Motorhome Trip to Russia

August-September 2009PrefaceWe hope that this account of our trip may be of interest and use to others considering the same thing or something similar. Because there is very little information on the net from previous motorhome trippers in eastern Europe we thought it would be a way of putting something back in return for all the snippets of information we have picked up from others experiences at different times and different places.For general information and possible tips the first ten pages are best. The later day to day journal is more useful for the flavour of the trip and if you want an insight into our interests and views!We hope you enjoy and perhaps learn something useful.IntroductionThe idea of visiting Russia in our motorhome had been germinating in my (HP) mind for some time. I had last visited back in 1971 when I led a youth group to visit Riga, Leningrad and Moscow. My memories of that visit were dim and I knew, like everyone else, that big changes had happened since! I was curious to see how new Russia was shaping.Jill had nodded agreement to the idea when first mooted a couple of years ago but then in the autumn of 2008 she became quite enthusiastic and we agreed we would go for it in 2009.That decision led to a huge amount of planning. There were the practical questions of the roadworthiness of the vehicle and how we would survive without any organised campsites. What would we do about water, waste disposal, night-time stopovers, etc.? How would the vehicle stand up to the notoriously bad roads? What arrangements could be possible for breakdowns and road traffic accidents? Finally, how would we deal with the bureaucracy and the police without having any Russian?Research, inevitably nowadays, began with the internet and here a number of sources came into play: Motorhome Facts, a brilliant site with thousands of motorhome users always ready to help; Way To Russia and Real Russia, both of which provide access to all sorts of information and advice; and general searching about for oddments of information this even included clips on YouTube, found by typing in Russian Police.Finally, there was the question of language. The Cyrillic alphabet is the biggest obstacle but I had had some sort of preparation for this not only from an abortive attempt forty years ago but also from more recent attempts to pick up some Greek. The biggest stroke of luck was that an evening class in Russian was being put on in the local college at Enderby, in early 2009, led by a Russian woman, Irina Penter. This course attracted half a dozen of us with various reasons for wanting to learn a bit of Russian two mad bikers doing a world tour, a charity organiser working with orphans in Ukraine, an executive who needed it for his work and a chap who wanted to be able to converse more easily with the family of his Ukrainian wife.This was augmented with the purchase of a Beginners Russian course and a BBC phrase book which allowed the acquisition of a few essential phrases and the ability to read signs.Attendance on this course ran parallel with all the other preparation that needed to be done and for many months, it seemed, there was little spare time as I squeezed all this in alongside various other commitments. Jill was preoccupied with her part-time job and voluntary commitments.Although, in retrospect, it seems that we had covered most angles it has to be said that there were still one or two uncertainties when we finally set off on Thursday 13th August 2009.First, though, more on the planning stage.

The VehicleWe acquired our Hymer B564 in January 2006 as a substitute for buying a second home on a Greek island. That plan fell through after several years of looking, the last part of which we actually did in a three-week trip to Evvia in a hired motorhome. That was a story in itself, and, in hindsight, was a little bold on our part. While I had driven a VW camper to Italy back in 1980, Jill had only experienced the joys of camping under canvas. Despite one or two minor mishaps on that trip we fell in love with the motorhoming way of life and abandoned the idea of a Greek island second home for a mobile one.By pure chance we had rented the ideal (for us) motorhome solution the Hymer B564. This is relatively small, just slightly over 6 metres long, 3 metres high and 2.25 metres wide, allowing you to go to most places that an ordinary car can. It is also fully self-contained with kitchenette, toilet and shower. It has provision for two smallish double beds we have one each and they are both very comfortable. When we started looking to buy we found one almost straightaway only two years old, a left-hand drive private import. We added a solar panel immediately to provide a constant charge for the leisure battery and got rid of a motorbike carrier from the back. So equipped, we are able to go for three days and nights without needing to refill the fresh water tank or empty the wastes. This allows for wild camping.The gas compartment is big enough for two 11kg propane tanks and these provide enough gas for six to eight weeks as long as you dont use it to provide central heating i.e. just for moderate cooking, and heating water. Despite warnings about Russias early winters we actually found that we had almost continuous warm sunny weather throughout the trip meeting only a few thunderstorms and, later in the trip, coldish nights coming back through Europe.Over the three years following our buying the Hymer, we toured Ireland, Morocco, Norway and Sweden, Scotland and the Outer Hebrides, and Italy. Each of these trips took place over three-week spells, languages were never a serious problem and there was often a campsite to provide the essentials but we also got used to stopping over on beaches, farm tracks and any other scrap of waste land we could find, free of charge. When added to our trip to Greece all this provided us with confidence in the vehicle and a realisation that we could solve most problems as they arose.Russia was a different kettle of fish, being planned to last six to seven weeks, over very bad roads and without the back-up of campsite facilities. Few had apparently preceded us so there werent many travellers tales to draw on. The few who had done it had generally gone with groups, in convoy, and with interpreters and masses of spares and back-up. We were going alone and so had to have worked out how to cope with the most common problems on our own or with anything we could put in place.For short we will refer to the Hymer as the van (we actually call her Trudi but this might confuse the casual reader!).The van has been regularly serviced and is relatively low mileage currently just 56,000km (the speedo is in kilometres and so are distances on the continent, so that is what we will stick with). But we decided to pre-empt common problems by putting two new tyres on the front end and replacing the fan belt and timing belts. The fifth gear (a notorious problem with Fiat Ducato-based motorhomes) had been replaced the previous year, in Italy, and the engine battery was replaced in 2008.We then acquired a heavy-duty tow rope and heavy-duty jump leads.As far as spares went we had the usual spare lamp kit, a spare fuel filter (on advice that diesel in Russia was not well refined though now we realise that only refers to the cheap truck diesel which we avoided), the spare fan belt and one of the old tyres in addition to the spare wheel.Our garden spade was also taken to dig holes for the toilet waste and to dig us out of soft ground, if necessary. Other tools included a fairly comprehensive kit of spanners and most things needed to maintain a house on wheels!Our annual van insurance with Safeguard (through Swinton) provides roadside recovery from the AA, working in partnership with other motoring organisations on the continent. However, this does not extend to Ukraine or Russia so we had to hunt down some breakdown cover for those countries. Fortunately we were able to do so, with the RAC, but this came with caveats that the cover applies only west of the Urals and that it might not be able to respond effectively even there. It is also limited to vehicles of maximum permissible gross weight of 3.5 tonnes.But what would happen if we broke down in some remote place and couldnt get any help through the RAC cover? Our back-up system was to be twofold, a 3G mobile phone and a laptop computer with a BT mobile internet dongle. In theory this would allow us to post a help request on the Motorhome Facts forum where moderators and willing helpers are on line almost 24/7. In the event neither was used and there was only 3G cover available around Moscow, St Petersburg and Volgograd and the BT dongle didnt work outside the UK because Id forgotten about roaming restrictions! The consolation was that there are a huge number of vehicle breakdowns in western Russia and consequently a huge number of vehicle repair shops. We were never far from a source of help that could be accessed with only a few words of Russian.As a result of all this planning we thought that as far as the van was concerned we had most angles covered as best we could for a solo trip. We also put our faith in the reliability of the Fiat Ducato chassis. We dont think we were mistaken despite the awful roads encountered, especially in Ukraine, the van just kept plugging along, rocked, rolled and shaken, but never stopped. This was no mean feat when we were passing everyday literally dozens of broken down vehicles ranging from Mercedes, through articulated Volvo HGVs to Ladas. The most common breakdowns seemed to be wheel, tyre and suspension related punctures, broken suspensions, wheels parting company with the vehicle, etc. In one case we even saw the wheel bogie from a trailer truck completely separated from the trailer, with that lying in a ditch by the side of the road and the driver sitting on the roadside holding his head.

