European holidays 2008 Finland, Germany, the Netherlands by car So, finally, the long-awaited moment has come when we nevertheless set off on our next car vacation, for which this time we prepared quite seriously, taking into account all the mistakes of last year's voyage to the countries of Scandinavia.
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European holidays 2008
Finland, Germany, the Netherlands by car
So, finally, the long-awaited moment has come when we nevertheless set off on our next car vacation, for which this time we prepared quite seriously, taking into account all the mistakes of last year's voyage to the countries of Scandinavia. I prepared this report already at the final stage of the journey, so I could miss some details and particulars, but the general essence will, I hope, be clear and you, those who read this, will be able to learn something useful for yourself. I also note that all statements in favor of something, or vice versa, a negative opinion about what I saw or experienced during the trip, is the personal opinion of the participants in the trip, which are me and my family. We are not trying to give advice or dissuade from anything, we just tell what we saw and reflect on this topic. Let's start...
Route: Its development was spontaneous and initially included France and Great Britain, but being realists, we understood that such long journeys would not allow us to fully appreciate and see the beauty of all the cities along the route. Plus, it’s still physically difficult for both the driver and passengers to cover distances of 1000 kilometers a day, even on beautiful European roads. As a result, the route was reduced to:
Lipetsk - Tver - Vyborg - Helsinki - Hamburg - Amsterdam - Luxembourg - Stuttgart - Rostock - Nurmes - Tver - Lipetsk
Above are all the cities through which we passed and where we stopped, in some just as “transit points”, in others we went with the specific purpose of seeing something, but more on that later. Unfortunately, even such a simplified route took three weeks to cover it as much as possible.
We left home on July 01.2008 and plan to arrive on July 20 (I am writing in the future tense because at the moment we are still in a cottage on the lake near the town of NURMES and fishing here). The rest of the route, as well as my general impressions of the trip, I will write at home. We booked all the hotels along the way (with the exception of Stuttgart), as well as a cottage and a cabin on the ferries, and paid from Lipetsk, something through a foreign currency current account at the branch of CJSC RAIFEIzen BANK, something with a VISA VTB credit card, again currency. I draw your attention to the fact that only such a credit card has never let us down on any trip and I cannot afford to write “Take any credit card and go ahead, you can not take cash, pay everywhere” I write only about what I know for sure, so I can to state with confidence that the VTB currency VISA GOLD is accepted outside the European Union everywhere without exception.
But as for cards like VISA ELECTRON, in many hotels and even at some gas stations there were signs informing that this type of card is not accepted here. Unfortunately, I do not know the reason for this, so we will simply accept it as a fact. But we digress from the point, so let's continue.
Vehicle: This car is an AUDI Q7 3.0 TDI V6 (233 hp) very large and spacious, with a fairly roomy trunk (which is important for such long trips) and an economical diesel engine. Again, relevant given the average price of diesel fuel in Europe 1.4 euros per liter and gasoline AI 9.1. 7 euros per liter and less diesel consumption compared to a similar gasoline engine. In principle, there is some savings, even if not global, but at least you don’t have to stop at gas stations often, despite the fact that they are wonderful in Europe. The car is new, produced in 2007, at the time of the trip the mileage was 1.000 km.
, which again was thought out, since last year the three-year-old Volkswagen Touareg with seventy thousandth mileage at the end of the trip drank a lot of blood. The only disadvantage of the car we chose for the trip is just its dimensions. The fact is that almost all parking lots in Europe are underground and are designed, at best, if not for a motorcycle, then for Smart at most, and there is little pleasure in squirming in such a barn. By the way, before the trip, I wanted to buy a roof rack to hide fishing tackle and other luggage that would be needed for the final stage of the trip. The only thing that stopped me from buying was that in the ferry tickets we paid for the loading of a car up to two meters high, and the Q7 with a wardrobe trunk pulls 2.24 m (checked with the dealer) and in order not to involve ourselves in finding a way to pay extra for extra height on the spot and thereby eliminate the possibility of being late for the ferry, this idea was abandoned.
And as it turned out, it was very handy, since the maximum height of the underground parking that I came across was 2.1 m. And there were 1.9 m. Where even a decent minibus would not fit. So when traveling by car to Europe, keep in mind that if you have a lot of things and you want to load them into a trunk, your car should be no more than 1.9 meters high with it, otherwise it will be a problem to park it at night near the hotel.
Additional equipment: Unfortunately, our car was not equipped with a regular navigation system, of course, in Russia it is not so relevant yet, but in Europe it would be needed. Therefore, a way out was found by purchasing a GARMIN NUVI 610 autonavigator and an SD card with full coverage of Europe.
The device was tested on the roads of his native Lipetsk and at the beginning of the route in the European part of Russia, including the Tver region, where he was ruthlessly sending him to unknown routes, for which he quickly received the nickname "Goblin", which, by the way, firmly stuck to him. Looking ahead, I’ll say that on the territory of the European Union, a device bought for 1.000 rubles two days before the trip was completely rehabilitated and now it’s hard to imagine what we would do without it. Frantically searching for hotels on city maps and choosing the right direction on the wide European roads, and then hiring taxi drivers who, for a modest fee, "escorted" us to the hotel last year, did not bring any pleasure. So, again, I can authoritatively state that a navigator is an indispensable thing on such a trip, the main thing is to learn how to use it in advance and download a good map, this is very important, you don’t have to spare money on maps.
Well, in principle, and all that I wanted to tell you about the preparations, now actually on the road!
Russia: This time I will not tell my story by days, as I described the New Year holidays in Norway, but by countries, since there are much more days now and the description of some of them would be reduced to a banal phrase: “We drove 650 km. Before Stuttgart, we refueled several times, stood in a traffic jam 40 km away. from the city two and a half hours, settled in a hotel. It seems to me not interesting to read such a story, so I will briefly (and somewhere in more detail) describe exactly the countries and, accordingly, the cities that we visited / passed.
So Russia ...it probably makes no sense to describe the route Lipetsk - Moscow - Tver - St. Petersburg - Vyborg in colors, many have passed it more than once, to one degree or another, I can only say that the roads in the center of the country, although they are getting better from year to year, but still they are not able to adequately pass the amount of transport that moves along them, especially for the Moscow-Peter section, in particular the wonderful Novgorod region, if its leadership is not okay. You feel the contrast immediately, as soon as you get from Tverskaya to the Novgorod region, the road basically ends and to the Leningrad region, bypassing Veliky Novgorod itself, there is a front-line “semi-priming road”, if you don’t mind, I can’t call it otherwise.
I covered the distance from St. Petersburg to Lipetsk without stopping for the night only once, a couple of years ago, and it took me eleven hours, as a result, the last 150 km.
I drove home on autopilot, so we don’t experiment like this anymore, but stop in the middle of the road in the glorious city of Tver at the Tver Park Hotel, located very conveniently a couple of kilometers from the St. Petersburg highway on the banks of the Volga. The place is quiet, clean, with breakfast and friendly (for the most part) staff. I strongly recommend to stay.
