Apologies if this little travelogue seems a bit indulgent, but there are lots of pics to pass the time!
Ever since I did my TD5 rebuild Ive been wanting to do a decent road trip, so I finally got round to driving to our family place in Estonia, I also went via a couple of "points of interest"!
The route I took was a not too heavy on the driving:
Day 1
Harwich to Hook of Holland by ferry about £220 return
Drive to Kiel Via Arnhem
Day 2
Germany (Travelmunde) to Latvia (Ventspils) by ferry (27 hours!) about £ 200 return
Day 3
Drive through Latvia to Estonia
The alternative route is to drive all the way, France, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia!!
As I was driving alone I didnt fancy that.
First stop after arriving in Holland, headed over to Arnhem.
My Uncle, Staff Sgt George Davis, dropped into Arnhem in 1944!
Here is a rather graphic description of what he saw:
Extract from here: http://erenow.com/ww/a-bridge-too-f...f-the-greatest-battle-of-world-war-ii/20.html

"Staff Sergeant George Davis stood near his empty Horsa and watched other gliders come in. One of the first to land, Davis had brought in thirty-two men of the 1st Airlanding Brigade. He saw two gliders “almost side by side bump across the landing zone and into the trees. The wings of both were sheared off.” Seconds later, another Horsa rumbled in. Its speed was such that Davis knew it would never be able to stop in time. The glider plowed into the trees. No one got out. With his copilot, Staff Sergeant Williams, Davis ran to the glider and looked into the plexiglass-covered cockpit. Everyone inside was dead. A 75 mm. howitzer had broken from its chain mooring, crushing the gun crew and decapitating the pilot and copilot."

Later my uncle took shelter in the back garden of house in town, he didnt realise the house was an SS HQ, he was captured, but not shot, apparently it was a 50/50 decision by the officers who found him. He ended the war in a POW camp in Poland.
Many of his mates were not so "lucky", here are a few pics. Starting with "the bridge too far"






After Arnhem I drove to Kiel. More to follow

After a non sleep in the Disco I arrived at Kiel early Sat morning, I happen to like visiting submarines, been on many over the world, there is a Type VII preserved at Kiel so went to have a look.
Its right next to the beach, entrance is €8 incl the memorial nearby.
Once your in you can spend as much time as you want to look it over, it did actually fight in the war, it was taken over by Norway after and then presented back to Germany much later, as a sign of reconciliation.
The Type VII was (leaving politics aside) a very advanced, well engineered "weapons system", this was acknowledged by the Navy after they captured one.
The nearby memorial has a vast monolith and a screw from the Prinz Eugen. Like most memorials, its serene and thought provoking.
A few pics from inside, you can see more if you click on a pic and open the full file.









From here I drove to the ferry terminal at Travelmunde

The ferry wasnt very big! I made a huge mistake by not booking a shared cabin, so I "slept" in a brightly lit lounge spread across 3 seats!
Loads of people take mattresses, sleeping bags and even hammocks, the crew dont seem to mind!
The boat had a few RAF Regiment Boys on it! They bought their toys along! Rapier Missile batteries bound for Estonia.
Link here for more info: http://www.raf.mod.uk/news/archive/capability-enhancement-training-continues-in-estonia-04082016
Pics including the off loading of the Rapiers.

An uneventful drive through Latvia via Riga followed, about 6 hours all told.
The arrival at the farm at 1 am!
Daughters first question "daddy where is your Land Rover"!
Estonia was occupied by the Russians then the Germans, then the Russians!
The Germans left a rather large cooking pot! It somehow survived in a field as a water trough, its now our fire pit!
Also in the pics is our Soviet era T16M, a tractor that seems to run on fresh air and minimal TLC, it stood in a barn for 7 years then started almost first turn when I sorted the electrics out!

Around and about in Estonia
The people in Estonia have a lot of social pride, they take on themselves to look after their surroundings, so you dont see litter, fly tipping, anywhere.
The local swimming "hole" has a sand "beach" its spotless, toys are the only thing left there, all these areas have a life ring and 1st aid guidance, nobody steals the rings! From what I saw of Latvia it looks pretty similar.
Last pics are from a quick trip North to Tallinn, its a lovely Medieval walled city.

Woodwork!!!! Said this would be indulgent!
I like working with wood, metal and Landies!
New wood is pretty rubbish so I use salvaged wood, this time it was from an old pub/barn building we have, the planks were 6m long (20 ft) long, 4" wide and 1" think, we took up over 200 metres of it!
Once its planned and sized I use it for most jobs abound the place.
First pic is Estonian tractor loading! We didnt have far to go!

Finally trip home!
Night drive back through Latvia to catch the ferry at 11 am, overnight, again!
Then drive South through Germany to Amsterdam, stopped of for a decent nights sleep, before catching the ferry to Harwich.
Total miles about 1800, fuel consumption 31-32 MPG, its helped by the speed limits in the Baltic being about 90-100 kph.
The D2 was perfect, used about 1 litre of oil, just, and a bit of water before I realised the O rings on the expansion tank cap were shot.
The overall driving experience? No problem at all, just stick to the speed limits, dont drink and drive (the limit is ZERO, and they do random testing)
Latvia is just like Estonia, roads are very good in most places, its clean and full of forests!
First pic is a snap of an A10, they overfly the farm everyday, most people are pretty happy to see them!
The dawn in Latvia followed by my feet up on the last ferry home!

NICE!!

We need to swap stories and maps.

2015 Rugby to Montengro to Bonsnia to Rugby
2016 Rugby to Hungary to Ukraine to Rugby
2017 Is gonna be a bit special if I can arrange it

Thanks!
Sounds like some fun drives you've had there!
To be honest, my drive was less Landie and more "Toyota", in other words the Disco didnt feature highly in the trip because it drove well and behaved itself!
Mark

Great trip!
Really enjoyed reading that.
Is the aim to move out there full time in the end or is it just a nice escape from time to time?
Whatever it looks lovely.

That should bed your engine in nicely, sounds like it is back running as it should.

LincolnSteve said:

Great trip!
Really enjoyed reading that.
Is the aim to move out there full time in the end or is it just a nice escape from time to time?
Whatever it looks lovely.

Click to expand...

Thanks!
Its a great place, has a bit of a rep for stag weekends but in the 12 years Ive been coming here Ive never seen any trouble, the Estonians are well used to dealing with Fins and Russians, who make English drinkers look pretty lightweight!
Got a place in Tallinn, work holds me in the UK, for now anyway!

raywin said:

That should bed your engine in nicely, sounds like it is back running as it should.

Click to expand...

Hi Ray, yes shes purring very nicely! Except the odd hydraulic tappet spat, but that doesnt seem affect the running.
over 6500 miles since fitting the new head!
Mark

Really interesting read enjoyed all of it, and your wood working skills are to be envied.

Thanks Gary. Im strictly amateur, the surface/thicknesser does most of the prep work, just have to be careful about nails!

Some great pics there