.....So Monday night we got to Cherbourg in the German Love Bus.....Stopped in a little hotel for the night and first thing Tuesday morning we pushed the bike about half a mile to the port......Despite being two days early, Brittany Ferries let us on the next crossing so we pushed the bike onto the ferry and pushed it off the ferry at the other end into Poole!.....

....We had a lovely couple of days rest with my sister in Poole waiting for some clutch parts to be delivered then on Friday morning help came in the shape of Mike who rides the same kind of bike....Mike delivered us to Gary's, another enthusiast's place in Oxfordshire who fixed the bike.....

....We stopped there the night, and this morning headed for home!.....

....Yesterday woke early....We'd arrived at a campsite in Fismes the night before....Nobody was about so we had to break into the toilets....The first code we tried worked!....1234....The caretaker still hadn't arrived in the morning so we packed & jumped on the bike....With the clutch slipping, it didn't really want to move but 10 minutes down the road it picked up speed....I think we got to 50mph!....Anyway we pushed on all day ending up in Honfleur last night....It's very beautiful here but also very crowded with well dressed tourists....The kind of place that makes me feel very scruffy after 3 months on an MT with one spare set of smelly clothes!....

.....Anyway this morning the clutch finally died....The bike would no longer move!!!......

....So this afternoon with just over 100 miles to Cherbourg, I offered two German lads who were stopping on the same campsite, Paul & George some cash to take us and the bike to Cherbourg in the back of their van!...The van only had 3 seats so Ruth caught the train and I went with the bike....We're in a hotel in Cherbourg now and will push the bike to the ferry in the morning....hopefully!!
...Big Thanks to Paul & George....Thanks Guys!....

....Paul & George in the "Love Bus"....

...Friday was another beautiful sunshine day!....Started the day in Germany....Didn't get the best nights sleep!....The campsite was quiet enough in itself but when we chose it, we hadn't noticed the train track on the other side of the road!...Trains ran all night long!.....The morning was spent first meandering down the Mosel....Beautiful....Then we had about 30 miles of Autobahn before reaching Luxembourg....After a fattening lunch of ice-cream we headed for France.....But going up a hill, the chain broke!.....It was a reasonably quiet but fast moving road with barriers at the side so we unloaded the bike and I pushed it a few hundred yards to a parallel vinyard track only feet from where we had stopped.....It had broken on the link so I was able to fix it with a spare....Hopefully it will see us home!.....

....Repairing the chain in Luxembourg.....

...Saturday we woke up in Thionville in France.....We were on the road by 7:30 as the forecast was HOT....Heading for Reims, we stopped at an olde village coffee shop before visiting L'Ossuaire de Douaumont....My knowledge of European History had not prepared me for this monument...Standing in the centre of the Verdun Battlefield of WWI, it is the resting place of 140,000 unknown soldiers from the surrounding battlefield where close to 400,000 men lost their lives...It sits there like a vast tomb....Graves are still being laid outside....In the centre of the monument is a tower from which the surrounding battlefield can be viewed....

...Back on the bike in the scorching heat we got to Suippe for a fuel stop, a swim in the town pool and an ice cream or two (Lidl's only sell them in packs of 4)....

.....Big Big Big Thanks to Brittany Ferries who have given us free passage from Cherbourg to Poole next week.....We're very grateful....

....River Mosel in Germany....

.....After a day of starvation it was great to eat again.....Breakfast at Pension Colditz (no joke!) in Germany.....Yesterday was spent making up some miles on the Autobahn.....most of it was okay but sections were busy and it wasn't fun having to be in lane three of four being overtaken on both sides.....Today, after packing the tent wet after a night of thunder & lightening, we rode 100 miles on the autobahn to Koblenz by which time we'd had enough......we pulled into town and at a traffic lights we asked a chap on a scooter the way to the Rhine....."Follow me" he said and took us to the point where the Mosel joins the Rhine.....It was lovely and we took a cable car trip up over the river.....Afterwards we rode for 30 miles south west following the river Mosel.....It was a really lovely ride..........We stopped at a campsite, went for a swim in the river and planned our route for tomorrow....

