Russia - BRIDGET THE MIDGET

St Petersburg and The Winter Palace

29th July 201318th March 2020 By roychinnorNo Comments

It has been a while since I crossed a border with all the officialdom of Customs and Immigration and that is my only excuse for making a minor mistake on entering Russia. With stories of long delays and Bridget’s possibly embarrassing registration number uppermost in my mind, I was pleasantly surprised to find that the process was both straightforward and efficient at the border and I was 40 miles inside Russia before realising that I had completely forgotten to purchase insurance. In Russia, like most countries, car insurance is compulsory and the police are reportedly enthusiastic in stopping cars with foreign plates and checking their papers. I had plenty of fuel for the journey, but the road conditions for the first forty miles were poor and the standard of driving a little erratic. Just when I thought I would have to get used to the road surface it improved considerably even though the driving didn’t. A condition of my visa was...

Name That Car

28th July 201318th March 2020 By roychinnorNo Comments

Could I make it round the world in this? Not sure, but can you name the marque? I have asked the hotel staff and all they can tell me is that it is an old Soviet car. There are three pictures to check out. Wait to hear from you....

Farewell Finland

25th July 201318th March 2020 By roychinnorNo Comments

One of the joys of having no set route on these adventures is that just occasionally you stumble across a gem of a place about which you have never heard. Hamina, in Finland, was just one such example of this as far as I am concerned. I had never heard of it, although I am sure due to its place in history it is somewhat better known to both the Fins and the Russians, oh and possibly the Swedes. It appears to have been fought over at one time or another by both the Swedes and the Russians, fighting each other as far as I can make out, so I assume the locals just kept their heads down. Hamina was originally named Vehkalahti which was founded in 1653, but was completely destroyed in 1712 by, you’ve guessed it, fire; albeit the fire this time was deliberately set by the retreating army of Sweden. This was the time of Peter the Great, unusual...