Latvia, Poland and Germany

• Around France and Europe
• Latvia, Poland and Germany
• The Netherlands
• France
• The Basque Country

Way there: Warsaw | Through Germany | Kaldenkirchen
Way back: Berlin | Latvia

First part of the journey

We left Helsinki on Saturday morning of July, 3rd by Seawind passenger and cargo ship to Tallinn, Estonia. There we took a bus to Riga, Latvia, and after a short pause a night bus to Warsaw, Poland.

Mari on the deck of Seawind ship
Photo by: NL | All rights reserved ©

Border of Estonia and Latvia in Ainazi
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Mari with her red backpack and Riga market hall
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Eurolines bus having pause near Kaunas, Lithuania
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Warsaw

We arrived in Warsaw early in the morning. Scheduled time was at 6:30 but we already arrived there at 4 a.m. We began exploring the city with Sanna and Janne whom we met in the bus.

Sanna, Mari and Janne in Warsaw
Photo by: NL | All rights reserved ©

Mari in front of the Culture and Science Palace
Photo by: NL | All rights reserved ©

Skyscrapers in the centre of Warsaw
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

We also visited the so-called old town of Warsaw. The old part of the city was bombed in the World War II but reconstructed again as a copy of the original town.

View to a small alley
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Central Square of Warsaw Old Town
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Art market next to the town wall
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Janne and Sanna looking at the map
Photo by: NL | All rights reserved ©

Beware of exploding cars?
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

University library
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

We continued toward Germany already in the same evening. Our intention was to take a night train but as we found out that it was an expensive Russian train we decided to leave few hours earlier to reach Germany by the evening.

Warsaw Central Railway Station
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

More photos from Warsaw.

Through Germany by train

We spent overnight in a small city called Frankfurt-Oder on the border of Germany and Poland. In the morning we went to Berlin wherefrom we took different trains. I had bought a cheap ticket from Die Bahn online shop which was valid in express trains. As Mari is younger than I it was more profitable for her to have InterRail ticket also for Germany but that was not valid in the high-speed trains unless one paid relatively high extra fees. Hence we decided that I will wait for Mari in the border of Germany and the Netherlands.

Street in Frankfurt-Oder
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Duisburg railway station
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Kaldenkirchen

Last town in German side of the border was Kaldenkirchen. I decided to stop there for while and look a little bit around. It was quite a quiet small town.

Entrance road to the town
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Pedestrian street
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Street view
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

The church
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Unfortunately Greek-style Niko's bar was not open
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Railway Station
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

More photos from Kaldenkirchen.

From Kaldenkirchen I continued by train to Venlo in the Netherlands.

Further down on this page you can see photos of our return journey from France. If you continue to see the photos in order you will see them in the end of the tour.

» Next page

Return journey

After a short stop in Paris we continued by train via Strasbourg to Baden-Baden in Germany. Again we decided to traverse Germany separately: I used the DB online ticket and the fast ICE train while Mari followed me with IC trains. This time she paid one extra fee to get with me from Baden-Baden to Frankfurt am Main and not having to wait alone at night. After leaving Frankfurt we met again in Berlin.

Berlin

Alexanderplatz
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Karl Marx Allee
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Unter den Linden
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Brandenburger Gate
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Potsdamer Platz
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Tower of Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church next to Zoologischer Garten railway station
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

More photos from Berlin.

Again in Latvia

From Berlin we continued by Eurolines bus to Riga, Latvia where we spent overnight. After 21 hours in bus we really needed a pause.

Riga as seen from hostel's window
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

From Riga we took another Eurolines bus to Tallinn. We did, however, miss the bus which we had originally planned to take and consequently also the Seawind ship. Fortunately Tallinn to Helsinki route is operated by several differnet carriers so we were able to take an Eckerö Line ferry just few hours later.

Bus had a stop in Ainazi near the Estonian border
Photo by: NL | License: Creative Commons by-nc-sa

Below you can find links to the other photo pages of our journey:

• Around France and Europe
• Latvia, Poland and Germany
• The Netherlands
• France
• The Basque Country

Photographers

NL = Niko Lipsanen