Road Cycling Vlog: Cycling In The Former USSR

Road Cycling Vlog: Cycling In The Former USSR

Road cycling, comerade!

Although the Cold War is long over, I travel to Tallinn in Estona which was once part of the former Soviet Union. Up until 1991 Estonia was a state of the USSR but in the years since its independence it has become a modern European country.

While I was here I managed to book myself on a cycling tour around the city.
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Hello there and welcome to the bicycle Diaries and welcome to Estonia To give you some idea of where I am I’m in the capital of Estonia a city called Tallinn now Estonia was one of these old Soviet republics and it was the first to gain independence in 1991 with 200 kilometres west of the Russian border and we are about 200 kilometres north of

The border with Latvia but we’re on the coast so just 80 kilometres across the water is the finnish city of helsinki tomorrow i put myself on a bike tour so heaven only knows where that will go I visited many of the states of the former Soviet Union and I have to admit

From what I’ve seen Latvia is incredibly modern ok yes there are some sort of remnants of the old Soviet buildings still around as you would expect and yes the old town is very medieval very beautiful but the new town is very very modern indeed in fact I think it was

Only built in the last 20 years or so and as such it would put places like London and New York to shame to give you some idea of the industry here it’s all very much kind of high-tech and Internet related in fact Skype was invented here

And Latvia was the first country in the world to conduct a general election using online votes So here I am heading for the bike shop let’s see where this ride takes us although I knew I was coming to Tallinn a few weeks ago I only booked up my ride yesterday with a company called City bike as I thought I wasn’t going to have

Enough time to fit one in luckily for me there also located in the old town not too far from my hotel as well as the international language of bike everyone speaks pretty good English so it’s not long before I have my bike for the morning as you can see it’s a typical

City bike although my first thought is that it’s a women’s specific model due to the downtube but I was reliably assured that it wasn’t our ride is only going to take a couple of hours so it’s not going to be anything too strenuous our initial route takes us out of the

Old town and into the busy port area most visitors arrive in Tallinn by ship either by ferry from Finland or by cruise ship from places like Russia Germany and the UK making it one of the busiest passenger ports in Europe As you will notice I’m not wearing a helmet normally I would never consider riding without one but as today’s ride is going to be fairly leisurely I thought I would do without so having just written through the city we’re now the more leafy suburbs are the curious things about writing here is

That we are allowed to ride on the pavement which is a bit disconcerting but maybe it’s a Baltic thing it was the same thing last year in Latvia but now we’re in the suburbs hopefully we can stick to the roads a bit more feel a lot more comfortable on those Looks like we’re riding into some palace now turns out that this is actually the summer palace of the Russian Emperor Peter the Great but he never actually slept in this building he had a separate smaller one out the back so he didn’t raise too much attention to himself I’m

Now climbing the second of talyn’s two Hills as you can see is only a small rise in the road and nothing to get too excited about at the top of the climb is the president’s palace Estonia feels like a pretty laid-back place here we are right outside the palace itself just

A few meters from the front door this would be like riding completely uninvited into Downing Street in London or onto the lawn of the White House here in Tallinn the two guards on the door seemed completely unfazed could you imagine that happening in London or Washington we leave the

President to her duties and ride through the ornamental gardens of Catterick Park on the edge of the city and head out through some residential streets towards the Tallinn Song Festival ground Singing plays a very big role in Estonian culture not only do they enjoy it it also played a major part in the country gaining independence from the Soviet Union in 1991 through the non-violent uprising known as the singing revolution incidentally the festival ground also has Estonia’s highest point which is only about 30

Meters above sea level I’m now heading out to the coast this area is currently being developed and is due to be completed in the next few years 80 kilometres or 50 miles across the water is Finland and during the Soviet occupation of Estonia many people attempted the three-day walk across the

Frozen sea to freedom sadly the majority didn’t make it due to the extreme cold a few hundred meters also further on we passed the mermaid monument which commemorates a Russian boat which sank in the Gulf of Finland in the 19th century this is now a place where many

Of talyn’s young ethnic Russian couples come to declare their love for each other by placing padlocks on the chains of the monument and then throwing the key into the sea heading back towards the city we reached the rotten quarter an old industrial area which has recently been converted into trendy

Shopping and dining areas so my surprise instead of getting off and walking we’re riding through this rather busy area unfortunately I have no choice but to follow as I don’t want to lose contact with the group fortunately though everyone seems pretty easygoing about us cycling through after a somewhat stressful ride through

The shopping center we’re back onto the cobbled streets of the old town up until about 40 years ago this area was in a relatively poor state of repair but in 1980 the Russians renovated it in time for the Olympics even though the main games were taking place in Moscow some

900 kilometers or 540 miles away all of the sailing events were taking place here and they wanted to present a positive if perhaps not entirely accurate image of what life was like in the Soviet Union So that’s my ride around Tallinn done and dusted it was only about 12 kilometres but it took us about two and a half hours to complete but that was mainly because we were stopping quite a lot and looking at stuff all in all very enjoyable ride not strenuous at all

There was one Hill that was probably only about a hundred metres long with a gradient of about 2% and I think that’s about as bad as it gets here in Estonia it’s quite a flat country yeah quite enjoyable right a little intimidating riding through the shopping centre like

That and then not knowing the roads but all in all yes I’m glad I did it although a fun interesting ride I would say that it wasn’t a particularly strenuous workout in fact I think I barely broke sweat you can do bike tours like this in pretty much any city around

The world and they’re a great way of seeing the sights and learning a few interesting facts about where you are I think next time I would like to be able to go out and do a proper ride but that is going to take a bit more planning thanks for watching You