The PaperworkThe EU is a wonderful thing. It allows EU citizens to travel throughout the United States of Europe without ever having to obtain a visa or show a passport. Russia is different! They have an extensive system of monitoring of peoples movements into, out of and around the country.You need a visa to get in but in order to get one you need an invitation from someone in Russia. Nowadays the invitations are easily obtained by paying a fee to an agency. This is what we did with Real Russia. They then process the visa application, again for a fee, and return the passports with visas inside.But visas are restrictive in that the ordinary tourist visa is limited to 30 days. I had calculated that to do the trip we wanted all the way to Yekaterinburg just over the Urals we would need every one of those days with no time to spare. Just one breakdown or bureaucratic hold-up and we would be done for. The worst thing, we kept being told, was to overstay your visa, for then the full force of Russian immigration controls comes down on your head. Another common tip was to expect everything to take longer in Russia than you would normally expect in western Europe roads are slower, the bureaucracy slower and more complex, queues to get into tourist attractions are longer, it takes longer to understand what signs are saying, etc., etc.One solution would be a business visa that provides entry for three months but for that you need a business invitation or proof that you are on an employers business. We tried to get two motorhome journals to commission a free tour report from us so that we could justify a business application without risk of being tripped up again by the bureaucrats but both refused (thanks for nothing Camping and Caravanning magazine and Caravan Club magazine, subscriptions not renewed). While some say the risk of being caught out is small it had to be added to the risk of having a breakdown just out of reach of the RAC cover, beyond the Urals. This made us opt for the simpler solution a 30-day tourist visa and a shorter trip, not going to Yekaterinburg or seeing the Urals. A disappointment at the time but in retrospect probably the sensible solution.This decided, we paid for the visa and also for its registration. Oh, didnt I mention that? When you get to Russia you have to register your visa with your place of accommodation (hotel, friends, or business) within three days of arrival. What is more, if you move around and stay anywhere else for more than three working days then you have to reregister in your new location! Once again, Real Russia came to the rescue another fee was paid and we were able to get the visas registered at their St Petersburg office soon after our arrival. Now as we were planning to move around a lot and not stay anywhere else for more than three nights we wondered about the three-day rule. It turns out that there is this loophole in the system as nobody ever tours Russia in a motorhome they havent yet worked out how to keep tabs on those few who do. There are pros as well cons of being the pioneers! When we finally left Russia three weeks after arriving the emigration officer examined our passports and registration slip and was puzzled why we had registered in Pete (St Petersburg) yet were exiting to Crimea from Kavkaz in southeast Russia. Jill had cleverly pre-empted the questions by drawing up a complete schedule of where we had been and where we stayed in the interim with nowheshowing more than three nights. He seemed most impressed with our efficiency and foresight!There are two more pieces of paperwork for the motorhomer (or anyone else taking a vehicle in). The first is that you need a temporary import certificate for the vehicle. Prior research had indicated that these certificates (another fee, paid at the border) were only valid for ten days and that you had to extend it at another office in Pete or Moscow before the ten days were up. However, a special plea to the customs officer at the FinnishRussian border got us a certificate valid for two months!The final piece of the jigsaw was insurance. British motor insurers do not yet provide green card cover for Russia or Ukraine (or Belorussia or Moldova) and third party cover is a compulsory requirement, so you have to buy that at the borders too (15 days minimum). We had to wait half an hour for the salesperson to attend to us at the booth but it was asimple enough process costing around 40 (once we had scouted around for a money changer it is a myth that you can pay for virtually anything in dollars in Russia!). However, we were keenly aware throughout the non-EU countries that we had only bought third party cover. Any damage to the van and we would have to pay our own costs. If comprehensive cover is available we never found out how to get it and fortunately never needed it. (Interestingly, in buying the insurance we were not asked what type of vehicle it was, only the engine power in kW, so a motorhome pays the same rate as a big-engine saloon car.)Just one further point on paperwork. We had been warned many times to have plenty of it and to take photocopies too so we set up a ring binder with clear plastic envelopes in it and into this went all the documents we would need along with several that might have been needed, e.g. copies of marriage certificate, birth certificates, inoculation certificates, etc. This really paid off the investment of time beforehand and was much admired by others queuing up with us at customs and immigration counters as they shuffled through their bundles of loose papers! One thing though we never got away with handing over photocopies of documents, even very convincing colour copies. The originals were always demanded. The photocopies would have been useful, however, at British embassies in an emergency.By the way, we also registered our trip to Russia with the British embassy in Moscow through the FCO website so they had basic information on file if ever we needed help.

The Route and NavigationWe have several times driven to the continent and found that an afternoon drive down to Dover for an evening ferry works well. We stop for a fish and chip supper in a car park near the Dover terminal before an 8pm departure and disembark around 10.30pm in Calais. From there we can get in one or two hours driving (100-150km) before stopping at an aire for the first night. France and Germany are wonderful countries with the good sense to provide on motorways in particular free provision for overnight stops for any road users. You can do this at service areas or at aires de repo which are just wooded parking areas set back from the roads with basic toilet facilities, drinking water and picnic tables. They are ideal for motorhomers and long-distance lorry drivers as it is often possible to park far enough away from the road that with earplugs inserted you can get a good nights sleep without problems or hassles and completely free. We have to say that we are almost ashamed of the UK in this respect that services on our motorways are few and far between, and they charge 7-10 for overnight parking, with no services. Our rest areas are normally lay-bys where it is impossible to rest as they are so close to the carriageways that the van rocks in the bow-waves of passing HGVs.From Calais we took a route through bits of France, Belgium and the Netherlands to Berlin and then northerly through Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. From there we got a ferry to Helsinki in Finland and then drove into Russia from the Finnish side. In Russia we went from Pete to Moscow via Novgorod, then south to Volgograd zigzagging via Suzdal and Tula. From Volgograd (our most easterly point) we went across to Rostov on Don and Krasnodar before heading south to the Black Sea coast and then west again to the Kavkaz promontory which sits between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. From Kavkaz we went across the Kerch straits into Crimea (Ukraine), then north-west through Moldova, back into Ukraine, cutting eastward through Poland to the Slovak and Czech Republics before entering Germany once again, retracing our steps somewhat to get us back to Calais. It was, therefore, something of a circular tour.After having one satnav stolen in Leicester we had invested in a new one from Garmin on the basis that Garmin was the only provider offering maps of Russia. However, the cost of these was around 100 so we decided to rely on hard-copy map books alone. These were of varying quality and at several points did not reflect the situation on the ground at all. Although signage in Russia was reasonably good we were thrown a couple of times by spellings that were different from the Russian in the maps we had and the Russian practice of signing just the road name rather than where it leads to.The satnav was fine and even showed some major routes in Poland, the Baltic States and parts of Russia. However, these latter areas seemed often to be beta releases as the vehicle marker would often appear moving parallel to the road which was shown as being half a kilometre away! We (Jill!) only made one serious navigating error (in Crimea) when we were heading for about 45 minutes towards a town with a name similar to the one we should have been heading for, but werent when other indicators (position of sun, compass reading, missing landmarks, etc.) told us something was wrong. Once or twice elsewhere we took the wrong road when signs had been missing or hidden by foliage or passing HGVs, but nothing to complain of. On two occasions, I think, we drove into one-way streets the wrong way being preoccupied with looking for direction signs. One just has to be quick-witted and bold, to get out of these situations as they occur (e.g. pulling off a rapid U-turn as three lanes of traffic stream towards you!).Stopover spotsIve already mentioned the French aires which are brilliant and appear about every 20km on French motorways. These have counterparts in Germany called Rastplatzen and something similar appears also in other western European countries. Once into the former Soviet bloc states it is a different story. There are very few campsites but mapmakers have adopted the deceptive practice of placing an occasional campsite sign (the little wigwam symbol) on their maps when all they mainly indicate is low-cost budget accommodation in run-down huts or absolutely nothing at all. Some former campsites for internal holidaymaking and formerly owned by trade unions or state enterprises have closed and are derelict. The (very rare) Motel Camping sign may have indicated camping for tents, and on reflection we could probably have negotiated overnight stays in these motel car parks.This means that beyond the Polish border it is largely a matter of wild camping on any patch of land that looks unused or likely to cause nobody any offence. Obviously, this is only possible with a self-contained van and a bit of bravado. We only came unstuck once and had a couple of minor skirmishes with individuals of some apparent authority. In the main our wild camping was very successful and generally at nil cost, several times in plum locations that even paid campsites wouldnt be able to match.