.....After five nights staying with friends, we were starting to forget that we're on a journey so this morning we hit the road.....

....50 miles south and we reached Kutna Hora where we visited the Sedlec Ossuary....This is the church that Ewan & Charlie visited in Long Way Round.....It's the church that has been decorated with thousands of human bones.....It's quite an incredible place and I'm glad to have finally seen it in the flesh.....

.....Kutna Hora.....

.....Afterwards we started to head north towards Germany.....Today we rode about 120 miles and landed at a place called Terezin.....As we rode in, the place looked incredible....Amazing architecture.....It resembles a Napoleonic fortress with a huge moat surrounding it.....We soon found a hotel and then wandered down to visit the fort.....Although it was built at the end of the 18th century, it was unfortunately used by the Nazis in WWII mainly as a prison but also to commit atrocities.....It was a sad place to visit and is now a museum.....

....One of the fortress gates....

.....So afterwards, we visited the Motor Museum down the road and enjoyed the collection of cars, motorbikes and the obligatory London bus.....Outside were three guys travelling on vintage Jawa mopeds....

....I'd rather be riding an MT....

.....We're on our way home now, so tomorrow hopefully Germany.....

......After a blissful much needed good nights sleep at Hotel Eroplan in Rosnov, we pushed on the 170 miles or so to our friend's Gabi & Franta, who own a lovely shack near Jicin....On the way we bumped into Paul at a motorcycle shop in Olomouc.....We were buying brake pads, he was admiring the bike.....He comes to the UK each year in Enduro vintage class.....He reckoned that the Rotax 350 was one of the finest engines ever built!.....fair play!...

....Our friend's shack in Czech....

The 170 miles were pretty tough,....the highway was boring so we went slower on back roads and turned the 170 miles into 190 miles....Although Czech seems a laid back, tidy place, the drivers seem to overtake you closer than anywhere else on this trip.....Some are just plain dangerous...
....It's great to be with friends again,......Thursday was spent building a deck with Franta outside the shack and yesterday was spent by a local lake, swimming & kayaking.....Today we've headed into town, minus the luggage to bed in the new brake pads and have a nice drive.....It's scorching once again!.....
....It's time to start heading home soon!......

......Sunday morning rode to Zakopane....It was quite a tough slow road into the mountains....Helped make up our mind not to cross the Alps.....Despite the ride to Nordkapp, we've hardly encountered any steep hills on this trip......The first time I was here was nearly 20 years ago......Back then it was a really quiet sleepy ski resort with a handful of Russian traders doing their business on the market...I think I was last here four years ago but I'm shocked how the town has changed since my last visit.....I know it was getting commercial but it now has a Tesco, at least two McDonalds and sadly the centre now has the feel of Blackpool....There are now so many cars here......So Monday we escaped the hoards and headed deep into the National Park....

....The campsite in Zakopane was great.....The chef is Scottish and makes a great Schnitzel & chips & salad which has become my current staple diet washed down with beer.....On Monday night three Germans turned up, two on Russian sidecar outfits and a 150cc MZ.....the guy on the MZ loved the MT, had never seen one before and is now smitten!......They had arrived via Slovakia and suggested some good roads for us.....

.....So after some heavy nighttime rain, we headed West firstly for Slovakia....It threatened rain at first but turned very hot again as the day progressed.....We've not had much of sleep this last week and Ruth was getting very sleepy on the back of the bike......We stopped just short of the Czech border for Ruth to have a snooze.....Sadly her snooze was cut short by the village drunk who started giving her directions to the nearest hospital.....I meanwhile visited the motorcycle breakers there, run by a guy in a wheelchair, to see what spare parts were to be had.....He did have an Aprilia 350 crammed in amongst the XR's & the KLR's & the Teneres.....

....no guns, no ice creams!....

