By Don

For those of you who started reading in the very beginning you may remember a discussion when talking about The Weight on bike stands. They are heavy, but they make it easy to stop anywhere, get off your bike and do whatever.

What is Dennis, who doesn’t have a bike stand doing here? He is taking a picture while holding up his bike. Looks comfortable? No it doesn’t.

So what is with this picture of Don’s bike. Well he is off taking a picture at the same time as Dennis above.

So what about when Dennis wants to take a pee and there is nothing to hold up his bike. Well you really don’t want to know, but trust me it is funny. Glad I don’t ride on that bike.

Bike stand plus 2 points, inadvertantly peeing on you bike while trying to balance it against your leg, minus 5 points. Schadenfreude.

The plan was perfect. The execution flawless. RVYC cyclers would work themselves into a lather taking offence to the statement they couldn’t make it two days. How dare I?

OK, so the execution wasn’t quite flawless and people gathered from Dennis’ blog that it was a shortage of coffee shops that would do them in. But it wasn’t for my lack of diligence. I knew Dennis and I were both in the throws of caffeine withdrawals and capable of irrational acts. We had talked of little else. “We’ve gone thirty km, there should be a coffee shop soon.” “Come on, sixty km there has to be one any minute.” “Look, a town only 10 k out of way, for sure they will have a coffee shop.” Nope, nada, zip. Two long days in a row with nary a coffee shop let alone a bakery. Towns with nothing in them other than a grocery store, and trust me, we checked out the grocery stores.

So I suspected Dennis was likely to spill the beans and ruin my scheme. Therefore before he posted his blog I read it and removed references to the absence of coffee shops. Well I removed two references, one of which I should note was a whole paragraph. But he had snuck in a third reference which I missed and which clearly a number of you didn’t. Foiled.

I feel like the Grinch who stole Christmas only to find out he’d gotten the day wrong.

That darn Dennis.

By Dennis

Getting out of Dodge – Paldiski – Haapsalu – 76km 19.1km/hr

We could not get out of Paldiski quick enough on Sunday morning after listening to the electro-trance music until 3am. We both tried ear plugs to no avail, the bed was vibrating with the bass with the boom-boom-cha-cha beat in every tune. Agg, what a night! It seems that Saturday is the night to party, but not for two tired cyclists. The ride was mostly on flat roads through farmlands and some forests with the wind on the nose, but it also rained intensely a couple of times. Not much fun. We were glad to reach Happsalu mid afternoon and stay at the Koidu Homestay where we had a whole house to ourselves.

Going to weather while loaded with buckshot – Haapsalu to Parnu 115km 19.7km/hr

Well this is what my panniers felt like after our first century (100k) ride with a 15-20km wind on our nose. I researched the prevailing winds before leaving and they promised north westerlies but we had south easerlies all day on the nose. Seems like the weathernen here are not different from at home, or maybe it is the effects of gloal warming. We did get a little reprieve on the curves with a ‘close reach’ from time to time but at least it did not rain. It was our second day in a row with no coffee shops for a morning break, but it was another day wih beautiful farmlands and forests. Imagine that in Canada! Over 200km with no coffee shops, out RVYC riding group would rebel!

A most pleasant ride – Parnu to Salagriva 82km 19.3km/hr

Today made up for yesterday and the day before with a pleasant ride through farmlands, forests, small villages and along the seashore. The ride was mostly on country roads except for about 15km on the a main highway with many big transport trucks and a narrow shoulder. A white knuckle ride at times as we were buffeted by the passing trucks. We are staying in an air bnb accomodation – a condominium in a soviet bloc style building (i.e. a box) next to the highway. It will be ear plugs tonight! The accomodation is circa 1950’s soviet style with arborite cupboards and other dated furnishings. Not to worry, we are getting an authentic taste of old Russia! At least it had a one burner hot plate (induction no less!) so we cooked in tonight as reastaurant meals are getting boring with not much variety.

Salavgriva is in Latvia and we crossed the border from Estonia about 15km north of here. 1 country down and 8 to go!

By Don

“Dennis, the RVYC cyclists wouldn’t make it two days here in Estonia.”