Water, Waste & FuelWithout proper campsites one faces the problems of acquiring fresh water for washing and how to dispose of both toilet waste and grey water. Bottled water is widely available everywhere in 5 litre bottles and we used this exclusively for cooking and tea-making. With a full fresh water tank and empty waste tanks it is possible, in our van, to go for at least three days and nights without worry.In western Europe, the Baltic States and northern Russia we obtained almost all of our fresh water from garages (fuel stations) where hosepipes or taps are often visible on the forecourts. Moving south through Russia and in Ukraine we found this was less often the case and so we had to eke out supplies once or twice until we made an obvious connection carwashes. It is my guess that after the traffic police (who are everywhere) carwashes provide the biggest employment sector in eastern Europe. There are thousands of them. I dont know why there are so many but the one thing they all have in common is a plentiful supply of fresh water and we soon got the hang of explaining what we were after and being given it without problems. A few roubles and a gift of fruit tea bags or a can of beer was all that was required.As regards toilet waste there were several solutions. One method was to tip it down the toilet in garages or at aires (best late at night). The other main method was to dig a hole in the ground, normally in a wood and away from watercourses, and dump it in to be buried with the soil removed from the hole. This method was preferred. We use a biodegradable fluid so there is no harmful chemical component.Often the most problematic was the grey water tank as even with the use of a tank freshener the waste does tend to smell absolutely foul after a few days of brewing up in the tank. Remember this is only washing-up water and shower water but it produces a pungent pong nevertheless. After a few goes we realised the best approach was to dump this little and often to shorten the brewing period and minimise the time taken and smell left hanging around. Disposal sites included car park drains, roadside verges and field edges. To get maximum evacuation it is necessary, in our van, to park pointing slightly uphill and leaning to the left. But once the tank is emptied, and with less than a full tank of water and fuel, the van becomes easier to drive as there is less wallowing with the weight and shifting load.FuelOur van is a diesel. One or two comments on websites had made us fear that we might find ourselves running short of fuel when miles away from a fuel station, especially in Russia, so we had bought three fuel containers that we filled up before leaving. This meant we drove almost the whole trip with three fuel containers (20-litre, 10-litre and 5litre) full of diesel in the hold. And it was totally unnecessary. While many of them appear new (so website information may have been more accurate five years ago), there is now an abundance of petrol stations in Russia and elsewhere in eastern Europe. When roads got particularly bad in Russia we adopted the practice of only taking on half a tank as this made driving easier with less weight hitting the bumps. We knew there would always be a fuel station a few kilometres down the road and the only time this began to look questionable was on the Black Sea coast where they are further apart.Nevertheless, we did not actually use the on-board fuel reserves until towards the end of the trip to lighten the load for the return home. I would say it is more important to carry spare fuel in the UK especially on our poorly serviced motorways, than it is in eastern Europe.In Russia there are often two grades of diesel available at fuel stops. The cheaper one of these is a truck diesel that many HGVs use, spewing out thick black smoke as a result, especially under load. Even the more expensive one costs only 35p a litre so there is no need to use the dirty one.One quirky thing about much of Russia (less so in the north nowadays) is that you pay for your fuel before the pump can start up. This obviously reduces the risk of people doing a runner without paying but it does mean you need to have a good idea of the capacity left in your tank before buying. We knew of the system ahead of going and so had prepared a series of photos of the fuel gauge as a guide though the warning we were given, that the pumps keep going until the amount bought is fully delivered regardless of whether it is overflowing on the forecourt, seems to have been a leg-pull! You can control the flow just as you do here.One disconcerting thing about many eastern European fuel stops is that you cannot go into the shop to pay but have to do so through a little flap on the front of the kiosk. When this is combined, as it often is, with mirror glazing that prevents you seeing the cashier it is difficult to see whether the place is open at all and difficult to communicate with someone you cannot see especially when your Russian is not that good and you might be hoping to use a bit of sign language and facial expression to get your message across. On one occasion, with apparently dead pumps and nobody else on the forecourt, I was turning to get back into the van to leave when somebody tapped on the window to alert me to their presence.

SecurityOne of the things you will be assailed with, if you tell people you are going to Russia (especially in a motorhome), is warnings about security. We were told to beware of muggers, scammers and gypsies with dozens of marauding children, of corrupt police and bent border officials. Consequently we took a number of steps to protect ourselves, including hiding cash in several places around the van, buying money-belts, having dummy wallets and purses (to hand over to muggers), dummy passports (old ones placed in covers to look new), a panic alarm and a chair leg cosh in the wardrobe!In practice we found that we felt absolutely no fear when walking around in any of the cities we visited. Only in Moscow, near the hotel where we parked up, did there seem to be a number of characters of the streetlife variety, drinking and being loud. But there are huge numbers of people in uniform in Russia traffic cops, militsia, OMON security, private security, building security staff, soldiers, etc. You never seem to be far from someone in uniform so this must be quite a disincentive to muggers. We never saw any gypsies with or without kids in tow and the only scammers we saw were on the roadside Ill mention that later. We did come across dodgy traffic cops and bent border guards but not in Russia. More on those later.Wild camping, wherever you do it, has an element of anxiety attached as you could be a soft target for thieves, carjackers and rapists. It does not offer the psychological comfort of being inside an organised campsite with security barriers, etc. But then neither does it have the restrictions on where exactly you park up, no limitations on orientation of your van, no serried ranks of motorhome and caravan neighbours to spoil the view and no fees to pay. On balance, and after getting used to it and having very few difficult moments and plenty of exceptional spots, weve come to prefer it. And when there is no alternative, as in most of Russia and eastern Europe, it is definitely the best thing to do!

Food & WeatherWe took enough food for 25 of the 45 evening meals we would need. This was all food that we could prepare on the gas hob: knowing that we were unlikely to find more than the odd campsite with electricity we took the microwave out of the van before we left to reduce weight and increase storage. Planned meals were fry-ups, pasta with salmon, tuna or Bolognese sauce, and a lamb casserole with rice. We were expecting unrealistically as it turned out to eat out half the time. In the event, with so much wild camping and overnight stays in car parks, we only had six or seven meals out. With hindsight it would have been better to take food for at least 35 meals, and more cheese and ham for sandwiches. It was easy enough to pick up bread, milk (fresh, UHT or sterilised), pasta, fruit and vegetables; impossible to find fresh or unsweetened cream (soured cream, smetana, only), breakfast cereals, baked beans, and British-style ham and sausages; and difficult to find cheddar-type cheese and bacon.WeatherOur trip lasted from mid-August to the end of September 2009, about six-and-a-half weeks. We checked out guidebooks and the internet about weather patterns and listened to the advice of friends and acquaintances. As a result we anticipated all sorts of weather but with a particular concern for the alleged early onset of autumn/winter in Russia, with cold and frosts. We took a full range of clothing!Were we just lucky or were these suggestions just based on prejudices and faint memories of the outcomes of Napoleons and Hitlers adventures?The fact is that we enjoyed incredibly good weather throughout most of the trip. Most days were sunny, warm and bright. Some were cloudy but still mild and just a few consisted of rain. Two or three days included summer storms of heavy rain but these soon passed and the sun was out again. We found that a cagoule and an umbrella were useful precautions against getting caught out but never needed the heavy-duty protection of waterproof anoraks and thick jumpers.When setting off for a days city sightseeing in the cool of the morning we would be wearing jumpers and jackets but generally a few hours later these would be stowed in backpacks, and teeshirts and summer tops were all that was needed. Likewise when driving.Only towards the end of the trip, coming back through Europe, did we put the central heating on for short periods in mornings and evenings.

The Journey Day By DayWed not done it systematically before but this time we decided to make a determined effort to make notes of each days events so as to be able to write up this journal afterwards. The remaining pages are the result.Day 1: Thursday 13th AugustLeft Desford at 1.30pm, half an hour later than our planned time, but with a fairly easy run and fair weather even the usual congestion at the Dartford bridge crossing didnt delay us very much so we arrived at our usual Dover car park in good time for our fish and chip supper. Then to the terminal on time for checking in. Seemed everyone else did the same and the ferry was able to depart at 7.30pm, 15 minutes ahead of schedule. An easy crossing and disembarked at 9.45pm French time. By 10.35pm we had entered Belgium and reached the Jabbeke services on the A10/E40 for our first overnight stop at 11.05pm. Earplugs were needed but with these we got a good nights sleep. (NB. On our 2010 trip to Turkey we stopped again at Jabbeke but were subject, along with two other vans, to break-in attempts during the night.)Day 2: Friday 14th AugustBy morning the toilet facilities at Jabbeke were showing the effects of the multinational force of truckers that passes through every night! Good job we have on-board facilities. Our usual breakfast of cereal, tea, bread and jam and were on our way by 8.25am for a good long day of driving. Lunch on board of sandwiches and tea, followed by a snooze for the driver (12.40-14.00). We ran into congestion on the A2 a road to be avoided in future if possible. But other than this, plain sailing into Germany and a rest stop about 100km short of Berlin. Plenty of motorhomes on the roads but only one GB plate seen so far (a Hymer Camp) and they didnt stop to chat.Weve passed thousands of hectares of maize/sweetcorn growing in Belgium with this gradually giving way to wheat in Germany. The landscape is similar to much of England but with more trees. Two overtakers gave us blasts on their horns, presumably due to the GB plate. Weve had this a few times before on the continent, especially in Italy, and never know whether it is a sign of friendship or hostility. Checks around the vehicle at subsequent stops show they werent hooting to warn us of bits falling off!The rastplatz stopover was good and dark, giving us a good view of the night sky complete with the Milky Way and a prominent shooting star fantastic!And so to bed or not! Turned on a tap and all the lights went out, with the leisure battery warning light illuminated on the instrument panel! Now that should not have happened the battery had been charging for days through the solar panel on the roof and we hadnt used much electricity. We turn to torches to get us through the night.

