Blast round the Baltic

[gs5pete]

Hi all,
this summer I need to go to Finland for a few days workshop, and figured I should take some holiday at the same time (not least because I should be able to claim back expenditure equivalent to a flight + train to station + bus other end etc!).

just booked ferry tickets Harwich just thought I'd post my rough plans up for scrutiny, as this is my first motorbike tour (have toured on pedal bike a bit so am quite happy carrying packing light camping stuff) and I'm slightly concerned that I'm being slightly ambitious (approx 2800m over 9 riding days).

Thurs night - ride to Harwich (then catch night ferry to netherlands)
Fri - Den Haag - Travemunde (then get ferry across to Trelleborg Sweden)
Sat and Sun - mosey over to Stockholm, stopping off to see stuff on the way, meet up with Swedish friend
Mon - get ferry over Baltic, briefly stopping on Archipelagos. Have shower
Tue - Fri afternoon workshop in Turku
Fri afternoon - take a scenic route to Helsinki and meet up with other guys who went to workshop.
Sat - get ferry across to Estonia, explore Tallinn.
Sun - Riga
Mon - Vilnius [European Capital of Culture 2009 don't you know?]
Tues - ride to Torun and check out the Copernicus museum.
Weds - drop into Berlin, then perhaps Sanssouci Palace
Thurs - Wake up early and ride (quickly) back to Den Haag. Get ferry back to Harwich and wobble home. Collapse into bed.

sound alright?
any recs for choice of weapon (am currently bikeless) mpg (or tank range at least), reliability, long mile comfort, autobahn-speed and and Eastern Europe poor road compatability important. Would prefer something <= £1500 but could stretch a bit ("resaleability" is more important). Would like big trailie like Vara 1000, although this fails on the MPG front. DL650? recent examples seem to change hands on ebay for not-too-much and reasonably have good reviews. Transalp? Tenere?
____________________
past bikes: KX125, CG125 (first road bike, used to pass test on), GS500 (first proper bike).

[c-m]

Too many miles if you plan on stoping and seeing things as well.

2800miles over 9 days is 311 miles per day, which with fuel stops, food breaks etc.. will be pretty much a whole days riding. Unfortunately that means you will either not have time to see anything or will be too tired after a couple of days to care.

Its great to do hundreds/thousands of miles, to get to a destination, but you are going to be pretty much riding non-stop without a main destination kind of like sitting on the circle line of the tube.

Sounds great, but i'd try to stretch it to 16 days.

All the best

[Phoenix]

I did 2100 in just over 7 days and I found it quite a leisurely pace to be honest, couple of days where I got in about 500miles which brings your average up but allows for some more laid back days. As long as there's sections where you know you'll be able to cover a large distance in good time I think you can do it ok. If you want to do any lengthy stops to look at stuff you will definately need more time though.