.....It felt a bit wrong just driving through Slovakia and not contributing to their economy but we were soon in the Czech Republic......We landed in Roznov mid afternoon and found an inexpensive hotel......Only 170 miles to our friends place in Czech......

...Thursday rode to Krakow.....150 miles.....10 miles to go, a wasp stung me on my neck whilst negotiating a junction....had to wait about half a miunte to pull over Before I could pull the bugger out....

...Didn't sleep well Thursday night....This time down to toothache.....Decided to find a dentist and get it pulled.....So found one online....There website made them look like the cast of a TV medical drama show so off we went....Soon had an X-ray and a quote for the work....Went off to get some cash....and was back in the chair by 11am....This is no exaggeration....5 hours later I was released from the chair having had Root Canal work....
....The anaesthetic is just wearing off....

....Woke up this morning without the usual toothach.....just jaw ache from having my mouth held opened with a wedge for 5 hours yesterday.....Did a bit of maintenance on the bike....or more to the point, we bled the brakes ready for the the mountains.....

.....Afterwards, we headed into Krakow to see the sights......We went up to Wawel Castle and visited the cathedral where many of the old Kings & Queens of Poland are buried.....We climbed the bell tower to see Sigmund's Bell......



....After a couple of beers we headed into the jewish quarter for a wander before drinking and eating a little more.....Just having a look at the map thinking about the next few days....We're off to see some friends in the Czech Republic but not sure whether to visit Zakopane in the Tatra mountains first....It's only about 60 miles south of here.....

.....Stayed in Vilnius for two nights.....We were tourists for the day!...It was scorching hot.....We visited a holy relic.....I drank some beer in the shade......Saw a bit of the Olympic Opening Ceremony on TV.....Wandered around the Old Town.....It's a very beautiful city.....

...part of the holy relic...

.....Then on Sunday we got up early......5am....The bike was packed and we were on the road before 6am.....destination Augustow in Poland 135 miles away......We were there by about 10am, and had the tent up on a campsite (£2) next to a crystal clear lake by 11am....Spent the day being holidaymakers.....swimming, then going to the bar, swimming, then going to the bar......until the scorchio weather stopped and the thunderstorm came......By the morning we were the only campers left!......

...Changing money at the Polish border...

..We were on the road again by 6am but it was not quiet Sunday!....Instead it was Lorry Monday.....We're sort of on the way to Krakow but we've veered off to the east to Bialowieza on the border of Belarus where Ruth is keen to see the Bialowieski National Park......It is one of the last remaining areas of Primeval Forest in Europe and is also home to bison...although so far I have only seen large plastic ones adorning the bars and cafes of the district.....

...Lots of Storks nests on the road...

...Google Translate??...

.....Getting out of Russia wasn't too hard.....We filled up the tank and the jerry can before leaving Russia.....I'll miss the 58p a litre fuel.....It took us about an hour to get out of Russia and a similar length of time to get into Latvia...

...4 mile queue of lorries at the Russian border...

...After the crossing we drove another 70 or so miles before finding a lovely lake to camp beside....The next morning went for a swim in the lake before setting off to the Latvian town of Daugavpils for breakfast....

....camping by the lake....

....Yesterday was been the hottest day of the trip so far.....It was well over 40 degrees and although we only had 150 miles to cover, it was a long day.....We were heading for Vilnius in Lithuania....but about 10 miles before we arrived, the rear tyre blew doing about 40.....fortunately kept the bike upright and soon had it parked in the shade....Took the wheel off and headed to a Yamaha dealer I could see in the distance.....I thought about doing it myself but this time, as it was getting late I fancied a bit of help.....Soon had the Dunlop off and the new T63 on.....Me & Ruth got it back on the bike in (our) record time and then we headed into town.....It took us about 40 minutes to find a hostel....saw a bit of the Olympic Opening Ceremony on TV! with Lithuanian Commentary!.....

...Quick Update!....Bike now running well minus starter motor...so it's push start or kick start from now on!....


