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So breakfast and bump our way back to the A13 to head for the short ride to the border with Russia, I have checked all my documents, only one fopar, I have the Wrong international reg document for the bike, so I hope I do not need it! (you can check and check and still you miss things). The road is straight as before, very wide like a military road, a little cut up by lorries, just more big forrests, lakes and small farms, no traffic whatsoever, I was a little concerend as I expected sopme traffic, then all of a sudden there were a number of lorries parked at the side of a road, Jack saw an exchange hut, we needed Rubles early on to buy Insurance for the bike, as UK insurance does not cover Russia.
We pass through the Latvian side with a good luck from the border guard, we pass onto the first part of the entry which was us, there was a bit of hanging around, as I expected this we were noit too bothered, then they started to check Jacks passport, closed the little booth window and called the boss?? they opened it again, completed a regestraton form for each of us, the boss came back the window clossed, then one of the guards came out and wanted to question jack about her Iranian and the fact she was in a Berker! after expanation, they passed us to Customs, a very nice guard gave me a couple of forms to fill out, told me how to complete them, then stamped us through, all within about 45 mins, simples!!. We passed through the post I asked to take photo of Russian sign (I think it is anyway) they say sure and off we go. First the insurance, my research said find a petrol station, there were plenty, but they did not do it, I remembered writing a word down and the advice was look for a little hut, and there it was, a little hut, a big lady who spoke no English and us no Russian, I purchased, third party insurance for about 720 rubles (about 15 pounds for a month), no idea what it covers me for, and I dont care, as long as I am legal if stopped, I was even given an accident report form if needed. Nice lady we said our goodbyes and made our way off, the road seemed okay for about 2 miles then fell apart, so had to slow down, dodge the lorries (they give no quater here, boy some were close and I will have to change when we get to the hotel!!!) we made our way onto the M20 after about 50 challenging miles, this will take us all the way to Saint Petersburg, this was much better and were able to make good progress, once I worked out how everyone drove (basically hell for leather) and doge the slow bangers, we had food at a lorry stop, bought a dry roll filled with saurekraut, strangle but nice, some pringles a snickers bar and coke, no need for translation, but no Mac Donalds when you want one, we watch a lot of guys with guns exit several vans and could work out if they were police, prisoner officers or doing a bank run, no time to wait we left, found out later it was a bank run, but it must have been big as there were a lot of them. We hit the outskirts of Saint Petersburg all going well then, we got lost, the road signs are partially in English but mainly in Russian, as are our directions, a turn around, then I recognised a placename and we hit the right road, another loss, the confusing thing is the rivers and canals there are so many of them, we then worked out the route and made it to the hotel, which is tucked away behind the main road Nevesky Prospect, where most of the big sites can be found. After a cool down and change off to find some food, we had lost a couiple of hours as Russia is 3 hours ahgead of GB and two fo Latvia and we had not acconted for that, so it was quite late and quite light, and very busy, the main road is a race track, bikes, cars, luxury and all sorts racing each other, no crash helmets, no number plates police everywhere just watching!!, intial impressons was WOW massive beautiful buildings, we ate in a restaurant, wandered and watched brilliant, we got back to the hotel about 11pm knackered but glad we had made it here.
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