 Today I met Martin, one of two bicycle couriers in the Estonian Capital. Although there is alot of snow and ice on the roads, he rides with normal tires. He had 5 minutes to spare, so we chatted a bit about bikes, cycling in winter,Tallinn and about his strangest delivery. Click on the AUDIO PLAYER below to listen to the short Podcast ! 1 Comment  In the year 2011, Tallinn will be one of the European Capitals of Culture. Throughout the year there will be more then 150 events and the city hopes to attract many foreign visitors to enjoy, join in and participate in activities all year round - "In 2011, Europe's best stories will be told in Tallinn!" Today I met with Mikko Fritze who is in charge of the Cultural Capital foundation and responsible for the Cultural Capital program, foreign relations and the volunteer program. Click on the AUDIO PLAYER below and let Mikko tell you about the TALLINN2011 programm, relations with Istanbul2010, a theatre made of straw, Tallin as a cycling capital and Estonia as a cycle touring destination... For more info, please visit www.tallinn2011.ee
 18/02/2010 – Kärdla/Hiiumaa to Saarema (45km)
The day before, my Couchsurfing host Tuuli warned me about a snowstorm incl fierce winds supposed to hit the islands during the next 24 hours, the Ice Roads are likely to be closed, so I decide skip riding around Hiiuma but instead I will cycle straight towards Saaremaa and hope to find the 15 km long passage still open. My host kindly left me her keys and I am slow to pack my gear and leave the flat. Another reporter from the Saaremaa based newspaper Oma Saar calls me and asks for a telephone interview. Half an hour later I leave to pay a visit to the Kärdla museum and to say good-bye to my host. As I cycle out of town the sun comes out. I notice some pain in my left knee and wonder if I pushed the pedals to hard yesterday, all the stopping and get going again to let cars pass on the Ice Road and then the race in the afternoon – think my body is not used any more after 2 months doing of literally sitting around in Tallinn. So the going is rather slow and I reach the entrance of the Ice Road only at half past four in the afternoon. Another hour and it will be dark...  Haapsalu to Vormsi Island (45 kms)
My host Peep is going late to the office, so we have a sleep-in and get up around 9 o´clock, have a huge breakfast and then see some more photos of Montenegro and Estonia. After stopping at the Old Train station to take some pictures, I leave Haapsalu around 13h and slowly cycle towards the port of Rohuküla, the starting point for two of the Ice Roads – the first, about 10 km long, leads to the tiny island of Vormsi. The second, with approx 26 km length (the longest Ice Road in Europe) ends on the island of Hiiumaa. Today I will cycle to Vormsi, spend the night there, ride back to the mainland and to the island of Hiiumaa tomorrow.  Back in Tallinn from cycling the Ice Roads, I wanted to know some more details about maintenance and about how the people make sure the ice is safe to drive on. So I conducted a phone interview with Märt Järvik, head of Lääne Teed - the road maintenance company that manages the Ice Road between Rohuküla port and the island of Vormsi in the name of the Estonanian Road Administration. Please Click on the Audio Player below to listen to the Interview. Enjoy! You may also download the program as .WAV or .MP3 file. (7:41 min) 
 After a good nights sleep I get up at 7.30h, have coffee, eat some buckwheat I cooked the night before and change into my warm cycling gear. While I take down the tent, the thermometer shows 8 degrees below zero. I push my bike out of the monastery ruins and take a narrow secondary road that will lead me to Noarootsi peninsula where the first Ice Roads will take me to Haapsalu.
 A couple of weeks ago I heard about the fact that in long hard winters, estonian islands in the midst of the Baltic Sea are connected with the mainland by so called Ice Roads - winter highways traced on the thick ice, capable of taking the load of vehicles of up to 2.5 tons of weight.
Wow, I think, this sounds like a good adventure to cycle these Ice Roads and get to the islands Saaremaa, Hiiumaa and Vormsi practically overland. And the winter in Estonia this year has been a pretty tough one with record snowfall (over 70 cm) and temperatures far below zero degree Celsius since end of November. Enquiries with the Road Administration are answered vaguely at first but then I receive some detailed info about where to find the Ice Roads, how long they are and curiously - the opening hours. For Christmas I got some nice and spiky Schwalbe Marathon Winter Tires that promise to give good grip and traction on ice and snow - after some further days of preparation and equipment-gathering- I leave Tallinn on the 14th of February cycling westwards towards Noarootsi peninsula in search for the Ice Roads.  From January 4th to 24th, I took part in the Tallinn University Winter School program and studied Russian language as part of my preparation for my future trip to Russia. The course was about 60 hours total in three weeks time and we where only two students, a pretty intense learning atmosphere. I very much enjoyed it to be a student again and to able to use the excellent infrastructure of Tallinn University, our teacher Grigori as well as the people responsible for the Winter School Program helped us a lot with everything we needed. Thank you to all of them for their dedication, it was a pleasure to study at Tallinn University ! A special thanks to the Head of the Katharina College for linking me up with the travel agent who finally organized my three-month Business Visa without any hassle. Here a short podcast interview with Birgit Kirsimägi (Coordinator of international marketing/ Tallin Summer and Winter School Program) and Edith Sepp (Head of International Communications Office). Hear what they have to say about the origins of the Winter School program, Tallinn, what to see in Estonia, Internet connections and the Estonian forest. Please click on the Player below to start the audio-podcast. Enjoy ! I left Tallinn early saturday morning and took secondary roads to reach the little town of Tapa. Unfportunately, supposed host was busy that day and I had to find new accomodation. Help arrived in form of a Lutheran priest and a deacon of the local church, they invited me to the community house. Together we attended sundays service where I received blessings for the trip and had the oportunity to climb the bell-tower...                | Travel is the best antidote to prejudice, bigotry, and ignorance - Mark Twain
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