We spent the second night in Vyborg, which, in principle, was later recognized as an erroneous decision, since there would be enough time to cross the border and settle for the night already in Helsinki, this would save us a day, although we do not regret it, since I personally liked Vyborg , albeit a province, but already almost Europe and again very friendly people, white nights (a phenomenal phenomenon for us as residents of the middle zone) and an incredible number of mosquitoes in the hotel !!!
They didn't let us sleep, I put a "deuce" to the management, which completes the room with a hefty "plasma" and at the same time forgets about such simple things as a mosquito net on the window. By the way, the hotel is called "Viking", located near the railway station, unfortunately far from the old city, which we did not have time to see, I think a visit to the historical center would add a lot of favorable impressions from this wonderful town on the border with the European Union.
Finland (first visit, transit): I noticed a trend - every year our fellow citizens who want to leave the Motherland by car in order to get acquainted with Western culture are becoming more and more, so if last year they arrived at the border at the Torfyanovka crossing at 7.00 in the morning we were in the first group of people going through customs / border control, then this time we arrived there at 7.
On the 20th, we found a rather large queue in which we stood for two hours (we heard from experienced Petersburgers that on weekends you can stand for six hours, or even more). But neither the border guards nor the customs officers this time caused any negative, they worked, albeit not quickly, but quite harmoniously and were polite (sincerely surprised). They wouldn’t let in any “nimble” with noble “crusts”, who fly past the queue right under the barrier, almost knocking down the hesitant “mere mortals”.
Looking ahead, I’ll note that a BMW X5 flying in this way with a pair of “new Russians of an obsolete type” was safely ahead of me (despite the fact that we went through customs half an hour later) at a time when about ten kilometers from the border, already in Finland Finnish law enforcement officers wrote a protocol to them, the crusts apparently did not work in this case, and the “brother” was sitting in the back seat of the Opel patrol with a sad face, waiting for the verdict.
The hotel in Helsinki (Radisson SAS Seaside Hotel, Ruoholahdenranta 3, FI-00180 Helsinki, Finland, +358 (0.20 123.707, www. radissosas. com) was chosen to provide easy access to the port terminal. complexity, since in Helsinki several terminals and FINNLINES ferries (namely, the ferry of this company was booked by us) depart from the terminal, which is located far from this hotel, but if you travel by TALLINK or SILJA LINE ferries, then you are just in the Seaside Hotel - the port is two minutes walk away.
Since this time Helsinki was only a transit point for us, we did not look at the sights of the city, there was not enough time, but I can recommend a wonderful fish restaurant located just on the shore near the port opposite the above hotel.
The restaurant is called MERI MAKASIINI (Hietalahdenranta 14.00180, Helsinki, +358 (0.09-607-299 www. merimakasiini. fi) this establishment definitely deserves attention, because its menu has a lot of delicious fish dishes. In the evening it is difficult to find a free table, the locals also have a restaurant Prices do not bite (by Finnish standards, of course. ) Even I, not being a big fan of fish, dined there with pleasure.
The next day, having quickly found the terminal we needed with the help of the Goblin, we accidentally ended up in the Helsinki Zoo, located on an island not far from the city.
The fact that most of the deck is reserved for the cargo compartment even played into the hands of the ferry, since it has a small passenger capacity, if my memory serves me 500 people, the ship turned out from this ...I don’t know ...“club” or something, so to speak . It’s just that during the day that we sailed, we remembered almost all the passengers, the open deck with tables and ashtrays made it possible to practically not be in the cabin, and the magnificent weather and almost complete calm on the sea added comfort and warmth to our, one might say, small cruise .
I also note that the ticket price also included three meals a day, and no one ever asked us for coupons for this very meal, and what is nice, each passenger in the restaurant was assigned his own place at the table, which eliminated the problem of frantic search for a free table when you have plates full of food in your hands and the same “losers” who are late for the start of the feast are scurrying around. Life on the ship is as simple as in a cartoon about Thumbelina - "have eaten, now you can sleep ...sleep, now you can eat. " Recommended for lovers of passive recreation.
Germany (first visit, transit): The only clearly noted inconvenience of the FINNLINES ferry is, perhaps, its late (21.00 local time) arrival at the port of Travemü nde, located near Hamburg. In this regard, we physically could not overcome the distance to Amsterdam and even in Lipetsk we decided to book a hotel in Hamburg.
To my deepest regret, we didn’t have time to see the city itself, so I appreciated its beauty from the height of the 25th floor of the Radisson SAS Hotel Hamburg (Marseiller Strasse 2, D-20355 Hamburg, Germany).
Germany as a whole certainly struck. First of all, a developed roadside infrastructure. It's no joke, free toilets on the autobahns are located at a distance of no more than 10 - 15 km. from each other. And the Germans are constantly repairing roads, expanding them and improving coverage. We were amazed at the tenacity of the local workers to “polish” the already ideal German highways. At the same time, no obstacles to traffic are created, all detours are made correctly, temporary markings are applied everywhere, warning signs are placed. Shine. But the Germans, as it seemed to me personally, drive quite aggressively, both in cities and outside settlements. Changing lanes in front of an overtaking car or making a U-turn across the tram tracks is par for the course.
A couple of times I watched the locals almost collide because of this, though they always parted ways and we must pay tribute without a single sign of discontent on the part of the “injured” side. Culture at the highest level, bravo. The only thing I haven't fully figured out is the speed limits. Where they were marked with signs, everything is simple, the flow almost always slowed down to the set speed and so we drove, but after the sign “End of the zone of all restrictions”, the burghers for the most part begin to drown “for all the money”, although I heard that unlimited Autobahns seem to have been canceled in Germany. Does not look like it. Or, according to old memory, the Germans continue to fly over them. For myself, I chose a simple and understandable tactic to move at an average flow rate, which allowed me to get to my destinations quickly and without the risk of being fined an impressive amount in euros.
And if in Finland the traffic police are not visible at all, then in Germany there are more than enough of them and, apparently, law enforcement officers monitor the situation on the roads very, very vigilantly.
Holland: As elsewhere in the EU, to get from Germany to the Netherlands you just need to want to do it. Of course, there are no restrictions and the entire border is reduced to the large emblem of the United Europe with the inscription "Welcome to the Netherlands". Everyone liked the country madly, we stayed there for three days and got a lot of impressions. Looking ahead, I’ll say that in order to understand Holland and feel its spirit, visiting Amsterdam is not enough. The capital is strikingly different from the rest, so calm and beautiful, soaked in the smells of fresh grass and Holland cheese. Nevertheless, the city is beautiful and in every possible way deserves to be visited.
True, if your acquaintance with Amsterdam is limited to the "Red Light District" and the nearest "coffee shop", then you can safely assume that you have not seen either Holland or Amsterdam. Because Amsterdam is at least Dam Square, on which the Royal Palace stands and a very good Madame Tussauds museum is located, which, although not big, leaves a pleasant impression, especially a show made in the style of Pirates of the Caribbean with the participation of professional actors. You are walking along the hold of a sailboat caught in a storm and a wax figure of a pirate with a chain, which seems to be standing quietly in a corner, suddenly, rattling the chain, runs at you making inarticulate sounds. Impressive. Well, there were quite a few of us, and no one except a couple of girls was particularly frightened, although the instinct of self-preservation inherent in people still makes us beware of further.
