Biking the Baltic States under the shadow of Soviet Russia – July 2026

Where the hell are we –

The three Baltic states are Lithuania, Latvia , and Estonia that came out of the Soviet Union in 1990 – and have thrived since – but always under the shadow of Russia and Belurus ( one and the same ) on their eastern boarder.

There have been minor incursions of Ukrainian drones crashing here in recent months as the Russians electronically take hold of the drones and direct them west rather than allow them to bomb St Petersburg near here.

Ps if you voted Labour or Greens last election or were an admirer of the leadership of those economic vandals or intend to then don’t read on – or if you don’t swear – I don’t want to offend 🙂

So – we are starting in the lovely city of Klaipadea in Lithuania on the Baltic coast – it’s about 100,000 people the same as Nelson , Richmond together . Lithuanian is about 25% of the size of nz with 50% the population- bet you didn’t know that . Here’s Chats take

So it’s prosperous , old historic buildings , no sign of Soviet monstrosity construction but that may come later , cobblestones and big blue busses like Nelson empty mostly like Nelson – haha.

There is one strange thing – the people show no emotion on their faces – the baristas and cafe staff don’t smile or engage or even acknowledge – very noticeable – someone said it’s cultural – they learned during Soviet times not to show emotion – as it might be picked up by the KGB authorities as submersible and make trouble for you – so don’t laugh or smile or make eye contact in public.

Highlight here – a huge cemetery in the city centre converted on the late 1970s into a sculpture park – 14 summers volunteered sculpturers worked on over a 100 wonderful modern pieces – how the hell they got away with it being under the Soviet gaze where modern art was frowned on and the only acceptable art was that which glorified the Soviet Union. Pics follow of the sculpture garden and town

Day -1 . 35 kms flat Klaipeda to Palanga on bike trails through forest and close to the Baltic coast . It’s supposed to be summer – but when Alice talks about how cold it is in the winter in NYC and uses the word BALTIC I now know why ❄️. Must be sold ice here in winter .

Palanga is a coastal seas side town full of families celebrating Father’s Day – cafes and restraints busy and dogs walking quietly with their owners – boycie and savvy would have started WW 3 . Quiet day in afternoon viewing Le Tour and Podacar shielding his 20 year old team mate Del Toro from Mexico to his first TDF win – great to see . Pyrenees coming up 😊

day 2 Palanga to Liepaja in Latvia

Easy day riding on bike trails down the coast line and into Latvia ending at Liepaja a beautiful tree lined city on a port river . Old historic buildings mixed with ultra modern apparently paid with EU grants after they came into the union in the 90 s

So following are some facts about Latvia – it’s about 25% the size of NZ and 50% of NZ population at 2.8m Average incomes seem to be lower than NZ but it’s not apparent .

So – didn’t you love all those facts and data – go on admit it . So the population earn about half what we do in NZ but you know what – you don’t see it – no body on the streets with their hand out that’s for sure . Latvia got crunched big time by the 2008 global financial crisis – remember the one created by the mortgage derivatives in NYC on Wall Street that brought banks all over the world to their knees – and only one person in USA went to prison over it – a mid level exec – all the ceos that drove it got off to enjoy their billions – it was called “ the big short ‘.

So Latvia had to borrow from EU and EU just like Greece, Portugal Spain . Iceland ……… and in return had to go on a thrift stage called austerity! They pulled themselves up and have gone well – about twice the annual growth of NZ and kept their spending and borrowing down – did I tell you that under Jacinda’s mob NZ borrowing went from under 30% of GDP to 46% and the interest cost of it alone is more that we spend on education and police ! Yep they were Crazy buggers but now labour looks the other way – like don’t blame me!

day 3 Liepaja to Pavilosta

In Liepaja we booked into fab five star boutique hotel on the river / port and went to find a pub to watch stage 2 TDF . Found an Irish bar – tiny – with TV showing Le tour live . It was about the size of our laundry but great 👍

We saw an amazing Soviet era statue on the beach on the way into Leipaja – called the three daughters – on the Sandhills waiting in vane for their fisherman father to return

Giant girls in the end on the beach

On the way to pavilosta we rode past a prewar built Soviet prison – gastly place with dark history – apparently one if the most visited tourist spots in Latvia

At Pavilosta we are staying at a rustic wooden building – very very brown and knotty – but with old world charm – call veju paradise. At dinner I thought I would try the lamb – turns out it was a terrific lamb rack – I went to find the chef to ask where it came from – she was Latvian but had worked in a uk Michelin restraint and so knew about NZ lamb – turns out she was using ovation ! Sooo excited when I told her about my company supplying her restaurant and just wanted a photo – nice eh .

