Murmansk-Nordkapp - 10'000km on a Suzuki SV650S
Four weeks of riding through the most beautiful places northern Europe has to offer.
Northern Europe (Scandinavia and adjoining north-western part of Russia) is a place full of history and interesting places. Vast and sparsely populated landscapes, harsh climate and great nature formed people and culture and make this one of the prime destinations for motorcycle travel in Europe.
From the taiga in russian Karelia to Kola Peninsula and Murmansk, through the sparse landscapes of northern Norway between Kirkenes, Hamningberg and the famous Nordkapp. From the northernmost road on continental Europe through finnish and swedish Lapland on to the Lofoten and along the norwegian coast through fjords and mountains. You have to see this place for yourself!
If you want to make a similar trip or ride parts of my route, here is what my route looked like:
After riding the car train (DB Autozug) from Lörrach to Hamburg, the ferry from Germany (Travemünde) brought me to Helsinki, where I headed east towards the russian border - to Санкт Петербург (Saint-Petersburg). After sightseeing for a day, I headed north on the Magistrale 18 (Кола) through Петрозаводск (Petrozavodsk), Медвежьегорск (Medvezhyegorsk ) and Мончегорск (Monchegorsk) and arrived in Murmansk (Мурманск) a few days later.
Next on the plan was riding to Norway (Kirkenes), from where I took two detours to Grense Jakobselv and Hamningberg, before I rode to the Nordkapp. Back south through a bit of finnish Lapland and Sweden, the road led me to the Lofoten islands, from where I rode south along the coastline and on the Atlantic road to southern Norway. Another ferry brought me to Denmark, where I made my way back home through Germany, the Netherlands and France.
Tours-TV.com: Medvezhyegorsk, Malaya Medvezhka
Malaya Medvezhka is a country club, situated in a pine forest on the shore of Lake Onega, not far from Medvezhyegorsk; exclusive comfortable cottages made of venerable pine wood. Russia : Republic of Karelia. See on map .
Alexander Svirsky Monastery (Staraya Sloboda, Russia) 4K
Alexander Svirsky Monastery (Staraya Sloboda, Russia) - Hotels near Alexander Svirsky Monastery, Staraya Sloboda
Alexander-Svirsky Monastery is a Russian Orthodox monastery situated deep in the woods of the Leningrad Oblast, just south from its border with the Republic of Karelia. The golden age of this cloister was in the 17th century. It boasts one of the few preserved three-tented belfries and medieval clock towers in Russia.
The abbey was founded in 1487, when a monk of the Valaam Monastery, named Alexander, settled between Roshchinsky and Holy lakes, 20 km to the east from Lake Ladoga and 6 km from the Svir River. During his life in the woods, he had a vision of the Holy Trinity who ordered him to build two oaken chapels dedicated to the Trinity and the Saviour's Transfiguration. These churches gave birth to the twin Trinity and the Transfiguration cloisters, collectively known as the Alexander Svirsky Monastery.
The monastery's founder died on August 30, 1533 and was buried at the Transfiguration cloister, which still serves as a burial place for the local monks. 12 years later, his disciples recounted his life in a biography. The church synod of 1547 canonized Alexander of the Svir, and the new saint became venerated throughout Russian lands. One of the chapels of the famous Saint Basil's Cathedral on Red Square, for instance, was consecrated to him.
The Russian tsars bestowed many important privileges on Alexander's cloister, including the right to appropriate taxes from the Svir Fair, which was held annually under the cloister walls. During the Time of Troubles, the Swedes sacked and burnt both hermitages on three occasions, and yet the monastery continued to prosper. After the Russian-Swedish border was delineated west of the Svir River, much of the trade between two nations had to pass through the Svir Fair, further augmenting the monastery's importance.
This renewed prosperity was reflected in the monastic structures erected in the 1640s. In 1644, when the five-domed Transfiguration Cathedral was finished, Tsar Mikhail Feodorovich presented to the monks a golden ark for keeping St Alexander's relics there. A belfry of the Trinity cloister was built in three tiers and crowned with three tents in 1649. Most of the monastic cells date back to the 1670s. The roomy Trinity Cathedral was completed by 1695. The last structure to be erected within monastery walls was the hospital chapel of St John of Damascus (1718).
The vast lands of the Alexander Svirsky Monastery were secularized during Catherine the Great's ecclesiastical reform in 1764. The Transfiguration cloister continued as a seat of the local seminary and a residence of the Olonets archbishops, who rebuilt much of the monastery structures for their own needs.
Following the Russian Revolution of 1917, the monks were imprisoned and then executed by the Cheka after trying to resist Bolshevik forces. The relics of St Alexander were desecrated and put on a public display in Leningrad. The medieval monastery buildings housed an infamous gulag known as Svirlag. They were further damaged during World War II. Restoration did not commence until the 1970s.
As of 2005, the Transfiguration Cloister is the home to the local monastic community, while the Trinity Cloister still houses a mental asylum instituted in 1953. The monastery has a subsidiary chapel in St Petersburg, situated some 260 km to the west.
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