment I will never forget. Although I would not get to hold the new little one, I could take some pleasure in knowing that I was the very first to hear the news and see his little face,, albeit only briefly.

    In spite of the rain, we arrived safely at the airport and sat down to wait for the others. It was only then that I noticed that the entire stitching on one end of my luggage had come undone. How could I have not noticed that when I was packing ? This was not the type of discovery you want to make at the beginning of an extended trip. I had visions of my gear being spread over the cargo hold of the plane, but there was not a single thing I could about it now, apart from hope that the inner lining would somehow stay intact.

    There were seven of our team due to depart today and, when we had all arrived we proceeded to the check in. When it was my turn to check in, I rolled my case to the counter, smiled and handed over my passport. The girl looked at it, typed away for a while, then looked a little worried. She typed some more, frowned a lot and seemed confused. After some minutes of this delay she asked me to stay there while she went to talk to her supervisor. My stomach churned.

    For the next 15 minutes I watched her and her supervisor talk and fiddle with another computer. All the others had gone through to the departure lounge while I waited. Maybe I would not be leaving after all. Perhaps I had some sort of security warning on my passport. I know that the horrible photo they had attached to my Russian visa made me look some sort of serial killer, but surely that was not really my fault, - some people just look like that.

    All the while this was going on, the long queue behind me were probably secretly cursing me for making them wait longer. When she finally returned, I asked what the problem was. She explained that there was no record of my booking, even though I had the eticket in my hand. "Do you have the payment receipt ?", she asked. "Or do you have a bank statement that would show the payment ?" Since I booked the flight months ago, I could assure her that, no, I did not bring the bank statement with me.

    The supervisor came over to join in the fun and spent some time chatting to someone else on the phone (maybe his supervisor ?). After another ten minutes or so of this excitement, his face suddenly relaxed. "They have found the booking", he announced. I could have told them that I "found " the booking every time I checked the Emirates web site over the preceding couple of months.

    After being held up for so long I decided to go for broke. "Surely you should now give me an upgrade to First Class", I suggested. It didn't work. They handed me my economy boarding pass and finally sent me on my way.

    By this time the rest of the team had been wondering what on earth had happened to me. It had been a bit of a scare, but fortunately the plane took off on time and the wild weather had largely abated by then. At least I was glad that I had made the wise decision to pay a little extra for exit row seats. The extra leg room really does make a difference on a 14 hour flight and I was even able to grab some sleep from time to time.

    We arrived at Dubai right on sunrise, but the temperature was already a blistering 35C or so. The blast hit us as soon as we left the plane and reminded me afresh while I would never choose to willingly spend any more time in this city than was absolutely necessary.

    The second flight from Dubai to Warsaw is a much shorter 6 hours, and it was a great relief to discover that the plane was less than half full. It was even more comfortable as I luxuriated into my business class seat (I may tell you more about that sometime later) and actually looked forward to spending some time in the fully flat reclining seat.

    Those six hours actually passed all too quickly for me. I was actually a little reluctant to say goodbye to attentive staff who had looked after me so well (I could have told you that the business class section was almost empty so I was REALLY spoiled).

    We arrived in Warsaw right on time at 12 noon, collected our luggage and went looking for our waiting shuttle driver. The weather outside was a delightful 27C and bright sunshine. We were ushered to a comfortable Mercedes mini bus and were pleased that the young driver spoke excellent English. The midday traffic flowed smoothly and we were soon at the Hotel Chmielna.

    It is always nice when the reception desk expect you and we were soon issued our room keys and everyone went upstairs in search of a shower and a change of clothes. Well everyone but me that is. (Sound familiar ?). The girl explained that my room "was not ready yet" and I would have to wait in the reception for some time. This seems to be the story of my life.

    I decided to spend the time getting my phone to work. Although it connected to the Polish network, I could not make or receive any calls. I later discovered that the entire group were having the same sort of problems. Perhaps this is a feature of the region.

    When I did finally get access to the room I was pleased to find that it was enormous -a real business class room. Situated on the top floor and with no less than four separate rooms inside, it really was very comfortable. Well it would have been comfortable if not for the heat. It is obvious that rooms here are not built for heatwaves, and the sun streaming in the windows soon made it into a sauna bath. Oh well, you can't have everything. At least it would mean that my washing would dry quickly.

    The group later met together for our first foray into the unfamiliar city, first walking down to the river and then to the centre of the old city. By five o,clock the long day started to take effect with most of our team now struggling to stay upright. We decided it was time to stagger back to the hotel and have an early night.

    Near the hotel there is a lovely popular restaurant called "SUBWAY" and their 15 cm turkey roll was a perfect way to end a very,very long day. Back at the hotel, I removed the doona and collapsed unto the top of the mattress. After all, I had a new grandson to dream about.    Read more

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    A Wander in Warsaw

    June 5, 2019 in Poland ⋅ ⛅ 25 °C

    It's always amazing how much difference a good night's sleep makes. When I collapsed into bed last night, the cumulative effects of the long trip over and the rapid changes in time zones had reduced me to a zombie like status.

    Although the room was still uncomfortably hot, and although it was not even 8 pm, I don't think it took me more than a couple of minutes to fall into a deep sleep. The next thing I remember was the room being brightened by the approach of dawn. When I checked my watch I discovered that it was not quite 5 am. By the same token I had already enjoyed almost 9 hours sleep and that was about 2 hours more than I usually get.

    A glance at the pre dawn sky suggested that the day was going to be a carbon copy of yesterday, and that's exactly the way it turned out. I decided to check my emails and try a Hangouts video call back home. What followed was a delightful 30 minute chat with my day old grandson. Although he was fast asleep the entire time, it was easy to see that he was glad to hear my voice. I tried to tell myself that it was almost as good as a cuddle, but obviously it wasn't. Although he had only been born the previous day, the mother and baby had already been sent home from the hospital. I guess it's all just a matter of freeing up the hospital beds now.

    Since it was still too early to go down to breakfast, I spent the next hour watching Polish TV. Although there must have been about 50 channels to choose from, not a single one was in English. Even though I have been in Warsaw for a few hours, I would have to admit that I am not yet fluent in Polish, so I had to invent my own dialogue for each show.

    At 8 am I could wait no longer and went down to get some breakfast. I discovered that some of the others could not wait either and had already raided all the best food from the buffet. The breakfast room was also full with about 30 rowdy school children. In fact Warsaw is currently full of groups of students from all over the country. This year marks the thirtieth anniversary of Poland gaining independence from the Communists and the schools are obviously marking sure that the young people appreciate that freedom should never be taken for granted.

    After breakfast we formed into a walking peloton and headed south to an incredibly beautiful complex of large parks, the highlight of which was the royal palace by the lake. This was yet another reminder of the opulent lifestyles that the royal families of Europe all enjoyed. For me it gave an opportunity for my favourite pastime of people watching.

    Several of our group sat under the canopy of trees and savoured the moment. For me these moments are the highlights of every trip. I enjoy this far more than visits to famous art galleries or museums and I always find it gives me an insight into what makes each country unique.

    It was certainly the right day for an ice cream and we were happy to find that they cost much less than we would have paid in Australia. After lunch at the lakeside amphitheatre, we started to make our way back towards the hotel.. The temperature had, once again, risen to near 30C and we were grateful for any shade we could get along the way.

    After a short afternoon siesta, I set out again to walk the surrounding streets. Just twenty four hours earlier, the entire city had been a mystery,however I found that I was already feeling more at home. Familiar landmarks showed me the way back the hotel.

    I have already begun to make my mind up about Poland and about Warsaw in particular. The city is certainly clean, the traffic is orderly and the people seem happy and prosperous. The fact that they all wait for the green signal before crossing the roads, shows that they are law abiding. It is also very obvious that they are fiercely independent and value their freedom highly. It is a country that has suffered badly over the past hundred years and the people certainly deserve a brighter future.

    The rest of our group had decided to head back to the old town for a walking tour, however since I generally avoid organised tours as much as I avoid typhoid, I was happy to wander the streets by myself. I eventually found an Italian cafe near the hotel and ordered a pizza.

     A short time later my phone rang. "How are you enjoying your pizza ?" David asked. I wondered how he could possibly know what I was eating. He told me to turn around. Of all the hundreds of restaurants in Warsaw, the others had chosen a restaurant directly across the road from mine.

    The pizza was lovely and so was the freshly squeezed orange juice. The night was still quite warm. It really was a lovely place to be. I asked for my bill and was somewhat surprised at the amount shown on the invoice. It was about half of what I calculated. The waitress explained that she had not charged me for half of what I had as they had "kept me waiting for too long". Now that was a surprise. Warsaw went up a few more points in my rating. I was able to give the waitress a good tip and still spend less than what I had anticipated. I think I could grow to like this place a lot.    Read more

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    Restless in Warsaw

    June 6, 2019 in Poland ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    When I had been planning this trip I had been faced with the problem of how best to get to the start of our ride in Vilnius. Since there are no airlines that offer flights from Melbourne to Lithuania, we would have to devise a more complicated route. After investigating several options I came to the conclusion that the simplest (and cheapest) would be to fly first to Warsaw and then take a short flight from Warsaw to Vilnius.

