Hi and welcome to our new blog, St. Petersburg to Göteborg (Gothenburg). After so much positive feedback on our last (and first attempt) blog "Kathmandu to Istanbul" we decided to do it all again. Besides it really was fun and we were amazed at the number of page visits the blog attracted.
The big difference with this upcoming trip is that, apart from saving a fortune in vaccinations, we are 'going it alone' in a manner of speaking and having to make all our own travel arrangements. After spending hours on the net looking at various options, prices etc we have finally got it all nailed down. Makes us realise how lucky we were to have Pete and Kirsten from Odyssey Overland take care of all those tricky bits for us for our African and Silk Road expeditions. We couldn't recommend them highly enough. (Shameless plug! Thanks guys, Oh and their fabulous crew Rogs and Hels who drove us across the Silk Road and are back there again as I write and Al, who crewed our African Odyssey with Rogs).
So, a brief outline of this trip. What started as a plan to join our good friends Don and Sigrid on a cycling trip from St Petersburg to Gothenburg (where Sigrid's family live) quickly became pear shaped when Sue said she was good for a few hundred kilometres but not so keen on a couple of thousand. So we traded sore bums and tired legs for a photographic oriented holiday instead utilising planes, trains, buses, boats and hire cars. Our token cycling effort will be a pleasant three day jaunt around the Turku archipelago with naught but camera, nibbles and champagne, staying in some quaint little B&B's along the way.
The Route:
Fly via Singapore and Helsinki to St Petersburg. We will stay a couple of days in Singapore with Katie (from our African Odyssey) checking out all the amazing new buildings around the waterfront and revisiting some favourite old establishments from our earlier days living there in 1980/1. Chilli crab and Laksa here we come.
Then we will fly out with Don and Sigrid for Helsinki and St.Petersburg. After 5 days we will say goodbye to the intrepid Coopers as they cycle in the direction of Gothenburg. We will take the bus to Tallinn, Estonia and then ferry across the Baltic Sea to Helsinki. Catch the train to Turku, the old Finnish capital. A three day cycle tour then ferry to Stockholm where we plan to catch up with friends again.
From Stockholm to the Faroe Islands by air. (Yes, I know, where the @#$% are they I hear you say? Right here in fact!) Ten days of driving around these amazing islands with their wooly sheep and puffin breeding colonies should be amazing. From the Faroes to Iceland, a photographic mecca in recent times, for more self drive adventures - with tent!! (Seriously hoping for good weather here).
We have 16 days to circumnavigate Iceland in our 4WD before heading way up north to Kirkenes in Norway, where we will join the Hurtigruten cruise ship bound southwards for Bergen, pulling into fjords along the way for sea eagle safaris and a midnight concert in the Tromso cathedral. From Bergen, we will fly to Gothenburg where we hope to meet up with Don and Siggy again to spend a few more days before heading home via a week with family in WA.
Stay tuned...
The big difference with this upcoming trip is that, apart from saving a fortune in vaccinations, we are 'going it alone' in a manner of speaking and having to make all our own travel arrangements. After spending hours on the net looking at various options, prices etc we have finally got it all nailed down. Makes us realise how lucky we were to have Pete and Kirsten from Odyssey Overland take care of all those tricky bits for us for our African and Silk Road expeditions. We couldn't recommend them highly enough. (Shameless plug! Thanks guys, Oh and their fabulous crew Rogs and Hels who drove us across the Silk Road and are back there again as I write and Al, who crewed our African Odyssey with Rogs).
So, a brief outline of this trip. What started as a plan to join our good friends Don and Sigrid on a cycling trip from St Petersburg to Gothenburg (where Sigrid's family live) quickly became pear shaped when Sue said she was good for a few hundred kilometres but not so keen on a couple of thousand. So we traded sore bums and tired legs for a photographic oriented holiday instead utilising planes, trains, buses, boats and hire cars. Our token cycling effort will be a pleasant three day jaunt around the Turku archipelago with naught but camera, nibbles and champagne, staying in some quaint little B&B's along the way.
The Route:
Fly via Singapore and Helsinki to St Petersburg. We will stay a couple of days in Singapore with Katie (from our African Odyssey) checking out all the amazing new buildings around the waterfront and revisiting some favourite old establishments from our earlier days living there in 1980/1. Chilli crab and Laksa here we come.
Then we will fly out with Don and Sigrid for Helsinki and St.Petersburg. After 5 days we will say goodbye to the intrepid Coopers as they cycle in the direction of Gothenburg. We will take the bus to Tallinn, Estonia and then ferry across the Baltic Sea to Helsinki. Catch the train to Turku, the old Finnish capital. A three day cycle tour then ferry to Stockholm where we plan to catch up with friends again.
From Stockholm to the Faroe Islands by air. (Yes, I know, where the @#$% are they I hear you say? Right here in fact!) Ten days of driving around these amazing islands with their wooly sheep and puffin breeding colonies should be amazing. From the Faroes to Iceland, a photographic mecca in recent times, for more self drive adventures - with tent!! (Seriously hoping for good weather here).
We have 16 days to circumnavigate Iceland in our 4WD before heading way up north to Kirkenes in Norway, where we will join the Hurtigruten cruise ship bound southwards for Bergen, pulling into fjords along the way for sea eagle safaris and a midnight concert in the Tromso cathedral. From Bergen, we will fly to Gothenburg where we hope to meet up with Don and Siggy again to spend a few more days before heading home via a week with family in WA.
Stay tuned...