Day 3: Saturday 15th AugustBy morning, another sunny one, the battery is back up to strength. Nevertheless, I try to get at it (under the passenger seat) but find the Allen bolts securing the seat have been worn round, probably by the solar panel fitter at A. B. Butts three years before! Id like to change the battery just in case but as I cant shift the bolts we resolve just to be careful about using leccy when the engine isnt running and when the sun is down. (We have no more trouble from it for the duration, phew!)We set off at 09.10 and get to Berlin about an hour later, and seek out the campsite indicated by one of our site books. The satnav takes us on a tortuous suburban route and then down a narrow windy lane and sure enough we find a campsite but it has none of the trappings of a commercial touring site. The caravans inside all look very well established and there is no reception in sight. People entering and leaving the site show no interest in us. As were blocking the road we drive for another kilometre and find derelict campsite buildings and an open park area the real (former) campsite. Although its tempting to just pull in there were not too sure about the security aspects and so instead drive back towards the built-up area to look for a parking spot near to a U-Bahn station. We find one about 20 minutes later and park up asking a couple of locals if well be alright there for the day. This confirmed we get ready for a whistle-stop tour of Berlin. The U-Bahn station is nearby (it turns out to be Wannsee, the location of the Nazi final solution conference in 1942) and it isnt long before we emerge in the centre of things at the famous Friedrichstrasse station close to the line of the old wall. From here we are soon on Unter den Linden amidst throngs of people there to see a walking race based around the Brandenburg Gate.

A stop in a bookshop is interesting as there are a number of books in English as well as a little gem in several languages that tells the story of the famous photo of Soviet Red Army soldiers erecting the hammer and sickle over the Reichstag in 1945. It was not all it seemed as there are several versions of the photo in circulation and a murky story of image-doctoring and re-enactments much like the story of the US flag-raising on Okinawa.Its a wonderful summer atmosphere with crowds, street vendors and odd people all out to have a good time. The mood of the area is cosmopolitan more French than German, relaxed and welcoming. Its a great time to see Unter den Linden, though when we near the Brandenburg Gate we realise the race barriers prevent free access.Nevertheless we take some photos and then join the queues at an outside caf selling Berliner sausages and the like. Two of these bought, with chips, and a couple of demis from the adjacent bar and we enjoy a hearty lunch on the picnic tables round the back. Brilliant start to the holiday proper.After lunch its a five-minute walk to the Reichstag for more photos (we decide against queuing to see Norman Fosters glass dome from the inside) and then we potter off to the Pergamon Museum. The Collection of Classical Antiquities is not to be missed. The Pergamon Altar is a wonder, amazing both in size and artistry. Further on are exceptional examples of statues and other artefacts, including a beautiful, ornate sarcophagus, evidence of the opulence of the classical era. Then the vast Gate of Miletus (2nd century AD, Roman); and finally into the Museum of Near Eastern Antiquities and the stunning cobalt blue and ochre of the Ishtar Gate, a huge entrance with processional way (Babylon, reign of Nebuchadnezzar II, 604-562 BC).From the museum we drift down a nearby street market full of tourist tat and GDR memorabilia. We buy nothing. By this time we have decided there is not much more to see in Berlin and as we didnt find a suitable place to stay over anyway decide we will leave Berlin that evening and find a rest stop on the road. So we did Berlin to our satisfaction in one afternoon! (Yes, we know there must be more to it mustnt there?)We overrule Sally Satnav and take a northerly route away from Berlin on the A10, finding another services rest area for the overnight stop. It has to be repeated: what a superb idea these rest areas are on French and German motorways compared to pathetic UK service areas that are few and far between, intensively used and run by monopolies for profit, even charging for noisy overnight stops. Why oh why did Labour surrender to the Thatcherite nonsense that the profit making private sector must be the provider of public services? We need public goods provided through taxation starting with decent motorway rest areas without petrol stations or McDonalds!As usual we end the day with Scrabble, some wine and nibbles and a few CDs. Tonights lullabies are sung by Norah Jones.

Day 4: Sunday 16th AugustWe are up early and resolve that well make an early start. No fresh water point to fill up but grey water dumped down a drain on the service area and were on the road at 08.12! Its not that far to the Polish border but were in for a bit of a surprise, and a foretaste of what is to come, when were about 40km from Szecin. The surface on our carriageway of the 10/E28 suddenly deteriorates (the other side has recently been resurfaced) and we are given a bone-shaking juddering ride for about 4km over a surface that seems just like very badly laid concrete. Have to slow right down to make it bearable but even so it is very, very bad, the whole van shakes and vibrates violently.Its another beautiful sunny day and by lunchtime its baking hot at 29 degrees. Were over the border and into Poland now and while the trunk roads are in reasonable condition the roads in the first two towns we pass through are very rough, with big ruts and potholes. The countryside is attractive with pine forests and fields but its not like the south that we saw a lot of a couple of years ago. Whereas there you find the countryside dotted with farmsteads, here the farming seems on a bigger scale with large fields and houses collected together in villages. Perhaps this area was collectivised or subject to state farming before the fall? The fields are large and generally put to wheat with beetroot, sweetcorn and other vegetables in between. There are gentle hills and a few lakes along the way.We manage to pick up some water at a BP petrol station on the A10 between Starygard and Bydgoszcz. Its a relief because we were on our last few drops. At Bydgoszcz we try to shop in a Netto store but they take only cash and we have no zlotys. The cash machine outside isnt working so we move on to a Polo market in the next town it accepts plastic so we stock up a bit.Progress is limited today not so much by bad roads as by speed limits (90 kph max), numerous villages (40 kph max) and cameras all along the way. You just get up a decent speed and then you have to change down again very tiring. East of Szezecin the road is single carriageway and a heavy traffic stream has built up.Around 6.30pm we turn off the E261 just before Grudziad and look for a stopover spot. We find a rarely used track under some apple trees between some recently harvested wheat fields just outside the village of Gruczno. The stubble is illuminated gold as the sun goes down fabulous! After a tuna and pasta dinner we walk into the nearby village to have a look round. There are a few teenagers strolling the main street and then we find a bar called Night Club. Jill is reluctant (just washed her hair and its gone frizzy) but after persuasion she agrees we should try for a beer if they take euros as we have no zlotys.Inside a dozen men appear well oiled and we arouse some interest as we go in. Theres a woman behind the bar who we try to communicate with but it proves impossible. She indicates to us to hold on and she disappears to return with Bob a few minutes later. Bob is a Pole but he speaks reasonably good English which is not surprising as he is a motor mechanic just home for a few weeks from his workplace in Burton on Trent! We explain our problem to him, that we want two beers but have no zlotys, and he promptly orders the beers. We assume theyll be on him but when the woman produces the beer Bob looks to us to pay! We again show we have only euros and both now express surprise! Bob tells her we have no zlotys and I tell her to take 5 euros, about twice what the beers would cost, and she does so though still bemused. At least everyone seems happy and we chat for over an hour with Bob about everything under the sun including Poles, English, Pakistanis, Muslims and Russians. At one point a young man joins us and declares himself a Man U supporter and I say I support Liverpool. We have a laugh about the prospects of each team in the coming season with the player changes that have affected Man U and the absence of any new big names at Liverpool. Bob warns us about Russia its a wild country he says, before admitting that he has never been but his brother has and he has told him all about it.Several times we are interrupted by drunken elderly Poles who insist on shaking hands. One of these refuses to loosen his grip, appearing to need my support to stay upright. Finally he lets go and then staggers backwards in a daze and at an angle before being saved from crashing into the stairs by another drunk who catches him as he falls.At the end of the evening Bob asks for our address and as he seems like a decent chap we hand it over enthusing at seeing him again once we get back. He compliments Jill on her youthful looks, not believing she is 63, and then, after prompting, says the same about me! We stroll back to the van under the stars, enjoying the warmth of a pleasant evening followed by a restful night.

