Nordkapp

[Murat Erdinc]

12th Day Riga St. Petersburg

Our today’s route



Our trace record



We visited the town’s symbolic places once again with our motorcycles and took photos, after having left the hotel in the morning.

The square where “liberty monument” is located



Front of university building



Old Town’s square





We headed for St Petersburg after having completed the city tour.









We first stop at Tartu







We had our lunch at town square at Tartu



We headed for Narva after lunch, located on Estonian-Russian border,



and Russian border



It took almost one hour to leave Estonia, due the existence of tour coaches too





I saw for the first time here a passport officer glancing gapingly at a passport 4 or 5 times, from the very first page to the last one.

Russian border was another comedy, and we should have spent at least two hours over there. You have to fill in the forms first, then to wait in queue for customs officer to come and control. They take everybody out of coaches and unload the luggage, and check the interior. You just spot almost 2 officers, and sometimes nobody is around for a quarter of hour. At last an officer came by us, controlled the passports and documents, made us open both boxes of each motorcycle, inspected thoroughly, and sent us to passport police, and the procedure ended with visa control and entry stamp.

After this delay which was not programmed at all, we filled up at the f first gas station and headed to St. Petersburg.

St. Petersburg



We parked our motorcycles in front of the hotel and unloaded our luggage



We started to stroll around with our motorcycles after check in

The square where Hermitage Theatre – Old Hermitage – Small Hermitage – Winter Palace are located























Views from the Coast of river Neva

In front of us, Peter and Paul Fortress built by Peter the Great on 1703, on Hare Island, river Neva






Church of the Savior on Spilled Blood or Resurrection



Michailovsky Castle



We returned back to the hotel to take a good rest after such a tiresome day, after having visited nearby places

[dimitris777]

Very nice arcadash !!!! I want to go Nordkapp this year but i don't now for S. Petersburg.....anyway.... i wait for more information and picture

[Murat Erdinc]

Originally Posted by dimitris777

Very nice arcadash !!!! I want to go Nordkapp this year but i don't now for S. Petersburg.....anyway.... i wait for more information and picture

Kalimera arcadash,
We took the long way up that' s why we visited st Petersburg
soon coming more picture

[Murat Erdinc]

13th day St.Petersburg

Today’s targets are important places outside the town. The first target is Catherine Palace, in Pushkin town, nearly 30 km south of St. Petersburg

Views on the road







We could not a chance to visit Catherine’s summer palace, due 300th birthday commemoration of famous Russian poet Pushkin











Park around the sumeer palace

[Murat Erdinc]

We headed for Peterhof Palace after Catherine Palace











Cathedral of the St. Apostles Peter and Paul







and we return back once again to St. Petersburg

The Narva Triumphal arch



Old Kalynkin Bridge







View from the bridge



St. Isaac’s Cathedral







Senate Building



Opposite shore



Old Stock Exhange building



Rostral Column







Peter and Paul Fortress







We complete this day too, and head to the hotel



Nevsky Prospekt, where our hotel is located

[Murat Erdinc]

14th Day St. Petersburg

We took a boat trip on river Neva and explored the town on our 3rd day in St. Petersburg

The channel where we’ll board the boat



And our sailing starts

[Murat Erdinc]

After we have finished our boat tour,



We went to visit Peter and Paul Fortress built by Peter the Great on 1703, on Hare Island, river Neva

Photos we took on the way to the fortress











Bridge leading to the island



It is traditional for newly wed to hang a lock on the bridge’s guardrails and throw the key to the river, to provide there marriage to last for the eternity.

This is probably the lock of a newly wed couple,



and this one of and old couple





Fortress officials with traditional costumes























We shot the mosque in St. Petersburg on our way back to the hotel





Views on the way back















And we ended onather day, and returned back to the hotel to rest

[Murat Erdinc]

15th Day St.Petersburg Tallinn Helsinki

Our today’s route



Our trace record



We got quite early in the morning and started to get prepared for the journey. We loaded our luggage to our motorcycles and headed to Estonian border. We reached the border after a trip of nearly 180 km. Border procedures got finished earlier this time, when compared to our entry. We took photos of the fortress at narva after entering to Estonia (we could shoot it due lack of time while entering to Russia).









Narva







We started from narva for Tallinn







We first went to the port and purchased our ferry tickets to Helsinki once we arrived to Tallinn, and then headed to old town’s square

[Murat Erdinc]

We went to “Olde Hansa” restaurant for the lunch, where we had reserved earlier.



web address http://www.oldehansa.ee/

























Restaurant’s WC






Sink

[Murat Erdinc]

We strolled around the town after lunch, till the ferry’s departure time

[Murat Erdinc]

Meanwhile we made a city tour with a cuf cuf















Then we went to the port and boarded the ferry for Helsinki




We larned from Turks on the ferry the existence of a Turkish restaurant in Helsinki and headeed for it as soon as we got ashore





Menu: white beans with tomato sauce, rice, pickles, various vegetables with olive oil and “Rakı”







The guy we met on board had chosen the same restaurant to invite his guests



The journalist Selçuk who wrote the news about us and whom we met at the restaurant took some photos of us





We stayed quite late over there, then returned back to the hotel to rest

[Murat Erdinc]

16th day Helsinki Turko Stockholm


Our today’s route



Our trace record



Today’s route, nearly 170 km, was the shortest one of the whole trip.
We had planned to take the ferry leaving Turko for Stockholm at 20:15(8:15PM), so we roamed around Helsinki from the morning till afternoon.

We decided this morning to maker a boat tour in Helsinki

The square wher tour boats depart



After having parked our motorcycles,



we boarded the tour boat.

[Murat Erdinc]

A beach reserved only for dogs















Ice breakers are waiting for winter months





Helsinki from the sea





We started to visit the town after the boat tour

[Murat Erdinc]

Helsinki cathedral













Orthodox church



Johannes church



We called again to the Turkish restaurant after having finished places to visit and started around 16:00 (4:00PM) for Turko, at 170 km distance.
Our ferry was scheduled to sail at 20:15 (8:15PM) for Stockholm, so we had to be at the port 2 hours before. We arrived on time after a nice trip.












Our sailng to Stockholm started after loading









We got to our cabins to rest with the end of the day, for tomorrow’s trip would be quite long and tiresome.

[Murat Erdinc]

17th Day Stockholm Rovaniemi

While the ferry was approaching to Stockholm





















We got ashore around 07:00 (7:00AM) in the morning after a good rest and started our journey of around 1,250 km

Our course is Stockholm, Uppsala, Sundvall, Umea, Lulea and Rovaniemi successively.



Our trace record



We stopped over first at “Dragon Café” on the route and we were planning to have breakfast there, but we found out that we had to wait for 30 minutes till opening time, so we continued to not loose time.



Views on the road