    Since nobody in our group had ever been to Warsaw, we had no idea of what sort of city it would turn out to be. I must admit that my preconceived notion was that it would be dull, dirty and dour - how wrong that turned out to be. After spending the past two days here I can honestly say that the city is clean, vibrant and interesting. It is also relatively cheap compared to most other large European cities. We will all be a little sad when our time here comes to an end.

    The second full day in Warsaw began when the predawn light started streaming in through my hotel window. I decided that it must be at least 5.30 am and climbed out of bed. It was only when I checked my watch that I found that the correct time was 3.20 am. These long hours of daylight really can play tricks with your sleeping patterns. I don't mind getting up early, but 3.20 am is too early even for me. I went back to bed and tried to convince my body clock that it was really still the middle of the night.

    Somehow I managed to steal another 90 minutes of sleep, but by 5.00 am I was really ready to begin the day. I joined the rest of our group (and also about 50 very noisy schoolchildren) for breakfast before heading off with Bob to the Polin Museum. This famous museum documents the 1000 year history of the Jews in Europe (and more particularly in the region now known as Poland).

    Since it was only a short 4 km walk from our hotel,we decided to skip the bus and walk the whole way. We are now already starting to get a feel for the layout of the city and the streets which seemed so confusing at the start, now feel familiar.

    There is one feature of Warsaw that is worthy of special mention. The city has an excellent system of public electric scooters. These are scattered all over the city and are obviously very popular with the locals. In fact you cannot walk anywhere without being nearly knocked flying by one of these devices. I am not sure how fast they travel, but it must be at least 25 kph.

    There was however one mystery which we never did solve. The scooters must be regularly recharged, however we never once saw any of them plugged into a power outlet. I even asked the girl at the hotel reception, but it quickly became apparent that the question had never occurred to her. We had to assume that every night they are all secretly recharged by magic electric elves and fairies.

    We made our way successfully to the Museum and were happy to discover that it was free admission today. I then spent the next two and a half hours discovering the remarkable history of the Jews. Somewhere along the way I lost Bob. Although I looked for him everywhere, I finally had to admit that he was lost in action and had to walk back to the hotel without him. I had to assume that like the proverbial "bad penny" he would turn up later. And he did.

    The rest of the day I spent wandering the streets and exploring the banks of the Vistula River. The hot sun made it impossible to spend any time in my room and I was content to enjoy a cool drink by the waterside instead.

    In the evening seven of us returned to the Italian Restaurant that had undercharged me the previous evening. Unfortunately the same waitress was no longer there. Perhaps the boss had not been happy with the way she had been handing out discounts. Tonight we all had to pay full price.

    Tomorrow we will be returning to the airport to catch the flight to Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania. Although the flight is only short, it will be in a Brazilian made aeroplane, operated by an unknown airline. What could possibly go wrong ?

    By tomorrow evening our team will be almost complete in Vilnius.    Read more

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    Another Day Another Country

    June 7, 2019 in Lithuania ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Question - Which key on the keyboard do you use the most often ?
    Answer - the space bar of course

    And why did I start with this strange question ? Because that is the key on my laptop that has decided to stop working. It means that I have to hit it two or three times every time I want to insert a space. I like to consider myself a very patient man (although those that know me might say otherwise), but this is really starting to $#@& me off.

    In spite of the difficulty with the misbehaving space bar, I will do my best to keep up with this blog.

    The day actually started quite poorly. The location of the Hotel Chmielna is in a precinct that is filled with a lot of youth hostels and guest houses. The people that stay in those sort of establishments are often more interested in getting drunk than learning anything about where they are. Apparently there was some sort of soccer match between Poland and the UK which attracted a horde of unruly supporters across for a drunken weekend in Warsaw. What followed would have made wonderful viewing on an episode of "Brits Behaving Badly".

    From early evening the amplified techno "music" combined with the shouts of drunken louts at earsplitting level. In spite of the heat in my room, I had no alternative other than to close all the windows and swelter inside. Even with the windows closed the noise still permeated. One particularly obnoxious Brit obviously had a vocabulary consisting solely of one four letter word. This he uttered every few seconds at the top of his voice for hour after hour. I assume he was practising his barracking skills for the upcoming match.

    The audio onslaught continued all night long until sunrise the following morning, when they finally decided that they had interrupted everyone else's sleep enough and probably went somewhere to collapse into a coma. Somehow I did manage to get some sleep, but the stuffy room made the final night in Warsaw a night to forget.

    This morning it was time to bid farewell to Warsaw and start our journey to Vilnius. I had arranged for the same driver who collected us at the airport to drive us back again. Once again,the sparse Warsaw traffic allowed us to reach the terminal very quickly. Even quicker was the speed that we were able to check in our luggage. How wonderful it would be if all airports worked like this.

    Since we had some time to spare, we all settled down in a quiet corner of the Costa Coffee shop and chatted. It soon developed into a sort of "truth or dare" as each revealed secrets about our past that we had not told anybody before. Of course Bob excelled by telling of his famous previous life as a sharp shooting bank manager.

    Our plane was delayed a short while and we were happy to be finally called to start boarding. The only trouble was that we had to be jammed into a waiting bus to take us to our plane. We were then crammed together like cattle while the bus waited and waited, and waited. The temperature inside soured in the hot sun. It became unbearable. But still we waited. There was no explanation as to why we were kept in the bus for so long, but it really was terrible.

    When we finally reached the waiting LOT plane (made in Brazil), I was happy to find that it was actually freezing cold inside. I loved the respite from the heat. We even were served a chocolate bar and a cup of coffee during the short 1 hour flight to Lithuania.

    After collecting our baggage we were met by a quiet guy who drove us to our hotel. Although we expected that there would be more horses and carts than cars, we were a little surprised to find our vehicle stuck in peak hour traffic. As we looked around it was clear to see a contrast of decaying soviet era buildings interspersed with quite a few modern structures. It was clearly a country in transition.

    We finally arrived at our hotel about 6 pm and were met by Ross and Fran, Lothar and Celia, Gordon and Sue and also Marg Jones. That brings our contingent up to around 16 people. If Marg was looking a little stressed it was probably because her luggage had not made the flight from Amsterdam with her. Every traveller's worst nightmare. We hope it arrives tomorrow for her sake.

    Our hotel is the very comfortable City Gate Hotel, beautifully situated right near the entrance to the old city. After a shower and a change of clothes I joined some of the others for a wander into the old city. We soon found a place to have dinner and hear Gordon and Sue tell of their travels in the far north of Norway and Finland. The food was good, relatively inexpensive and it was great to spend time with good friends at the start of another new adventure.

    Somehow David managed to get us lost on the walk back, leading us all into an interesting dead end. It was only a minor blunder and we were soon all back safely. Although the sun doesn't go to bed until about 10.30 pm, I am happy to hit the mattress at 9. And the hotel is beautifully quiet............    Read more

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    A Taste of Lithuania

    June 8, 2019 in Lithuania ⋅ ⛅ 22 °C

    I believe I can gauge a feeling for a country by spending a day wandering the streets and carefully watching the people. So that is what I basically spent the day doing.

    Our hotel is conveniently located right outside the city gate. This makes it very convenient for exploring the old town, but it is still far enough away from the hustle and bustle to provide a delightfully quiet sanctuary.

    Near the hotel I discovered a lovely flower and fruit market. As I wandered the aisles, my gaze was quickly drawn to the beautiful looking strawberries and cherries. I have found in previous overseas trips that the standard of these fruits in Australia is very poor when compared to other countries. I ordered a bag of cherries for the grand sum of 3 Euro (about $5 Australian) and spent the next 30 minutes savouring their incredible sweetness and juiciness. They were certainly among the best I have ever tasted and I will certainly return tomorrow for some more.

    My meanderings then took me right into the city, down to the Vilnia and Neris Rivers. As I walked I could see that the city was in a state of transition. While there were still many older, decaying buildings from the Soviet era, there was also a lot of modern development also taking place. It reminded me of a butterfly emerging from a cocoon that it had been trapped in for decades.

    One thing that is also clear is that Soviets had no idea how to make good concrete. Every concrete structure that they built is rapidly crumbling to dust, almost before your very eyes. It is little wonder what happened at Chernobyl, thirty years ago.

    Since the day was rapidly heating up, I decided to spend some time sitting in the park, under the shade of the trees, just watching life passing by. There was a mixture of young mothers with children, middle aged people and a few plump babushkas, some of them in national dress.

    At breakfast time we had received a notice that we had arrived in Vilnius just in time to enjoy a festival of senior dancing and singing. That sounded like a great way to observe .some of the rich culture, so I set off to find where it was being held. Along the way I met Ross & Fran and Lothar and Celia. While we were chatting in the street, we were joined by an uninvited interloper. It was an obviously a very queer Englishman who had apparently come to Vilnius to take part in the gay pride parade. He tried to persuade us to ditch the ladies and join him at the parade. We politely declined. I still cannot understand what actually happened.