Day 5: Monday 17th AugustAfter a hazy start with a little cloud around we have another beautiful sunny morning. We get on the road early again, at 08.20.East of Grudziadz the road deteriorates and our speed is limited to 50 kph. They are working on it in patches. We stop for a break on a patch of rough ground in front of a couple of shops. As we arrive I notice a glass fibre model of a stork in a nest atop a telegraph pole by the car park. I chuckle at the local humour and think no more of it until a few minutes later when it takes flight and I realise that it had been a live one all along! Good photo opportunity missed.After the break we pass through the seaside resort of Ilawa, with its pink wedding cake town hall and a useful Lidl supermarket. Alcohol is processed through a separate till but they take cards so were OK.A new bypass has been built around the next town, Olsztyn, and the satnav map does not yet have it the maps have had less relevance for some time to what is actually present on the ground. We take the scenic route by mistake. East of Olsztyn theres a stretch of new road all too brief and then back to the rough surface we are becoming used to.At Mikstajki, on the 16, we enter the lake district of northern Poland grand hotels, signs to what appear to be posh campsites and a bright and colourful resort with the streets thronged with families on their hols.The next 300km of route 16 is a succession of good and bad surfaces about one-third bad, some of it very bad, bumpy and narrow too. Elk is a pleasant spacious town on a pretty river of the same name and is one of several resort towns on the 16 with campsites (that we have no intention of using), lakes, boating and water sports. During this part of the trip we pass around ten motorhomes, German and Polish, with most giving the wave.Beyond Elk we look for a place to stay, turning off the main road and driving a few km into the countryside. We find an open field, recently harvested, and pull in. There are some farmhouses in the distance but theres no way of knowing if this is their field so we just settle in and hope for the best. Then I spot a chap wandering aimlessly around the next field so go and have a word. It turns out he is searching for frogs. No shared language but with gestures and sign language I make myself understood that we want to stay for eine Nacht and he nods and we shake hands. I suggest he accept a beer from us and he agrees. This seals the deal and we are left in peace and again in great surroundings. A short while later we notice a stork in the field and take far too many photos of it as it wanders closer and closer to us this one too looking for frogs to eat. Apparently these small frogs eventually grow into giants and that explains the farmers interest. The bird book tells us that storks are not particularly wary of humans and commonly breed close to human habitations (unlike the forest dwelling black stork).Were five nights in and have not yet paid any campsite fees!

Day 6: Tuesday 18th AugustThe run of good weather has broken at last as we awake to clouds and a downpour. Its a shame but you have to take the rough with the smooth. Another early start, 08.00. We dump the grey water down the bank alongside the country road not far from where we camped no harm to anyone.In Kalinovo, a small town on the 16 in Poland, we find a small petrol station with a water tap on show and we stop and ask if we can fill up. The Polish proprietor is very friendly and moves other vehicles out of our way. The find was lucky as we had used three quarters of the previous tank-full in just two days. We give the bloke in the petrol station a beer and a pack of fruit tea as thanks smiles and farewells.We lose the time advantage as we enter a new time zone in Lithuania. We drive straight through the booths and worry that we should have bought a vignette - but live dangerously is our motto on this trip!Not far into Lithuania and we stop at a petrol station to see if there are signs about vignettes none spotted. It has a huge parking area at the rear and I take the opportunity to sneak down a grassy wooded slope at the back end to dig a hole and dump the cassette waste. Others had been there before me using a slightly more natural process of waste disposal! Were the toilets just too far away? (Or were they as grim as many in this part of the world squatters and rarely cleaned?)The weather brightens as the morning progresses and we move further east but the day is punctuated by heavy showers. We decide to have a break from driving and pull off the main road into a small village with an old church and a village green populated by large recently carved wooden totem poles though these are of religious figures.Lithuania seems generally poorer than Poland. Houses and villages along the way are not as well tended, presenting a grey hotchpotch of single-storey dwellings with steep corrugated iron roofs. Occasionally a roof will be painted bright red to cheer things up. Trees and crosses everywhere. The roads are not too bad but are spoilt by ruts much of the time. A strong westerly wind affects us a bit as we cross the plains towards Latvia and we cross the border without noticing it.About 100km east of Riga we pick up a young Finnish hitchhiker on his way home at the end of a round-Europe tour. He has good English and we share experiences. He aims to be a graphic designer and is to start college to gain a qualification. We drop him at the turn for the beach resort of Jurmala, about 25km short of Riga, at a big intersection so he should be OK.As we enter Jurmala we are going too fast to understand what all the signs and pay-booths are for on the side of the road. They seem to be selling passes. Before you know it we are driving past no-entry signs with something else written in Latvian but theres plenty of traffic going through so we just follow on. We guess later that it must have been a car tax that everyone entering the area is required to pay and the no-entry signs may have been for HGVs as there are none on the roads now. There are no signs in English to explain and there cant be that many British tourists that speak Latvian!We can find no sign of a Jurmala resort centre nor the sea, which is separated from us by dense woods, but we follow signs for a campsite that we eventually locate in the trees near the beach. We investigate but with full and empty tanks we feel no compulsion to use the site. A restaurant proves to have little of interest and instead we pootle around a bit until we find a street in Ragaciems that takes us down to an undeveloped part of the beach with a nice sloping hard standing just behind some trees right on the back of the beach. Thats lucky and by this time it is dusk so we decide to make it do. A slope is always good, as long as not too steep, as it obviates the need to use our ramps to level the van up and that allows for a quick getaway should that prove necessary!HP cooks: tinned salmon with fried onions, courgettes, tagliatelle and double cream. A glass of Pinot Grigio and all is well with the world until theres a knock on the door, that is! Its 11pm and were halfway through Scrabble. Its a chap in a navy blue jumper with some sort of insignia on it. He conveys to us that it is nie parkeren where we are and we must move on. H tries a few words of Russian but it is to no avail although at one point it does seem to be hinted that a payment of 50 lats (70) would solve the problem. I explain we have no lats so he says that we must go which we do, after packing things away. Good job we were not yet in our beds! We guess that a local near the beach must have made a phone call or is this a regular stopover that he checks every night?We retrace our tracks back down the main road but in the rain and darkness we can now see no sign (literally) of the campsite we looked at earlier. Perhaps we can park behind the shop at the petrol station? Yes, of course, says the woman on counter duty so thats it, problem solved and we get quite a good nights sleep too. Still no campsite fees paid!

Day 7: Wednesday 19th AugustCome the cool grey morning we feel no desire to search any longer for the fabulous beaches that are supposed to be on this coast we must get on to Riga and do some proper tourism. On getting to the city centre we pass over a modern bridge and find ourselves immediately in the old town. Thats handy, parking spaces right by all the sights except that they charge 5 lats for the first hour (7) and 8 lats per hour thereafter! Clearly a premium spot for all the government officials that visit these parts. A local advises us to drive out of the centre by about ten blocks and get a bus back in. This we do, ending up parking on the main bus route back into town. A bus arrives at the stop just as we do and charges just 0.8 lats for the trip (about 1). We get off as we near the centre of the old town and stop at a cafe for a coffee and to plan our day. Although the sky still has much cloud the rain holds off for the rest of the day and we are able to do our sightseeing in relative comfort.The city is much like many of the older cities across Europe but with the eastern twist of the onion spires on churches. Its cosmopolitan and welcoming without being pushy. We follow the only pocket guidebook we have and do bits of a walking tour around the old city. Riga Castle has a lovely setting on the river. The Dome Cathedral is worth paying to go into to see the fine interior, especially the organ and pulpit; and the cloisters, full of interesting and historic artefacts (dont miss the pagan idol head). The Mentzendorff House Museum is a beautifully restored merchants house built at the end of the seventeenth century and furnished in period style. Jacobs Barracks, built in the eighteenth century, runs the whole length of one of the main streets. We decide we dont have the motivation to visit the Museum of the Russian Occupation.As with all tourist traps there are a handful of buskers and vendors hanging around but they are no trouble and only add to the relaxed charm of the place. (After we return to the UK we discover that it was only a couple of weeks previously that two Englishmen on a stag trip were arrested for murder in one of these local bars. They remained in jail during the time of our visit.)Late afternoon and we feel ready to get back on the road we have to get out of the city and find a stopover before dark. A No. 3 bus again arrives at the bus stop just as we do. Our anxiety about the bus deviating from the route is thankfully unfounded we have no map of the city with us and soon we are back at the vans location. By chance a small motor factor is close by and we are able to pick up a few spare 15amp fuses for the van. When language fails a quick sketch of what we want is enough to secure them!We are soon out of the city and after a couple of hours driving through dense pine, birch and cedar woods we are close to the Baltic coast, of which we catch attractive glimpses, before we stop at a picnic spot just off the road. We are tempted to make it do but fortune favours the brave and instead we set off along a narrow track to seek out the campsite shown on the huge map at the picnic stop. After travelling back down the coast for a couple of kilometres we still havent found anything more than derelict lodges and an occasional house, but then the woods open up to reveal a stop that was among the best of the whole trip an old ladys front garden lawn next to her timber-clad house and right on the back of the beach. Superb! A mixture of Russian, German and English makes me(HP) understood and the stopover is negotiated. I hand over our last few lats and another pack of M&S fruit tea as a token of our appreciation. Her dog yelps at us for a little while but his bark is worse than his bite and we are soon settled in to watch the sun setting in a clear sky over the Gulf of Riga. Fabulous.After our usual evenings entertainment we turn in for a good nights sleep, lulled by the gentle lapping of the waves on the shore a few metres away magic.

