Thu14Jul16: Riga, Latvia – Birzei, Lithuania (103.1km, 965.8km YTD)

Married couples have already worked out their idiosyncracies before going on a TDA tour, however, single guys and/or gals are paired up and work it out as they go.  This is my third such tour and have realised that it’s best to friendly, accommodating, and positive.  For instance, last evening about 9:30pm I was lying on my bed in the Riga hotel, window open, checking the news on my netbook computer, and Roommate comes into the room, lets rip a big fart, closes the curtains, and turns on the A/C.  When I comment about how strange it is to leave the window open with the A/C running, his comment is that the room stinks and we need the extra ventilation.  Good point!  And indeed I slept well, probably helped by the road noise from the open window and the hummm of the A/C unit; never too cool, never too humid.  Remember, always think positive.

Another good buffet breakfast, rider meeting at 7am outlining the day’s route and notice of our convoy beginning at 8am.  Sunny and a warm 20C, it seems that we’re heading out of town just as the rush hour traffic is heading in to work, so the roads are quite crowded.  Convoy ends at 5.9km and we’re on our own, cruising the A7 highway and heading south through the suburbs.

Those pine forest plantations - that stretched from the Russian border to just north of Riga – have largely disappeared, replaced by groves of deciduous trees, with larger farms growing crops of wheat & peas & barley & lavender.  We turn off onto local Hwy#190 and lose the narrow shoulder and a lot of the traffic, a gradual grade climbing away from the coast and into the hills of southern Latvia.

Lunch stop is at 65km in an open field, Ozgur presiding over the victuals, and with a great view of a storks’ nest where the family of three are at home (check left side of lunch photo).

Chris is just leaving, Peter waves and zips by while I’m chowing down, and 7 more riders arrive shortly afterwards.  A normal riding mode.


Two adults standing on the nest edge, with the head of Little Child #1 just barely visible.

There’s a rather plain Catholic church in every town, the predominant religion along the eastern side of this Baltic state, although the western border areas are solidly Russian Orthodox.

The border between Latvia and Lithuania is a river, and there’s a policeman on the bridge checking to make sure that trucks have paid their road tax before entering his country; I give him a friendly “Good morning!” wave and he waves back.  I’m not getting in as many Good Morning greetings on this trip because there are so few people out walking around in the morning – India was the best tour for that sort of thing! – but I do catch quite a few people at bus stops waiting for their ride into work and watching us cycle past.

A bit of road construction along the route, Hotel Tyla is our destination resort at about 103km, ‘cute as a button’ you might way, but it looks like rain tonight and most of the couples are getting rooms at the inn.  Everybody has a tent, however, some choose not to use it unless absolutely necessary.

Wed13Jul16: Riga, Latvia (rest day)

Good buffet breakfast at the hotel, with a very full dining room because of tour groups from Germany and Italy.  While having breakfast with Mark (USA) and Cindy (USA), Roommate sits down and joins in the conversation, at one point calling me "Doug". Now the two of us have been sharing hotel rooms since TDA put us together 10 days ago, but I now realise that Roommate has never called me by name and obviously doesn't even know my first name.  Interesting social skills. 


Afterwards I asked Reception for a few old towels/rags for the group, and was able to wash two days of mud and grit off my own bike, oiled the chain, so now I'm ready to roll tomorrow morning.
Latvia consists of 62% ethnic Latvians and and 26% ethnic Russians.  Formal plaques & signs are in Latvian, but many public items (bus stops, museum captions, books, etc.) are in both Latvian and Cyrillic.  Latvians don't seem to be as well off as Estonians, and their level of English skills don't rate as highly.

Took the tram across the bridge and purchased a City Tour bus pass, E15 for the day.  The 10am circuit covered both sides of the river and lasted an hour, giving a good overview of Riga, lots of old structures blended in with some newer buildings, fancy shopping areas, but the Old City seems like the best area to explore on foot.
Another difference between Latvia and Russia:  in both countries, motorists are supposed to stop at a pedestrian crossing.  In Latvia, cars will stop BEFORE a pedestrian reaches the crosswalk; in Russia a car came so close to Kathy and I in a crosswalk that I kicked the fender to let the driver know I was unhappy.

