En Bicicleta por el mundo - Cycling the World

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 ! 

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.