Day 8: Thursday 20th AugustWe continue north along the coast (E67) through the Limbazu region, seeing a number of picnic spots which could have served as night stops. There appeared to be a proper campsite off to the right a few kilometres on from where we rejoined the road, just before Szciemins, then Salacrivaou. Then into Estonia where the kiosks at the border are now derelict. You pass imperceptibly from one Baltic State to another and the regulations seem to be the same throughout they seem to operate as a group, witness the three languages on the milk cartons. The road deteriorated towards the border but has now improved. This section of the road, from Riga along the coast towards Parnu, is lovely, through the trees, blue sky, sunshine dappling the tree trunks very calming.We arrive at Tallinns dockside without stopping to see any of the city just in time for the 2pm sailing to Helsinki. Tallinks booking agent miscalculates the charge in euros (450!) and that makes me look for a cheaper alternative but a combination of an information counter handout and a bureau de change gives a different story and I return to the Tallink counter a rerun of the conversation now produces a charge of just 150 thats 50 less than pre-booking over the web would have cost! Everything just seems to be going so well on this trip!We are soon on board and on our way, just getting a few shots of Tallinns skyline from the ferry. Looks pretty enough but probably little different from Riga? We spent less than an hour in Tallinn is that a record? Theres a cool wind blowing but we get in the lee of it on the sundeck and have our pre-packed lunch along with a shared beer. Simple moments but highly enjoyable! An hour-and-a-half later we get ready to disembark.Arrival in Helsinki requires no customs or immigration procedure and we join the heavy stream of traffic offloading and snaking slowly around the cobbled dockside. We are heading for a pukka campsite for a change and this one must be the best signposted campsite in the whole of Europe, or Scandinavia. There is no risk of missing it at all and we are soon booking in. Its obviously very well run and has many facilities, though not cheap at 29 per night though thats inclusive of leccy, showers and wireless internet.Tent campers do particularly well on this site with plenty of facilities for cooking, dining and washing up.We look forward to a meal in the on-site restaurant and get spruced up. But, without warning his boss, the chef has decided to have a night off and so we cook, once again, on board.

Day 9: Friday 21st AugustAnother good thing about the campsite is that it is right next door to Rastila metro station so no hassle trying to drive in and park the van for sightseeing. We buy 6.80 tourist tickets for the citys transport system but barely use them, doing the city centre on foot apart from a ferry trip over to the Suomenlinna Fortress in the bay.Ferries for the Suomenlinna Fortress (World Heritage Site) go every 20 minutes from near the Market Square. The fortress was built in the eighteenth century on six islands and is well worth a visit, both for the buildings and ambience and for the excellent museum at the Visitor Centre including a film tracing the history of the place. Descriptions in the museum are translated into English.Then back to Helsinki and a walk around the historic centre looking at the architecture which is very fine (the same nineteenth-century architects designed buildings in both Helsinki and in St Petersburg). In the very centre is Senate Square housing the magnificent Helsinki Cathedral neoclassical style, though relatively plain inside owing to its Lutheran tradition. By contrast the Uspenski Cathedral, the other side of the Market Square, is sumptuous both inside and out; its said to be the largest Orthodox church in Western Europe. The third church we visit is a little way out of the city centre the Temppeliaukio Church (Evangelical), quarried out of the natural bedrock in the 1960s (?) again, well worth seeing. Other buildings we see and admire include Helsinki City Hall (originally built as a very grand hotel), Sederholm House (the oldest surviving stone building in the city centre, at one corner of Senate Square), Finlandia Hall and the famous quirkily designed Central Railway Station.Theres a cultural festival on today and the big square in front of the cathedral is being readied for an evening rock concert. Around the town there are other activities going on, including more performance stages. Another is a horde of students parading in fancy dress through the city centre. In the modern town hall foyer a group are preparing a big flower display.Now to find a meal. Helsinki is expensive: our meal (one course only, the cheapest on the menu sardine-like fish + liver/bacon and one glass of wine + tap water) costs 20 each. No tip!Helsinki is geared to tourists, clearly trying to be welcoming and easy as a city to visit, but we felt it lacked warmth. Like the Norwegians, people in Helsinki avoid eye contact and are reserved for example, at no point did we see the waiters and waitresses exchanging smiles, looks, or words. This appears to be the Scandinavian temperament, and it does affect the tourist experience.

Day 10: Saturday 22nd AugustWaste dumped and fresh tank filled and we are ready to leave the campsite and head east.A pleasant run on the 170 (avoiding the motorway) from the Helsinki campsite to Porvoo, the second oldest town in Finland. Porvoo looks like an overdone tourist spot in the advertising but it turns out to be delightful, not least because as we walk along the road by the river from our parking spot the local Bad Ass Brass Band, a scruffy, eccentric-looking group of musicians but could they play jazz! are parading along the road as they play. Everyone happy, appreciative and taking photos.The old town of Porvoo is mostly timber-clad houses, especially sheds painted the distinctive red ochre of Scandinavia; lots of lovely buildings but some modest ones too (including a Sally Army charity shop!). Perhaps because it is Saturday (or this particular Saturday) there is an air of carnival, table-top sales going on at house entrances, flower sculpture at the church, and a stand with live music (promising a series of gigs).On leaving Porvoo we are unable to use two different cards at Shell Express automatic pumps. It says cards only presumably Finnish cards only?Then on the road again, this time via the E18 (with elk warning signs from time to time there had been deer signs in the Baltic States). At around 5pm and not far from the Russian border we find a big rest stop where we decide to stay over, leaving any bureaucratic hold up entering Russia till the next morning. In the event this proved a wise decision.The stop has a toilet block but it is dire, a brick hut divided into male and female sides but both exactly the same empty bare brick rooms with a wooden platform and a hole in the seat and a smell from hell itself. The building is overlooked by a CCTV camera and as we are not sure whether overnight stops are permitted we move the van so it wont appear on any remote monitoring screen. The downside of this would be that they wouldnt be able to see us being robbed either!We go over the maps of the run into Pete and try again to pin down where the campsite is but it is still not certain. As I have printed an aerial shot of it from Google Earth and there is something marked on the map (in the sea) we believe it will be impossible to miss.At this point I realise we have driven a couple of thousand miles across northern Europe and not seen a single mountain. The scenery has been pleasant enough, with rivers, woods, lakes, Baltic coast, etc. but there has been no breathtaking vista, nothing even to stop the van for a photo. The realisation comes as a real surprise. The generally warm sunny weather has made it all much more pleasant than it would have appeared in cloud and rain, thats for sure.

Day 11: Sunday 23rd AugustWere all geared up and on the road by 08.30 and reach the Russian border thirty minutes later. First we have to exit Finland and we assume this will be no more difficult than entering it. We approach an open barrier surrounded by stop signs and next to a large mirror-glazed building. There are no instructions nor any sign of officials or guards so after hesitating for a minute or so we do what we have done right across Europe drive through. Whoops! As we pass the end of the building a Finnish officer comes racing out alongside, shouting at us and smacking his hands together -STOP! I have to chuckle at this display of feigned anger. It turns out they want us to go into the building and present passports, etc. Why not put a sign up to say so? The guy on the desk is stern but friendly but when I explain that we have travelled all the way from Calais without showing our passports anywhere he immediately says This is the Finnish-Russian border as if no other explanation was needed. I begin to respond with well you didnt know we were in Finland in the first place so what difference does it make if you dont know weve left it? but his frown tells me to stop before I get halfway! After a few minutes of the usual scanning and checking we are released to go through. As soon as we pass into Russia the road begins to deteriorate but all we pass is a lone young female Russian officer who takes one look at us and twitches her wand to send us through. Can it really be that easy? No, it cant.Five minutes further down the road, after strict observance of the 5 kph and STOP signs placed along the way, we get to the real border post extensive buildings and queues of vehicles. Good job we timed it for a Sunday or the queues would probably stretch a lot further back. We pull down to the first kiosk and are directed to park up out of the through lane. This looks like they expect it to take a while.There are a couple of short queues and with a mixture of pidgin Russian and pidgin English and the voluntary help of a Russian woman with fluent English we are able to negotiate the system. People in the queue are impressed with our ring binder full of documents. After a few words with the customs woman she gives us an import certificate for the van for two months another stroke of luck that will pre-empt the need to find a customs office in Pete to extend what is normally a much shorter permit. She also looks at our green card and seems satisfied with it -though it does not cover Russia. I ask about this and she directs us into the building to buy OSAGO cover.After weve waited the best part of half an hour at the insurance booth, and asked several Russians if it is open, a woman turns up and we buy the insurance but our plastic cards are refused, as are the fabled dollars, and we have to wait another fifteen minutes for another woman to attend at the nearby bureau de change -where she only accepts crisp new dollar notes. The charge is around 40 for a month for third party cover. We no longer have comprehensive.It takes a total of four hours to do everything so its early afternoon when we get past it all and are on the road in Russia for the first time.It is not long before the reality of Russian roads and Russian driving hit home. Single carriageway roads with surfaces varying from reasonable to appalling, traffic police (DPS) checkpoints every few kilometres, speed cameras, and yet, still, crazy driving. Most main roads are single carriageway with a dirt hard shoulder. About half the cars on the road are 4x4s, the other half a mix of new and ageing Ladas and various Western makes like Mercs, BMWs and Audis. There are enormous numbers of HGVs, many showing their age with dirt and rust and pumping out black smoke from the cheaper grade of diesel. Traffic is often congested and even on clear roads it moves like a convoy controlled by its slowest member. This leads to often reckless overtaking on both sides. Sometimes an HGV will move over on to the hard shoulder to let faster traffic pass. Other times, when HGVs stay on the tarmac, the 4x4s will undertake on the dirt hard shoulder sending up a plume of dust behind them. This is not at all uncommon. Occasionally we are hooted at for a minor error but in general the mood of lorry drivers seems OK and they use their indicators responsibly. There is little general sounding of horns in protest at examples of madness and cheek. When fast cars and 4x4s overtake in stupid places, e.g. on a blind bend, and then try to pull in as traffic comes the other way, the drivers in the stream just accept it and make room for them no fist-shaking, finger-wagging or hooting. I am still not sure if this is due to deference (the overtaking vehicle often being a great deal larger, faster and more expensive) or a resigned acceptance that this is the only way to make decent progress through the congestion and you would do the same yourself if you had a faster vehicle.Whatever the reasons, you have to keep your wits about you all the time. It is impossible to relax and consequently there is a need for regular rest and recuperation.A more visible consequence is the frequent occurrence of RTAs. Although we were travelling long distances, and might expect to see more accidents as a result, it was surprising that we were coming across at least one RTA each day and usually very soon after they had occurred. Signs of earlier accidents seem to be cleared away very quickly as all the ones we saw had occurred within the previous hour or so.Additionally, owing to the poor roads or possibly a lack of proper maintenance, there are enormous numbers of breakdowns. These often involve punctures, fallen suspensions or even, in several cases, wheels having parted company with vehicles. We would see literally dozens of such breakdowns on each day we drove any sort of distance. One of these was a bus losing a wheel and another involved a truck losing the whole of the rear wheel set from its large trailer which then ended up in the roadside ditch!The breakdowns are a source of a significant sector of economic activity with repair shops in every town and village paradoxically alongside a huge number of carwashes. My car may be a wreck but it will be a clean wreck seems to be the motto.It was quite common to see a driver with his bonnet up (very few women drivers) staring at the engine. On one occasion the driver was accompanied by a bride in full white wedding dress also staring into the entrails of the car hope they made it in time!

