Russia 2008 (part 3)

A not quite everyday's journey: to Russia by motorcycle in July 2008

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Originally we then wanted to continue to Leningrad, erm Saint Petersburg. But at a gas station Volker's DR had a different opinion and needed various pushing, pulling and other starting help, until it was running again.

Anja's BMW had regarded that and decided "no more starting is something that I can also". Thus it was to examine the injection nozzles (which squirted significantly differently on the left and right side, but without that someone could say which of the both sides was right), air cleaner, spark plugs etc. - without recognizable success.

In such cases then frequently the rumor goes around, and after a good hour Oleg (with Goldwing) was showing up.

After various further investigations he assumed that the gasoline of this station might be badly suited and should be discarded ...

to take a can and to get gasoline from another gas station.

After these (and some more) activities were still remaining without success, he first put the two non-BMW riders into a local hotel, rode home, and came back with a transporter, in order to bring the unwilling BMW with her rider to Moscow (somewhat less than 200 kilometers distant). Wouldn't it be better to do this tomorrow during daylight? Oh, at night driving would be much easier because of less congestion.

Briefly before the BMW workshop opened they arrived - and then Anja during two days (while the BMW got exchanged a not further specified electronic part and the gasoline pump) was left on her own, because ...

... actually we wanted to go back to Moscow to Anja, but after a stop Volker's DR again didn't run any longer. Several revival attempts (partly with telephone guidance from Germany) did not solve it ...

... so that we finally had to ring up "our" Oleg again ...

... who (even at this time he had been caring for us already 24 hours without interruption!) brought us to the workshop in the nearby ity of Twer.

The mechanics started their work immediately ...

... to detect the bad guy as a burst ignition coil housing after a while.

Well, so Alexei (the real motorcycle mechanic with his Honda Big One) said, then he'd search the city for a suitable spare part.

In the other part of the hall there was an unusual yellow vehicle ...

... that proved to be the (temporarily into three parts divided) world's longest motorcycle: an Ural with 16 seats.

However, with the spare ignition coil the DR still didn't want to run. After further investigations the ignition controller turned out to be obviously defective. Thus Alexei began to search for a for replacement part in Moscow by telephone, but without success. So the assistance had to be involved for sending a spare part from Germany. In the meantime Anja with her BMW arrived back, but had to head on home directly (as agreed from the beginning). And because the spare part delivery would also last some days due to the weekend, we (Volker and me) decided to go to Petersburg until then - however, how? With 2 people on one motorcycle - or (if we anyway need to get back here instead of heading home from Petersburg like originally planned, and the road M10 itself isn't such a terribly exciting riding experience) by train?

From Twer to Petersburg (that's among others the line from Moscow) the timetable shows 56 long-distance trains per day (less a handful of double entries for even vs. odd days or the like), but very unevenly distributed over the day. Most are running at night (however, for night trains in the same evening we get no more tickets, nor did we want to start excessively early in the morning) - between 7 and 20 o'clock there are only 5 trains, of which the first at 14 o'clock. So let's take that one ...

Near the Muscovite station in Petersburg on the Newski avenue there is still normal traffic.

Somewhat further towards the Newa river, however, for road work it's a car-free area ...

... where occasionally the frisbee disks are sunk in open sewage covers (under large acoustic participation of the spectators ;-).

The bridges can bee seen raised (only) between midnight and early morning.

Petersburg after disconnection of the night illumination.

On the external gallery of the shopping mall "Gostiny Dwor".

With delay (from technical break of the suburban trains lasting several hours through the substitutively, but in wrong direction mounted bus up to an entry period reserved for VIP groups) we reach Catharine's palace in Puschkin.

The landlord at that time obviously had an easy-going living.

Here one really must look three times to recognize a "historical" personality (rather than a motorcyclist ready for departure in his leather gear and the helmet in the hand ;-)

By the way, there is a Catharine's palace also in Twer (however, there the restorers have still most of their work ahead - the picture continues to show Puschkin!) and probably a handful further places between Moscow and Petersburg. When the high society was traveling from the one capital to the other, some 200 years ago this didn't work out within one day, and then one had to be decently accommodated also in the overnight rests.

Return trip from Puschkin to Petersburg by suburban train.

We are back in Twer - and here at the world war victims' memorial ...

... where beside there is a further memorial for the victims of the "modern" wars (Afghanistan and the like).

Alexei's small private motorcycle collection.

However, Volker becomes impatient and tries to ask the assistance when and where exactly he can pick up his spare part parcel.

Occasionally Oleg passes by to inquire about the repair progress. Whether we don't want to ride with him to Minsk, where the following weekend a motorcycle meeting takes place? Principally yes, even if we could not stay at the meeting itself (but due to ending vacation should head home). But nevertheless it's not possible, because we do not have any (unspent) Byelorussian visa - here the Russians are in advantage over West Europeans, by being allowed to enter without paperwork.

After we had decoded the air freight letter salad given from the assistance into a dedicated airport, a further trip to Moscow was due. But the direct branching from outward to the airport was closed (resp. is provided as an additional lane to the inbound traffic). One actually must go though non-signposted paths through a shopping mall parking lot (or on even larger detours). Approximately in the third visited building (neither Scheremetjewo-2 nor Scheremetjewo cargo are correct) we finally experience that the airplane did arrive at the ground, but its contents not yet at the terminal. Before we wait then completely senseless at the counter, we rather go back the short piece ...

... to have some looks at this enormous shopping mall (inaugurated on 10 December 2004).

Then we receive the freight documents - however, the actual picking up requires not only the passport (to the name of the freight recipient), but in addition on the so-called migration card a registration stamp that includes "today" and the pink customs document for the temporary vehicle import. Somebody with Muscovite housing registration is (against intermediate assumption of the workshop crew) not necessary for the parcel pick-up - but nevertheless favorable in order to clarify all these process steps (for the special bureaucracy terms my Russian is somewhat limited, not to talk of Volker's Russian language knowledge).

Thus collect the necessary documents together to take one more ride (during one more day) to Moscow (and like already the day before a lunch at the roadside).

A slight shock after unpacking - now after all that buzz it's still not the correct part (at least the wires are different).

But finally we manage to work out even that, and then at last the itinerary can continue.

Overnight stay in a truck stop near Velikie Luki.

Near Daugavpils shortly before the border between Latvia and Lithuania.

The day starts with a once more (how many times actually?) failing DR, this time because of a broken grounding cable (who knows, perhaps that was the real problem and the earlier failures only follow-up symptoms?).

But meanwhile we have routine to find even on Sundays the necessary screwing places and parts ;-) At the southwest outskirts of Warsaw we stay one last night together, and then our ways separate for the final part of the way home.

But that's not yet the final end: in May 2009 Oleg wrote that from tomorrow he would just stay in Berlin for two days. When I reached him by SMS, he was already a few hundred kilometers further ...

... pretty close to my staying - and least (where during the same evening he wanted to be again in the Northern part of Germany) dropped in for a short coffe break. That was a joyful reunion :-)

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