The English head down to Spain for summer. The Germans go there as well and eat up all the breakfast because they get up earlier. Or they stay home and enjoy balconia. The Swedes travel their country with a trailer or a camper and move from camping site to camping site. The Finns head out to their summer cottages on a lake front and put up a good fight against the mosquitos. But Stefano and me we come up with something different this year. We think it’s so cozy and comfy on our bikes that we can ride them all the way down from Finland to Germany.
The idea is pretty simple, we get on the bikes, ride for 10 - 12 hours a day and look for a next best place to stay for the night. Doing this 7 times in a row should get us as far as from Nastola (near Lahti, Finland) to Ansbach, southern Germany, 50km west of Nuremburg. With Stefano living in Ingolstadt, Germany and me up here in the north (Helsinki, Finland), the logistics needed to be sorted out. I.e. since we are pretty much in agreement that for both of us one direction is enough, air transportation has to care for the other.
Air-Berlin is our chosen partner here. Stefano flies in on Friday next week, we’ll have a good Midsummer barbeque in Nastola and on Monday 22.06. 8am it’s onto the bikes and off we go.
Day 1
It’s almost 250km on the first day. But it’s much easier to think about it in a number of segments. The first segment forms the road to Lahti. It’s on top of a hill ridge, the “Salpausselkä” and mostly flat. We have to climb up a bit towards Hollola. From there we actually have two options, either via Riihimäki (currently marked) or via Hämeenlinna. Both ways are identical in distand. I’d prefer the one with less up and down and the better street surface (lower rolling friction). In case you can provide a hint here, leave a comment below. The last longer segment is then from Forssa to Turku. The wind could pick up and blow right into our faces the closer we get to Turku. Winds often come from this south west corner. We’ll need to really have a good rythm, with changing the lead rider every 5 to 10km or so.
Estimated arrival time in Turku should be around 6pm, perhaps 6:30pm. The ferry leaves at 8:30pm. We’ll probably check out some good hamburger kiosks somewhere in the city. Any recommendations?
Day 2
… tomorrow
Go to part II
Go to part III
Today’s training: rest, having been with the family in the zoo, that was sufficiently running around
Tags: bike tour
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