Personally, this was the first time I was at such a performance and it really touched me to the core. Well done Dutch for coming up with something like this. True, the price of the museum is not cheap, 18 euros per person. The wax figures themselves are reduced mainly to Hollywood celebrities and a number of representatives of the foreign stage. There is also Lenin, Gorbachev and Churchill. Whether it is worth paying that kind of money to visit such an institution, everyone decides for himself, but I would recommend visiting the museum. There is also the Vincent van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which I also recommend visiting for everyone, not just art lovers. Firstly, the architecture of the building strikes the imagination with its absurdity (we were looking for the entrance for ten minutes), and secondly, there are collected truly great works of the artist, which his compatriots are very proud of. After all, the museum has a good diner and you can eat there in an elementary way.
Yes, and bring souvenirs, such as reproductions of famous paintings by van Gogh or just a postcard with his self-portrait. The prices are democratic, both for the entrance (10 euros) and for souvenirs. It’s still worth walking along the red-light district, its unique flavor is definitely present there. Personally, it seemed to me that this landmark of the city had long ceased to fulfill its direct function of an exaggerated brothel, but became just something so special, without which there would be no Amsterdam (as well as if smoking marijuana was banned there). This is all more of a tourist attraction, yes, the girls sit in the windows and cast languid glances towards tourists passing by, but I didn’t see a single person who would go there, I didn’t see a single “busy” window, from which I concluded that purely tourist function Red-light districts. And the girls are really beautiful. Probably Russians, or Ukrainians.
The architecture of the city looks a lot like St. Petersburg (which is not surprising for well-known reasons), but still differs from the city on the Neva. The number of bicycles per capita exceeds all conceivable ideas of a simple Russian person. In principle, this is not surprising, since moving around the city center, where the width of the roadway is rarely more than two and a half meters, is very problematic in any car. I really drove everywhere there, I even drove into the red-light district by car, by accident. Of the restaurants, I can mention the Argentinean LA PAMPA (Paleisstraat 21 Nwe. Zijds Voorburgwal 151.1012 RB Amsterdam, tel. 620.153), where I tried the best beef of the whole trip, after all, the Argentines probably actually cook it best in the world. The institution gave the impression of a very groovy, live Latin American music is played there and the entire staff dances and sings to it. Full carnival or siesta atmosphere. Call it what you want.
Visiting such establishments gives a charge of positive energy for a long time, I highly recommend it. And try the local wine, it is real Argentinean and very pleasant. Yes, I completely forgot about the flower market in Amsterdam, because everyone knows that Holland is also a country of tulips, and so in the market in the city center you can buy a huge number of these same tulips and a variety of them, in any form, from seeds and bulbs to wooden “dummy” » if you will. There is also an incredible selection of fresh flowers. You can walk around the flower market all day and spend there, if you wish, five hundred euros and much more. We stuffed a whole suitcase with bulbs of all kinds of colors. Here, by the way, is another advantage of traveling by car, unlike by plane, you can throw a lot of things into the car, including souvenirs, without worrying about how to go through the airport with all this “good” and then to a taxi.
The hotel also did not disappoint, it was a magnificent hotel located in the heart of the city in an old mansion: the Radisson SAS Hotel Amsterdam (Rusland, 17, NL-1012 CK Fmsterdam, The Netherlands). The location of the hotel is almost perfect, perhaps the NH Hotel Krasnopolsky is located more luxuriously on Dam Square, but I suspect that the prices for a room in it are cosmic.
But Holland, as I said, is not only Amsterdam with its coffee shops, it is also a large, beautiful and very agricultural country. All fish lovers should definitely visit the village of VOLENDAM, 20 kilometers from Amsterdam. The atmosphere of a fishing village is recreated there, in the center there are many fish restaurants, and on weekends there is a large fish market. And they also sell insanely delicious salted herring, which you can’t try anywhere else.
We learned about the existence of this village already when we were in Holland, so our route did not allow us to stay there for more than a couple of hours, but for everyone who plans a trip in advance, I would recommend staying there overnight, you won’t regret it, at least eat a lot of herring for a long time and smoked eel (he is also one of the best in Europe). Five kilometers from Volendam there is a village of cheese makers, MARKEN. We did not have time to visit it, since our path lay in Luxembourg, however, if you have the opportunity, do it for us, I think you will not be disappointed.
Through Belgium and Luxembourg: I will not dwell on these countries for a long time, since they were passed through in transit, so we did not see any sights at all.
Luxembourg really made a double impression, on the one hand, the country is very rich, this can be seen in the design of houses in the old city center and in cars scurrying along narrow city streets and in the happy faces of residents. On the other hand, high reinforced concrete "cubes" in the business center, which apparently belong to large banks, do not fit in well with neat villas and well-groomed suburban cottages. In Belgium, I liked the roads, oddly enough, although it would seem that they are ideal everywhere in Europe, and nothing can surprise you after the German autobahns, but the Belgian roads have a very interesting landscape with a constant elevation difference. It is a pleasure to ride them, especially when climbing the next hill, a magnificent view opens up down to some quiet valley.
I think we need to go to Luxembourg separately, there is something to see, we need to spend a couple of days in the city, so we will most likely plan another visit to this state on our next trip to Europe.
Germany: This stage of our journey was a personal whim and, as I expected, turned out to be the most vivid impression of the whole trip. Probably many will not appreciate my zeal and are unlikely to repeat such a route, but I really wanted to visit the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart and I visited it. And I'm very proud of it, because this is an amazing place. But first things first.
We spent the night in Luxembourg and, following the competent tips of the navigator, moved towards the border with Germany, which was waiting for us with slightly worsened weather.
I should note that the weather, by and large, didn’t spoil much during the trip, of course it wasn’t cold, but it rained quite often and very heavily in Amsterdam, which allowed local Arabs to sell an incredible amount of cheap umbrellas in stalls, two of which were bought and we, in Germany, it also rained in places and in general the temperature rarely rose above 20 degrees Celsius. By the way, on the way to Stuttgart, we got into the only traffic jam along the way, in which we stood for almost two and a half hours, and the traffic message service every minute cheerfully reported on the state of affairs on nearby highways and on our highway in particular, but given that the German language none of us knows, we could only make out fragments of phrases in essence which we guessed that the passage would be opened by 14.00. Exactly at 14.00 and not a minute later the stream started.
Such punctuality had to be seen for the first time in my life. The cause of the traffic jam was a very serious accident involving at least three trucks and a couple of cars. It was difficult to judge whether she did without casualties or not, although, as elsewhere in Europe, several ambulances, firefighters and a myriad of police and rescue vehicles crowded the scene. The blockage was competently fenced off and traffic was allowed to move along three of the four lanes of the autobahn.
While we were in a traffic jam, the biggest problem for me personally was the possibility of being late for the Mercedes-Benz Museum, since we did not have the exact time of its work, we did not know its location either. Again, I had to rely on GARMIN, into which I entered the coveted address: Mercedesstrasse, 100. As a result, the device was again on top and by 16.00 we were already admiring the phenomenal architecture of the main automobile museum in my life.
