Vienna

It has been a long time coming but here is how things finished up for our trip

With a quick Google search we were happy to see there was a cycleway (Euro 6) following the Danube River between Bratislava and Vienna. We could avoid all the busy highways and enjoy a nice pleasant day riding to our final destination of Vienna.

The day was hot and windy, a head wind of course. The cycleway was, well; straight, and generally along a stopbank with no shade. We were surrounded by forest about 100m either side of us so views of Danube were also few and far between. It was nice, however to be on a cycleway without cars and not have to think about navigation until you miss a turnoff and end up on a little track leading you to nowhere but that's a minor detail.

Head that way

The Danube! Keep going straight

Focus Calvin!

The cycleway did treat us to a once in a lifetime experience. As we passed through an industrial fuel farm over a small brow, we reached the Danube River and there we were unintentionally steering at old mate and his partners liberated privates. We had come across our first nudist strip (excuse the pun) along the river. We hesitated for a bit, one to find out where we were meant to go and secondly to come to terms with what we had come across trying to look unfazed about it. Then we thought with the sun blazing down on us and a beautiful river next to us, well, when in Austria... do as the liberated senior citizen nudist do. It was very refreshing and just what the body needed before reaching melting point.

Yep, felt pretty good

The following two days we spent in and out of the river as the very conveniently located campsite in Vienna was only a few hundred metres from the river. We were a little bit more modestly dressed this time though.

We spent a couple of days taking in some of the sights of Vienna, highlights being the Hundertwasser House and industrial chimney he beautified, training and traming everywhere (even if accidently getting on the wrong line and ending up in random suburb late one night), Calvin getting a haircut with included nostril hair and eye lash trim and ear wax (a true european experience) and relaxing in shaded parks with lakes or rivers to swim in whenever possible.

Impressive Hundertwasser

Unfortunately things weren't all fun and games in Vienna. Our second bike lock siezed and had to be cut to release our bikes, our only charger over heated and died (battery banks are saviours) and amongst all our joyful river time and ice creams we lost Kate's wallet with our remaining €600 and all her cards. Total bummer.

This has taken a long to finnaly post.  We have finished up our cycling now, been to Scotland for the Edinburgh festival, hung out with Calv's sisters, fitted in a cheeky road trip around Scotland (amazing place - less persistent rain and midgies, with spectacular raw natural beauty) and have headed back home to NZ. Although Calvin got on the wrong flight and ended up in Aussie so now has to ride from memory lane Margaret River to Melbourne.

Keep on pedaling!

Slovakia

After crossing the border into Slovakia it was only a small push up hill into the High Tatra Mountains then a whole lot of descending. Luckily we were hit with rain for the descent and most of the remaining afternoon. Upon arriving at our campsite we thought we would try for a cabin to dry out but all was booked out so it was into the tent again. We did get a great view of the peaks above us and the evening cleared so we couldn't really complain.

High Tatra Mountains

Expecting some rain the next day we packed up early to make the most of the sun. The whole morning was spent gradually climbing and with the clouds progressively getting bigger and darker we were thinking it will be a long ride in the wet again. To our surprise after our lunch break in the tourist mecca of Strbské Pleso we were treated to sunny skies and about 40km of descent and a tail wind almost all the way to a pleasant campsite along the edge of the Váh River. Good job Slovakia.

On our journey out towards Vrutky we noticed the temperature slowly increasing on us. Our route passed by a glassy lake so it was only appropriate to stop for a refreshing swim. We enjoyed secluded valleys, quant little villages, outrageously steep climbs and descents, castles set in rock cliffs and even treated to some local festival music.

At Vrutky we decided to jump on the train to Bratislava. We were a bit more prepared with the bikes this time and were even helped by the train staff. The bikes and gear were easily loaded into carriage 2 and then we wandered through all the carriages (nicely air conditioned thankfully) to find our seats at the end of the train in carriage 7. We shared a six seated booth with a broken aircon unit. By the time we got off at Bratislava we had probably sweated just as much as if we had ridden. The temperature had sky rocketed since the mountains and we were unpleasantly enjoying 37°C heat. We headed for our campsite about 5km out on the edge of the city, sought shade, set up the tent, then headed straight for the neighbouring lake - relief.

