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Finland to Poland by bike in a week – photos and words
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Posted 5 years ago
Last week four mates and I rode bikes, boats and trains from Helsinki to Warsaw. The premise is simple enough – I turn 30 this year and two of us had struck a deal to visit 30 countries before we turned 30. The cheapest way to do this was a cycle tour, and the most efficient way to do it without getting any visas based on the countries we’d already visited was Finland to Poland, taking in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania on the way.
Day 1 – Helsinki airport to Helsinki, 20. 5 miles, 12mph, 1000ft elevation
We all arrived in Helsinki at different times, as we came from the UK, Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany. Two of us arrived from Heathrow together, built the bikes and headed off towards town. We were amazed to find a two lane, completely segregated bike path following first the river then the railway line from the airport right to the middle of town. On the way we came across a free trance music festival so, having met the rest of our group, we headed back out for a rave, then to the sea for a swim. Turns out that the Baltic around Helsinki is not Baltic at all – it was almost warm, and not salty at all.
Then, off to bed ready for our ferry in the morning.
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[b]Day 2 – Helsinki to Turi, via Tallinn, 80 miles, 15mph, 1200ft elevation[/b]
We caught the 9am ferry from Helsinki to Tallinn and indulged in the vast breakfast buffet and the excellently dire band. Full and happy, we rolled through Tallinn at midday. Unfortunately this was due to be the biggest day and we didn’t have much chance to stop but it was delightful. This was followed by some great cycle routes until we were about 50 miles in when it all disappeared and we followed a terminally dull, straight road through completely unchanging landscape til we got to our destination, Turi- an Estonian holiday town where we went for a swim in a lake before having a massive barbeque to get us back to full strength.
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[b]Day 3 – Turi to Parnu, Estonia, 58 miles, 16mph, 550ft elevation[/b]
A more relaxed start today as we joined Estonian National Cycle Route 2. This followed country roads for the most part, and we got our first taste of gravel after 20 miles. This was pretty rough and the first puncture happened within 500 metres but fortunately this was the only one of the trip. This lasted for about 10 miles and we were only bothered by two cars, then we emerged onto tarmac to be met by an apple farm selling the most mind blowing apple juice I’ve ever had. Further down the road we went for a dip in the river to get the dust off before arriving in the seaside resort of Parnu.
If you’re cash strapped and have a family that wants a beach holiday Parnu looks amazing – about 1 hour’s drive from Tallinn and with a long beach that dips very gently into the calm, non tidal sea, it had lots of cheap accommodation and food.
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[b]Day 4 – Parnu to Latvia, 62 miles, 15mph, 1,100ft elevation[/b]
South of Parnu we joined Eurovelo route 13, after a healthy pastry breakfast (in my case with added protein in the form of a massive fly baked into a savoury). The EU has put a lot of money into this area for roads and cycle routes, but this is still ongoing and half a mile out of Parnu the cycle route just ended in the middle of a wood. We schlepped up to the main road and then the weather broke. In pissing rain we slogged along Estonia’s biggest highway (fortunately the drivers were courteous) then the route ducked into the woods following lovely country roads. After a break for cake and coffee the rain eased a touch, then we reached Latvia where all the signage for the cycle routes went quiet, then reappeared and sent us into some woodland on a fire road that was about half a foot deep in sand.
The CX and gravel bikes managed sort of OK, drifting around with the weight of the bags, but the road bikes just got bogged down and we bailed back onto the main road. Here, the cycle route reappeared as the old road, shut to vehicles and following the new EU funded main road. We arrived at our swanky guesthouse in blazing sunshine, went for a dip in the sea before a sauna and hot tub session and watched the sunset from the beach.
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Day 5 – Latvia- into Riga, 35 miles, 14mph, 340ft elevation
The Eurovelo route totally loses the plot here, weaving back and forth around the A1, Latvia’s biggest road, on extremely rough washboarded gravel roads. These really slowed progress but, more importantly, were really painful to ride. The alternative was being buzzed by trucks that refused to give you more than a few inches of space on the highway.