    At 3 pm we managed to find the location where the folk dancing was to take place. Unfortunately it was in the full sun and the temperature was souring. I felt sorry for all the dancers dressed in their hot costumes. Whoever designed those clothes did not take global warming into account.

    The dancing was spirited and very colourful, however the baking sun started to make my head feel like I was growing crackling. After 30 minutes we had to leave to seek some shade.

    On days such as this there is nothing better than a lovely ice cream, especially when a heaped double scoop in a cone costs only 2 Euro.

    There are now 17 members of our team in Vilnius. There should have been 20, but Peter & Brigitte and John Mudgway had been delayed at Warsaw airport. At last update the flight was 7 hours late and counting. That meant that they missed dinner and the first briefing with our local guide. Marg's missing luggage is still missing and one of our team is feeling ill. Apart from that, everything is going fine - especially when we heard that Australian Ash Barty had won the French Open tennis championship.

    At 7 pm a young fellow answering to the name "Lucas" introduced himself as our local guide and led us to a nearby restaurant for dinner. After an enjoyable meal I am now back at the hotel. The time is well after 10 pm, but due to the bright light outside, it feels like 7 pm.

    And so ends our first full day in Lithuania.    Read more

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    We Meet Some Unexpected Lithuanian Fans

    June 9, 2019 in Lithuania ⋅ ☀️ 23 °C

    For me, one of the very best parts of travel are the unexpected things that can happen when you least expect them. I like to refer to these as the "serendipity of travel". One of these events happened today, but I guess I should first start at the beginning.

    Late last night the final three members of our team finally arrived from Warsaw. They were not happy that they had spent an extra 7 hours at Warsaw airport, but I tried to make sure they knew they had not been forgotten by arranging for last night's restaurant to prepare three dinner boxes for them.

    Now that all twenty riders are present and accounted for, the only thing still missing is Marg's luggage. We had all been hoping that it would turn up from the airport, but so far there is no sign of it. This means that she may have to buy another suitcase and a basic assortment of clothes. There is of course still some chance that it might be found before we leave Vilnius tomorrow morning.

    After breakfast we met outside the hotel with Lucas. The plan was for him to take us on a walking tour of the city. He certainly knows a lot about Lithuanian history and he did his best to tell us most of it in the two hour walk. He would have made an excellent auctioneer.

    After the heat of the previous few days we were glad that the day started overcast and relatively cool, however it did not stay that way. Once the early clouds cleared, the temperature steadily climbed back up again. It is beginning to look like all the cool weather gear we jammed into our cases will never see the light of day.

    Since our team is now complete, we also took the opportunity to don our new Ghostrider shirts. I have to admit that they were so bright that I am sure they would have been visible from the moon. I suspect some of the locals thought that we were in town for the gay pride celebrations. We certainly got noticed.

    It was only after the tour was over that the unexpected event happened. A small group of us were walking down a small back street of the town. We were interrupted by a distinctive Aussie voice "Hello Ghostriders". We all looked around to see where the voice had come from. We saw a neatly dressed couple looking at us.

    "We have been reading all about you", the man added. He then proceeded to prove that he knew who we were by telling us that we were here to ride from Vilnius to Tallinn. I must have looked confused as he then went on to explain exactly what had happened.

    Apparently he had seen our brightly dressed walking peloton earlier in the morning. He had been so impressed by our magnificent physiques than he went home to look us up on the Internet. It was then just sheer chance that we happened to walk down the very street where he lived.

    He explained that he had Lithuanian parents, but had spent most of his early life in Australia, before returning to Lithuania with his wife some twenty years ago. He still followed Australian football and returned home almost every year. After a long chat we parted company, marvelling at how the whole event had taken place.

    Our group then dispersed around the city. I wandered rather aimlessly,sometimes stopping to watch the locals. At one point I spent some time watching three well dressed (and very competent) girls playing string classics on two violins and a cello. Another highlight.

    By mid afternoon I was feeling hungry and noticed a French restaurant called the Cafe Montmartre. I went in and started to enjoy a lovely Coq au Vin. It was at that point that a disaster occurred. Somehow the gravy from my plate leapt across and deposited itself right down the front of my florescent Ghostriders shirt. And it was the first time I had worn it ! Oh the embarrassment, oh the shame.

    I quickly finished the rest of the lunch and tried to walk back to the hotel with my hands held in front of shirt. With the colour of these shirts it is not as if you can quietly merge into the crowd. I might as well have had a siren and searchlight on me. It was not my finest hour.

    Once back at the hotel the famous lines of Shakespeare's Macbeth came back to me ("Out damned spot") as I worked furiously to restore the shirt to its former glory. I almost succeeded - the spot has now been reduced to a level that would only be visible to someone with at least some eyesight. It's now hanging up to dry.

    Tomorrow we will be saying goodbye to Vilnius. I am sure that our memories of this place will be very positive, but the adventure must continue. After all, we came to cycle and that is exactly what we will begin tomorrow.    Read more

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    On the Road Again

    June 10, 2019 in Lithuania ⋅ ⛅ 24 °C

    Although our time in Warsaw and Vilnius has been very pleasant, we didn't come all this way to just wander about sightseeing. We are a cycling group after all, and we want to experience what it is like to pedal our way through the Baltic States.

    We knew that the day would begin with a bus transfer, but we had no idea of what type of bus would be provided for us. I had visions of all twenty of us jammed into some Soviet era minibus. This could not have been further from the truth. We emerged from our hotel to find a HUGE modern (and air conditioned) bus waiting for us across the road. If the bus itself was not of gigantic enough proportions, it was enlarged even further by the very impressive bike trailer mounted behind it.

    This was easily the biggest bus we have ever used on any previous Ghostrider adventure. The opulent size meant that our team members could spread out inside the bus and really enjoy the ride. We even found that the bus was so long that passengers in the front and rear seats were in different time zones. Our driver answered to the name of Vaidas, although it was a bit of a shame that he spoke almost no English.

    In spite of his lack of English, he was obviously a skilled driver and managed to manoeuvre the behemoth through the narrow streets with comparative ease. About an hour later we arrived at Trakai Castle. While we explored the large lakeside castle, Vaidas unloaded the bikes from the trailer. Once again the temperature started to soar towards 30C. All that cold weather clothing stayed securely hidden in my case.

    After a look around the castle we stopped at a lakeside restaurant for lunch, before finally getting on the bikes for the first time. We were relieved to discover that the bikes appeared to be brand new, although it was impossible to tell what brand they were as they had all been painted the same green. We spent a short time adjusting the seats and loading the panniers, but soon we were underway.

    We had been promised that the Baltic States were "flat and cool". That was obviously a lie. After a couple of kilometres we encountered the first climb,and it was progressively followed by a succession of others. That was not in the agenda, nor was the blazing sun and high temperatures. We quickly realised that this was not going to be an easy ride after all.

    Because of the large number of riders, we divided into two smaller groups, each one guided by a GPS equipped rider. From time to time we stopped to consolidate the groups and make sure that everyone was OK. The scenery was superb and the road was relatively quiet. The few vehicles that were there gave us a respectful separation.

    The rolling green hills reminded me of Finland and Sweden, but the dilapidated houses reminded me more of some of the old villages we had ridden through in Hungary. At one stage we rode into a tiny village and found a general store that sold ice creams and cold drinks. That really was a welcome discovery.

    At around 4 pm we were met by Vaidas and climbed back onto the bus for a transfer to Kaunas, the second largest town in Lithuania. It took about 90 minutes to reach our hotel - the Best Western Santaka. Judging by the enormous sizes of the rooms, this was probably once one of the finest hotels in the city, however it is now showing its age a little.

    When I tried to have a shower I discovered that the hot and cold taps were fitted back to front and the plug hole did not drain. I was soon standing in 10 cm of warm water. All part of the experience.

    Tomorrow we head off early for our second day of cycling. The weather forecast is for the weather to be even hotter. Sometimes the life of a Ghostrider is not as glamorous as you might think. On the other hand, it sure is a lot of fun.    Read more

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    In Which Storks Roost but Chaos Reigns

    June 11, 2019 in Lithuania ⋅ ⛅ 26 °C

    Our day began with a bus transfer along the Nemunas River from Kaunus to Vente on the Baltic Coast. This region is famous for being home to some impressive 16th and 17th century castles, but by far the most interesting feature of this region is its proximity to the Russian enclave of Kalinigrad.

    Kaliningrad is a small isolated part of Russia with a population of about half a million people. It is situated between Lithuania and Poland and obviously has huge strategic significance to the Russians. We passed by some heavily fortified border checkpoints and eventually took a tiny track down to the riverside where we had a unrestricted view across the river to this forgotten Russian enclave.

    Although we were observing it from a distance of a couple of hundred metres away, the decaying and dingy looking buildings did little to encourage a future visit. After taking a few pictures and trying to make fools of ourselves by waving to the non existent residents, we climbed back on the bus and continued on our way.

    This region is also home to thousands of storks and the local residents try hard to encourage storks to nest on their chimneys. Just about every house was equipped with a huge stork nest, many of which actually had storks in residence. Those residents with active storks were sure to attract good luck.