Train time

New bike

We had a couple of days in Bratislava taking in the sights of town, finding air-conditioned museums and malls to walk through and swimming in the lake at the campsite at most opportunities we got. It seemed our plagued summer of thunderstorms had passed and now it was sun. However, we would hate to be fussy but it was too much sun. Sleeping in the tent was becoming unbearable so we had taken to cold showers before bed and draping a wet towels over us. It provided minimal relief and it wasn't until the early hours of the morning when the temperature would finally drop in the tent that you could achieve a few hours of sound sleep.

View from the clock tower

Trying to recover after nearly melting. Calvin decided his body is made for colder climates.

Although a brief visit, Slovakia had been a nice change from Poland. There were many great camping sites and more natural scenic beauty to take in and lakes to swim in. It also saw the end of one of our bike locks as the key lock barrel seized and we were almost stuck with the dilemma of cutting down a tree to free our bikes and then having to ride locked together which would be have been tricky. Luckily the lock came free and was promptly binned.

Warsaw to Slovakia

We had been looking forward to this break for weeks. A chance to stop for a few days and enjoy good food and good company.

Warsaw was a very busy city, and the old town was jammed pack full of tourists. But it was a great place to explore on foot. Anita calculated for us that we averaged 20000 steps a day, except the final day when we only achieved 15000, a little disappointing.

We spent three days catching up with Anita, touring the old town, watching a multimedia fountain light show, eating loads of Polish food, and learning about both the Holocaust and post-war communist Poland. We also tried to learn about the Polish Uprising but failed as we all got completely bamboozled and lost in the poorly laid out, mishmash of information and massively over crowded Uprising Museum. The Guinness Cake that was carefully flown in from Edinburgh was definitely a highlight and a great way to celebrate all three of our birthdays even if they had already passed.

Oh my God we're in Warsaw!

Yes, Warsaw!

As our visas are so short for Europe, we decided to train from Warsaw to Krakow. Getting tickets for the train, with our bicycles, was a breeze compared to the effort of getting on the train itself. As the train approached Calvin was quick to identify the carriage for bicycles. We wheeled our bicycles to the door, lugged them on board and realised there was no room, we were wedged between the door and a man with two huge suitcases so couldn't get our bikes to the bicycle racks. To make matters worse it meant we were not blocking the thoroughfare and a elderly couple 'tsk'd us as they wanted to pass through. We unloaded our bikes, removed the panniers and tried again. This time the man with the suitcases moved for us - very slowly - and feeling frazzled Kate followed Calvin on a little too soon only to be growled by the unhelpful conductor for blocking the doorway. Finally bikes were on, bags were on, and after booting people out of our seats, we were on. Getting off was much easier as we were the last stop and just waited for everyone else to disembark before attempting it ourselves.

No more Guinness cake

Arriving in Krakow we cycled through the old town, past the castle and down the river to the nearest campground only to find that it was full. We quickly found cheap last minute apartment accommodation online and settled ourselves in for a relaxing two nights in Krakow. This was a brilliant town to walk around, and despite the intense heat we made it out to the Krakus mound to get a 360 view of the area.

Krakow castle in the evening light

Our ride out of Krakow detoured passed Schindlers factory and the Plaszow Hard Labour Camp. We then headed through endless suburbia situated on steep rolling hills. We climbed and we coasted until midday when we arrivd at the only campground we could find within a reasonable riding distance of Krakow. Once again it didn't exist so we cycled on through the afternoon to another Agroturistica with views over the high rolling hills.

The benefits of biking when the road runs out

The next day we followed a river upstream towards some pretty big hills. As we started to climb we were approached from behind by a Polish cyclists who joined us for the climb. He was on holiday for a week and as he was suffering from a running injury he had taken to the bike and was doing good long day trips that took on multiple mountains each day from his home. When we hit our turnoff we waved him goodbye as he continued to climb the remaining 500m to his first if several mountains for the day. We were a little envious, but we happily rolled down the long, steep incline to our campground beside the river.

This part of Poland reminded us of some of the small, remote Mongolian villages we had ridden through. The streets were higgilty piggilty and arranged in no particular order, and it was impossible to find any stores although everyone insisted they were there. After attempting to find a restaurant for dinner - a wee treat to ourselves - we gave up and headed back to the campground and had fries and 'casserole' (also known as cheese and mushrooms with sauce on a toasted baguette) and a beer from the little cafe provided.