...Last night was the first meeting of the Moscow Chapter MT Riders!....It consisted of me & Ruth and Pavel & Anton, both of whom live in Moscow, both have MT350's bought from LMS....At the meet at Honky Tonk We were surrounded by Hell's Angels, Biker Brothers, Night Wolves and a few other assorted gang members....You could see they had MT envy.....

....MR Riders Moscow....

...Ruth & I were really looking forward to an early start....We were up at 5, the bike was packed by 6....Then Dmitry sent a text to say that a Goodbye breakfast was being prepared at the Honky Tonk bar for us.....I still haven't mastered kick starting the bike.....Last night Pavel lent us a rear footpeg....I'd fitted Ade's brilliant big ones but sadly they get in the way trying to kickstart........Despite the new footpeg, I was struggling so it was time for a pushstart...


...Moscow clearly wasn't ready for us to leave and decided to deal another hand.....With Ruth pushing, I was just a bit too enthusiastic putting the bike into gear and I snapped the end off the gear lever!....F***!.....So off I went on foot with my gear lever, still wearing my leathers in the Moscow heat to find a welder....I tried a few places but most were still shut (it was about 7:30am)....Eventually found a place and got it welded up (another story!)....back to the bike, managed to kick start it then off we went.....

....Ruth tries out a comfier bike....

...Garmin managed to get us out of Moscow.....I can't say I enjoyed it....Getting into the 6th lane of a highway 2-up with baggage on an MT350 to take a left hand fork....It's a dangerous city to ride in and I was glad as the countryside started to take over after about 30 or 40 miles...The road wasn't quite as bad as had been suggested but it had it's moments....


..I think we were both glad to leave Moscow and we made our longest day's ride of the trip so far of 249 miles....We'd have carried on had Ruth not been stung by a bee on her hand....So we turned round and headed for a motel we'd seen a mile or so back....Which is where we are now....900 roubles for the night (£18)...Sorted!....


...Only 157 miles to the Latvian border in the morning....

....Moscow's a tough city to ride in.....As you enter the city the roads widen to about 6 lanes.....You've got to be so on your guard.....Was nearly sideswiped by a new Range Rover at one point and had to cross several lanes as we approached Red Square....I was using Garmin to direct us to Dubrovka Metro from where we had to send an SMS to out contact Maxim....Half an hour later his business partner Dmitry turned up on a Harley chopper to escort us to the "Night Train" Biker Hotel....We soon settled in before being treated to a fine meal in the Night Train restaurant.....There were about 100 bikers there, mainly on Harleys (but not MT's!)....

...The current state of the bike....

....That was Friday and now it's Sunday!!....We are currently broken down in Moscow with only seven days left on our visa!....So it's time to sort out an extension on the visa as the bike could take some time to repair....We're not quite sure what the problem is but we can't get it to fire....Yestaerday we checked the valves which were out and got compression back to the engine...THe carb has now been stripped and rebuilt twice....so the next thing to work on is the electrics....However in working on the bike, The starter is now making the bike clunk a bit!....not a good sign.....
...Fortunately we're in the good hands of our friend Maxim and his business partner Dmitry....Together they own the biker Motel that we're stopping at....Maxim also owns the custom bike shop where the bike is currently under repair....One bit of good news is the spare tyres sent by Huw Lewis Tyres of Aberystwyth have been located in a Parcelforce garage in Moscow so if we get the bike going then we've got tyres for the journey home....
....Last night an Angel in the shape of Pavel appeared at the "Night Train" Biker bar....He's possibly one of only two owners of an MT350 in Moscow....He has a Desert bike which he bought from LMS some time ago.....Fortunately he has a second half bike from which we will borrow some elecrics to hopefully sort the problem....Meantime we need to sort out an extension to our visa....

....Monument to Yuri Gagarin....

