Yes, we made it to St Petersburg. We are just not staying in a Hotel IN St Petersburg… but near St Petersburg. Big shit! I was so looking forward to walk in this beautiful city… but nope. We are staying in what seems to be Poutin’s holiday camp with military controls and everything… I hate it. But apart from that… all is well. The Contal is comfortable and Rudy came out to give it a bath and massage. Chain, tyres, airfilter, oil… all new. This should hold untill Paris, no?

But this morning Rudy started work and you don’t want to know how the workshop looked… I would not let my dog sleep in there. But this kitten did’n mind a bit!

So Herman helped Rudy this time and spend a good part of the day under the oil and grease. Thank you Herman, it gave me a bit me-time for the first time in the past 25 days… Just imagine. It has been a rough fight for Herman and me and restday is for us NOT a restday! We work our asses off on the bike and on restday the bike needs all our attention. I took a moment to look at the board with the results and big was my amazement when I saw we are on the 15th place in the Vintage classification. Wow… This only proves how hard this rally is for all the teams. Some guys took a real beating with their cars… and of course we did what we had to do with the Contal. It doesn’t make a diffirence but I felt good for a moment there…

Big day tomorrow… it is BORDER DAY! Europe, here we come. We will move into Finland, next goal is Helsinki! Please let it be. A European coming back to Europe… Finally.