So Near, Yet…..

So Near, Yet…..

By roychinnorNo Comments
Today is going to be a tumultuous day for me as I write a new page in Maribor folklore. I found a Spar shop just a mile down the road from the hotel I am staying in and as luck would have it they had a small selection of tin trays with themed views of Maribor District. I was rather taken by the one showing the famous Maribor Wine Cellars. Just a hundred yards further down the road was a car accessory shop, so I popped in just to browse. As luck had it they had a small reel of 1960’s ‘go faster stripes’, so I bought that and edged the tray with it. There was just enough left over to circle the crown of my leather racing helmet. Talking with one of the local ski aces I also went a sports equipment shop where I purchased some Alpine ski wax. According to the product description this is also suitable for snowboards and...
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Next Generation

Next Generation

By roychinnor2 Comments
Another four hundred mile run, this time in temperatures in the mid thirty degrees centigrade. Bridget showed signs of getting too hot, but continued anyway until I decided to give her a forty-five minute break. We have left Poland and made our way down to Brno in the Czech Republic. I wasn’t sure how to pronounce Brno and so asked a local. It is pronounced just the way it looks (know what I mean ‘arry). This is Bridget’s fiftieth unique country that she has visited. Multiple visits such as those to France, Belgium, Italy, Turkey, etc., only count as one each, as does the United Kingdom, not four separate countries. The total mileage covering those countries has been 65,000, but I have no idea how much petrol she has consumed. As a celebration I have today given her a wash, the second since leaving the UK on this run. Not a penny spared. I have also adjusted the rear brakes as I...
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Lithuania Without Stopping

Lithuania Without Stopping

By roychinnorNo Comments
One thing that has been missing on this adventure was a ‘good run’. Today that changed and we started from Riga before 8:00am and covered just over 400 miles on mainly single carriageway roads. The scenery wasn’t spectacular, but it was varied. Some very flat, some undulating, occasional forests and woods, and a variety of wildlife. I saw more White Storks (Gandras) than you can wave a big stick at. They are of course a national emblem in Lithuania where they follow tractors, ploughing the fields, in much the same way and similar numbers as seagulls in England. I even saw four all stood in the same nest and although they were all in adult plumage I have to assume it was parents with two grown chicks. Even so, they are such large birds to see four in one flat nest of twigs surprised me. There were also several Sparrow Hawks, one of which ‘buzzed’ Bridget. It was so low I...
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Riga Motor Museum

Riga Motor Museum

By roychinnorNo Comments
Paul Taylor, Director of Uniquestay Hotels, told me of a motor museum in Riga, Latvia. I had been intending to bypass Riga and go directly to Vilnius in Lithuania, but working on Paul’s recommendation stopped in Riga and found accommodation for a couple of nights. Using Google I located the museum, but there was a sign stating that due to building works the total collection had been stored on the other side of the city. However, I e-mailed and explained the situation and they replied that I would be welcome at the facility where the cars were stored if I would like to visit on Friday. I was met at the front door of the premises by Aija Bauere and was immediately embarrassed having addressed her as Mr in my e-mail. I apologised and assured her I wouldn’t make the same mistake again and for her part she found it quite amusing. The museum was the dream child of a number of enthusiasts...
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Back To Classics

Back To Classics

By roychinnorNo Comments
The Great Northern War, I refer of course not to the local difficulties between the Picts and Scots, or even to the social divide between Middlesborough and Newcastle, but to the early 18th Century difference of opinion between Russia and Sweden. Sweden then of course included the eastern province that we call Finland today, and also the Baltic states. Russia’s Peter the Great, formed a coalition with Denmark, Norway, Saxony, Poland and Lithuania to face down the Swedes. At the close of the war Sweden packed-up and went home refusing ever to fight again and have been ‘neutral’ ever since. As a direct result of all that there is a strong Swedish influence in Estonia as well as the Russian influence from two periods, that of Peter the Great who built a palace here and the more recent history of annexation from the end of World War II until 1991. The city itself is divided into two parts the old and the...
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