We wimped out and took the train halfway to Riga. This had the bonus of giving us a good afternoon there and it was a pretty nice city. It was a shame to leave the wonderful views we had on the coastal tracks, though.
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[b]Day 6 – Riga to Lithuania, 59 miles, 17.5mph, 2,000ft elevation[/b]
This day started with an early train journey across Latvia to Daugavpils in the east. Here things suddenly got a lot more Soviet – it was like going back in time 50 years. The toilets in particular were extremely grim at the station, and a lot of buildings that appeared vacant weren’t.
One of our member got tonsillitis, so rode alone to the nearest station across the border with Lithuania (trans-border trains in the Baltics seem to only run at weekends) while the rest of us cracked on. We’d been dreading the first gravel stretch of the day that crossed the border but the roads here clearly saw much less use and were smooth and fast.
We stopped in the amusingly named Vasaginas for lunch (which was full of stolen UK registered cars) then headed into what one of the locals we met whilst swimming in a lake called “the redneck area”. We were now on Eurovelo route 11, but there’s absolutely no cycle route signage in Lithuania. The roads here were big but quiet and we blasted along to our destination- the town of Ignalinas. Apparently we were the first British people to have visited the town’s only hotel for two years.
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Day 7 – Ignalinas to Vilnius, 67 miles, 17mph, 1100ft
The last member of the group caught the train to Vilnius, and as a result the rest of us planned to ride half way there then catch the train to avoid the main road into the city.
The day started with a ride through one of Lithuania’s national parks, through forests with many lakes. After 20 miles of so we turned off the roads and into the woods on a track through the park. This got sandy and the pace was ramped up to keep floating through it, and to avoid the swarms of huge horseflies.
After 5 miles of this we heard bangs, which appeared to be coming from a randomly placed industrial unit in the forest. Once past this it was clear that this wasn’t the source so I blamed the quarry visible on Google Earth. All became clear when we came across a visibly surprised Lithuanian infantryman, who told us that we were riding past a live shooting range and it’d be a great idea to change our route and get out of there fairly quickly. He was, thankfully, amused by the whole thing and decided we weren’t spies (he wouldn’t let me take a photo though). Based on what we saw, though, if Russia decides it wants some Baltic states it’s got easy pickings- half the soldiers we saw were only armed with sticks.
We reached halfway, after going through a military checkpoint that for some reason was absent at the other end of the gravel road and slogging along 8 miles of deep sandy road, 2 hours before the train was due to depart. Our average speed had been high so we decided to blast along the main road and see if we could beat the train. As it turns out, after 15 miles on the road and the rest on cycle paths, we could so we had a long time to check out Vilnius. Vilnius is a wonderful city, I really can’t recommend a visit enough – it’s historic, charming and cheap.
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[b]Day 8 – Vilnius to Warsaw, 8 miles, 10mph, 100ft[/b]
The last stretch didn’t involve a lot or riding- we got up at 5am to catch the 6.20am train from Vilnius to Warsaw. This is a complicated journey, only possible from Friday to Saturday and only twice a day (well, once in the day and once in the night). The first train went to Kaunas, in Lithuania, quickly, so we got breakfast there and did a mini criterium around the circular church in the middle of the town.
From there there’s a tiny 2 car train to Bialystok in Poland. The demand for this train is apparently high but undersupplied. There were a total of 20 bikes on here, including one tandem and plus a Burley trailer. Two of ours ended up dismantled on some seats and others were stacked horizontally in piles. Bialystok involved a 2 hour layover so we enjoyed lunch in what turned out to be a pretty charming place.
Then the final drag to Warsaw on a bigger but even more packed train in 36<sup>o</sup>C heat- fortunately our reserved seats were in the one carriage with air conditioning. We ended with beers by the river, then at the pub where a very kind bike shop had left four bike boxes. Despite being the closest bike shop to our accommodation this led to a 4 mile ride completely drunk with a bike box each. There was some blood and a set of handlebars got bent.
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