Our final day in Poland had us riding in to the Tatra Mountains, and taking on our longest climb yet. It went on and on and on. Finally after reaching the top and enjoying a small downhill we turned off to make our way to Morskie Oko, a picturesque lake nestled 10km into the mountains. One kilometre in and we hit a gate. Turns out you can only walk or take a horse and cart for the remaining 9km up to the lake, no vehicles are allowed on the road. 30,000 people had walked it the previous day which explained the huge number of parked cars and buses we had passed during the day and the overflowing carpark at the gate. We had planned on staying at a campground on route up to the lake, but we weren't keen on lugging our gear and bikes up so we sat down had some coffees, pizza and a jacket potato before turning around and making our way to the Slovakian border, much easier.

Into the Tatra Mountains

Slovenia... no Slovakia!

Our final task before leaving Poland was to use all our remaining złotys. We didn't really have enough to buy anything useful or tasty so Kate approached some travels and offered them our last coins. They were a little confused and bewildered but happy with their end result!

To Warsaw

We had made it to Poland. The sun was shining and the roads sealed - except the 10km we rode from the border crossing in the forest to the first village.  We both felt a little surprised that the baltics were over and we had arrived in "mainland" Europe. Things felt different for some reason and we couldn't quite pin down what that was, but there was no point dwelling over that,  we needed to get some local Złoty and buy some treats from a polish supermarket!

Poles in Poland!

Neither of us were too sure what the vibe on freedom camping in Poland was, so our first night we found ourselves a nice spot in a forestry block down some dirt roads that may have had some form of 'no unauthorised access' signage, although it was a little hard to decipher, and set up camp. No one jumped out at us, and no one even came by until the following morning when Calvin was crouched over a hole attending to some morning business. Impeccable timing!

We were aiming for Warsaw and set a vague route along back roads and cycle ways hoping to enjoy some of the newly formed and opened Green Velo route that follows the length of Poland's eastern border. On our way to finding the elusive Green Velo route we bumped into a fellow cycle tourist from Lithuania - Valdis. We joined forces and rode together to the town of Augustow. Not only an enjoyable man to talk and cycle with, he got us onto the Green Velo route, shared his favorite mildly alcoholic, malt drink "Kwas" and introduced us to a delicious spread made of pig fat with chunky crackling. Valdis only had the weekend to cycle and was heading back to Lithuania that afternoon so we waved goodbye after a picnic lunch and continued on our way popping on and off the Green Velo route. We were treated to quiet back roads and some very interesting riding through a wetlands reserve which at times we got rather intimate with.

Our picnic lunch with newly aquired friend Valdis

Cracker with fat and crackling spread. Delicious!

Wet riding through the wetlands

Our campsite that night was along the edge of the wetland area in the small town of Wrocen. We enjoyed a mozzie free night (until sundown) and a basic sink wash as the showers were an additional cost. Calvin got a little carried away and took to washing his under carriage before being caught with his pants half down when an old lady walked in on him. Timing has not been his strong point in Poland.

A day of back country riding, through cornfields and sand roads, brought us to the city of Lomza for the night. We set up camp at the local harbour campsite by the river. At around 9pm, when we were nicely nestled in the tent after a hot days riding three young Polish cycle tourists arrived and promptly set up their tent 50cam from ours. This has proven to be quite common in Europe. Where in New Zealand we look for a spot that will give us the most privacy, Europeans appear to clump themselves together in some sort of pack mentality.

The varying roads to Lomza:

Not sure what is road and what is patch repair

About 2km out of Lomza Kate came to a halt on the hill leading out of town. She turned around only to realise she wasn't wearing her gloves, and in fact there was only one glove sitting on her rear panniers where she had left them when heading into the supermarket that morning. Kate's lost glove will forever be in our memories and we really hope that it found a Michael Jackson fan who will embrace its potential.

We really struggled to find campgrounds in Poland, or places to freedom camp, so that night we stayed in a Agroturistica - a house near farmland. We arrived to an empty house, but after a local woman made a phone call for us, a French speaking Dutchman arrived to let us in. We had a room in a huge wooden house, and there was no one else there. While he was showing us around Kate's bike fell over, her kickstand finally giving in to the weight of the bike and bending entirely in half. The man obviously felt some kind of responsibility, and no matter how much we insisted it was a piece of junk and we had planned to replace it in Warsaw, he insisted, with the help of a phone call to his daughter in Amsterdam who spoke English, that he wanted to get a a new one. We told him it wasn't necessary, and off he went. As Calvin set about removing the stand a German couple arrived, Anya and Frieda, with their 7 year old daughter, Alexis. They were very chatty, and after returning from a quick supermarket shop, Frieda insisted he had made too much food and brought too much beer and vodka, and that we had to join them for dinner. Who could say no to that offer! As we ate, drank and became merry, the Dutchman arrived with a new kickstand. Turns out the one he brought was brilliant.