...Having upto now never required the assistance of a British Embassy or Consulate abroard (me, not Ruth), We wandered down to the British Embassy yesterday (Saturday) to find it closed at weekends (Phone a helpline in London for emergencies!).....(outside the embassy is a bronze statue of Sherlock Holmes & Doctor Watson).....so we went for breakfast at a local eatery and instead met the Belgian Ambassador to Moscow who keeps his Embassy open all hours in case of emergencies for his citizen!....
...Anyway Dmitry knows someone who can help us with our visa so we're hopeful that we can get an extension to our visa long enough to fix the bike....

...Everybody rubs the dog's nose...

...So today we've had a great day in the heat of Moscow.....The metro is 10 minutes walk from "Night Train" so we travelled to Metro Ploschad Revolution (Revolution Square).....The underground was the most beautiful and elaborately decorated I have ever seen with beautiful bronzes on every corner...It is truly stunning.....We walked up into Red Square, and queued to see the Lenin Mausoleum..... Last year I tried to visit Lenin but he was closed on Mondays.....Fortunately he was open on Sundays....
....I found it very special.....After security checks (No cameras / Mobile phones) you walk along the wall of the Kremlin...The bit you normally cannot see from Red Square as it is hidden by the seating for the Generals for the Mayday parade.....You go past lots of memorials before entering the mausoleum through the front door.....It's very dark inside and you go down some steps  and through another door into the dark tomb...The whole room is built of polished black granite with a kind of zigzag effect in Red Granite around the ceiling....
....Lenin was housed in a large glass & bronze casket his hands and face are eerily lit in the darkness....There was a peace to the place, very silent compared to the outside bustle of Moscow.
....As you exit the tomb, you are leave via a line of statues of former soviet leaders including Breshnev & Stalin....I think that these are their graves but I am not sure....Stalins had some flowers on it, Brezhnev's did not.... 

...Changing of The Guard atThe Tomb of The Unknown Soldier...

.....I've wanted to visit Novgorod for about 25 years and finally I'm here! and not at all disappointed!....In addition to being one of the most ancient cities in Russia, Novgorod holds the esteemed title of being a twin town to Watford which is where I was student of Printing all those years ago!.....I used to think Watford was a bit greedy in the twin town department as it was twinned with at least five towns (maybe the councillors got to go on jollys) but Novgorod was the only one that stuck out for me....After I finished my degree, I managed to avoid entering real employment for a further year by being elected sabattical president of the Students Union....It was a great year but I failed in my attempts to organise an exchange trip with some students of Novgorod University....

....Anyway, here we are, we arrived yesterday afternoon after a 125 mile ride from St Petersburg....Getting out of St Peterburg took about an hour before we were on the Moscow Highway which seems to have driving laws of it's own....When we arrived here we met Micha, a couchsurfer, an ex-hairdresser turned mechanic.....Micha lives on the eighth floor of a towerblock and has an LPG conversion Lada with electric windows and central locking but dreams of owning a vintage Volga....He also has a small garage about a mile away where we locked the bike last night......

....Last night Micha took us for a walk to see The Novgorod Kremlin.....which was stunningly beautiful....a walled fortress housing several churches, one of the most beautiful monuments I have ever seen....Built to celebrate 1,000 years of Novgorod back in the 1,800's....The Nazis liked it so much that they dismantled it to take it to Berlin during the war but it never left the city and was reconstructed soon after.....Novgorod is very clean, no grafitti and no litter, It has a fine statue of Lenin in the square outside The Kremlin and has a very grand local Govenment building built in Soviet times overlooking the square......
....This morning we visited an ancient monestary which thankfully was a happier place than the one on Solvetsky Island.....

Then this afternoon I sweated over the bike....It got a bit uncomfortable as I ended up being surrounded by a bunch of Russians telling me what to do and prodding the bike!.....Had the carb off, cleaned it, used a compressor on it.....put it back on and the bike ran then stalled!.....bugger!...Probably back to square one with it's running issue!....


While I was at it, I did an oil change and topped up the front brake fluid....Tomorrow onward bound towards Moscow!.....I'm starting to feel a bit restless here!.....

