Nizhny Novogord - 21st July 2006 - 22nd July 2006

A view from the Kremlin in Nizhny Novgorod (considerably smaller and in many ways more attractive than Moscow's Kremlin) accross the roof of one of the many churhces the town boasts. Interestingly nearly all of the churches in Nizhny Novgorod are either fully restored or in the process of being restored and compared to thei counterparts in other places we have seen in Russia are consequently arguably more impressive because of that.

Train to St Petersburg - 18th July 2006 - 19th July 2006

On the journey to St Petersburg Tom was finding trying to sort out the import documents all a bit too much so waht better way than to find an empty corridor on the train, a bottle of vodka and a shot glass and pass relieve the stresses of the past few days that way.

Moscow - 13th July 2006 - 21st July 2006

Despite initial appearances this is not a statute hopnouring the Soviet Union's very own Superman, but rather a statute celebrating the Russian football team's participation in a past World Cup.



On one side of Red Square is the huge department store called GUM which is now full of Western shops, but when the Soviet Union fell was apparantly home to almost empty shops and long queues for the few things that were available.

Oulu, Finland - 28th June 2006 - 3rd July 2006

We stayed in Oulu for quite a few days, certainly far more than we initially expected, because the place was relaxed, the weather was good and we wanted to give ourselves a bit of a break before we get to Russia in a few days time. The town has little in the way of obvious attractions, but has a great vibe, a young population and a nice beach a short bicycle ride from the town.

Rovaniemi, Finland - 26th June 2006 - 28th June 2006

Our first proper stop in Finland was at the small town of Rovaniemi just south of the Arctic Circle. It seems that Rovaniemi's claim to fame is that it boasts a theme park dedicated to Father Christmas and, on the Arctic Circle, the Santa Claus Post Office. Being just south of the Arctic Circle meant that there was still the issue of the place never getting dark, although it was far less of a problem than at Nordkapp - by which I mean the sun did at least try to set around midnight (although it did of course fail miserably).

Tromsø - 20th June 2006 - 23rd June 2006

After arriving in Tromsø and finding a place to stay (whcih in this case was on the floor of one of the classrooms in a local Catholic bible school - with their consent of course) we did what every self respecting Briton would do and headed straight to the nearest bar. The England/Sweden game was on, but after this was done with we stayed out for a few more beers and then we had had enough we headed home. It was very strange to find that in fact at two o'clock on the the morning of the 21st June 2006, as we made our way home, the light was so bright that you could be mistaken for thinking it was midday. Westood on the seafront watching the crazy seagulls as we soaked up the midnight (OK two am) sun and took in the view of the harbour. The 21 June 2006 is the Summer Solstice, but the forecast says there will be rain then and so we may not be able to enjoy this craziness then.

Road 7 from Oslo to Bergen, Norway - 13th June 2006 - 14th June 2006

This is one of the lakes alongside the road from Oslo to Bergen and was up in the mountains just before we reached the highest point on the road. Although the sun was out it was incredibly cold although we may have felt the cold more as we were on motorbikes and so for the nearly to hour ride to reach this point we had been slowly freezing ourselves to the bone.