Back to the Old City just in time for the 11:15am river tour (E5), a one hour cruise up and down the Daugava River, with some interesting views.
Now it's time to do some walking, the fort at Riga Pils, the Military Museum at the Powder Tower, a walk along Canal Park, another visit to the Independence Monument, over to the Central Market with its adjacent railroad station and bus depot.  Then it's time for a late lunch at "Wok for Walk" (stir-fry to go) before hopping the tram back to the hotel for a shower, a rest, and some editing.  Historically speaking, the Old City in Riga is definitely a match for that in Tallinn; there may be fewer real old buildings, but it's much larger, flatter, and every courtyard is full of restaurants and buskers playing every imaginable musical instrument.

Tue12Jul16: Ozolinea - Riga, Latvia (86.4km, 862.7km YTD)

Clear skies at sunset and low cloud this morning, but no rain overnight.  Nice to pack up a dry tent and be able to pack away the gear without worrying about it getting wet.  Porridge with mango chunks this morning, we are asked to make a lunch because they can't set up the lunch van in the hotel parking lot.
About 5km of gravel road to start, but then a narrow but paved rural road heading right into the face of a 30-50kph southerly wind.  Thank goodness the sun is breaking through because that does have a psychological benefit.

Gergo has arranged a visit to a Bicycle Museum at 38km, and the owner shows up early so we can see the accumulation of bikes, badges, and parapanalia produced/found in Latvia over the past 120 years.

Most interesting was a wooden bicycle, carved by a local cyclist, using a leather belt with holes for the drive train.

Our route crosses highway A1 and connects with a road which parallels the coast, occasional views of the Baltic Ocean.  Eventually our route merges with A1 and all that wonderful heavy traffic for about 10km.  Experience has now shown me that trucks and buses routinely travel along the 1m paved shoulder of these highways (because the rumble strips are always along the centre line) unless they overtake a cyclist, then they move over for a few seconds, pass the cyclist, and then move back onto the shoulder again.  Sure hope they can see flashing red light clearly!

Our route follows another side road along the coast for several km, but then at 58km merges back to the A1.  This time the A1 doesn't even have a decent marked shoulder, and the right track of the lane has been rutted by the heavy trucks, so the cyclist has to ride that narrow (est. 1/2 metre) ridge between the rut and the shoulder.  Quite exciting.
Peter (the Brit) and I have been playing tag for the past 20km or so, but we cooperate and chat as we enter the industrial edge of Riga.  Zig here, zag there, follow this possible route sign, and suddenly we're though town and heading over a beautiful cable suspension bridge for the south bank of the Daugava River.

Peter (the Brit) has purchased the map package and programmed his Garmin for the Bellevue Hotel, so it's no trouble finding the 10-storey building (located adjacent to a large city park) about 11:30am.
Peter (the Slovak) and Vilma are still unloading our bags from the van, so we give them a hand.  Reception finally relents to letting us check-in three hours early, so I head upstairs to unpack, have a shower, hang up my clothes line and do the laundry, plug in my electronics and log in to the hotel WiFi, etc.

About 1pm I purchase a tram ticket (E2.30 return) from Reception and take the #5 tram across the river to the Old City.  Three hours of walking, poking my head into churches, etc. just to make sure I get some good photos while the sun is out.  Most poignant memory is the two Latvian soldiers who are marching in front of the Independence Monument, the officer says this happens from 10am-5am every day, a continual reminder that freedom can't be taken for granted.  Quite a timely reminder, since NATO has been steadily increasing its forces in this region in response to an increase in Russian forces on the other side of the border - another Cold War?
Back to the hotel about 4pm to have another shower and plan my evening.  Head back to town after the latest stage of the Tour de France and meet up with George (a rider from Switzerland), we enjoy a supper together, then coffee and dessert on the way home.

