Bikers and more ♡

From the Pillion
There is a camaraderie between bikers I really like. On the road we greet each other by nodding, raising an arm or extending a foot - when overtaking. There’s often a sense of connection, of freedom and adventure.

Of course, bikers always express some curiosity about another bike’s make, size, luggage, and more interestingly, the journey. There are tips (often useful, e.g. take a jar of peanut butter - thank you Len Brown!), info re the best routes, or just some plain showing off.

As you ride into a rest or parking area where a motley crew of bikers are sitting round a table sizing you up, care has to be taken as to how you dismount.

The one thing you don’t want to do (as Pillion) is to get your foot caught in some luggage strap and tumble off the bike like a sack of potatoes in front of an audience. Very embarrassing (it nearly happened). It’d be a bit like getting your leg caught in your handbag straps as you fall out of a taxi.

I watch with envy as some Scandi pillions swing their long legs gracefully over top box with tent attached in one graceful motion. My latest technique, being somewhat challenged on the vertical front, is to slide a bent leg over the seat and squeeze in between Pilot and luggage as gracefully as I can. Working on it!

On other matters, we are now south of the Baltic Sea, crossing Estonia, and it’s different. The forests have changed from mostly birch and spruce to a more varied selection of trees - and the drivers are more impatient.

Walking in Estonian woods

Estonian is part of the Finno-Ugric language family, they don’t bother with prepositions or articles, but their nouns have 16 cases! Anyone who considers German or Latin a challenge, think again.

During our walking tour in Tallinn we learnt that some Finnish and Estonian words share the same spelling and pronunciation but have different meanings.

One word means ‘marriage’ in Finnish and ‘problem’ in Estonian!

Where is Freud when you need him??