It probably doesn't make much sense to describe the museum in detail, since even the most experienced writer, to whom I do not consider myself, will not be able to express in words everything that we had the opportunity to see there. I can only say that the price of an entrance ticket of 8 euros sincerely surprised me with its modesty. Prices for souvenirs, which were displayed in abundance on the first floor of the museum, also did not cause allergies. True, the quality of souvenirs still needs to be monitored, for example, I have already sorted out the wall clock with the symbols of the brand that I bought twice, they categorically do not hold the arrow, but the sports bag turned out to be simply amazing, like a large ceramic mug. Above all praise and the quality of car models, which are presented in different scales an incredible amount. Paradise for kids in a word.
In general, Stuttgart, despite the fact that the city is a thousand percent industrial, made a very favorable impression. The ecology there is clearly excellent, unlike our native Lipetsk with its metallurgical production. At the same time, Stuttgart is clearly not a tourist center, except for factories and factories, apparently there is not much to see in it, but there were surprisingly many Russians in the museum, mostly with children, who, with incredible delight, "steering" a large tourist liner Travego and an environmentally friendly garbage truck. At the age of twelve, for such a number of insanely beautiful cars assembled in one place, I would definitely sell my homeland with giblets.
And we also got to the bear exhibition. Yes, yes, bears. It was located on the central square of the city and was called “The Art of tolerance. Buddy bears.
We found the hotel via the Internet, once again marveling at the ease of booking in Europe. It was enough to call the administrator and dictate the credit card number. The Graff Zeppelin turned out to be a beautiful hotel in a great location. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, where I tasted perhaps the best beer of the whole trip, I must admit that the Germans know how to brew beer, this was tested several times in various restaurants throughout the country.
The way to Rostock took the whole next day, although we were in no hurry and stopped several times, including in a wonderful rural restaurant, turning off the road for a couple of kilometers. I will give advice, if you want to try real food, no matter what country in Europe you are traveling to, do not dine at gas stations and cafes along the highway. They usually sell either semi-finished products or outright fast food.
It’s better to follow the sign to some local girl and at the entrance to it there will be guaranteed to be a cozy restaurant with a nice young lady who does not understand any language except her native dialect, as a waitress and full-fledged home-made, in most cases, food. Here in one of these restaurants we dined on the way to the port.
Rostock greeted us with an approaching hurricane and very punctual Estonians who delayed boarding the ferry for three hours. Let me explain the reason for all this disgrace: we didn’t manage to buy tickets for the FINNLINES ferry on the way back, everything was already booked (although the ferry was ordered almost two months before the start of the trip) and, as a necessary measure, we were offered to sail on the TALLINK ferry. Our opinion is that Tallink is no match for Finnlines. Neither in terms of the quality of service nor the level of equipment of the ferry.
Although the Estonians try to show goodwill, they are still wary of the Russians, there is not a trace left of the Finnish comfort on board the TALLINK SUPERFAST IX. There is no open deck with tables, the prices in bars are higher, the buffet is less organized, take at least the fact that they don’t book a table for you during the trip (the ferry is huge, there won’t be enough for everyone), but passengers are distributed as they arrive to the dining room. In this connection, sometimes it was necessary to wait in line to sit down to eat, while the tables most often did not have time to re-serve and the process of eating turned into a real torment, instead of being a pleasure. In addition, the ticket price, although it was generally lower by 100 euros, however, the cabin was inferior to the Finnish one at times and in terms of area (7 sq. m. instead of 16 at FINNLINES) and the quality of service, as I said, was lower.
In addition, the ship is very shaky, near the cabin window there was some kind of hatch, which, with the wild sound of an electric motor turning on, the sailors opened / closed at intervals of half an hour. In general, the impression was not particularly pleasant. I will note only one indisputable plus of the TALLINK ferry, which in the end did not allow us to die of boredom on board, is the presence of free Wi-Fi Internet in the cabin throughout the voyage. Most hotels, by the way, also provide free Wi-Fi services, though only in public areas, but in Helsinki and Amsterdam, the network was even in the rooms, for which special thanks to the hotel administration.
Finland: Here we are at home. This thought visited all of us as soon as we left the board of the Estonian ship and entered the land of Finland. After two years in a row visiting this beautiful little northern country, we have quietly managed to fall in love with it to the core. Everything here was familiar, clear, simple.
People sincerely smiled at us, it seemed to me that they are very loyal to our compatriots, although this is understandable, Russian tourists leave a lot of money in Finland and not loving them is fraught with disaster for the country's tourism industry.
This time the cottage was located in North Karelia, not far from the town of Nurmes (NURMES), where we regularly went for groceries. Again, I will leave nature without comment, because it is beautiful and deserves to be seen live. The brilliant surface of the lake, reflecting the reflections of the sun setting over the forest, still sits in my memory. As elsewhere in Finland, there are a lot of fish on the lake, it’s really a thankless task to catch it from the shore, we spied on the local “natives” a wonderful way to “trawl” the lake with spinning, releasing the lure from a motor boat about thirty meters and moving at low speed.
Thus, we managed to catch a small pike and a lot of decent perches, a very large fish fell off a couple of times, I really wanted to catch trout, but I didn’t pick up the lure. We are not professional fishermen, but amateurs.
The calmness with which Finland lives strikes a Russian person incredibly. Things that are the most common for Finns, Russians seem to be something out of the ordinary. For example, how can you keep a cottage located 500 meters from a busy highway without a single grille on the windows. Why didn't the fishing gear left on the table near the house for the entire stay in the cottage be stolen on the first day we were there, and much of that.
The idea to get from Nurmes to Tampere for the planned shopping turned out to be unviable, the distance was too long.
Thanks to the kind people who write reviews about trips on the Internet, we read there that a hundred kilometers from our place of residence is a small, but very worthy city of Kuopio (KUOPIO) in all respects. The population is only about 8.000 people, while the entire center consists of huge hypermarkets that sell everything from a toothbrush to clothes from the world's leading manufacturers. There is no doubt about the quality of things, the Finns are extremely scrupulous about this, I can say that three pairs of sneakers, bought a year ago at a sale in Lahti (LAHTI) for 20 euros per pair, are worn perfectly and have not even been erased anywhere. This speaks of the highest quality of things sold in Finland, even in the provinces. We couldn’t compare prices with Helsinki, because we didn’t manage to visit the shops in the capital, knowledgeable people write that everything is cheaper in the provinces, despite the fact that they are not inferior in quality. We definitely agree with this.
And in Kuopio there is a great fish restaurant called SAMPO, in which the entire menu consists of seven dishes and they are all made from vendace. We were there twice, we went specifically to try all seven dishes, as a result we tried six and could not say which one was tastier, they are all prepared according to old recipes (the restaurant is very old, you can see it) and incredibly tasty. They also serve beer in mugs, which were in every pub in Soviet times, but now they have disappeared somewhere, nostalgia. In the evening it is a problem to find a free table, the restaurant does not know problems with visitors despite the scarcity of the menu and the primitive atmosphere. As a local exotic, you must definitely visit, you will not regret it.