    Judging by this there must also be a lot of lucky lamp posts as numerous power poles were also topped with giant stork nests. I wondered how they avoided setting fire to themselves as they were perched in such a precarious location.

    After unloading the bikes we rode out to an Ornithological Museum on the coast, before heading off to find somewhere for lunch. Although we had been promised that a nearby village boasted a bakery, when we arrived we found (to our horror) that it was only open three days a week, neither of those days being today. That was a severe letdown, but we kept knocking on doors and managed to find a tiny general store that sold fruit and about three other items.

    I bought a bag of cherries and sat down to devour them. It was not exactly the lunch I had been looking for, but it was not all bad. It was only when it was time to head off that somehow chaos crept into our peloton. We rode a short distance to the turnoff and stopped to count our riders. Two were missing. But where were they ?

    Since no one had seen them leave early we assumed that they must be behind us. The group waited in the hot sunshine while Kirsten and Douglas volunteered to ride back and search for them. Fortunately I had brought the walkie talkies and was able to keep in touch while they searched back and forth for them in vain.

    After about an hour we were really starting to worry. It was at this point we were met by a jovial German with a hugely overloaded bike. He stopped to chat. We asked if he had seen two women riders. He had - about 10km further down the road ! They had obviously left early and were almost back to the waiting bus.

    In the meantime Douglas and Kirsten were each about 10 km in the opposite direction,still searching. It took about another hour to finally round up the rest of the peloton and continue on our way. When we arrived at the bus the two missing riders had been waiting there in the shade for a couple of hours.

    We all then climbed into the scorching bus and waited (and waited and waited) while the driver checked and packed the bikes. In case I haven't mentioned it enough times, we have arrived in the Baltics at the same time as a highly unseasonal burst of hot weather also chose to arrive. Every day so far has been in the 30s and the sun seems to really pack a particularly ferocious punch. We had not been expecting this (and neither had the locals).

    Hotels and homes here are built for the cold, not the heat. Someone will make a fortune selling ceiling fans throughout the region, but for the moment the people swelter. Fridges cannot cope and the few air conditioners really struggle to make any impact.

    In spite of this we were really (really and truly) glad to find that our rooms in the Old Mill Hotel were air conditioned and cool. It took some time to finally bring my body temperature down to a comfortable level. It had been a challenging day and the heat is predicted to continue unabated.

    After a lovely dinner, I finally collapsed into bed after 11 pm. Of course it was still bright daylight outside.    Read more

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    Cycling the Curonian

    June 12, 2019 in Lithuania ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    The Curonian Spit is a 100 km narrow strip of land that separates the Baltic Sea from the Curonian Lagoon. It runs almost north-south and is shared between Lithuania and Russia (Kaliningrad). Because of the immense beaches along the coast, the Curonian spit is a very popular holiday location for Lithuanians in the short summer. Of course this year summer arrived early, seemingly catching everyone by surprise.

    Everyone loves a sea journey - fresh air, the smell of salt, that queasy feeling of impending seasickness. We had been promised an extended 50km sea voyage, however it turned out to be a 5 minute trip across the Curonian Lagoon on a car ferry. Oh well, that's the way it happens in the Baltics.

    The bus then drove us south down the Spit, almost to the Russian border at Nida. Any further and we might have ended up in a Russian prison. After unloading our bikes, our mission was simple - to ride back along the entire Lithuanian section of the Spit to Klaipeda.

    The previous evening I had promised the team that it would be "completely flat and very easy". In fact it was neither of these things. Even though the Spit is very narrow, it does have quite a few undulations and even contains a number of small but very steep sand dunes. These have now been grassed and treed over, so that they look like old volcanoes.

    The biggest challenge of all was the relentless heat. As we stopped in Nida for supplies, the young girl in the shop explained that July and August are the "hottest months". She assured us that this is very unusual at this time of the year.

    We lathered up with sunscreen and headed north for the 60 km ride. The first section was a lovely seaside path which followed the coast of the lagoon for a short distance,before heading inland. This was not as scenic, but the forest gave us shade from the burning sun.

    There were a number of riders riding in the opposite direction, so I decided to try taking a survey of Lithuanian friendliness. As each cyclist approached I greeted them with a smile and a friendly "Hello". I then noted their responses. I am sorry to report that the vast majority gave no acknowledgement at all. They completely ignored us. Only perhaps 20% gave a grudging reply. We could only come to the conclusion that Lithuanians are not the most friendly people on the planet.

    This observation was also noted by many of the others in our group who had experienced similar abruptness from hotel staff and shop assistants. When I bought some food from the supermarket in Nida, the lady snatched my money so abruptly that I felt like it must have been infected with something.

    When so few people responded to my greetings, I decided to try "Bonjour" instead. It always works a treat in France, so I thought it might work here to. It didn't. Same blank stare, same lack of reply. At least I tried.

    Because the bike path wandered away from the road, there were very few opportunities to purchase food or drink along the way. Just when we were desperate for something cool chanced upon an enterprising you lady who had set up an ice cream and drinks kiosk in the back of her car. She was a lifesaver. The ice creams and drinks were icy cold and just what we needed on such a hot day.

    After riding for about 45 km we finally found a lovely seaside eatery which gave us a perfect opportunity for a rest and refreshment stop. The food in Lithuania is very cheap- only 6 Euro for a chicken schnitzel and salad lunch. Coffees usually cost 1.9 Euro. Even the lovely iced coffee only cost 3 Euro. They might not know how to smile, but you can certainly travel cheaply here.

    We rode the last few km, eagerly looking forward to reaching the ferry that would take us back across the lagoon to our hotel. By this time the sun was scorching from a cloudless sky and the temperature was in the low 30s.

    When we finally rounded the final corner and saw a ferry terminal, we all gave a sigh of relief and charged to the ticket office to buy a 50 cent ticket. We didn't have to wait long for the ferry to arrive and quickly wheeled our bikes on board. No point in asking questions we thought.

    It was only when the ferry started to move that we realised to our horror that it was going in the wrong direction. It was not the right ferry after all. We could have panicked, but we didn't (not much anyway). We decided that many people pay a lot more than 50 cents for a European river cruise, so we might as well just enjoy the experience and see what happened.

    Fortunately the ferry did eventually stop at Klaipeda and we were able to get to our hotel. I immediately went to the bar and asked for a cold drink "with lots of ice". I was told "no ice today, the heat has made all our ice melt". It was that sort of day.

    At least the air conditioner in my room was still working.

    PS Sorry there are not many pictures, it was too hot to take many.    Read more

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    1

    The Best Day So Far

    June 13, 2019 in Lithuania ⋅ 🌧 17 °C

    After the scorching heat and sunshine of the first week of riding, the prospect of finally getting some relief was something to bring cheer to a tiring Ghostrider peloton. The local Lithuanian weather wallahs had promised us a cooler day with the possibility of some passing showers. I don't think that any of us would have looked forward to another hot day in the full sunlight.

    We left the hotel around 10 am and made our way along some very well constructed bike paths and cycling lanes out of Klaipeda. After 30 minutes we had left the city behind and were enjoying some lovely shaded bike paths through thick forests. This is the type of cycling that really makes these trips worthwhile.

    Throughout the day we were steadily heading north and were never very far from the coast of the Baltic Sea. The temperature was very comfortable for riding and we even experienced that Holy Grail of cycling known as a "tail wind" for much of the ride. It seemed that all the effort we had put in over the previous days was finally being rewarded.

    After about an hour of riding we came across a stall selling drinks and ice creams. We have learnt that you NEVER pass these opportunities by as you never know when the next opportunity will occur. I was even able to buy the very rarest of roadside delicacies - a chocolate milk shake. It was heavenly.

    Some kilometres further on we took a short detour to the beach. It was too good an opportunity not to sample the water, so off went my shoes and socks and in I went. To my surprise the water was quite mild. Gradually some of the others gathered the courage to join me in the water. Lothar really embraced the moment by dropping his pants and his shirt and jumping right in.

    Fortunately when we reached Palanga there were many options for lunch. This place is obviously a summer holiday mecca and there were cafes and ice cream vendors everywhere. The highlight was the huge botanical garden, at the centre of was the huge royal palace of Count Tyszkiewicz (well known for his catchy name ) which had now been converted to an amber museum.

    We spent some time wandering the museum and learning how clumsy the prehistoric insects must have been to all manage to come to an untimely end embedded in tree resin. This resin eventually hardens to form amber. In fact amber seems to be the major industry and export from this region.

    The final 20 km of the ride was along one of the most delightful bike paths you could find anywhere. The path was shaded, the surface was smooth and wide and offered an amazing cycling experience. As it meandered through the thick forests we occasionally caught glimpses of the water on our left hand side. Bird songs echoed through the trees. I could not stop smiling. I was even encouraged to try saying hello to some of the passing riders, but only sometimes did I get a half hearted response.

    Our hotel situated right in the middle of a sprawling holiday resort and we had to navigate through a confusing maze of tiny pathways till we finally reached the Amber Spa Palace. It had an imposing name and it certainly looked grand from a distance.