.....This is now our 4th day in St Petersburg....On our first day we went for a wander around the city visiting Peter & Paul Island, Revolution Square, The Church of the Spilled Blood (built on the spot where Alexander II was murdered) and the Hermitage (what can i say!...lots of pots & pictures!)......

.....The next day was great....Took the metro to Lenin Square......saw his Statue...met with our Russian teacher from Russia/Aberystwyth who was also in town on holiday.....She then took us to see the train which brought Lenin to Russia at the start of the Revolution........

......Then met Irina, a couchsurfer from Leningrad who took us out to Kronstadt, an old military base/fortress where we met Maxim, a local dude who showed us around some of the hidden sights on the island including Peter I's dry ship dock (quite a technical wonder considering it's age, some nuclear submarines (from a distance!), some of the Russian baltic fleet (close-up) the place of the "first ever" Radio transmission (Yes I thought it was Marconi too, the Russians say otherwise!), a suicide cemetery and of course a statue of Lenin........A dyke now exists to the island so took a bus & metro back to town......

....Yesterday I went for a ride around town and visited Harley-Davidsom St Petersburg who were like must Russians we meet, very welcoming......

....Just had two wonderfully exhilarating days getting to St Peterburg.....Set off from Petrozavodsk yesterday in the rain....But it was hot which made the daily game of "dodge the pothole in the town" even more scary as my goggles were steamed up even before we set off!....After 20 miles on the highway, we turned off to follow the 260 mile road around Lake Ladoga.....Much of the road yesterday was new highway and a simple pleasure to ride....Soon it was sunny and remained like that nearly all the day....At one point we followed a sign to a memorial.....

....It was a very sad place, My Russian was not good enough to understand but I had the feeling that it was a mass grave and the site of a wartime massacre....There were old relics of life and war on the graves including horseshoes, helmets, bullets and gasmasks....It rained while we were there.....Afterwards we rode into the town of Sortavala, not far from the Finnish Border. There we met two Russian guys on 250 Honda XR's. We'd heard about a beautiful canyon close by so we rode upto the canyon with them and hired a rowing boat....One of the Russians rowed.....It was very beautiful.....an old granite quarry, now filled with water and hosting bungee jumps etc.....

Afterwards, we headed back to town, had a meal and searched for somewhere to make camp.....We found a lovely village by a lake where we pitche the tent....Lots of village kids visited us as did the local dogs!....

Todays road was not so luxurious....It started with nearly 40k of corrugated gravel....Because of the discomfort 2-up with all the luggage, we rode on the muddy hard shoulder whenever possible....I was wishing for a new T63 at this point instead of my new Dunlop racing tyre which does a good job on the road but not so good off road!....Whenever there was a town or village, there would be a little bit of tarmac.....At one of these I got so excited, went yippeee!, opened the throttle and was then promptly stopped by the local Police for speeding....59kmh in a 40 kmh area.....He looked over the bike for a few moments then let us on our way....Wow!
The road got better and busier as we approached St Petersburg....Once again we were chased by a pack of dogs....It happens almost daily!..... 
....Riding into St Petersburg was great.....We rode right into the centre before looking for our appartment....We're renting a room from a family member of our Russian teacher....We've landed and it's going to be great spending a few days here now....

....After a lovely night in a cabin by the second largest lake in Europe, we blasted south 100 miles.....managed in in just over 2 hours.....the highway was fairly new and it wasn't until we were in town that we had to play the daily game of dodge the pothole......The weather was perfect again.....high 20's, crystal clear blue skies, sunglasses on all the way......
...We got to Petrozavodsk (Peter's factory) .....The second city built by Peter the Great (The first being St Petersburg) ...... It's a fantastic town, on the shores of Lake Onega (the same lake as the previous night 100 miles away)......
....Not many motorcyclists on the road.....sometimes I'm amazed by the suicidal nature of some of the drivers.....finally got a haircut yesterday......much needed in the heat here (i've heard mention of rain in the UK)......
.....In Petrozavodsk, we're stopping with a couchsurfer, Nikita, an English teacher who spent some time showing us around the sights including the largest remaining statue of Lenin in North West Russia, the entrance to a nuclear bunker, and Peter's Factory.....which last turned out a tractor in 1990.....
.....We've got 2 more days here before the long 260 mile drive to St Petersburg.......