Ten days on the lake span
Finland, Germany, the Netherlands by car
So, finally, the long-awaited moment has come when we nevertheless set off on our next car vacation, for which this time we prepared quite seriously, taking into account all the mistakes of last year's voyage to the countries of Scandinavia. I prepared this report already at the final stage of the journey, so I could miss some details and particulars, but the general essence will, I hope, be clear and you, those who read this, will be able to learn something useful for yourself. I also note that all statements in favor of something, or vice versa, a negative opinion about what I saw or experienced during the trip, is the personal opinion of the participants in the trip, which are me and my family. We are not trying to give advice or dissuade from anything, we just tell what we saw and reflect on this topic. Let's start...
Route: Its development was spontaneous and initially included France and Great Britain, but being realists, we understood that such long journeys would not allow us to fully appreciate and see the beauty of all the cities along the route. Plus, it’s still physically difficult for both the driver and passengers to cover distances of 1000 kilometers a day, even on beautiful European roads. As a result, the route was reduced to:
Lipetsk - Tver - Vyborg - Helsinki - Hamburg - Amsterdam - Luxembourg - Stuttgart - Rostock - Nurmes - Tver - Lipetsk
Above are all the cities through which we passed and where we stopped, in some just as “transit points”, in others we went with the specific purpose of seeing something, but more on that later. Unfortunately, even such a simplified route took three weeks to cover it as much as possible.
We left home on July 01.2008 and plan to arrive on July 20 (I am writing in the future tense because at the moment we are still in a cottage on the lake near the town of NURMES and fishing here). The rest of the route, as well as my general impressions of the trip, I will write at home. We booked all the hotels along the way (with the exception of Stuttgart), as well as a cottage and a cabin on the ferries, and paid from Lipetsk, something through a foreign currency current account at the branch of CJSC RAIFEIzen BANK, something with a VISA VTB credit card, again currency. I draw your attention to the fact that only such a credit card has never let us down on any trip and I cannot afford to write “Take any credit card and go ahead, you can not take cash, pay everywhere” I write only about what I know for sure, so I can to state with confidence that the VTB currency VISA GOLD is accepted outside the European Union everywhere without exception.
But as for cards like VISA ELECTRON, in many hotels and even at some gas stations there were signs informing that this type of card is not accepted here. Unfortunately, I do not know the reason for this, so we will simply accept it as a fact. But we digress from the point, so let's continue.
Vehicle: This car is an AUDI Q7 3.0 TDI V6 (233 hp) very large and spacious, with a fairly roomy trunk (which is important for such long trips) and an economical diesel engine. Again, relevant given the average price of diesel fuel in Europe 1.4 euros per liter and gasoline AI 9.1. 7 euros per liter and less diesel consumption compared to a similar gasoline engine. In principle, there is some savings, even if not global, but at least you don’t have to stop at gas stations often, despite the fact that they are wonderful in Europe. The car is new, produced in 2007, at the time of the trip the mileage was 1.000 km.
, which again was thought out, since last year the three-year-old Volkswagen Touareg with seventy thousandth mileage at the end of the trip drank a lot of blood. The only disadvantage of the car we chose for the trip is just its dimensions. The fact is that almost all parking lots in Europe are underground and are designed, at best, if not for a motorcycle, then for Smart at most, and there is little pleasure in squirming in such a barn. By the way, before the trip, I wanted to buy a roof rack to hide fishing tackle and other luggage that would be needed for the final stage of the trip. The only thing that stopped me from buying was that in the ferry tickets we paid for the loading of a car up to two meters high, and the Q7 with a wardrobe trunk pulls 2.24 m (checked with the dealer) and in order not to involve ourselves in finding a way to pay extra for extra height on the spot and thereby eliminate the possibility of being late for the ferry, this idea was abandoned.
And as it turned out, it was very handy, since the maximum height of the underground parking that I came across was 2.1 m. And there were 1.9 m. Where even a decent minibus would not fit. So when traveling by car to Europe, keep in mind that if you have a lot of things and you want to load them into a trunk, your car should be no more than 1.9 meters high with it, otherwise it will be a problem to park it at night near the hotel.
Additional equipment: Unfortunately, our car was not equipped with a regular navigation system, of course, in Russia it is not so relevant yet, but in Europe it would be needed. Therefore, a way out was found by purchasing a GARMIN NUVI 610 autonavigator and an SD card with full coverage of Europe.
The device was tested on the roads of his native Lipetsk and at the beginning of the route in the European part of Russia, including the Tver region, where he was ruthlessly sending him to unknown routes, for which he quickly received the nickname "Goblin", which, by the way, firmly stuck to him. Looking ahead, I’ll say that on the territory of the European Union, a device bought for 1.000 rubles two days before the trip was completely rehabilitated and now it’s hard to imagine what we would do without it. Frantically searching for hotels on city maps and choosing the right direction on the wide European roads, and then hiring taxi drivers who, for a modest fee, "escorted" us to the hotel last year, did not bring any pleasure. So, again, I can authoritatively state that a navigator is an indispensable thing on such a trip, the main thing is to learn how to use it in advance and download a good map, this is very important, you don’t have to spare money on maps.
Well, in principle, and all that I wanted to tell you about the preparations, now actually on the road!
Russia: This time I will not tell my story by days, as I described the New Year holidays in Norway, but by countries, since there are much more days now and the description of some of them would be reduced to a banal phrase: “We drove 650 km. Before Stuttgart, we refueled several times, stood in a traffic jam 40 km away. from the city two and a half hours, settled in a hotel. It seems to me not interesting to read such a story, so I will briefly (and somewhere in more detail) describe exactly the countries and, accordingly, the cities that we visited / passed.
So Russia ...it probably makes no sense to describe the route Lipetsk - Moscow - Tver - St. Petersburg - Vyborg in colors, many have passed it more than once, to one degree or another, I can only say that the roads in the center of the country, although they are getting better from year to year, but still they are not able to adequately pass the amount of transport that moves along them, especially for the Moscow-Peter section, in particular the wonderful Novgorod region, if its leadership is not okay. You feel the contrast immediately, as soon as you get from Tverskaya to the Novgorod region, the road basically ends and to the Leningrad region, bypassing Veliky Novgorod itself, there is a front-line “semi-priming road”, if you don’t mind, I can’t call it otherwise.
I covered the distance from St. Petersburg to Lipetsk without stopping for the night only once, a couple of years ago, and it took me eleven hours, as a result, the last 150 km.
I drove home on autopilot, so we don’t experiment like this anymore, but stop in the middle of the road in the glorious city of Tver at the Tver Park Hotel, located very conveniently a couple of kilometers from the St. Petersburg highway on the banks of the Volga. The place is quiet, clean, with breakfast and friendly (for the most part) staff. I strongly recommend to stay.
We spent the second night in Vyborg, which, in principle, was later recognized as an erroneous decision, since there would be enough time to cross the border and settle for the night already in Helsinki, this would save us a day, although we do not regret it, since I personally liked Vyborg , albeit a province, but already almost Europe and again very friendly people, white nights (a phenomenal phenomenon for us as residents of the middle zone) and an incredible number of mosquitoes in the hotel !!!