Our lovely accommodation for the night. New bottom bracket time for Calvin

Out with the broken and in with the new!

Rush hour

On our last night before Warsaw we aimed for one of two campgrounds 40km out of the city so we would have only a short ride the next day to get maximum time with Calvin's sister (Anita) who was flying in from Edinburgh for a long weekend. We rode up to the gates of the first campground and thought it looked a little strange, so continued on to the next campground 500m down the road. It didn't exist, so we rode back to the first one. It was set up with many cabins, a huge playground, a swimming pool (that we weren't allowed to use), a conference centre, a huge dining room, and... prayer rooms. But it was the nuns and the priest that were the dead give away that we were staying at a Christian Camp. We were the only ones in a tent, and the only solo Travellers - everyone there was either on a summer camp, or helping the nuns raise money for poor families. Although we were blatant outcasts, everyone was kind to us and the nuns were over excited to hear about our travels.

Baltic Country Statstics

Lithuania

Crossing the border

There we were crossing the bridge into Lithuania and Calvin hadn't even realised until Kate yelled out to ask if he wanted a photo crossing the border. Calvin looked up and in clear white writing that we couldn't pronounce, "Lietuvos Respublika". We had arrived in Lithuania?

Why don't we call countries by their correct local name? Especially english spelt ones. Then we would all understand each other and know if we had arrived somewhere. Maybe we should learn more than one language to become better educated? Everyone in Europe seems to speak at least 3 languages. Okay, a little off track and getting pretty deep (we get a lot of thinking time on the bike), we'll continue on.

We wheeled into Lithuania's border town of Skuodas expecting to find it bustling with people but found the streets empty and most shops closed. Not being too sure where a good campsite may be Kate approached some locals who pointed us in the direction of a lake just outside of town to try. After setting up camp just beside the track that circumnavigates the lake, Calvin set to work cleaning our extremely gritty chains. (Note to anybody cycle touring or cycling in general: do not use Muc-Off wet lube. It is so sticky, wet or dry, that even on sealed road it manages to collect gunk - better to be named Muc-On). At that moment a Lithuanian woman and her tiny dog named Puppe ('Bean' in Lithuanian) wandered passed trying to find her husband who was fishing. She gave us an insight into the current economic condition of Lithuanian. She was struggling to find work as there were apparently no jobs, Latvians who head to Lithuania to find work (as their economic situation isn't any better) turn around once they realise there is nothing, and on top of that, the average monthly income is around €300 - thats $470 NZD! We were both shocked at this as we had assumed that being in Europe and part of the EU would mean living was relatively comfortable.

Finding a campsite in Skuodas 

She also informed us that we had arrived on a public holiday, the celebration of the old King's birthday or death, we couldn't get a clear answer, and we spent the evening listening to the celebratory concert across the lake.

From here we beelined our way towards the coast. We were enjoying a beautiful sunny day and we stopped relatively early (4pm) beside a lake just north of the city of Klaipeda to get some much needed laundry done and rest in the sun. Around 6pm a man turned up on his bicycle with his fishing gear, and although we couldn't speak he excitedly announced "fish" to us after every successful catch.

The following morning we headed to Klaipeda and caught a four mintue ferry across the lagoon to the Coronian Spit. This spit is pretty special as the southern end that is joint to the mainland is Russian, but the rest of it is Lithuanian. It means Lithuanians can only access the spit by ferry. Our plan was to cycle the length of the Lithuanian section, enjoying the sunshine on the beach, maybe a swim in the Baltic Sea and stopping to look at the sights along the way. As per usual our plan didn't go accordingly and at around 1pm the sky opened up and released heavy rain. We were adamant not to let it stop us seeing some of the sights on the spit. The Hill of Witches was a highlight of the day. It consists of pathways through a forested hillside, with wooden carvings along the way. Some depict traditional stories from the spit, others show witches and devils making trouble. Afterwards we spent the rest of the afternoon cycling in the persistent rain to the only campground at the end of the spit.