The M10 we use to get to Pete is variable, sometimes uneven yet a smooth ride, other times its uneven and very bumpy. There are only occasional potholes but the uneven joins at bridges are invariably a source of a big phwump.Along the roadside are numerous smallholders selling their produce ubiquitous yellow mushrooms (which we never try as were unsure how to cook them), blackcurrants, redcurrants, potatoes, gherkins and carrots. Few vehicles seem to stop (there are risks attached to pulling in and out of the traffic stream) and there seems to be a huge oversupply of all this produce. This is the pattern we find throughout the Russia we experience.Throughout our journey so far we have had no trouble finding radio stations playing English pop and standards, though not English commentary or news between. We havent had any news of the outside world since we left England and were not really bothered.We saw one sign for Motel Camping 46km into Russia. Place names are transliterated on road signs but there are no road numbers to confirm you are on the right road.We arrive at the outskirts of Pete without seeing signs for our turn or even a junction that might have been what we wanted. The Motel Camping found on the internet proves elusive. We need to find the old M10 that runs along the coast, not the newer road we are now on. We ask a traffic cop and he directs us back and off towards the coast. We pass through a lengthy resort area close to the beach, there is no room for an alternative road, and so we must be within spitting distance of the place we are looking for but there is no sign of it as up and down we go nor of the road shown on the Russian map that is supposed to go across to Krondstat. This would have been an excellent landmark but we cant find it. I make a mobile phone call and get to speak to a person at the motel but her English is as bad as my Russian and I have to give up on it. We drive towards Pete and decide to look for an ordinary hotel that might accommodate us in their car park and one not too far from a metro or rail station. This is where good fortune again comes our way right on the St Pete city boundary we see the Hotel Olgino with a huge car park in front of it and a railway track across the road ideal.Fortunately the woman on reception has good English and we explain what we want. She turns out to be an anglophile, having recently befriended a lady receptionist from London, and hopes to visit her there one day. She cant help us enough, which is touching. She makes a phone call to the boss and then tells us that they actually have a campsite at the back of the hotel where we can stay over, without using their services, for R350 per night (about 7). With services it would be R1450 (29). We book in for three nights which we hope will be enough to do Pete. The receptionist says theres no need to register our visas with the hotel though we dont know whether this is because were only there for three nights or because we are only parking in the campsite. One of our cards works in the ATM in the lobby and we have some roubles to pay with and to keep us going until we get to a bank to change the dollars. Once again we find that dollars are not acceptable at the hotel counter. The receptionist tells us all about the busses and the metro stop to head for to get into the centre. When shown the road map she also tells us that the road across to Krondstat does not exist! Later, when I return to ask about the hotel restaurant she does that thing that must be quite common in Russia as it comes up in one of my language tapes. The receptionist is busy with something else but she registers your arrival at the counter and without raising her head says Im listening. (In Russian slooshayoo vas.)The campsite is semi-derelict with abandoned houses and disused lodges dotted around. Presumably it was better used during the Soviet era when school parties and Pioneer groups would have made use of it as a base for visiting Pete. But there is a small recently built toilet and (communal) shower block and a water supply. We dont actually make use of their services except to empty the cassette down a toilet and to fill up with fresh waterPete is warmer than Helsinki, though its cloudy and theres a bit of rain in the air.

Day 12: Monday 24th AugustIts eleven days in so I can turn my mattress to give a clean sheet. Ive brought two mattress covers, home-made on the principles of a pillow-case thats forty-four nights and a couple.But now for St Pete a highlight of the trip so must prepare carefully. We implement all our security measures body-belts for the dollars; dummy wallet; dummy passport; wheel clamp; alarm; steering wheel lock. All documentation in hand for registering and changing money. Phrase book, maps, guidebook. Its showery so the cagoule and cap go into the backpack but Jill thinks the umbrella unnecessary. (It showers for the rest of the day)We go to the bus stop and wait alongside the wide dual carriageway, soon realising that the traffic is moving fast and its not so easy to spot bus numbers far enough away to raise an arm to stop them in time! But we manage it just! It is pretty full and we pay our fare (R20 40p each) and squeeze into seats. Its comforting to notice a Hymer dealer on the main road as we head into town, a mere 5km from the hotel!I try to follow the route on our map but the driver is taking rat-runs to bypass heavy congestion and so it isnt that easy. An enquiry of two women passengers reveals were OK and theyre getting off at the same stop. It turns out everyone gets off at the same stop as the metro station, Chernaya Rechka, is a key hub for accessing the city from the north.We queue at the ticket counter and pay R20 (40p) per person for a token to get into the system this allows you to travel anywhere on the metro. We are uncertain of routes and destinations but another enquiry and we are pointed in the right direction. We calculate one stop, change, then four stops but one of the stations is closed for major repairs so there is an element of doubt. Luckily the name Nevsky Prospekt is easy enough to decipher and to hear in the muffled announcement over the trains PA system. We come out into rain.Our compass establishes which direction along Nevsky to head to get to Alliance Travel (on Sovetskaya Ulitsa) where we are to register. Even here the staff member seems a little abrupt (as all shop assistants have been so far) and she asks how much we paid in London to secure this registration service. I show her the invoice from Real Russia that has the service as part of an overall fee (glad we brought all the docs or she might have extracted a further fee for it!) and we are told to return the next day to collect the stamped registration forms.All this done and it is almost time for, and we are ready for, lunch. Sovetskaya Ulitsa is at the wrong end of Nevsky Prospekt, which is a couple of kilometres long, and with rain now holding off we walk along it and look out for a bank and a caf in that order.We pass a couple of bureaux de change with big hard-sell signs in the windows but the rate offered is not as good as we got at the border so we pass on to a rather conservative looking bank a little way along. Another stroke of luck the rate is better even than that at the border, she takes all our older dollar notes, refused by the money-changer at the border, and after what now appears to be the routine slowness of getting anything done in Russia (she checks the notes individually and through the machine three times), we are clear to eat.Luckily again, theres a decent looking establishment with all the pre-cooked food on show and no need to struggle with Russian menus. The place is empty but the counter assistant presses us to make quick decisions as if there were a hundred queuing behind us. They have their own style, these shop assistants and waitresses in Russia. You are made to feel they are doing you a favour in even considering you worthy of buying their wares. But we make good choices (cheese-topped pork cutlet, wedges and a Russian salad for me) and it is served piping hot presumably after microwaving. Its worth 20 in anybodys money but we have to pay only two-thirds of that and this on the main drag of the premier tourist city in Russia.The sun is now out and we decide to eat it on the pavement tables outside. Quite the tourists, arent we pavement-dining on Nevsky Prospekt with the stylishly dressed denizens of St Petersburg parading before us. It is only the second time we have eaten out on the whole trip and its an excellent introduction to St Petersburg. At the end of our fully satisfactory meal we decide not to finish our Russian beers (though they are fine) but to get on our way. As we leave the dining area, with our half-empty glasses of beer still sitting on the table, a passing itinerant spots the opportunity and empties both glasses down his throat almost without breaking stride!Dodging showers, we amble down the rest of Nevsky to locate the Hermitage. On the way we are impressed by the size, style and solidity of the buildings lining the street. The rivers and canals cutting across the street, with similar banks of apparently nineteenth-century buildings lining them, create an air of Venetian splendour: canals, style, wealth and resilience. In a recent TV programme David Dimbleby calls all this a confection, designed by Peter the Great and his successors to outshine Paris, Rome and London. Good for them, I say.As we knew, the Hermitage is closed for the day and we wander around it taking photos. A teenage girl asks me to take a photo of her and her friends which I agree to do but her battery is flat. I offer to take photos on my camera and email addresses are exchanged. We are now friends on Facebook! Then two pretty Russian girls approach wearing mock 19th century infantry uniforms and another photo is taken with them costing a pound but well worth it! After this we then go over the river to see the Aurora battleship (that fired the shot that launched the October revolution). The ship too is closed today and at this point the rain closes in again and after a brief look at the trippery on the stalls lining the dock we beat a retreat past the rough-hewn rock memorial to the victims of communism, through the Peter and Paul fortress, past Peter and Paul cathedral and Peters disproportioned bronze statue, back across another bridge to pick up the metro and back to Olgino.

