After 4 hours sleep Finnish version of Thelma and Louise was ready to hop on the car and start their 12 days roadtrip ”Tour de mer Baltique”. On Friday morning we took a ferry from Helsinki Länsisatama harbor to Tallinn, Estonia from where the exact roadtrip began on the 6th July. When our ferry arrived in Tallinn at 11:00 am, we didn’t know the fact that the day in a car is gonna be very long.
We were far too optimistic with the plan and the result was that we had a quite challenging time schedule for the first day. Our aim was to reach the border of Poland and the hotel Przystanek Rospuda by 9:30 pm. So basically we drove through all the baltic countries within one day. Below the driven route Via Baltica. We definately do not recommend to accomplish this activity during just ”one” day including only couple of short pitstops.
In general the roads of Via Baltica are in very good condition. There was a huge road work ongoing on the road E67 between Stalilionine – Silaiciai in Lithuania. After 30 min frusration in the traffic jam, we decided to take another route through the city of Panevezys, which was a good decision.
If you are able to reserve more days for Via Baltica, Riga – the capital of Latvia would be an ideal city in a half way to stay over night. The coastline of Latvia is very beautiful and in case if you happen to travel during hot summer days, don’t miss the beach of Jurmala. There are plenty of free spots to set your towel.
As all the Baltic countries are part of EU nowadays, there aren’t any customs formalities when crossing the borders. Only thing which gives you a hint that you have already entered to the next country is the license plate of an oncoming car. We were also amazed at the invasion of the huge heavy trucks on those roads. The trucks practically occupied the roads especially after Polish border very late at night. It seems that people are saving money on electricity, because there were no street lights or any lights on. We hardly found our way to the hotel through the darkness.
Landscape along the way is mostly green and full of grain fields. Like in Finland there is ”a church in the middle” almost in every little village. This is definately a good route to central Europe and money exchange is not needed, because euro is a valid currency in baltic countries. If you feel a bit homesick, you can grab a meal from Hesburger on the way.
On the road again 