“Geez Don, that’s a little hard, why would you say that.”

“Well, I find it painful, they wouldn’t be able to deal with it.”

OK RVYC cyclists, this is a quiz. Why would I say that? To make it easier lets cover the more obvious reasons so that they can be dismissed.

1. The cycling is hard with steep climbs. No, it is very flat.

2. The roads are poorly maintained with well worn asphalt, potholes and gravel sections. Nope. Roads are amazing. I wish the asphalt was this smooth at home.

3. No shoulder to ride on, heavy traffic and crazy drivers. Well, you do have to pay attention to the road you select to ride on, but other than a few short distances we have either had shoulders or so little traffic it didn’t matter. Also there have been bicycle paths to get in and out of the larger towns. The drivers are exceedingly polite. Even on roads busy with trucks they make sure you are given room.

4. The scenery sucks and there is garbage everywhere. Wrong. The greenery is lush. The small population means you are either going through forests or farmland. The ditches are clean, the farms are emaculate. It is a very beautiful country.

5. Paldiski turned out to be one of the better looking towns making it no fun to spends nights. Wrong again. I had Paldiski pegged. It was in a league of its own. The towns we have cycled through or stayed in have been attractive and interesting.

6. The distances are too long. No, how far you ride is up to you.

Give up? Well you can’t. Post a comment with what you think it is. If you figure it out the prize should be obvious.

By Dennis

After 3 days in Tallinn and sightseeing and adjusting to jet lag, we finally got down to the task of starting our journey. Estonia, with a population of 1.3 million is a small country, but it’s capital, Tallinn, is a popular cruise ship port and when 5 ships disgorge their passengers the streets of the medieval old town are crammed with passengers.   Reminds me of Victoria in the summer.

Tallinn has a good cycling infrastructure with many shared pedestrian/cyclist paths and where there are no cycling paths it is perfectly legal to ride on the sidewalks. This policy and “cyclist friendly drivers” make it a pleasure to ride around the city, something we took advantage of with a ride out west of the city along the Baltic seashore to Parita Beach. On the way we came unexpectedly across a colossal black granite memorial in memory of the 200,000 Estonians who were murdered or died while imprisoned under the Soviet Communist regime. One in five Estonians died under the Soviet Union’s terror policy until Estonia gained its independence in 1991.

On a brighter note, here are some pictures of Tallin…

Our ride to Paldiski was a short one at 56km, travelling on a cycle path for most of the way, over flat terrain, and in the sunshine! Paldiski is a one horse town on the Baltic sea coast with a mostly Russian population of 3700 living in quintessential soviet bloc style housing .  We are staying at the “Paldiski Pubi” – a family run pub, the only pub and the only hotel in town. We are the only guests.

By Don

We stopped for the first night in Paldiski. Now if there is an uglier town in Estonia then… no scratch that like a stereo needle being dragged across an album. Nothing can get under the low bar that Paldiski has set. There is no uglier town, I refuse to believe it. Paldiski used to be a submarine base set up by the Soviet Union and it is a prime example of the oxymoron “Russian Architecture”. Block after block of the ugliest apartment buildings ever built but worse. Without the submarine base they have all become debilitated, but regrettably still lived in. And their the nice part of town. (When you look at these nondescript grey apartment buildings that got built all over the USSR you wonder about those Russians who are pining for their former glory. Some glory.)

But circumstance has made our stay seem farcical. Across from our hotel is a small hall and currently there is a tour bus of Swedish born again Christians having a gathering and every time you walk by, one or more comes running across trying to invite you in to hear the word of Christ and eat pancakes. So why here? Everyone and everything is Russian. “Ya, dat is vat ve vill do. Ve will go to Paldiski, da ugliest place in Estonia, and convert people using da language dey don’t understand. Ve vill save Paldiski.” Me thinks a wrecking ball would be a better move in the right direction.

Trance music. Do you know what it is? Listen to some Trance Music. Listen to it as loud as your stereo will go and for as long as you can plus one hour. No, make it two hours. Of course there is a reason I’m asking. And when I explain you will understand my somewhat politically incorrect and totally unsympathetic diatribe on the town.