To Riga: I give a lecture in a castle

July 30, 2015

There is a group of kids at the castle. They are at a summer survival camp. A fancy place to learn to live in the forests!

They seem to speak English well. The instructor asked me to give a "lecture", so they can practice English. More important is probably that they seem enthusiastic about the USA, so it's fun for them to meet someone from there. It's still morning, and I'm scheduled to talk in 15 minutes. I'm just planning to say a little something about myself and what I'm doing, and then let them ask me questions. Wish me luck!

Later -

I had fun with the students. I talked about where I'm from and what I'm doing, and then we had some question and answer. The kids ranged from about 8 to 14 years old, and were from Riga and the surrounding suburbs. They asked me questions about where I've been and what I liked and didn't like, but nothing personal. As a matter of notice, and a little off track, since I've been on this trip I have not been questioned about travelling alone, and have not gotten the dreaded "where is your husband" question, even a single time!

An interesting question at the end came from the instructor: How do you learn to smile? I think we grow up learning to smile. We smile at babies, and the babies react and smile back, and so we start smiling very young. Here in Latvia, people don't smile at each other, and do look rather sour, but I don't think they are fundamentally different. The instructor who asked the question seemed to associate smiling with optimism. I've never thought of myself as an optimist, but I smile a lot, and perhaps I am optimistic, relatively speaking.

After the question and answer, the students put on a skit for me, in English. I have to admit that I didn't follow it all, but I think it was a Latvian folk tale, and there was something about finding money in the forest, and rescuing a princess, and there was a storm with Mrs. Wind (portrayed by a boy) and thunder and lightening. At the end, they all gave themselves applause, and I joined in.

After the skit, I loaded up my bike and took off. Of course it started to rain. It rained off and on all day.

I continued south on the P9. I wanted to see Birini Castle, which I had been told was a "do not miss" site, and that you could climb a tower for a good view of the countryside. When I got to Birini Castle, I found out it was closed for the day, due to a seminar. I was disappointed, but continued on in the rain to Ragana. Ragana is a large crossroads, and there is a gas station and shop and a huge restaurant. I went into the restaurant, which was crowded with German tourists from a big tour bus. When I came out later, there was one of the Germans looking at my bike. We started talking, and before long were surrounded by others from the group. I had become a bit of a spectacle!

At that point, I had to decide which way to go. I could pick up the motorway into Riga, which was still a long ride, or I could go 16 km to Sigulde, and then catch a train into Riga. With the rain and the traffic, I opted to go to Sigulde.

The terrain has become much more rolling as I've ridden further south.

The road drops down to a stream or river or lake, then climbs back up, and then drops to the next body of water. The most extreme hills were going into Sigulde. There was a fast descent, a small flat ride and a big river, and then a huge ascent.

The ascent was posted at 11%, but I suspect was steeper in places, and it went on and on. Yes, I pushed my bike most of the way up and even pushing was hard!

The trains to Riga run every hour, and the ride is 1 hour 10 minutes. I was able to get on the next train, along with 2 other touring cyclists. They are from Switzerland, although the guy is an American. When the train pulled up, we saw that it was a large 2 steps up into the train. We quickly took the panniers off the bikes and put them on the train and then loaded the bikes. We had not even sat down before the train was moving again. The whole stop had been perhaps less than 2 minutes. The train was clean and quiet and the ride was smooth. When we arrived in Riga we were ready for a fast deboarding, but this one allowed more time.

The real issue in Riga was getting out of the railway station. It is several levels, and we didn't know which we were on or where we needed to go. There were elevators posted as no bicycles. After not finding an alternative and not finding anyone to help, we used one of these elevators. All 3 bikes fit. First we went to the basement, but that didn't look right, so we went up a floor. That worked! It got us out of the station. However, we needed to cross a very busy street, and the way to do it was through an underpass. The steps had a small ramp next to them, and the bike could be rolled on the ramp. But it was very narrow, and a bike with panniers had to be leaned steeply to the side in order to fit. I did okay going down, but fighting gravity going back up was difficult. Fortunately the American Swiss guy gave me a hand, and the 3 of us were on the right side of the road, and stopped to figure out which way to go. It was raining very hard. We found our way into the old town, where they had a hotel nearby, and I was looking for the tourist office. We said good-bye, and I went into the tourist office to find a place to stay.

I've ended up at a hotel in the Art Nouveau District. It's a newer hotel with shared bathrooms, and was a little hard to find, with the entrance through a small alley. But the old buildings in the neighborhood are amazing. I'll take some pictures later. I booked in for 3 nights, so I have 2 full days to explore the city.

Today's ride: 45 km (28 miles)
Total: 674 km (419 miles)

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