They didn't let us sleep, I put a "deuce" to the management, which completes the room with a hefty "plasma" and at the same time forgets about such simple things as a mosquito net on the window. By the way, the hotel is called "Viking", located near the railway station, unfortunately far from the old city, which we did not have time to see, I think a visit to the historical center would add a lot of favorable impressions from this wonderful town on the border with the European Union.
Finland (first visit, transit): I noticed a trend - every year our fellow citizens who want to leave the Motherland by car in order to get acquainted with Western culture are becoming more and more, so if last year they arrived at the border at the Torfyanovka crossing at 7.00 in the morning we were in the first group of people going through customs / border control, then this time we arrived there at 7.
On the 20th, we found a rather large queue in which we stood for two hours (we heard from experienced Petersburgers that on weekends you can stand for six hours, or even more). But neither the border guards nor the customs officers this time caused any negative, they worked, albeit not quickly, but quite harmoniously and were polite (sincerely surprised). They wouldn’t let in any “nimble” with noble “crusts”, who fly past the queue right under the barrier, almost knocking down the hesitant “mere mortals”.
Looking ahead, I’ll note that a BMW X5 flying in this way with a pair of “new Russians of an obsolete type” was safely ahead of me (despite the fact that we went through customs half an hour later) at a time when about ten kilometers from the border, already in Finland Finnish law enforcement officers wrote a protocol to them, the crusts apparently did not work in this case, and the “brother” was sitting in the back seat of the Opel patrol with a sad face, waiting for the verdict.
The hotel in Helsinki (Radisson SAS Seaside Hotel, Ruoholahdenranta 3, FI-00180 Helsinki, Finland, +358 (0.20 123.707, www. radissosas. com) was chosen to provide easy access to the port terminal. complexity, since in Helsinki several terminals and FINNLINES ferries (namely, the ferry of this company was booked by us) depart from the terminal, which is located far from this hotel, but if you travel by TALLINK or SILJA LINE ferries, then you are just in the Seaside Hotel - the port is two minutes walk away.
Since this time Helsinki was only a transit point for us, we did not look at the sights of the city, there was not enough time, but I can recommend a wonderful fish restaurant located just on the shore near the port opposite the above hotel.
The restaurant is called MERI MAKASIINI (Hietalahdenranta 14.00180, Helsinki, +358 (0.09-607-299 www. merimakasiini. fi) this establishment definitely deserves attention, because its menu has a lot of delicious fish dishes. In the evening it is difficult to find a free table, the locals also have a restaurant Prices do not bite (by Finnish standards, of course. ) Even I, not being a big fan of fish, dined there with pleasure.
The next day, having quickly found the terminal we needed with the help of the Goblin, we accidentally ended up in the Helsinki Zoo, located on an island not far from the city.
The fact that most of the deck is reserved for the cargo compartment even played into the hands of the ferry, since it has a small passenger capacity, if my memory serves me 500 people, the ship turned out from this ...I don’t know ...“club” or something, so to speak . It’s just that during the day that we sailed, we remembered almost all the passengers, the open deck with tables and ashtrays made it possible to practically not be in the cabin, and the magnificent weather and almost complete calm on the sea added comfort and warmth to our, one might say, small cruise .
I also note that the ticket price also included three meals a day, and no one ever asked us for coupons for this very meal, and what is nice, each passenger in the restaurant was assigned his own place at the table, which eliminated the problem of frantic search for a free table when you have plates full of food in your hands and the same “losers” who are late for the start of the feast are scurrying around. Life on the ship is as simple as in a cartoon about Thumbelina - "have eaten, now you can sleep ...sleep, now you can eat. " Recommended for lovers of passive recreation.
Germany (first visit, transit): The only clearly noted inconvenience of the FINNLINES ferry is, perhaps, its late (21.00 local time) arrival at the port of Travemü nde, located near Hamburg. In this regard, we physically could not overcome the distance to Amsterdam and even in Lipetsk we decided to book a hotel in Hamburg.
To my deepest regret, we didn’t have time to see the city itself, so I appreciated its beauty from the height of the 25th floor of the Radisson SAS Hotel Hamburg (Marseiller Strasse 2, D-20355 Hamburg, Germany).
Germany as a whole certainly struck. First of all, a developed roadside infrastructure. It's no joke, free toilets on the autobahns are located at a distance of no more than 10 - 15 km. from each other. And the Germans are constantly repairing roads, expanding them and improving coverage. We were amazed at the tenacity of the local workers to “polish” the already ideal German highways. At the same time, no obstacles to traffic are created, all detours are made correctly, temporary markings are applied everywhere, warning signs are placed. Shine. But the Germans, as it seemed to me personally, drive quite aggressively, both in cities and outside settlements. Changing lanes in front of an overtaking car or making a U-turn across the tram tracks is par for the course.
A couple of times I watched the locals almost collide because of this, though they always parted ways and we must pay tribute without a single sign of discontent on the part of the “injured” side. Culture at the highest level, bravo. The only thing I haven't fully figured out is the speed limits. Where they were marked with signs, everything is simple, the flow almost always slowed down to the set speed and so we drove, but after the sign “End of the zone of all restrictions”, the burghers for the most part begin to drown “for all the money”, although I heard that unlimited Autobahns seem to have been canceled in Germany. Does not look like it. Or, according to old memory, the Germans continue to fly over them. For myself, I chose a simple and understandable tactic to move at an average flow rate, which allowed me to get to my destinations quickly and without the risk of being fined an impressive amount in euros.
And if in Finland the traffic police are not visible at all, then in Germany there are more than enough of them and, apparently, law enforcement officers monitor the situation on the roads very, very vigilantly.
Holland: As elsewhere in the EU, to get from Germany to the Netherlands you just need to want to do it. Of course, there are no restrictions and the entire border is reduced to the large emblem of the United Europe with the inscription "Welcome to the Netherlands". Everyone liked the country madly, we stayed there for three days and got a lot of impressions. Looking ahead, I’ll say that in order to understand Holland and feel its spirit, visiting Amsterdam is not enough. The capital is strikingly different from the rest, so calm and beautiful, soaked in the smells of fresh grass and Holland cheese. Nevertheless, the city is beautiful and in every possible way deserves to be visited.
True, if your acquaintance with Amsterdam is limited to the "Red Light District" and the nearest "coffee shop", then you can safely assume that you have not seen either Holland or Amsterdam. Because Amsterdam is at least Dam Square, on which the Royal Palace stands and a very good Madame Tussauds museum is located, which, although not big, leaves a pleasant impression, especially a show made in the style of Pirates of the Caribbean with the participation of professional actors. You are walking along the hold of a sailboat caught in a storm and a wax figure of a pirate with a chain, which seems to be standing quietly in a corner, suddenly, rattling the chain, runs at you making inarticulate sounds. Impressive. Well, there were quite a few of us, and no one except a couple of girls was particularly frightened, although the instinct of self-preservation inherent in people still makes us beware of further.