Mon11Jul16: Pardu, Estonia - Meza Salas, Latvia (117.2km, 776.3km YTD)

Stayed up until midnight to watch the Euro2016 final match between France and Portugal, with 30 teenage Swedish basketball athletes & 3 coaches, but started falling asleep during the second half so went to bed before the final overtime goal.  Portugal 1 - France 0.
Nice morning, a bit of fog but the tents are dry so things are easy to pack.  7am coffee tastes ever better today, no porridge this morning but I can make do with muesli & mango chips & milk.  My departure is in the middle of the pack so there's a few people to chat with as I overtake them.

Off the main A1 highway and to coastal road #331, lined with small houses and holiday cottages, about 500m from the coast.  A national park with a 3-storey observation tower, and a boardwalk out to the grassy beach.  Further down the road is a church made out of brick and stone, beautiful design, sure wish I hadn't fogotten to put the card in my camera last night.  So much for my dreams of a dry day, the clouds have moved in, and a light rain begins falling - for consistency, we've had rain every day of this trip, so it's obvious why the Baltic countries are green.
Small communities and few pedestrians, light vehicle traffic this early in the morning, and at the 44km mark is a sign indicating that we have entered "Latvija".  Another country bites the dust!
Our route rejoins the main highway A1, and enters the major junction town of Salacgriva, before the flagging tape suggests we turn left onto a sideroad and towards the pine forests.  Somehow I made a wrong turn, the pavement turns into rough gravel at 62km, so I miss the road that the lunch truck is on and have to stop and ask for directions from a household of locals.  Very nice young man, he speaks with a British accent and confirms that he had worked in the UK for several years.  Whichever route I'm on isn't too far off the prescribed trail, so another 2km of gravel and I turn right onto some lovely pavement towards Ozolinea.
At the 103km mark I find a Top mini-market, buy some yogurt and a chocolate bar for lunch, and ask a local policewoman for directions.  The usual language barrier, but she confirms I'm in the correct country.  2km further than there's flagging tape indicating a right turn, only about 2km from where our instructions said it would be - that's close by TDA standards.
However, we're back on another Euro highway - the A4 - and this time it doesn't have any shoulders, just lots of semi-trailer trucks coming at me with sprays of water washing me each time one of them passes.

The turn-off to "Meza Salas" Resort is right on schedule, but there's another 5km of gravel road to reach the rural retreat/resort.  Mud splashing up my shoes and the bike's drive train - very sloppy.  Chris and Peter have already arrived, because of the rain I set up my tent under a shelter and then run out and pitch it under a slide in the playground - partial shelter - alongside my bike.
Friendly owner and very cooperative, but the weather is starting to make riders a bit more irritable every day.


An hour later the rain stops, the sun comes up, and the photos makes this place look gorgeous.  Wonder what the weather will be like tomorrow...

Sun10Jul16: Lokuta - Camp Joulumae (114.0km, 659.1km YTD)

Crawled into the tent about 10:30pm last night, heard soft snoring from the tents around me, put the eye shades on and woke up at 5:25am, dozed until 6am, had a great sleep.  No wind or rain during the night, but a heavy morning fog has covered every surface with moisture, so we're packing up wet.  Each morning the coffee routine is getting more efficient and the coffee is even tasting better.  Porridge with bananas this time, but I defer on the granola and sandwiches that some other riders prefer.

Heading out at 7:30am, fog is clearing, breeze is beginning to pick up, sun is shining through, and a nice 16C temperature.  We start out on a minor highway, and there are several hard-pack gravel sections where it passes through pine forests or small farm fields.  Cranes perched high up on their post-top nests, a great blue heron in the ditch alongside the road, a hawk glides over the fields looking for his/her breakfast, another Moose Crossing sign but we've yet to see the live animal.