    It was only when we received our keys and went to our rooms that several of our team made the unwelcome discovery that their rooms had not been cleaned after the previous occupants had left. As I walked into my room I felt a bit like the three bears when they returned to their home and found that someone had been sleeping in their beds. Indeed someone HAD been sleeping in my bed, using my towels and had even left their wet bath robes hanging on a peg. I was not happy.

    I went back down to the reception, full of righteous indignation, expecting to receive an apology. I never got one. They did not even seem to regard it as a big deal. Perhaps they thought I should have just said nothing and slept on the used sheets. For a fancy hotel, it was an inexcusable error, especially when three others found the same problem.

    I was finally shifted to another room, and I think the towels were clean. It was the "Richie Benaud" room number 222. Soon after I arrived at my new room, the air was rent by claps of thunder and soon the skies opened. The long predicted thunderstorm had finally arrived. I sat out on the balcony and enjoyed the sweet, fresh and cool air.

    The other strange aspect of this hotel was what happened in the so called restaurant. We had been told that dinner would be served at 8 pm, but when a few of us gathered for drinks,we noticed that the breakfast buffet was already set. Maybe the food had been out all day. When we queried what the procedure was, we were told that was our dinner. I could have saved some time the next morning by having my breakfast as well.

    It was a strange system, but we have learnt that things in the Baltics don't always follow world's best practise. At least the coffee was free and I don't think I have got food poisoning (yet). I will be very interested to see if the same pickled herrings are still on the same plate in the morning.

    It was after tea that the final great event of the day took place. Marg's luggage had gone missing about a week ago when she arrived at Vilnius. The search for the lost luggage had gone on day after day until it was finally located. You can imagine her relief and joy when she finally saw a hotel employee wheeling her precious luggage bag up to the front door of the hotel. Some stories really do have happy endings after all.    Read more

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    Zemaitija National Park

    June 14, 2019 in Lithuania ⋅ 🌙 15 °C

    Sometimes it really is astounding what a difference 24 hours can make. Ever since we had arrived in Warsaw about 12 days ago, we had experienced hot and sultry weather. The past couple of days on the bikes has been particularly tiring and we have been making sure to never ride past an ice cream seller without taking advantage of his product.

    Late yesterday afternoon the long awaited thunderstorm finally arrived, complete with rolling thunder and heavy rain. Of greatest significance was the considerable drop in temperature. When our group gathered outside the hotel this morning, I was interested to see that everyone (except me) had donned cold weather jackets, thermals, leggings, polar fleeces and the like. David had layered himself with some of Carol's riding gear, including her pink jacket (and maybe some of her winter underwear as well)..

    I was just happy to be cool and wore only my short sleeve cycling jersey and shorts. We set off retracing our route back through the town and were soon out on the open roads again. We knew that this was going to be the longest ride of the entire trip. I also had the secret knowledge that it was also likely to be the hilliest as well.

    Fortunately the first section was quite flat, there was no wind and the road surface was excellent. We found a comfortable rhythm and made good progress. Along the way we passed a succession of run down houses, almost all of which were fitted with crumbling asbestos roofs. In some cases the entire roofs had collapsed into the structure. This was obviously not an affluent area.

    One thing that we were not expecting to see was a large wooden windmill, although it was no longer in operation and I suspected that, unless it was restored, it would also soon collapse into a woodpile.

    On the 27th of June 1941 the Germans shot 111 Jewish men, women and children they accused of supporting the Russians. The spot is now marked by a large stone and metal plaque. It was such a quiet and beautiful spot,that it was hard to imagine the atrocity that had been committed there 78 years ago.

    We also passed numerous large stork nests, some of which had mothers feeding their babies. The nests were enormous, probably up to a metre in diameter.

    An interesting insight into the local culture was provided when we happened to arrive in a village right in the middle of a funeral procession. The hearse was preceded by a small group of mourners, all dressed in black and some carrying photos of the deceased. The bell on the church steeple sounded a prolonged, melancholy slow peeling as the procession made its way into the church yard.

    The half way point of our day's ride was Selentai, a modest sized village with a couple of small supermarkets and also an open air market as well. It was the perfect spot for lunch. When I asked a local where to get the best coffee, I was directed to a small kebab shop (the shop was small,the kebabs certainly weren't).

    I must admit that I have tried kebabs all over the world, and I have seldom been disappointed. I can now truthfully say that the the kebab I enjoyed at Selantai was one of the best I had ever tasted. The meat was tender, the salad was fresh and the 3 Euro price was perhaps the best part of all. It would probably have been sufficient to feed a family of four.

    Another most welcome feature of this region is the beautiful cherries which are sold from every market and fruit shop. For a couple of Euros you can buy a huge bag full of sweet, juicy cherries which would be enough to fill you for the rest of the day.

    After lunch we soon left the flat lands behind and entered the hill climb section. We were riding up to a huge lake in the Zemaitija National Park. The only problem is that to get there we first had to ride up a never ending succession of small, sharp hills. Although each one was not very long, the cumulative effect was quite tiring.

    With 8 km to go,we stopped for a final drinks and rest break. It was here that we happened to meet the driver who had taken our luggage to the next hotel as he was conducting his own rest break.

    The final section around the perimeter of the lake was quite beautiful, offering glimpses of the huge expanse of water. We finally rode into the large Linelis Hotel, situated right on the shore of the lake. Since tomorrow will be our first (and very well deserved) rest day, we will have lots of time to explore this lovely location.

    The evening meal was easily the best hotel meal we have had in this trip so far. After the dinner was finished the sun was still shining brightly, children were playing on the grass and several were swimming in the lake. It was only a little after 10 pm after all.    Read more

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    Taking Time in Zemaitija

    June 15, 2019 in Lithuania ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    After the almost non stop activity of the previous 12 days, it was glorious to finally have so much time on our hands and to have so little to do with it. The constant pressure of cycling every day, along with the tiring routine of moving from hotel to hotel does take its toll, especially when you combine this with the extremely short hours of darkness.

    Today was the first designated "free day" and we were happy to be able to spend the time resting, walking, catching up on laundry, reading, drinking and eating ice cream. The weather also chipped in by serving up an absolutely perfect day - cloudless skies, no wind and not too hot and not too cold. The large lake had barely a ripple and the clear, still waters enticed a few of our team to try a swim.

    I had previously discovered that the hotel had a large recreation room with two full size billiard tables and a table tennis table. Remembering what fun we had all enjoyed in the Channel Islands on these activities, I suggested that we should conduct a men's tournament.

    Bob and I collected the pool balls from the desk and went off for what we thought we be a 10 minute game. We had no idea that the match would drag on for what seemed like an eternity. My previous experience had all been on small tables and we soon found that, on large tables, it is almost impossible to get the balls into the pockets. Time and time again we thought we had an unmissable shot, only to constantly invent creative new ways to miss.

    The other important factor was the searing heat in the room. It was part of the heated swimming pool complex and there were no windows that could be opened. The sweat was soon running down our faces as we vainly tried to get any of the balls to sink.

    The battle dragged on for most of the afternoon. David and Gordon gave up watching. Bob and I struggled on, feeling like two gladiators battling to the death in the Colosseum. We finally got down to the last remaining ball- the black ball. We chased it from one end of the table to the other, and back again. This farce continued until we both were on the edge of exhaustion.

    "If we can't sink the ball in ten minutes, it's a draw", I announced. In spite of our best efforts, the black ball won. We called it a draw and staggered back outside for some fresh cool air.

    Tomorrow we will be visiting a cold war missile silo, before cycling right around the lake. After that we will finally cross the border into Latvia and the next leg of our adventure.    Read more

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    A Glimpse of Madness

    June 16, 2019 in Lithuania ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    For most of the 1960s, the world's major powers played a dangerous game of nuclear brinkmanship. The main principle in this game was that any nuclear attack would be responded to with such overwhelming ferocity that all life on earth would be exterminated. This was officially referred to as "Mutually Assured Destruction" or MAD for short.

    It really was a frightening time to be alive, and I well remember the nuclear drills that were practised at schools. This morning we had the opportunity to see one of the old 1960s nuclear missile silos at close range. The missile complex is situated only a few km from our hotel in the Zemaitija National Park. It had been constructed by hundreds of Estonian forced labour workers,who had to excavate the enormous underground spaces by pick, shovel and wheelbarrow,

    Apparently the reason why they used Estonian labour was because they could not speak Lithuanian and therefore would be easy to recapture if they escaped. To make matters more complicated the plans were in Russian, which the locals could not read. Little wonder therefore that the standard of construction was even worse than appalling. They could never undertake any test launches because any such event would have likely caused the structure to collapse. It was strictly intended to be used once - to launch 4 ICBMs, each carrying a 2 Megaton warhead. In the process it is almost certain that the people working at the site would also be killed.

    It really was interesting to tour the vast facility and see just how primitive most of the technology was. The soldiers had low morale and were often drunk on the job. I wonder just how easy it would have been for a disgruntled one or two Russians to start a nuclear war.

