Life is a Beautiful Ride: 07/22/24

Monday, July 22, 2024

In Search of a Pastry

Mon, Jul 22, 2024

Riga, Latvia to Jelgava, Latvia

miles today 51.8

miles so far 1416.1

feet climbed today 387.0

feet climbed so far 40,990.0

Relive video

Strava link

Breakfast at 8. We left around 9. The day was sunny and warm with little to no wind. It got up to 85 so it was a little hot when we spotted in the sun.

Līga and Paula told us about when the National Library opened, they had a line of people pass all the books from the old Library to the new one (Krista was sick that day and could not help). What a cool way to move the books!

We headed to the site of the Victory Memorial to Soviet Army that was removed in 2022 (read about it here). Paula saw us while she was taking a driving test. She told her mom, who texted us while we were just leaving. I assume Paula pulled over and safely communicated this to her mom. But... what are the chances that she see us again in this huge city!?

We headed on out of town.

We ran into some construction along the bike path.

Lynn has a friend from Latvia who told her to find a pastry called Vecriga... and to get the salty one, not the sweet one. We couldn't find it in Riga. So, next stop is Jurmala.

It wasn't salty, but it was good (filled with cottage cheese and cream).

We also found a beech in Jurmala.

We stopped at a park for lunch.

At this point we'd only give 20 of our 50 miles... so we better get busy.

Hmmmmm. We crossed this river already!

This cemetery had mostly German solders from World War I. The dates on the stones that I saw were all January 23, 1917 (read about the Christmas Battles of WWI).

We got into Jelgava around 4pm.

We are staying at Hotel Jelgava. It's pretty fancy, and was only $115 with breakfast.

We walked to dinner.

Udon noodles with peanut sauce was delicious and only $9... the water, lemonade and dessert (cookie pie with sweetened condensed milk... kind of like cheesecake, but much more firm)... the total was $20.