Day 4 – weather looks bad – very strong winds and rain – it’s 10 degrees and high summer on the Baltic

Through green green landscape Forrest and farms – mostly wheat barley and hay – not one livestock anyway – storks though nesting and looking for pregnant women 😎

Arrived at a grand ,weird , mansion where we are staying – brown brown and filled with objects and paintings mostly old oils in elaborate frames – Matt who is riding with us and just finished his art history masters in Auckland ( took him 34 years ) dates some paintings back to the 17 th century ! Afternoon rain so watched sage 4 of Le Tour – we stayed in and had tapas and wine for dinner . Simple as !

It’s the longest day today here 8 th July – light till after 11 pm and again at 4.30 am – but it’s 10 degrees in high summer – how does that work ! The rest of Europe is sweltering in 35-40 without AC and we are layered up ! Must be climate change I reckon 😎

Day 6

Actually we took a shuttle to Kandava – huge rain and wind storm in the morning so decided to ride it out . Plenty of biking to come . Plus – we got to see 5 hours of Le Tour as they headed up stage 3 into the Pyrenees and Col de Tourmalet – brilliant 😎

Day 6 100 kms day from Kandava to Riga ( the capital city of Latvia ) via Jumala ( a beach suburb 20 kms outside Riga )

Sunny and hot – then rain . It’s hard to pick . Through farmland mostly crops and mile after mile of pine trees – yes they grow tree but it’s always been that way – timber is their number 1 export . No jacked up crazy greens / labour policy to “ save the planet by pine trees on good agricultural land here . they even export the pine tree seeds to Scandinavia .

At Jumala we rode down Kapu eila – a street on the shore line with what seemed like hundreds of mansions – like huge places with a 100 rooms . Clearly there was wealth here in the last century big time – these mansions make Paritai drive Auckland’s mansions look like chicken coops ! But how can this happen – this is Soviet communist country – you know the communist doctrine “ from those according to their ability to those according to there need “ – just like the socialist league that Jacinda headed up early in her career!

But it does work that way – it’s like the Pigs in George Orwell “ animal farm “ – the cream is skimmed off for the privileged – the government officials and leaders and military commanders – it’s all corrupt! So I am thinking these innocent thoughts as I bike past mansion after mansion – I can’t be right ?

So I asked chat

Day 7 Riga – capital of Latvia and a busy city of over 600,000 .

It’s a rest day – but we signed on for a 3 hour bike tour of the old town and history – it absolutely pissed down the whole time – we had a lovely enthusiastic guide who didn’t let the rain trouble her at all and just carried on like it was a sunny Sunday afternoon in mid summer – so I will try to give a run down .

First you have to understand who the leader was of f…kn Russia during the last 50 years since the end of WW2 when Churchill, Lenin, and Roosevelt divided Europe up and basically created the “ iron curtain “. To bad if you lived in a free country before this cos if you ended up like the Baltic states, Poland, East German ( except Berlin), Hungry ……… you had 50 years till 1990 under the “heel and corruption of the communist state of Russia – who not only controlled everything but stole at will for the motherland often requisitioning all the crops produced by the farming collectives in the satellite states for Russia leaving the producing countries to starve – nice people eh !

Anyway here are the leaders

Of course before these bastards were other bastards like

Of course these earlier guys were “the “Lenin like hard left socialists that still believed that evil prick Stalin rather like Jacinda does .

It’s the guys from Gorbachev on that started the thaw that eventually in 1989 lead to the collapse of the Berlin Wall and finally freedom of the eastern states to determine their own lives as the Federation of Soviet unions imploded in their incompetence and corruption. Of course Putin was very pissed off with the collapse of the Soviet Union and believes he can reinstate it by starting with the take over of Ukraine – which he may yet achieve with the help of his mate and president of USA – Trump.

But it didn’t happen easily or without a lot of people getting killed by Russian troops in many countries like the Baltic States .

Are you still there – cause I’m coming to the point 😎

Back to our bike tour

It’s started in the main square and Cathedral where we were shown the bullet holes in the buildings during the Russian put down of the 1981 uprising to protest Russian theft of crops and food and resulting general death from starvation.

