I’ve packed everything except the bicycle, so have some time to post an update. Juggling our schedule around a bit, this year’s tour starts July 24!
My goal this year for Linda and I was to find a ride vaguely comparable in difficulty to the EV6 route Linda and I rode along the Danube last year from Munich to Budapest.
It’s effectively impossible to find something easier; I consider EV6 to be the easiest long-distance touring in the world. That exploration eventually led to reviewing the Scandinavian countries. When reviewing Sweden and Denmark, Linda set her heart on visiting the medieval festival in Gotland.
As with our trip last year, we decided to split the journey into two halves. First, we fly into Stockholm. For the first two weeks, we ride south from Stockholm, eventually taking a ferry to Gotland and the medieval festival. Then we travel by ferry back to Stockholm. In Stockholm Linda will meet up with family to travel in Sweden. She next travels to Norway to meet up with more family to explore the fjords before flying home from Oslo.
I realized that if we visited Sweden in high summer, that put me close to the Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) for the second half of the trip. They’ve been on my destination list for a while (if only because I haven’t been there yet!). When we return to Stockholm, I’ll take an overnight ferry to Helsinki, Finland. A couple days later I’ll take another ferry to Tallinn, Estonia. From Tallinn I ride south across Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania towards my flight home in Warsaw. I don’t expect I’ll make it all the way to Warsaw in time for my flight, but that’s what trains are for. I expect to reach the Lithuania/Poland border (a ~60 mile stretch between Kaliningrad Oblast and Belarus) and from there take a train to Warsaw for my flight home.
Kaliningrad Oblast is a semi-exclave of Russia, meaning it’s part of Russia but separated from the main part of the country by other countries. Specifically, it’s located on the Baltic Sea coast, bordered by Lithuania and Poland. Normally you can ride along the Baltic Sea from Lithuania to Poland, but the current political situation makes that problematic!
Last year Linda found dealing with her bicycle awkward after we separated. To make the second half of Linda’s trip easier to manage, she’s renting a bike in Stockholm (and an e-bike at that) for the first half of the trip.
And yes, there’s a ferry in there. Lots of them! 🙂