Day 13: Tuesday 25th AugustA very early start 7.50am to get to the Hermitage Museum early and be two of the first in the queue. The journey the previous morning took 1 hour 20 minutes; todays journey is shorter and we get there with one-and-a-half hours to wait for the museums opening at 10.30. (The alternative to queuing for an hour-and-a-half or more is to pre-book on the internet which on reflection would have been preferable as you go to the front of the queue with your voucher. This was happening, alongside some shameless queue-jumping too a very common phenomenon in Russia!)But we are among the first in. The Winter Palace, which houses the main part of the museum, is unbelievably vast over 1,000 rooms and sumptuously decorated and furnished. The State Rooms and Palace Interiors are fabulous and well worth a lingering visit in their own right; add to this the huge number of paintings, artefacts, jewels, archaeological finds from ancient Egypt to the twentieth century and you would need a good three days to do justice to it all. Its a pity they dont offer two-and three-day tickets in addition to the one-day only ones (R350 each).Through a misunderstanding we have bought tickets to Peter the Greats Winter Palace too and go along there in hopes of finding out more about him. It is a let-down and not worth even the mere R60 it cost. The building has been restored so far as possible to its original state but there is no history of Peter or of his use of the building. And it is quite peculiar in that the concierge and various helpers seem almost to resent the presence of visitors! The one thing we did learn (from a brief visit to the Peter and Paul Fortress and the Lonely Planet book) is that Peter I was called Peter the Great not for his greatness but for his height he stood 7 feet 4 inches tall. It didnt take long to do his Winter Palace, allowing us time to pick up the visa registration before a nice meal at the other end of Nevsky Prospekt and so back to the van after another exhausting touristy day.While walking along crowded Nevsky today a young woman cut in on me to peer at the image on someones compact digital as they took a photo. I laughed at the temerity of it and she immediately engaged me in conversation explaining that she was a professional graphic artist and photographer and had a bee in her bonnet about the poor quality of most peoples photos. (Still, a bit cheeky, I thought, perhaps she was an agent for a Russian bride scam and I was seen as a potential punter?) She kept up our conversation in fluent English until we got to the metro where we bade farewell.

Day 14: Wednesday 26th AugustWe learned the previous day that there is no easy road to Petrodvorets (Peterhof) and a different receptionist this time gives us directions again to go via Chernaya Rechka. We get off at Avtovo and are put on the wrong bus by a fellow traveller but the driver points us across the road for a bus going in the opposite direction! We take the last two seats and the driver sets off immediately for a much longer run than we expect. By the time we arrive its a nice warm day again with the gold onion domes shining and the ornamental fountains shimmering in the sun.Petrodvorets, on the Gulf of Finland, deserves a visit as the Russian Versailles the white and gold buildings and the cascade of fountains look stunning in the morning sunshine. But its a bit of a swizz because its mostly a reconstruction: the Germans trashed it during World War II, but before that Stalin ordered it to be bombed to prevent Hitler holding a victory party in the palace. The furniture, artworks and chandeliers in the grand palace are, however, original as they were removed by the Russians before the bombing raids. We were further frustrated because we happened to visit during the last week of the month when each building is closed in turn for cleaning in addition to the usual day off a week! Jill wanted to see inside Monplaisir, Peter the Greats sea-facing villa, but it was closed. (He built it on the site and then developed the grand buildings and fountains because he liked the location so much.)The palace is fairly crowded and we decide against queuing for the interior it cannot better the Hermitage and we just admire the fountains and well-maintained gardens. A visit to the yacht museum lacks only one thing a yacht, royal or otherwise. A sign points us towards the caf with a claim that their Service is Fast and Preventative. I order a pizza and pints for lunch but the brusque exchange with the counter assistant makes me think the sign should have read service is fast and peremptory. The pizza is a bit plasticky but it is cheap.Theres not a great deal more to see here so we decide to go back into the city to take in the political museum but its now 1.30pm and it closes at 5. Unfortunately we miss a private bus and get on a municipal one that stops at every stop and wont break the speed limit. It takes twice as long as the outward journey and its only the fact that it is more spacious and comfortable than the private ones that makes it bearable. Stupidly we then catch the metro to a station that we already know is closed for refurbishment, getting off at a stop that leaves us with a two kilometre walk back to the museum. We eventually arrive, knackered, with about one hour to see it all but then lady luck steps in again and the receptionist tells us that it doesnt actually close until 5.45pm. Its just enough time.Its a fascinating place. The curator has declared the aim of giving a balanced objective view of the Soviet era but we guess from the demeanour of the assistants that it is probably run by Party faithful. They are certainly more human, more helpful and more friendly than any other customer assistants we have come across before in Russia. Theres loads of material you wont have seen anywhere else. The building is the actual one used by Lenin and the Bolsheviks until July 1917 when they were evicted by pro-Kerensky troops.The exhibits deal also with the Stalin era and through the fifties to 1990. The Gorbachev era, we are told, is in preparation.On our return to Olgino we find that a bunch of Germans have set up their tents around the water point, obstructing anyone else who wants to get to it. Cheeky or just plain stupid?

Day 15: Thursday 27th AugustIt has rained a little during the night and then we get downpours. But the ground is well drained and we will be able to get out. First, though, I go across to the Germans to explain well be coming into the centre of their little encampment to draw water. They suddenly realise what theyve done and start moving vehicles away from the point. As were filling up a guy from the hotel turns up and starts complaining to me about the obstruction of the water tap by the tents he assumes its our group! I point to the German youth leaders and he tells them theyll have to move their tents away. I fill to overflowing. Now to dump grey water.We had noticed a group of about ten German motorhomes in the outer car park and assumed there must be a dump point somewhere over there. If there was I couldnt find it (or any other form of drainage in the car park apart from surface run off) and so it was a matter of lining the van up to hide the outlet and then dumping it into the verge on the edge. I had no intention of trying to drive the next stage over bumpy roads while being top heavy. It had already been wallowing uncomfortably as we drove out of the campsite. Not nice but there was little choice. It soon flowed back on to the car park surface but it was in a remote spot and so would likely not even be noticed but as we were still within the exit control barrier we would have been stymied if anyone had noticed!We have worked out a short cut to the ring road to get out and then back in to the siege memorial on the other side of town. Amazingly we take no wrong turns (they come later) as we zigzag through back streets. The Russians have a peculiar habit of rarely putting on urban road signs the destinations that the junctions might take you to. Instead they give the name of the road itself and even this does not always coincide with our maps! Fine if youre a local but for the visitor it is a nightmare. But the ring road is of high quality and if there were no traffic on it you would be able to make rapid progress.(Another quirky thing is the Russian habit of putting up signs showing a coming bend in the road as if it is a junction turning off the road. Slowed down quite a few times for those!)We think were on the wrong road but then come across the siege memorial on an island in the middle of the road and pull into the free car park across the way and walk across. Most impressive. Socialist realist statues of heroic figures for whom the memorial has been created surround the site. As you go down the steps funereal music gently engulfs you from hidden speakers and an air of