....Crazy few days!.....The haircut never materialized but I managed to get some antibiotics over (or under!) the counter to deal with my toothache...Visited the now retired nuclear powered icebreaker LENIN which is one of the few "visitor" attractions in Murmansk...It was pretty interesting although the guide who could speak good English decided not to do so and conducted the whole tour in Russian....The visit ended with us being sat in a room and subjected to a propoganda film in Russian explaining the joys of nuclear power!...Then visited the Murmansk State museum which had it's interesting moments....
....We were glad to finally leave Murmansk...Our new friend Igor wanted us to stop another week there and go into the hills with him at the weekend on his quad bike (a Rotax CCM) but we just had to go!....Our first day heading south took us about 150 miles to Kandalaksha...We went straight to the port to see if it was possible to get a ship to Archangelsk....Nyet!...so pretty knackered, we headed into town to find a hotel... 
....Just as Ruth was checking out the second hotel (the one next to the war memorial made out of an old tank), I was approached by Olga, a lady offering us a room on the Kola Peninsula....It sounded good so we followed her car for 25km and ended up at a beautiful wooden house on the shores of the White Sea.....It was lovely...Dinner was soon on the table....lots of vodka flowed and we had a great night.....It was nice to be in Russia and not worry about locking up the bike....

...The following day was gruelling.....229 miles south...The road was hard...and just didn't exist in parts....there was about 30 miles of dug up road to navigate which I find quite hard 2-up with all the luggage...We met quite a few bikers heading north to a festival in Murmansk....Getting south of the Arctic Circle was the highlight of the day...We stopped to take photos and have a coffee....We were both a bit sleepy by the end of the day....
....Yesterday we decided to get the boat (minus the bike) to the Solvetsky Islands in the white sea where there is an old Russian Orthodox Monastery.....To be honest it was all a bit of an anticlimax (read s**t!)....At one point it had been used as a gulag but revived as a monastery during Peristroika....Despite the revival, the monks all looked really miserable as did all the faces in the icons....The highlight of the day was the boat journey by far!....Despite there being quite a few tourists on the boat, no information is made available in English....They're really missing out there on coining it in!....
...The Dunlop Arrowmax is doing it's job well so far.....

.....Today 172 miles south to Medvegjorsk....Blue skies all day, liner out of the jacket,....only about 10 miles without road, the rest of the road was great.....arrived in the town.....Checked out the first hotel (again next to a war memorial made out of a tank)....went onto the the next which is a cabin by a lake.....had a swim, sorted....internet sorted and made plans for the days ahead.......

...A Great Day in Murmansk....

....This Russian Soldier looks out over Murmansk Harbour like Christ the Redeemer looks over Rio....


....Murmansk is quite a city made all the more easy by a great guy called Igor who I met through couchsurfing.....He's a bit of a businessman and owns the hostel we're staying in but is insistent that we don't pay.....at least for the first couple of nights......
.....We kind of arrived here with three problems.....


1...The back tyre has worn out.....It may have another day or so's riding left in it but the tread has pretty much gone so today Igor took me down to the auto market & I bought a new Dunlop racing tyre for the back wheel!!.....A bit of a missmatch to the T63 on the front!.


2....We arrived here with no motorcycle insurance!.....a big problem!....Last year when I rode to Moscow, I bought it in a booth just after the border....Crossing the international border from Norway there were no businesses at the border.....We were the first international motorcyclists that the border guard had met....thankfully at the border there was no check on my insurance....only on the temporary import of my bike.....With no insurance the Police can impound the bike so last night Igor arranged a 4pm Saturday meet with an Insurance agent and we now have legit 3rd party Russian motorcycle insurance valid for 3 months.....British insurers are a real pain....They just won't insure for Russia and don't seem to want to issue "Green Cards" any more.....