Personally, this was the first time I was at such a performance and it really touched me to the core. Well done Dutch for coming up with something like this. True, the price of the museum is not cheap, 18 euros per person. The wax figures themselves are reduced mainly to Hollywood celebrities and a number of representatives of the foreign stage. There is also Lenin, Gorbachev and Churchill. Whether it is worth paying that kind of money to visit such an institution, everyone decides for himself, but I would recommend visiting the museum. There is also the Vincent van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, which I also recommend visiting for everyone, not just art lovers. Firstly, the architecture of the building strikes the imagination with its absurdity (we were looking for the entrance for ten minutes), and secondly, there are collected truly great works of the artist, which his compatriots are very proud of. After all, the museum has a good diner and you can eat there in an elementary way.
Yes, and bring souvenirs, such as reproductions of famous paintings by van Gogh or just a postcard with his self-portrait. The prices are democratic, both for the entrance (10 euros) and for souvenirs. It’s still worth walking along the red-light district, its unique flavor is definitely present there. Personally, it seemed to me that this landmark of the city had long ceased to fulfill its direct function of an exaggerated brothel, but became just something so special, without which there would be no Amsterdam (as well as if smoking marijuana was banned there). This is all more of a tourist attraction, yes, the girls sit in the windows and cast languid glances towards tourists passing by, but I didn’t see a single person who would go there, I didn’t see a single “busy” window, from which I concluded that purely tourist function Red-light districts. And the girls are really beautiful. Probably Russians, or Ukrainians.
The architecture of the city looks a lot like St. Petersburg (which is not surprising for well-known reasons), but still differs from the city on the Neva. The number of bicycles per capita exceeds all conceivable ideas of a simple Russian person. In principle, this is not surprising, since moving around the city center, where the width of the roadway is rarely more than two and a half meters, is very problematic in any car. I really drove everywhere there, I even drove into the red-light district by car, by accident. Of the restaurants, I can mention the Argentinean LA PAMPA (Paleisstraat 21 Nwe. Zijds Voorburgwal 151.1012 RB Amsterdam, tel. 620.153), where I tried the best beef of the whole trip, after all, the Argentines probably actually cook it best in the world. The institution gave the impression of a very groovy, live Latin American music is played there and the entire staff dances and sings to it. Full carnival or siesta atmosphere. Call it what you want.
Visiting such establishments gives a charge of positive energy for a long time, I highly recommend it. And try the local wine, it is real Argentinean and very pleasant. Yes, I completely forgot about the flower market in Amsterdam, because everyone knows that Holland is also a country of tulips, and so in the market in the city center you can buy a huge number of these same tulips and a variety of them, in any form, from seeds and bulbs to wooden “dummy” » if you will. There is also an incredible selection of fresh flowers. You can walk around the flower market all day and spend there, if you wish, five hundred euros and much more. We stuffed a whole suitcase with bulbs of all kinds of colors. Here, by the way, is another advantage of traveling by car, unlike by plane, you can throw a lot of things into the car, including souvenirs, without worrying about how to go through the airport with all this “good” and then to a taxi.
The hotel also did not disappoint, it was a magnificent hotel located in the heart of the city in an old mansion: the Radisson SAS Hotel Amsterdam (Rusland, 17, NL-1012 CK Fmsterdam, The Netherlands). The location of the hotel is almost perfect, perhaps the NH Hotel Krasnopolsky is located more luxuriously on Dam Square, but I suspect that the prices for a room in it are cosmic.
But Holland, as I said, is not only Amsterdam with its coffee shops, it is also a large, beautiful and very agricultural country. All fish lovers should definitely visit the village of VOLENDAM, 20 kilometers from Amsterdam. The atmosphere of a fishing village is recreated there, in the center there are many fish restaurants, and on weekends there is a large fish market. And they also sell insanely delicious salted herring, which you can’t try anywhere else.
We learned about the existence of this village already when we were in Holland, so our route did not allow us to stay there for more than a couple of hours, but for everyone who plans a trip in advance, I would recommend staying there overnight, you won’t regret it, at least eat a lot of herring for a long time and smoked eel (he is also one of the best in Europe). Five kilometers from Volendam there is a village of cheese makers, MARKEN. We did not have time to visit it, since our path lay in Luxembourg, however, if you have the opportunity, do it for us, I think you will not be disappointed.
Through Belgium and Luxembourg: I will not dwell on these countries for a long time, since they were passed through in transit, so we did not see any sights at all.
Luxembourg really made a double impression, on the one hand, the country is very rich, this can be seen in the design of houses in the old city center and in cars scurrying along narrow city streets and in the happy faces of residents. On the other hand, high reinforced concrete "cubes" in the business center, which apparently belong to large banks, do not fit in well with neat villas and well-groomed suburban cottages. In Belgium, I liked the roads, oddly enough, although it would seem that they are ideal everywhere in Europe, and nothing can surprise you after the German autobahns, but the Belgian roads have a very interesting landscape with a constant elevation difference. It is a pleasure to ride them, especially when climbing the next hill, a magnificent view opens up down to some quiet valley.
I think we need to go to Luxembourg separately, there is something to see, we need to spend a couple of days in the city, so we will most likely plan another visit to this state on our next trip to Europe.
Germany: This stage of our journey was a personal whim and, as I expected, turned out to be the most vivid impression of the whole trip. Probably many will not appreciate my zeal and are unlikely to repeat such a route, but I really wanted to visit the Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart and I visited it. And I'm very proud of it, because this is an amazing place. But first things first.
We spent the night in Luxembourg and, following the competent tips of the navigator, moved towards the border with Germany, which was waiting for us with slightly worsened weather.
I should note that the weather, by and large, didn’t spoil much during the trip, of course it wasn’t cold, but it rained quite often and very heavily in Amsterdam, which allowed local Arabs to sell an incredible amount of cheap umbrellas in stalls, two of which were bought and we, in Germany, it also rained in places and in general the temperature rarely rose above 20 degrees Celsius. By the way, on the way to Stuttgart, we got into the only traffic jam along the way, in which we stood for almost two and a half hours, and the traffic message service every minute cheerfully reported on the state of affairs on nearby highways and on our highway in particular, but given that the German language none of us knows, we could only make out fragments of phrases in essence which we guessed that the passage would be opened by 14.00. Exactly at 14.00 and not a minute later the stream started.
Such punctuality had to be seen for the first time in my life. The cause of the traffic jam was a very serious accident involving at least three trucks and a couple of cars. It was difficult to judge whether she did without casualties or not, although, as elsewhere in Europe, several ambulances, firefighters and a myriad of police and rescue vehicles crowded the scene. The blockage was competently fenced off and traffic was allowed to move along three of the four lanes of the autobahn.
While we were in a traffic jam, the biggest problem for me personally was the possibility of being late for the Mercedes-Benz Museum, since we did not have the exact time of its work, we did not know its location either. Again, I had to rely on GARMIN, into which I entered the coveted address: Mercedesstrasse, 100. As a result, the device was again on top and by 16.00 we were already admiring the phenomenal architecture of the main automobile museum in my life.
