Day 64: Saulkrastu to Riga

September 3, 2024

Challenging Navigation into Riga

“I’ll keep the tablet today,” Patrick says as we start out from the hotel to the main road. Rachel usually carries it in her handlebar bag, but not today. Today will be challenging to navigate into Riga.

The day starts out fine, we backtrack to the coastal road and follow it, sometimes on a bikepath, sometimes not. There are some eurovelo signs, but they abruptly disappear when the coastal road merges with the main highway to Riga. We were expecting this and we ride about 6kms on the busy main road that has a decent shoulder.

The Eurovelo route we have on our tablet makes a few attemps to get of the main road for short sections, but we just stay on longer to avoid a section that more likely is sandy or at least more difficult to ride given the recent rains.

When we finally leave the main road behind we enter a different world. We are on a small road through a pine forest and pass by a large area with shacks that look like ghetto homes and old concrete pit toilets. Patrick thinks they might be from the old Soviet Union days of dachas. Not more than 300 meters there are large newer homes built and being built.

A couple 100 meters past the dachas....there's this "suburb"

At this intersection, the track in the back through the forest is the section we missed by staying on the main road.

We reach the turnoff to a road that we see again Eurovelo 13 sign. When we reach the next town instead of following the EV route around the town, we continue straight hoping to find a café. Café’s seem nonexistent here in the Baltics as well. Instead on street corners and in grocery stores, there are fancy Italian machines that give you many options for a cup of coffee.

Another intersection, another check of the tablet and another coffee machine on the corner (the yellow box)

After much searching for the route across the railroad tracks, and down a boardwalk toward the beach, we finally reach the forest. “It’s like the Moria Forest,” he says as we get deeper into the woods referring to Lord of the Rings. We can see the Gulf of Riga waters and we can only cycle a bit before the effort of constantly getting off to push through sandy sections becomes more tiresome than walking. We finally reach the end to return to civilization.

It's high tide, so no option to cycle on the sand, so we go into the forest.

Checking the tablet, yes this is the trail.

"It's like Mongolia, just pick the best one," Patrick says as we pick our way through the forest.

We then pick up a bike path that takes us toward Riga. This begins Patrick checking the tablet frequently. He navigates us through a park, back on a bike path, over the railroad tracks, through another park into old town stopping at intersections to confirm we are headed in the right direction. The last garden we pass by the Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ and the bicycle monument that was a gift to Latvia from the Netherlands.

Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ, the largest Orthodox church in Riga. During the Soviet years it was turned into a planetarium and cafe. It was rededicated in 2000.

Continuing on, just before entering Old Town, we stop at McDonald’s. Riding into Riga took us longer than anticipated, so we stopped for food and drink and Wi-Fi. We have an email from the hostel with instructions on how to self-check in with codes for the doors.

In Old Town the road surface changes to large cobblestones making the riding very bumpy. We locate the Amber Hostel that’s in a very good location. We clean up and get two loads of laundry done, the first since Tallinn. There is no dryer but with a rest day tomorrow we expect everything to be dry by then.

The hostel "kitchen" area. Also Laundry is on the floor above.

We walk around Old Town getting our bearings, find a beer establishment offering “Happy Hour”. At the next table are 3 Dutchmen and we have a nice visit and conversation. While looking for another dinner place outside Old Town, we stumble upon an Asian place with cheap Pad Thai and Thai Basil dishes.

Checking with the Information staff about the route out of the city. We'll come back tomorrow for the walking tour.

We don't fly nearly enough Ukrainian flags in the USA. Here they know that Ukraine is fighting their war and that they easily could be next. Freedom is fragile here.

Today's ride: 59 km (37 miles)
Total: 3,232 km (2,007 miles)

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