It was here that the people started the singing recitation in the late 1980s – large gathering were banned by the soviets who believed it would lead to “ counter revulsion “ but they allowed singing which started a subversive movement the Soviet bastards didn’t understand – then there were peaceful demonstrations like the 2 million people from the Baltic states holding hands at the same time to create a chain of people across the three Baltic states .

So we are biking quietly behind our chatterbox guide as we went past the now shuttered Russian embassy as they were all expelled when Russia invaded Ukraine and stopped in front of a government building facing the Russians with my favourite posture staring down

Are you getting the impression I don’t like this guy

As we bike along chatterbox is explaining that it’s not that they don’t like Russians ( as there are still many residents in Latvia from Russia ) but just their leaders, military and system . But – then in the next breath something I really like – called an alien passport . So if you were Russian at the time of independence 1991 you got one of these – until you could speak perfect Latvian – no specky no full passport and along with it free health education and pension – and no ability to travel as the alien passport isn’t accepted in Europe – gotcha !

Anyway from there to Marley’s , Soviet buildings( all monstrous dark places ) and past the previous KGB HQ and prison ( which Latvian refer to as the corner building – yes – along with the trait of not smiling at strangers they also use strange “ nick names” for places they dislike or are abnormal like the corner house )

Day 8 – 25 kms biking from Riga to Birinu after a one hour train journey as the roads out of Riga to difficult to bike .

Arrived at a beautiful castle – huge place built in 1860 with 35 bedrooms, a massive ballroom with grand entrance , equally massive dining room and huge artificial lake – the original owners were loaded that’s for sure .

Day 9 90 kms biking from Birini to Ainazi on the Baltic coast . Lovely balmy / hot sunny day finally 🙂🙂🙂

Few adventures along the way like getting lost on a diversion to avoid 11 kms of shingle with corrugations to end up on a sandy walking track at the end of the day – all part of the adventure . But the beer on arrival outstanding !

Day 10 Ainizi- to – Pärnu yatch club

Crossed the border into Estonia . Seemed like a hard hot 70 km bike ride along the coast line but arrival into the yatch harbour a relief and the beer was great .

Went to the supermarket for gluten free bread – was beautiful shop – but the people are so gorgeous – both men n women . Snow White long hair often braided, tanned skin, high cheek bones – must be something do do with being so close to Finland and Scandinavia .

Now that’s what I call a breakfast – super strong latte ( the deal is to get an espresso then on top of it a cupuccino- plus gluten free toast and boveril all the way from New Zealand – yum

ESTONIA

You are going to have to put up with a rave – sorry.

So I came here really interested in the tiny country – 1.5m people here and .4m in Tallinn the capital where we are heading in a couple of days .

I had heard that they adopted radical and hugely successful policies when they got out of the “ bears grip “ of the so called Soviet Union in the early 1990s but did realise how well they have done – so basically since 2000 the countries growth in income has been double that of NZ as well as double nz labour productivity growth . That’s very impressive – if we had done that over 20 years our gdp would have been hugely improved – let me prove it😎

2025 GDP ( national income ) for NZ is $248billion or roughly $50,000 for the 5 million people who live in Nz . In 2000 that figure was about half of that at $27,000 – so our income has basically doubled in 25 years

Estonia GDP per person is currently $35000 – less that NZ but 25 years ago there figure was $4000 per head so their growth in incomes has been 8 times ! Ok you might say – they joined the EU and got lucky but they made their luck while Nz went backwards in the key measurement – productivity or output per person ! Imagine what we could be doing in health , and standard of living if we had 8 times not 2 times the growth .

So here in Estonia they did some classic radical government thinking – flat tax of 20%, ) but – there is a 20% VAT compared to NZ 15% GST) , no corporate tax until profits are paid out as dividends ,education( teachers and pupils ) must focus on STEM ( science, technology, engineering, maths ) – no crazy stuff like Te Reo !, long term infrastructure development particularly digital ( fibre) , digital ID for everyone , no culture of entitlement ( yes they have unemployment benefit but not of you leave you job or get tossed for always being absent and it stops after 9 months – in NZ you can stay on job seeker benefit all your life if you know how to beat the system ) ….. the list goes on but one thing they did – brought in real incentives for startups and now attract IT businesses and smart people from all over the world – and oh – it was their startups that invented Skype and wise card!

Guess what – the other Baltic states have now moved to adopt a flat tax as has Russia – except in the case of Russia everyone cheats . Here they have the lowest level of tax evasion in EU.