Chris & Peter have reached the lunch stop at 53km before me, nice location because there are plenty of flowers, bees, and butterflies.  After lunch, the route emerges from the pine forest into the face of a 30-50kph south wind.  Nature is just being nasty:  last week when we were heading northwest from Russia to Tallinn, the west was northwest into our faces; now that we've turned south the wind has moved around and is from the south into our faces.  Thank goodness the terrain is fairly flat.

A long stretch of our route follows the E4 highway, heavy traffic and narrow shoulders, but my flashing red light should be visible.  Flagging suggests a turn off into the pine forest and ends up at Camp Loulumae, a 'jock friendly' place.
Bikes are to be parked in the 2-sheet curling rink building, there are youth sports teams here doing calisthetics and stretching exercises, a 100m track is off to the south,  cyclists and runners are continually coming and going, this time we fit right in.


Claim my duffle bag, erect the tent (which needs to dry out anyways), plug in the computer & Garmin & light to recharge their batteries, lovely shower, do my laundry and hang it up to dry, buy a Coke for the sugar fix, then settle into my backlog of blog and photo work.

Sat09Jul16: Tallinn - Lokuta, Estonia (97.9 km, 545.1km YTD)

Beautiful sunny skies at sunrise, temperature about 15C, then a layer of cloud rolled in but it’s just a typical marine morning.  Repacked to leave my black roll-on suitcase behind, so that gives me just one 22kg red duffle bag to worry about, with all my camping and personal stuff for this 2-month trip.

Rider’s meeting at 7:45am explains that to simplify the flagging and prevent mistakes, we’re going to convoy for 10km out of Tallinn.  Another lovely buffet breakfast in the Tallink City Hotel at 8am, and we’re heading out of town just after 9am.

Today’s route follows a large section of the EuroVelo 13 route which means a separate 2m wide separate bicycle path alongside the highway, sandy soil and forests of pine trees on both sides.  Eventually the soil changes and small farms show up, then communities, but we’re definitely in another low population density part of this country.  I ride with Peter McCartney and Chris for awhile but their pace is just a bit higher than I’m comfortable with.

Lunch stop at 57km is alongside the highway and adjacent to a small Meie grocery store.  After I pull away from the lunch stop and reach back to turn on my rear red flashing light, it isn’t there – damn.  So I waste about 20 minutes in the next town trying to find a bike store so I can replace the light; maybe tomorrow.

Turn down a country lane at 96km, then follow the flagging tape to a rustic farm site called "Jagu Talu", which turns out to be the equivalent of a camper’s B&B – wood-fired hot tub, elk antler door handles, small compound of goats for petting, etc.

After a good riding day, most riders seem to want the classic hot water shower.

However, Chris is working on getting the wood-fired hot tub up to temperature, and I spend about an hour in there before bedtime, chatting with Gergo and Ozgur and Peter.
Still light at 10pm but most riders have headed to bed, so it must be time to crash.

Fri08Jul16: "Tallink City Hotel", Tallinn, Estonia (rest day)

Purchased a one-day pass on the City Sightseeing Hop-on Hop-off bus, travelled on all three of their routes in and around Tallinn, and spent the time between rides walking through gardens and the Old City. The Old City was designated as a UNESCO World Heritage site, largely because it escaped major damage during WW1 and WW2, and some of the larger heritage buildings date back to the 13th century.

Old City Gate, Tallinn

overview, Old City, Tallinn

interior gate, Old City

walls, Old City of Tallinn

One announcement on the bus monologue caught my attention.  The narrator noted that Estonia had 1.4 million citizens, however, the Estonian language was only spoken by fewer than 1 million people worldwide.  Therefore, there are approximately 400,000 citizens in Estonia that don't speak the national language!  Word is that these are probably descendants of the ethnic Russian who immigrated to his territory when it was controlled by the Soviet Union prior to 1991.  Sounds a bit ominous, doesn't it...

Kadriog Palace, Tallinn

Bike City, Tallinn