    The base was built in the early 60s and was decommissioned about a decade later as part of the agreement signed by Gorbachev and Reagan. Much of the equipment (but hopefully not the warheads) was then promptly stolen by the local population.    Read more

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    Another Day Another Country

    June 16, 2019 in Latvia ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    After an extremely noisy night in our hotel in the Zumaitija National Park, it was time to hit the road again. Our day began with a ride to the nearby Cold War Missile Base,followed by a lovely ride around the perimeter of the lake.

    We then met our driver for the long transfer to Riga in Latvia. In the north of Lithuania there is a small mound which had become completely covered in tens of thousands of crosses of every size and shape. This spot has become one of the most visited locations in the entire country.

    As our bus pulled into the car park and we saw the many other buses already there, I already had my doubts as to whether I would like this spot. My early opinion was reinforced when we reached the religious souvenir shop. It was doing a roaring trade selling wooden crosses to the arriving tourists. Each tourist then took their newly purchased cross and added it to the mountain of crosses that were already there. It reminded me a little of the padlocks on the bridges over the Seine in Paris. Hardly an authentic religious experience I thought. Nevertheless, it was an interesting spectacle, although I was glad to return to the bus for the rest of the drive to Riga.

    When we crossed the border into Latvia, our first impressions were of a country that was even less developed and less affluent than Lithuania. The Latvians speak a different language to either Lithuania or Estonia and their tiny country is only sparsely inhabited.

    We finally arrived at Riga about 7.30 pm, bouncing the final few km over rough cobblestones. Our home for the next two nights will be the Metropole Hotel in the centre of the city.    Read more

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    One Day in Riga

    June 17, 2019 in Latvia ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    I love modest sized cities, and Riga with a population of just 600,000 people is just about the right size for me. Although the city looked very appealing at first sight, it did not get off to a great start with our first taste of Latvian weather.

    Our original program for today was to have a morning walking tour, followed by an afternoon cycle to a nearby seaside resort. Since this was to be our only chance to explore Riga,and since the wet and grey morning did not exactly look like great cycling weather, we made the intelligent decision to cancel the ride and spend the entire day in Riga instead.

    At 9 am we assembled in the foyer of the 4 star Metropole Hotel. All our team had donned wet weather gear and most were also clutching umbrellas. Our guide introduced herself as Anita and we headed out into the steady rain. Like most cities around the world, Riga had almost no protection for pedestrians in the rain. Progressively we got wetter and wetter.

    Anita did an enthusiastic job to inform us about the city and the history of Latvia, however the conditions made it quite hard to hear what she was saying.

    After the tour a few of us decided to hear "almost the biggest pipe organ in Europe" at a lunchtime recital in the Lutheran Dome Church. The entrance cost 10 Euro a head for the 25 minute recital. Considering the hundreds of people crammed inside, it must be quite an earner for the church.

    I have to admit that the thundering sound from the hundreds of pipes was quite impressive and somewhat emotional. The effect was sufficient to put me to sleep about 2 minutes into the first song, however I did awake in time to hear most of the remainder.

    By the early afternoon the skies had cleared and the sun emerged. This gave me a great opportunity to wander the city from end to end. About 20 km later my feet told me they had had enough, and I returned to the hotel for a rest.

    My impressions of Riga are mostly very favourable, however when we were told that the temperature can drop to minus 28 C in the bitter winters, I don't think it would be a place that I would want to live permanently in.    Read more

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    Sigulda - The Queenstown of Latvia

    June 18, 2019 in Latvia ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    I guess every country needs a city for its citizens and tourists to find new ways of having thrills and near death experiences. It would appear that, for the Latvians, that place is Sigulda, situated north east of Riga in the Gauja River Valley.

    Our day began with a short bus ride to Saulkrasti. After two weeks of drastically reduced sleep,every such bus ride becomes a valuable chance to get a little extra shuteye. After about an hour in the bus, 20 sleepy passengers staggered out to assemble outside the famous bicycle museum.

    This museum has been assembled over a forty year period and contains a superb collection of bikes and paraphernalia. It is currently run by a father and son team, however they were obviously caught by surprise when we arrived. The gate was locked and the driver had to spend some considerable time on the phone, before the son was eventually roused. (The father apparently chose to stay in the Land of Nod).

    As it turned out, the young man spoke excellent English and was very professional in his explanations and demonstrations. It really was well worth seeing, even though it looked rather modest from the outside.

    We then climbed on the bikes for the day's ride. Once again the weather was perfect - fine and sunny. It is really starting to look like we have a good chance of getting through the entire ride without encountering any rain. What a bonus that would be. The last time we rode this region was in 2014, and it was cold and drizzly almost every day. That's just the luck of the draw I guess.

    For most of the ride the road climbed gently, however the surface was pretty good and we were able to make good progress. To assist with safety on the public roads we divided into two groups and this worked well.

    One interesting highlight we encountered was a lovely flower covered cemetery. Although the gardens were informal, they were obviously lovingly cared for. Many of the graves were covered with wildflowers and some even had a bench seat to sit down and remember the deceased. We even found a real well, complete with bucket and chain. Since no one was around, I decided to lower the bucket and see if there was any water inside. The well was very deep, but the bucket was eventually withdrawn with a load of crystal clear and very cold water in it. It would have been very tempting to sample it, but none of us were game.

    On the outskirts of Sigulda we reached a steep descent with a sign telling us that it was an 11% gradient. Every knows the old adage that "what goes down, must come up", and so it was with a deal of trepidation that we freewheeled down to the base of the valley. After a short rest stop on the bridge, it was time to start the climb up the other side of the valley. This was the hard part.

    The road quickly turned upwards and the helpful sign warned that the climb was once again a gut busting 11%. Of course I am not a flyweight mountain climber and was soon left way behind by the rest of the group. I clicked down to the third lowest gear and slowed down to something a little less than snail's pace. As I inched my way up the climb I was able to observe the grass growing and seemingly a lifetime passing by.

    Somehow I managed to keep the pedals turning (about the same speed as the hour hands on a clock) and finally reached the top. By that time the rest of the group had had a long rest, read some books and explored the town. I had no sooner reached the top when some of the ladies took off again. I tried to tell them they were going the wrong way, but was informed that they were following the bus driver. I certainly was not going to try and chase them down. By that time my sole thought was to reach our hotel.

    Our original hotel was to be the centrally located Hotel Sigulda, however we had been shafted to another hotel right outside the city outskirts. This meant we had to ride on another 2.5 km before we could finally stop. On arrival I contacted the second group of riders with the walkie talkie and told them to collect the ladies that had followed the bus.

    Our new hotel was the Hotel Ezeri Spa Resort. Although it was a long way from anything, the location certainly was pretty, with a panoramic view from the rear terrace. Being a spa resort it offered a large range of exotic (and very expensive) treatments such as chocolate toe massages, seaweed wraps and the intriguing sounding "couple's paradise of dreams". For as little as a 100 Euro or so,anyone could be wrapped in seaweed, painted with chocolate and taken to paradise. I thought about it for about 1 second and decided that, since I have never had a massage in my life, I was not about to start now.

    Eventually the missing three riders were delivered by bus to the hotel and the riders from Group two explained that they had spent some time wandering the ruins of a castle. We must have missed that one.

    Although some of the rooms apparently took advantage of the glorious valley views,,my window looked out onto a singularly unattractive black rooftop and a large exhaust flue. The fan in the chimney made such a racket that it was hard to open the window without being deafened. Oh well, you win some, you lose some.    Read more

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    Parnu -A Paradise in Estonia

    June 19, 2019 in Estonia ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Ever since we arrived in the Baltics just over two weeks ago, we have marvelled at the beauty of the countryside and the freshness of the air in far northern Europe. It seems that everywhere we look is a verdant paradise. The weather also has given us an unbroken sequence of glorious, sunny cycling days. Yes it really would be a fantastic place to live - for six months of the year.

    Of course the biggest drawback to living in this part of the word is the severe winters that you would have to endure. With temperatures plummeting to as low as -30 C, snow and ice everywhere and extremely long hours of darkness, this requires a very special type of person to be able to survive. When you consider how bad the winters must be, it is easy to see why they love the return of summer so much.

    This morning we left Sigulda and had a quick visit to a huge Bob Sleighing complex and a large cave, before driving 110 km further north to the border with Estonia. The old border crossings are now nothing but a reminder of the old days when crossing a border was a very serious and complicated matter. The border of Latvia and Estonia still had a large building there, but it now serves as a roadhouse to feed hungry bus tourists.

    Our task today was very simple. All we had to do was follow a single quiet road for about 35 km near the Baltic Coast. For most of the way both sides of the road were filled with magnificent forests, from time to time interspersed with tiny villages. Although many of the houses were pretty basic, they did not appear to be particularly poor. The road was excellent for riding and the weather was absolutely perfect. One interesting feature of many of the houses was large nuclear bomb shelters in the yards. This is a reminder of strategic this region was in the Cold War days, when the population were expecting an attack at any moment.