And finally – there’s no sense of “ entitlement “ in Estonia like we have following Jacinda’s reign of kindness . No one’s entitled to anything in life unless they contribute – right !

Raves finished 🙂

Day 11 Pärnu to Varbla on the Baltic beach – well it’s not really – but like Pohara where you have to walk out 100 meters to get the water above your knees – crap eh !

Don’t you love some of the names – the double vowels and sometimes more – like a village we rode through called uluu and another call Loo – imagine the embarrassed teenager saying to an employer that I grew up in Loo 😎

So long hot road and some on busy highways so we were pretty glad to arrive in a very quaint and busy tourist town – lots of cafes and bars here .

It’s not a quercy here as on Katvia and Lithuania – no culture of sculptures or weird pubic art but here one on a beach

And yes behind it

And one other thing

I know that Estonia is staunch support for Ukraine against Russia and spends over 5% of GDP on defence ( Nz spends hugely – like .5% of gdp ! ) but there are few flags flying of Estonia and Ukraine together like there have been on the other states . I later learned there were lots of Ukrainian flags at the intoning of the war burnouts pretty much ch no just on official buildings – as they didn’t want to “ take away “ their serious support by cheapening it by the use of the flag everywhere – ok I understand.

Day 13 haapsula to laulasmaa 85 kms easy 🙂

Lausmaa is a small spa town on the coast and close enough to Tallinn for young couples and lots of kids to come for the weekend to be at the sea. It’s still only a 1/10 beach with 100 meters to get to waist height water and lots of growing stuff under feet ( yuk) but they love it – and it was hot so the water was great .

Day 14 Laudmaa to Tallinn and city bike tour

You can feel the communist threat – more so than in any of our journey – here in Tallinn – it’s only 200 kms to Russia – a days tank transport . And the symbols of the “ communist terror” as it’s called on the walls of official buildings starting with the ghastly Stalin period of executions and transportations to the Siberian gulag prisons of the 1940- 1950s . And then occupation and repression of the whole Soviet regime until liberation in 1991 – it’s in the monuments and all around .

25% of the 1.5m Estonia’s at Russian – speak Russian – look and act like them even though they know what it’s like back their in the father land .

But the stories of horror Michael our city guide told with dark humour – are the same right now – in the occupied territories of z Ukraine – crimea, luhansk,Donetsk, zaporizhia. Mariupol….., the corruption and “ no rule of law “ , executions, torture, child kidnapping and transportation to Russia for adoption …. It’s Putin now not Stalin ….. but the people here understand it and feel it.

There is a high number of Russians still here – so outward anti Russian actions might cause trouble amongst them – too f….g bad I say – but it’s their country

And on a brighter front I visited a lovely cafe for lunch to talk with the chef and front of house girls about Ovation NZ lamb on their menu and had slow cooked lamb shank .

And below the flags of Ukraine, EU, and Estonia outside the parliament with a plaque naming all the government executed by Russia in 1942 – everyone’s of them – none spared

And a few snips of dark humour from young Michael our happy biking guide around Tallinn

• In Estonia we don’t really like being with others so in Covid we liked the move to 5 m separation rather than 3 m we usually have plus one of the reasons we are good at IT is we like working alone
• My grandmother worked in a dairy factory during the Soviet terror – she stole -lots from her factory to exchange for other food with others who also stole . Everyone did it to survive – corruption was everywhere.
• Latvians have 6 toes – they are good swimmers – actually Latvians say that Estonians are slow cos it takes 7 rotations of the roundabout to decide where to get off .
• When a cyclist yelled “ use your eyes “ Michael calmly said “ don’t worry he’s Russian I can tell from his accent – they are born grumpy”
• The communists and soviets were way worse than the Nazi German occupiers . At the end of the war Soviets bombed Tallinn for two days – no reason – just a warning for “ collaborating with the Nazi occupiers”
• During Soviet times nothing that started got finished – it’s important to start but not to finish. like the memorial to there fallen soldiers – didn’t get around to putting their names on it.
• When the soviets left in 1991 they took everything to Russia with them – everything – cars, trucks , machines, furniture , there was nothing left . They couldn’t take the port – fir ferries to Helsinki Finland – and booze was 10 times more expensive there so for a few years the economy existed on Finnish people coming by ferry to buy booze produced in Finland but sold cheaply in Tallinn.

Time to leave – been another great adventure – with Ralph, Simone,Chris,Matt , Andreas and Dagma – 1000kmz biking ,14days, seeing stuff that few do . And realising we are lucky to live where we do .

End