Looks likely that this summers trip will be. Across to Amsterdam by Ferry Then through Germany, Poland, Lithuania etc. all the way up to St Petersburg. Anyone been up that way before? Any pointers etc. Where to go or not go? Cheers
Great idea for a trip. Last year I went as far as Warsaw, which is straightforward. Beyond there I wouldn't know - but good luck.
Belarus, minsk is a good stopover, excellent value for money (you need visa to get in country though)
there is a very friendly Ducati club with members mainly in moscow but few in St P as well. worth getting in touch and they will look after you.
Ok an update on the trip. Done it. Newcastle - Holland - Germany - Poland - Lithuania - Latvia - Estonia - Russia - Finland - (ferry to) Sweden - (ferry to Poland) - Germany - Holland - Newcastle 3417 miles on the bike - No issues at all - gave chain a little tweak in Finland and that's is. Bikes just clocked 30,000 miles now. Best ride ever and the tuneboy map with cruise control really helped. Russia border entry - 3.5 hours - (anybody need the info let me know). Where to go next year has got me thinking.... Any ideas.
Great, well done. Any photos? More details about your trip? What you saw, who you met, where you stayed?
Sounds like a great trip. Plan on doing a similar trip myself, but will continue on to Kazakhstan. What problems did you have crossing from Estonia to Russia? Which border crossing did you use?
Crossing into Russia was the only real issue. Used Narva - Estonia Best way now to do it is. Log onto goswiftEE web site and book a border crossing time. Fill in all the detail etc. This only gets you permission to join the queue to leave Estonia - but if you don't do this you will be turned away when you reach the front of the Q. Once called to crossing they only check passport and Log book for bike. They check the VIN numbers matched. then you get out of Estonia and across the bridge to Russian side. 3 stages here First stage passport/visa check and check log book for bike . Took about an hour various questions and general looks of puzzlement. Eventually allowed to next stage Moved forwards 20 feet - check passport again.. Security check on bike - open top box/pannier etc - no effort so quite easy. Moved forward another 20 feet - customs. Handed 2 forms to fill in completely in Russian - no one spoke any english to help. Filled them in wrong went back to customs check point - grumpy woman yelled something in Russian and tore up the forms and handed me another 2. By this time there were several bikers from Germany and they had the same issue. Eventually figured out what most of the form sections were - tried again - again balled out and sent away again. Then she shouts "English" and hands me 2 english forms. Filled them in and back to desk again - more moans groans till eventually a few stamps and I'm done. (1.5 hours) Off to the next barrier - passport check - barrier goes up. Im in. Heard in advance you have to buy insurance etc at the first garage as none of my UK insurance was valid or AA 5 star etc. First garage, couldn't find anyone who know what i was talking about so didn't bother, so had no cover in the 3 days in Russia. Got out via Finland and apart form queuing - was easy - just collected the forms from entry and out you go.
I didn't bother trying to get the bike into Russia and just dumped it in Helsinki and took the train. 3 hours later I was in st. Petersburg. Much easier and all the immigration stuff was done on the train.
