Thu-May 24, 2012
| Location: St Petersburg, Russia
Lodging: Hotel Moscow $1 USD = Russian Ruble pyδ 31.98 Gas/Fuel in St Petersburg, Russia: 29.60 Rubles/L. Very cheap! Approx $3.48/gal Weather: Clear blue skies today! But it is getting chillier. |
 Hotel Moscow. Turned out to be a huge tour hotel. It was selected because of secure moto parking. |
| Spent morning at Harley-Davidson-St Petersburg. The General Manager spoke good English and lived in San Jose, CA for longer than his visa allowed so he can no longer return to the US. |
 St Petersburg Harley-Davidson |
| The problem with the big Harley RoadGlide … bad front fuel injector.
We ask about moto insurance. ”Yes, around the corner!”  This pretty young lady is our Russian insurance agent. It was her first time to do the paperwork for foreigners and motorcycles. Took her 1.5 hours to do 3 policies. Liability Only - 400 ruble (€10 or $12.53 USD) for 20-days. |
| In the early afternoon we rode out of town to the Peterhof Grand Palace and Grand Cascade. Martin had a geocache at the Palace grounds and I wanted to something besides a Harley dealer. |
 Peterhof Palace - Grand Cascade fountains. |
 Peterhof Palace - The top of the Grand Cascade. |
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Peterhof Palace - Grand Cascade fountains. |
 Peterhof Palace - Very fancy roof tops.  Peterhof Palace |
| Martin found oil dripping off his front fork. Blown fork seal! Back to the Harley dealer tomorrow. |
Fri-May 25, 2012Martin needs to fix his dribbling front fork seal at the dealer. He guesses 2-hours – done by 11AM. I guess these guys have never been to a Harley dealer! The discussion about fixing takes 2-hours. I do not want to spend the day at the Harley dealer again so we agreed that in 2-hours (11AM) if the bike is not fixed I’ll take the M (subway) to the down town area. Until then I’ll blog (very slowly because of slow internet at the Hotel Moscow). They call and said noon so I head for the subway. I’m in the Church of Spilled Blood when they call and 1:00 PM. |
 The Church on Spilled Blood. |
 This is the spot were Tsar Alexander II was assassinated. |
 The interior had amazing stone work. |
| Church on Spilled Blood |
| On March 1st, 1881 Tsar Alexander II was assassinated. In October of 1883, the cornerstone was laid on the site for what became the Church on Spilled Blood. The design, Russian-Revival, was the favourite of Tsar Alexander III. |
| I’m at the Peter & Paul Cathedral when they call and said they were done. |
 Peter & Paul Cathedral |
 The top row of tombs are Tsar Alexander II's family. |
 Russian military made me do this! |
Sat-May 26, 2012Depart St PetersburgThe road to Finland is much better than the road in from Lativa. |
| Exit Russia
When we get near the border, there is a single-file line over 4 km long. Approx 300-400 vehicles inching along. We run up the right shoulder to the front and go directly to a guard hut. They check our paperwork and we move on second gate where we fill out paperwork to release our motos. This takes approx. 1 hour. At the Finland crossing, a single guard looks at our passport and waves us in – 1 minute each. |
| Enter Finland |
| Finland if green, forests and flat. First 100 km were on divided 4-lane freeways. The rest on 2-lane with a truck lane on each side. Speed limit was 110km. We were running 100-110 km |
| Finland Camping Cabin
 The cabin had 2 double stacked bunk beds, lights, a heater and small table. Bed had pillow and blanket. No sheets. We used our sleeping bags.
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