Sat, Jul 20, 2024
Limbazi, Latvia to Riga, Latvia
miles today 58
miles so far 1364.3
feet climbed today 673.0
feet climbed so far 40,603.0
We got up, ate yogurt then left Limbazi around 830am. The forecast looked great... 60 to 70 degrees, no rain. It rained at about 9 for an hour.
A friend tells me this could be an Anotov An-2.
Looks like rain. Obviously, The Weather Channel is not the preferred app for Latvia.
In the town of Saulkrastu, we met Liga (mother) and Paula (daughter) who were starting there 30 ish mile hike back to Riga as a practice hike for a bigger hike later. We talked for at least 30 minutes. Liga is 49 and remembers food lines under communism. She remembers having a ticket and waiting in line for food and not knowing for sure what you would get. She remembers participating in
The Baltic Way (two million people who lined up and held hands). She remembers when the people of Riga came together to stop the tanks and soldiers from taking over the tv/radio tower in Riga. She said some TV people were shot by the soldiers. I gave her a St. Christopher pocket token. She seemed to really like it.
We grabbed a snack at the Elvi store and ate it by the beach.
After our snack, we headed out and actually saw Liga and Paula again!
Then we found the "road" on our route.
We ended up walking this section for about 2 miles since it was too sandy to ride. It was very quiet and pretty, though.
However, Lynn got a blister since her bike shoes are not made for walking.
From here, we decided to make an intentional route change to stay off the highway. It worked out, but was challenging as we didn't want to go the way Google tells cars to go and the walking route would likely take us on hiking trails. We manged to find our way.
We even saw an automatic lawn moo-er.
We got into Riga then nearly got lost in a huge park that had another Singing Festival area.
Our hotel is in the old part of Riga.
The room was $218 for 2 nights and includes breakfast.
We got checked in around 6pm, showered and went downstairs to the restaurant for dinner. My pasta was about $12, the vegetables were about $7 and the small glass of bottled water was about $4 (apparently the tap water is not good enough to serve at restaurants). Looks like I'll be buying a big bottle of water tomorrow.
We finished dinner around 8pm, then decided we should at least walk around the block before going up to bed. We barely turned the corner when someone hollered at us. We turned around and saw Arnold! He is the cyclist that we met in Puolanka Finland on July 3... about 700 miles ago! It turns out that a few days ago, he got bit by a dog. The farmer / owner took him to the hospital. He had to get stitches and shots. The farmer also brought his bike to him. Sounded like it was a lot of back and forth and maybe the dog chewedup his passport. Now he has to cut his trip short (he was going to go to Tarifa Spain) so he can get a series of 4 more shots!
He was a couple of days ahead of us... hopefully we won't be on that same dead end road. He was in good spirits and it was so crazy to see him again.
There was a young lady of Riga
Who rode on the back of a tiger
They came back from the ride
With the lady inside
And a smile on the face of the tiger.
The room was $218 for 2 nights and includes breakfast. 
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