    The biggest disappointment of the day's ride was the lunchtime restaurant (or complete lack of). The map showed that there would be a restaurant at about the 20 km mark,, however when we reached that point we found, to our utter dismay, only a locked toilet block with a couple of overturned tables outside. Fortunately there was a so called "bakery" a little further back and at least we were able to buy a cup of coffee and a small cake.

    The road eventually turned into a major highway and that became our signal to leave the bikes and return to the bus. The final transfer took us to the seaside city of Parnu. It took me all of two minutes to fall in love with this place. With its beautifully landscaped gardens and interesting mixture of wooden buildings, I think it really is the prettiest town we have so far visited.

    After checking into the Legend Hotel I went for a wander to the Old Town, arriving just in time to watch a group of colourfully dressed local women singing and dancing in the main square. It was a glorious way to end a magical cycling day.    Read more

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    Saaremaa Cycling

    June 20, 2019 in Estonia ⋅ 🌙 18 °C

    Our day began with an early transfer from our hotel to the ferry terminal. I was quite sorry to say goodbye to Parnu, as it had really impressed us all with its beautiful parks and amazing wooden buildings. Neverless the show must go on and our Baltics Adventure is now rapidly drawing into its final stages.

    Saaremaa is Estonia's largest island and is situated off the western coast in the Baltic Sea. A fleet of large ferries continually carries trucks, buses, cars and passengers back and forth between the island and the mainland.

    No sooner had the bus driven onto the ferry than the doors were closed and we were on our way. It really is a smooth and rapid operation. After a coffee and a snack from the buffet and about 30 minutes of smooth sailing time, we were pulling into the pier on the island. A short drive in the bus then took us to Koguva Orissaare, where our ride was to start.

    Yet again the sky was clear and the sun hot. A check on the GPS showed that we were around 59 degrees north. We had not expected this type of summer weather this far north. On went the sunscreen and off we went on the bikes.

    The roads were almost deserted. That made for nice riding, but apart from the endless forests on both sides of the road, there was not a lot to see. An exception was the crossing across a long causeway to the larger island. I was just glad that we didn't have to face a headwind as there was no shelter at all.

    After two weeks of daily cycling another problem was starting to manifest itself. Apart from the general tiredness from of sleep, my rearmost body parts were starting to feel that they had been aggressively rubbed with sandpaper. I regularly lifted myself from the seat, but it did little to alleviate the discomfort. I was not looking forward to 53 km of this ordeal.

    Since there are so few towns on Saaremaa, when we finally found a small general store/cafe we did not want to waste the opportunity for a stop. The kitchen was not prepared for a sudden influx of customers and took an inordinate amount of time to prepare the lunches. I think they cooked one lunch at a time.

    Soon after lunch David took off and we never saw him for the rest of the ride. We never can understand why he does this, but it seems to be due to some sort of character weakness that he has no control over.

    The rest of the group rode on together. We had been promised that the highlight of the ride would be the amazing "windmill park" at Angla. That would also mark the end of the day's ride (and the end of my anguish on the saddle).

    When we finally rolled up at the windmills, we all thought that they were rather underwhelming. There were only three of them, and they looked like they were in imminent danger of falling down at any moment. Since we had been provided with entrance tickets, we did go inside, even though you could already see them very well from the outside of the fence.

    A boisterous group of high school students also arrived at the same time and proceeded to clamour over everything. We decided it was time to leave. The sign at the gate said "Thank you for coming, we hope to see you again soon". It seemed a little optimistic to me. I wondered just how many people would feel the need to return again and again. Not many I suspected.

    Our tired group climbed back on the bus, where several quickly slipped into a coma (myself included). We had another short drive to the Hotel Saaremaa, which was to be our home for the next three nights. It was about that time that I decided that I would not be riding the following day. My backside needed a break almost as much as I did.

    Tomorrow will also be the summer solstice - the longest day of the year. Since we already have virtually twenty four of daylight, I would just about give my eye teeth for a few extra hours of darkness. This really is a strange phenomenon, and certainly plays havoc with your sleeping patterns.    Read more

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    Celebrating Summer Solstice in Saaremaa

    June 21, 2019 in Estonia ⋅ ⛅ 23 °C

    Firstly I thought it might be best to start with a short science lesson. Contrary to popular belief, the changing seasons throughout the year has nothing to do with the slight changes in distance between the earth and the sun. In fact it has everything to do with the inclination of the earth's axis relative to the plane of rotation. In the northern summer the earth's tilts towards the sun, resulting in the sun appearing higher in the sky at noon time. The higher the sun is in the sky, the more concentrated is the solar energy reaching the surface and the longer the length of the day. Simples !

    Whatever the reason, the simple fact is that today is the Summer Solstice in the Northern Hemisphere. If the days weren't already long enough in the Baltics, today marks the time when the daylight hours are at their absolute maximum. From now on each day will grow progressively shorter - perhaps a bleak reminder that another long, dark and cold winter will be here in just a few short months. Little wonder that the locals try to make the most of their short summers when they come.

    Today I declared a "personal rest and recuperation day". I must admit that I have been feeling a little homesick,especially when I have a lovely new grandson waiting in Melbourne that I have not been able to meet yet. Most of us are also severely sleep deprived and feeling weary from the constant travel. In my case the decision was made during the latter part of yesterday's ride when my backside reminded me in no uncertain terms that it really had had enough. It needed a break.

    Since we have another two nights at this hotel it was a simple matter of choosing not to ride. Apart from catching up on some rest I also wanted to spend some time exploring the Baltic coastline. After the rest of the team left in the bus to punish themselves,I headed off on a long walk instead.

    My original aim had been to walk the shoreline to a group of wind turbines we could see in the distance. As I set off two things become evident. The first is that the beach was not all easy walking. In many parts it was more like a muddy swamp, complete with reeds and small creeks. The second thing I learned was that wind turbines are REALLY big. The further I walked, the further away they moved. Eventually my path was completely blocked and I had to turn back.

    One thing that was a real surprise was just how warm the water was. Although we would not class it as a great beach (due to the muddy sand, seaweed and rocks) I decided to brave the obstacles and wade in the shallows. The temperature was not at all what I expected 60 degrees north in the Baltic Sea. It was really warm. Really warm indeed. I guess that is why Estonians come quite a long distance to swim here.

    Later in the day I managed to get a couple of hours of sleep. It is nowhere enough to make up the accumulated sleep deficit, but I thought it might help a little.

    I am not sure if there are any celebrations planned for this evening. Maybe we will be outside baying at the midnight sun. I guess I will soon find out.    Read more

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    Dinner in a Windmill

    June 21, 2019 in Estonia ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    The longest day of the year is a pretty big deal when you are in far northern Europe. We have already noticed numerous large, conical shaped bonfires being prepared around the island. Apparently the actual celebrations will continue over the next 3 nights, right until we arrive in Tallinn.

    This evening our team members donned their best going out clothes for a special solstice dinner in Kuressaare. I was not sure whether I would be able to make a booking for twenty people at short notice on such an important night of the year, but luckily I managed to get us in at the Saaremaa Veski. This is actually the most famous restaurant in Kuressaare, and is in a huge converted stone windmill.

    It turned out to be a very memorable evening. The food was superb and the atmosphere was amazing. We were seated on the ground floor of the structure and each table was actually a huge circular stone slab. For John Mudgway it turned out to be a very "lucky" night indeed. Somehow he caught the attention of a buxom matron who had been travelling with a group of American tourists. It must have been a case of love at first sight ,or maybe just a case of "anything is better than an American", for the matron threw her arms around poor John and started kissing him passionately. It was quite an incredible sight seeing two octogenarians engaging in such a wild display of passion. The shock almost made Bob choke on his cider (he might have been a little bit jealous).

    After a wonderful evening of dining and laughter, it was finally time to get back on our waiting bus for the ride back to the hotel. It was only at this time that the head waiter and a young underling chased us to the bus. The senior waiter started speaking rapidly in Estonian. What could possibly be wrong, I wondered?

    We finally realised we were being accused of doing a runner. Apparently there was a Sprite and a Fanta that had not been paid for. Shocking, but true. The only problem was that no one in our group had drunk either a sprite or a Fanta. It turned out to be the blasted American group. Typical. We had been falsely mistaken for a group of Trumpers. We assured the staff that we definitely were NOT from America and apologies and smiles returned.

    Bob and David were also feeling playful and made me take their picture together outside the windmill. What happens in Kuressaare,stays in Kuressaare, I guess.

    About 10.30 pm we arrived back at the hotel. Douglas helped the bus driver reconnect the trailer onto the bus, causing a significant amount of damage to the rear of the bus in the process. Of course it was still bright daylight.

    Happy Summer Solstice Day to Everyone !    Read more

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    11

    Lighthouses, Rocks, Kites and Bumps

    June 22, 2019 in Estonia ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    In most of Europe the 22nd of June marks the official start of Summer. That means that it is a common time of celebrations and, in the Baltic States, of massed communal singing. For us the first day of summer dawned fine and clear, but a little cooler than the past couple of weeks.