3....I need a haircut otherwise I will look back at all my holiday snaps with shame!.....Igor has a friend who can do this!


So as well as getting insurance, buying a tyre and changing some sterling with "The only" changer in Murmansk to change sterling, we had a whistlestop tour of Murmansk visiting the huge war memorial to the allied troops that looks out over the city and the great battleground of WW2.....We also saw one of the Russian Aircraft carriers (Strictly no photographs)......and tomorrow we're going to visit a Nuclear Icebreaker which is docked in Murmansk harbour at the moment.....


.....I quite like Murmansk......If you look beyond the soviet housing blocks and the pollution, it's quite a bustling lively forgotten city that just seems to get on with it.... (mind you, it is midsummer and sunny....It's probably a bit different in winter with three feet of snow and no daylight for 2 months).......

...We made it to Murmansk!!....

.....Good border crossing......The Russians were polite and only searched the front panniers.....Stopped in a town called Nikel, about 20km in to get some cash & fuel.....Petrol is now 50p a litre here instead of £2 a litre in Norway!!

.....That was 150 miles of tough riding on very potholed and gravely roads but we made it safely...What can I say about Murmansk so far?.....The only city north of the Arctic circle....Quite dirty & poluted but also seems a pretty friendly place....

....I think I need a new back tyre.....There's one waiting in Moscow but unfortunately over 3,000 miles of two-up riding has nearly finished it off... 

....The forecast said rain today but I'm glad it held off because it was the certainly the windiest and maybe the coldest day of the trip so far...We were buffeted around for most of the 100 or so miles we covered....At one point we had to stop to put more layers on....The bike has been stalling a bit over the last few days so when we arrived in Kirkenes, I had a fiddle with the both the mixture and the idle screws to improve the running.....Kirkenes is interesting....During the war I've learned, It suffered more bomb attacks than any other place in Europe apart from Malta....Nearby are some iron-ore mines....We're in a cabin here for two nights waiting for Friday when our Russian Visa commences....There's a couple of interesting museums near the town which we intend visiting in the morning....It's now about two weeks since we experienced anything vaguely resembling night-time....At last in Kirkenes there were signs to Murmansk....Really excited about crossing the border into Russia now....

.....This is Jefferey!....We met him at Nordkapp.....He'd ridden all the way from the Netherlands on his Tomos moped.....

...The road upto Nordkapp involved several tunnels....The longest one is nearly 7km long.....The lights of the MT seem to vanish into nothingness in the tunnels and you have no points of reference.....The sound of the engine is amplified at times and at others just seems to disappear.....It costs about £13 each way for bike & 2 people!....The Norwegians seem to manage to extort high sums of money for not a lot!......Some prices I have seen so far include nearly £5 for 5 stanley knife blades, £1 for a bar of chocolate (the size of an after eight mint!), a standard 200g bar of chocolate is about £5, a hot dog & chips at a garage is close to £10!......No wonder tonight we decided to nip back into Finland for the night and nip to the shops here....

.....Today was a hard days ride.....Only a touch over a hundred miles but 
much of it on gravel.....Right up in the northern reaches of Norway.....It was really cold and it rained heavily on our tent last night.....We camped in a birch forest.....away from the road but full of mosquitoes.......We took alot of care to keep them out of the tent....Didn't get too much sleep though.....Today's ride was cold and a little bit wet.....I'm amazed at how well my ex-army Goretex overtrousers keep the rain out......and my new rubber gloves, bought at a garage in Finland last week to replace my mitts I lost in Sweden make brilliant over gloves for the rain.....Today had so many changing landscapes....If it hadn't been for the snow and rain, the first part of the road could have been desert.....The afternoon felt a little like Snowdonia but on a bigger scale.......

....We're in Nordkaap!!....