It probably doesn't make much sense to describe the museum in detail, since even the most experienced writer, to whom I do not consider myself, will not be able to express in words everything that we had the opportunity to see there. I can only say that the price of an entrance ticket of 8 euros sincerely surprised me with its modesty. Prices for souvenirs, which were displayed in abundance on the first floor of the museum, also did not cause allergies. True, the quality of souvenirs still needs to be monitored, for example, I have already sorted out the wall clock with the symbols of the brand that I bought twice, they categorically do not hold the arrow, but the sports bag turned out to be simply amazing, like a large ceramic mug. Above all praise and the quality of car models, which are presented in different scales an incredible amount. Paradise for kids in a word.
In general, Stuttgart, despite the fact that the city is a thousand percent industrial, made a very favorable impression. The ecology there is clearly excellent, unlike our native Lipetsk with its metallurgical production. At the same time, Stuttgart is clearly not a tourist center, except for factories and factories, apparently there is not much to see in it, but there were surprisingly many Russians in the museum, mostly with children, who, with incredible delight, "steering" a large tourist liner Travego and an environmentally friendly garbage truck. At the age of twelve, for such a number of insanely beautiful cars assembled in one place, I would definitely sell my homeland with giblets.
And we also got to the bear exhibition. Yes, yes, bears. It was located on the central square of the city and was called “The Art of tolerance. Buddy bears.
We found the hotel via the Internet, once again marveling at the ease of booking in Europe. It was enough to call the administrator and dictate the credit card number. The Graff Zeppelin turned out to be a beautiful hotel in a great location. We had dinner at the hotel restaurant, where I tasted perhaps the best beer of the whole trip, I must admit that the Germans know how to brew beer, this was tested several times in various restaurants throughout the country.
The way to Rostock took the whole next day, although we were in no hurry and stopped several times, including in a wonderful rural restaurant, turning off the road for a couple of kilometers. I will give advice, if you want to try real food, no matter what country in Europe you are traveling to, do not dine at gas stations and cafes along the highway. They usually sell either semi-finished products or outright fast food.
It’s better to follow the sign to some local girl and at the entrance to it there will be guaranteed to be a cozy restaurant with a nice young lady who does not understand any language except her native dialect, as a waitress and full-fledged home-made, in most cases, food. Here in one of these restaurants we dined on the way to the port.
Rostock greeted us with an approaching hurricane and very punctual Estonians who delayed boarding the ferry for three hours. Let me explain the reason for all this disgrace: we didn’t manage to buy tickets for the FINNLINES ferry on the way back, everything was already booked (although the ferry was ordered almost two months before the start of the trip) and, as a necessary measure, we were offered to sail on the TALLINK ferry. Our opinion is that Tallink is no match for Finnlines. Neither in terms of the quality of service nor the level of equipment of the ferry.
Although the Estonians try to show goodwill, they are still wary of the Russians, there is not a trace left of the Finnish comfort on board the TALLINK SUPERFAST IX. There is no open deck with tables, the prices in bars are higher, the buffet is less organized, take at least the fact that they don’t book a table for you during the trip (the ferry is huge, there won’t be enough for everyone), but passengers are distributed as they arrive to the dining room. In this connection, sometimes it was necessary to wait in line to sit down to eat, while the tables most often did not have time to re-serve and the process of eating turned into a real torment, instead of being a pleasure. In addition, the ticket price, although it was generally lower by 100 euros, however, the cabin was inferior to the Finnish one at times and in terms of area (7 sq. m. instead of 16 at FINNLINES) and the quality of service, as I said, was lower.
In addition, the ship is very shaky, near the cabin window there was some kind of hatch, which, with the wild sound of an electric motor turning on, the sailors opened / closed at intervals of half an hour. In general, the impression was not particularly pleasant. I will note only one indisputable plus of the TALLINK ferry, which in the end did not allow us to die of boredom on board, is the presence of free Wi-Fi Internet in the cabin throughout the voyage. Most hotels, by the way, also provide free Wi-Fi services, though only in public areas, but in Helsinki and Amsterdam, the network was even in the rooms, for which special thanks to the hotel administration.
Finland: Here we are at home. This thought visited all of us as soon as we left the board of the Estonian ship and entered the land of Finland. After two years in a row visiting this beautiful little northern country, we have quietly managed to fall in love with it to the core. Everything here was familiar, clear, simple.
People sincerely smiled at us, it seemed to me that they are very loyal to our compatriots, although this is understandable, Russian tourists leave a lot of money in Finland and not loving them is fraught with disaster for the country's tourism industry.
This time the cottage was located in North Karelia, not far from the town of Nurmes (NURMES), where we regularly went for groceries. Again, I will leave nature without comment, because it is beautiful and deserves to be seen live. The brilliant surface of the lake, reflecting the reflections of the sun setting over the forest, still sits in my memory. As elsewhere in Finland, there are a lot of fish on the lake, it’s really a thankless task to catch it from the shore, we spied on the local “natives” a wonderful way to “trawl” the lake with spinning, releasing the lure from a motor boat about thirty meters and moving at low speed.
Thus, we managed to catch a small pike and a lot of decent perches, a very large fish fell off a couple of times, I really wanted to catch trout, but I didn’t pick up the lure. We are not professional fishermen, but amateurs.
The calmness with which Finland lives strikes a Russian person incredibly. Things that are the most common for Finns, Russians seem to be something out of the ordinary. For example, how can you keep a cottage located 500 meters from a busy highway without a single grille on the windows. Why didn't the fishing gear left on the table near the house for the entire stay in the cottage be stolen on the first day we were there, and much of that.
The idea to get from Nurmes to Tampere for the planned shopping turned out to be unviable, the distance was too long.
Thanks to the kind people who write reviews about trips on the Internet, we read there that a hundred kilometers from our place of residence is a small, but very worthy city of Kuopio (KUOPIO) in all respects. The population is only about 8.000 people, while the entire center consists of huge hypermarkets that sell everything from a toothbrush to clothes from the world's leading manufacturers. There is no doubt about the quality of things, the Finns are extremely scrupulous about this, I can say that three pairs of sneakers, bought a year ago at a sale in Lahti (LAHTI) for 20 euros per pair, are worn perfectly and have not even been erased anywhere. This speaks of the highest quality of things sold in Finland, even in the provinces. We couldn’t compare prices with Helsinki, because we didn’t manage to visit the shops in the capital, knowledgeable people write that everything is cheaper in the provinces, despite the fact that they are not inferior in quality. We definitely agree with this.
And in Kuopio there is a great fish restaurant called SAMPO, in which the entire menu consists of seven dishes and they are all made from vendace. We were there twice, we went specifically to try all seven dishes, as a result we tried six and could not say which one was tastier, they are all prepared according to old recipes (the restaurant is very old, you can see it) and incredibly tasty. They also serve beer in mugs, which were in every pub in Soviet times, but now they have disappeared somewhere, nostalgia. In the evening it is a problem to find a free table, the restaurant does not know problems with visitors despite the scarcity of the menu and the primitive atmosphere. As a local exotic, you must definitely visit, you will not regret it.
Ten days on the lake span
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