    Our plan was to transfer by bus to the impressive lighthouse at Saare. This is at the southernmost point of Saaremaa Island, situated at the very end of a very exposed promontory. We arrived in time to step out into the teeth of a force nine gale. Of course everyone immediately checked to see which direction it was blowing. To our relief, it was mostly in the direction that we would soon be riding. If it had been blowing in the other direction, I suspect that we would have just climbed back on the bus and called it a day.

    After a short time exploring the towering lighthouse, we climbed on the bikes, hoisted our spinnakers and set off downwind. It was a wonderful feeling to have the wind sharing some of our workload and we managed to make excellent progress. It was only when we turned off the sealed road and found ourselves bouncing along a rough dirt track that the going got more difficult.

    At one stage we came across a rocky beach where previous visitors had erected hundreds of stone cairns. This reminded me of other places around the world where this is done. It is obviously a manifestation of an innate human need to create order from disorder. I erected a small tower and dedicated it to my new grandson Jossi. I have not met the little guy yet, but hoped that my efforts would somehow be felt by him all those thousands of kilometres away.

    After riding about 30 km, we began seriously looking for a picnic location. In this region public picnic grounds are rarer than pink unicorns. They just don't exist. Since we were in need of rest and some food I announced that the next time we found some mowed grass, we would stop there , even if it was someone's front yard. So that's exactly what we did.

    It was a lovely patch of short green grass and there was no obvious sign of the owners. We figured that if anyone turned up, we would just plead ignorance telling them that in Australia we do that all the time. Fortunately no one showed and we all enjoyed a marvellous time in the sun.

    The rough road continued for a few more km, eventually bringing us to a popular kite surfing beach. Dozens of young kite surfers were flying back and forth, sometimes soaring high above the water and then returning with a huge splash. It was interesting to watch, although we were left wondering how they managed to avoid crashing into each other.

    The final few kilometres of the ride was along a beautifully smooth bike path. The combination of smooth bitumen and tailwind gave us a glimpse of what cycling in heaven would be like.

    Tomorrow will be our final day on the bikes and, by tomorrow evening, we will reach Tallinn, the final destination for this section of the trip. After two nights in Tallinn our group will begin to break up as we head off in multiple different directions. For ten of us, the adventure will continue a little longer as we catch the ferry across the Baltic to Helsinki.    Read more

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    Castles, Craters and the Capital

    June 23, 2019 in Estonia ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    While it is true that we have seen and visited several castles already on our travels in the Baltics, it would also be true to say that most (all) did not really come up to scratch as "real" castles. My idea of a castle is something of a mammoth structure, complete with moat and drawbridge. A few cannons at the front would also add credibility to the castle credentials as well.

    For all those reasons,the castle in Kuresaare, really qualifies as a genuine, grade one, certified castle. It turned out to be the highlight of our final day on the bikes. Almost as big a highlight would have been the glorious, silky smooth bike path we followed from our hotel, all the way to the castle. It was what all other bike paths should aspire to be. It even came complete with a tail wind ! Absolutely perfect.

    The episcopal castle dominates the lovely city and, after a little trouble finding the entrance (something designed to confuse would be attackers no doubt), we parked our bikes and went inside. Not only was the castle itself quite magnificent, the location by the waterfront was also breathtaking.

    The inside of the castle has now been set up as the Saaremaa Museum, containing a fascinating insight into the extended history of the island over the past several thousand years. The exhibitions relating to the war times and Soviet occupation were the most fascinating, although it was a shame that very little was in English.

    Although the sign said that the roof top cafe would not open till 11 am, I discovered that the sign was only intended to deter less intrepid coffee drinkers. The young sales girl was quite happy to make me a coffee and serve me a slab of Neapolitan cake, even though it was only 10.30 am. The coffee was actually quite good. We have now learned that, if you order a latte, you get much better value than ordering a cappuccino. Certainly the views from the windows were amazing.

    I guess I should have mentioned that the weather was just as good as every previous day. The sky was cloudless and the temperature was high enough for us to ride in our Ghostrider jerseys. We have asked several locals about this and they have all agreed that it is most unusual at this early time of the year. We should have been getting cold and wet days for the entire ride. You might call this luck, but I would attribute it to superb planning by me.

    After leaving the castle we knew that we only had around 30 km left to ride. Unfortunately the bike path ended and we returned to the road. It is worth noting that traffic on Saaremaa is very light and we found that all vehicles gave us a very wide berth when passing. Our brilliant new Ghostrider tops made us visible from a distance of about 5 km, so we never felt in any danger when riding on the public roads.

    Our final stop during the ride was at a small cafe at the side of the road. Although it looked a little nondescript from the outside, inside it was a real surprise. The young owners had stripped back all the old wall linings to reveal the original construction and had obviously tried hard to build a good business.

    The owner himself noticed our shirts and then came out to chat with us. "Are you really all the way from Australia ?", he asked. "Yep", we proudly replied.

    He spoke excellent English and went on to explain that he used to be a civil servant in Tallinn, but decided to take on this challenge two summers ago. I told him that we would love to know what it was like in the winter. He immediately decided that he would put some winter pictures on his walls, so that travellers would be able to see just how different it is. When I asked him how the kids got to school in the middle of winter, he explained that they all ski to school. Now that would be a sight to see.

    The final 10 km of the ride took us to the Kaali Meteorite Crater. This is apparently the most famous natural wonder on the island, although the crater itself was a bit smaller than I had been expecting. It even took us a bit of effort to find it.

    The bikes which had served us so well were packed onto the trailer for the final time. We had suffered no punctures, no mechanical issues and no injuries in the entire ride. I could also add that we had not even had a single drop of rain while we were riding. I guess that constitutes a successful ride in anyone's language.

    All that remained for us was to climb back on the bus for the drive to the capital city of Estonia - Tallinn. That will officially mark the end of our Baltics Cycling Adventure, although for some of the team, the trip will continue for a little longer as we travel to Helsinki and St Petersburg.    Read more

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    Estonia Greets the Ghostriders

    June 24, 2019 in Estonia ⋅ ⛅ 20 °C

    I don't suppose it really should have come as such a surprise. After all, for the past three weeks, our bright yellow and pink jerseys have been attracting attention wherever we went. On more than one occasion, locals had been so impressed that they actually looked us up on the Internet to see for themselves just how famous we were.

    I must admit however, that I was a little taken aback to find out that the day after our triumphant arrival in the capital city of Estonia had been declared a national holiday (presumably in our honour). We weren't expecting that, but it was a fitting way to finish our cycling adventure across the three Baltic States.

    I had previously visited Tallinn briefly in 2014 and I was curious to see if my impressions of the place had changed in those last five years. There is no doubt that Tallinn is a pretty city with its lovely combination of forested outer suburbs and its delightful medieval old city. The traffic appears to flow smoothly, the infrastructure is modern and the air is clean.

    Scratch a little below the surface, however,and you find that all is not perfect. In the first couple of hours after our arrival, I saw more homeless men and women than I had seen in the previous three weeks. The town is now firmly on the tourist radar and the streets of the old city are crowded with a continuous onslaught of tour groups following their flag waving guides. Like many other European cities, smoking is very common among all ages. Outdoor dining is spoilt by the constant puffing of toxic tobacco smoke, and if you look down at the ancient cobbles you will likely see them covered with discarded butts.

    The influx of tourists has had another unwelcome side effect - the prices are much higher than anywhere else we have travelled in the Baltic States. You can now expect to pay around 5 Euro (about $8 AUD) for a cup of coffee. Meals are similarly very expensive.

    While the influx of tourism dollars has no doubt bought prosperity to some sectors of the population, it is also evident that the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots", has also grown.

    On another topic entirely, I thought I might make a medical comment. One of the unfortunate side effects of growing old is that you never seem to know which part of your body will hurt or fail next. You can go to bed without a worry in the world and then wake up in the morning feeling like a bus must have run over your left foot during the night. Aches, pains, strains and assorted other bodily breakdowns seem to occur at random, mostly at a time when it will cause the greatest inconvenience.

    For the few weeks before this trip started I had been having trouble with pain at the base of both of my thumbs. This had made changing gears on my bike quite difficult and painful and I had been worrying how I would cope with the pressure of daily cycling during the trip.

    For some completely unknown and bewildering reason, that pain has now disappeared. That's the good news. There is always bad news as well. Over the past few days I have been conscious of a growing soreness and stiffness in my left knee. Although I tried to ignore it while on the bike, it did make it hard to climb stairs or walk without pain.

    When I awoke this morning the pain had increased significantly, meaning that I had to hobble down to the breakfast room like a 68 year old man. Come to think of it, I AM a 68 year old man, so I guess that is perfectly normal. By the same token, I wonder what body part will fail next when the giant wheel of potential medical problems is spun next.

    Tonight we have our final dinner together as a group. After breakfast our team will split into numerous sub sections as our members begin their long journeys back to Australia. After the incredible run of fine weather we have enjoyed here, the shock of arriving back in the middle of a bleak Melbourne winter will be a little hard to bear. And what will be the first thing I will do when I get back home ? Take this DELL computer back to JB HiFi to get the rotten space bar fixed. It has plagued me the entire tripand Iamsickofhaving totype thesamesentenceoverandoveragain.    Read more

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