Playing cards with the devil and a witch

Chilling out with his buddy

It was here that we realised the whole weekend was a public holiday and the campground was chocka full - with a fair few cycle tourists scattered amongst them.

We squeezed into a spot near another tent and delegated jobs while the rain had receded; Kate setup site and Calvin shot back to town and try to find out if it was possible to catch a ferry back to the southern mainland the next day. While setting up the tent Kate got talking to the neighbors who turned out to be an incredibly chatty young couple from Vilnius. They were so interested in what we were doing, and so friendly that Calvin and I both wish we could have made time to visit them in Vilnius.

We also got chatting to our other neighbors who were an older couple from Riga away for the long weekend. He was an ex-international volleyball umpire and both had reached retirement age. They let us ask them loads of questions about Latvia and shared their thoughts on being under Soviet rule for so many years - most of their lives. They said it was all they had ever known so they had happy lives, but because they were a young nation their pension system was poor so they were living off very little income. The last people we got chatting to at the campground were two Polish cycle tourists. The rain had returned and heavy as ever and they had come in to the kitchen just standing at the door staring at the pouring rain (they had arrived and set up tent in) making little comments in Polish. After a few minutes we asked them if they were okay and they told us they were trying to decide what to do. They were four days into their 6 week cycle tour from Poland to Finland and back, and they weren't enjoying the Lithuanian roads, or the wet weather. It was like was like music to Kate's ears. Even though we had missed the evening downpours, enjoyed hot showers, and had filled our bellies with a delicious one pot wonder meal, the consistently crap weather was taking it's toll on us so it was nice know other cyclists were finding it a bit crap too.

The next morning with the few bits of information Calvin managed to find out about ferries we found one to take us from Nida back to the mainland at Ventaine. It was a relaxing hour and a half boat trip, doubly as joyous because we made progress without having to pedal! It was a beautiful day and upon arriving back on the mainland and on our bikes we had the wind at our backs. As we made our way along the roads we passed a solo cycle tourist going the other way slowly battling away. We smuggly gave him a wave and whizzed on by relishing our time with a tail wind.

Bikes secured on the ferry

 After a night camping with vicious mosquitos, we made our way along the Newman River, very close to the Russian border, towards Kaunas. There were plenty of castles to stop and admire, and with tired legs from the previous few days we found ourselves being overtaken by two cycle tourists going at top speed. We set up camp near the river and were treated to heavy rain, thunder and lightening in the early hours of the morning.

The next day we were up early to try and make Kaunas before the next forecast storm. We made it to Kaunas in ample time, and attempted to find some much needed wares before the storm hit. After an hour and a half of navigating our way through Kaunas, and Kate taking a mighty but unscathing fall when her tyre got caught in a railway track, we made it to our accommodation just as the rain began to pelt down.

We had been looking forward to Kaunas. We had rented a small studio apartment out of town for two nights. Once we arrived a massive laundry blitz in the world's smallest washing machine ensued. Five loads later and everything was washed. We even gave the bikes a clean up in the shower.

As we only had one full day to be tourists, we chose to go to the Ninth Fort. This was a spectacular history lesson as the fort had been used since the 1800's as a fort to protect Kaunas, a hard labour prison for locals (run by both Lithuanians and Soviets), and was the site of Nazi executions totalling around 30,000. Sobering stuff. We also ran into the two cycle tourists who had passed us two days prior and got to have a good chat to them. They were Australians living in Switzerland, and they too had spent the previous day out-cycling the storm to Kaunas.

The cold and darkness inside the fort

We managed to conquer the local bus system and get ourselves back into town to have a quick wander through the old town before we headed home to relax for the evening. We woke up the next day to the forecast rain. We pulled ourselves out of bed and began the pack up routine, aiming to get riding a little later once the weather had subsided. We were absolutely shattered, and the thought of riding in the rain made our legs feel like lead. So with a quick phone call we managed to book ourselves in for another night and spent almost the entire day inside relaxing.

Wandering the old town of Kaunas

Our second to last days riding in Lithuania was both our worst and our best. Taking off from Kaunas was pretty easy, but about 20km out we turned on to the 130 road heading south. It was narrow, there was a 20cm shoulder that had chunks smashed out of it and often disappeared entirely. Cars would pass us at great speed, often crossing the centre line on to the other side of the road and into oncoming traffic. The side of the shoulder was sharp and dropped down onto sand so if you were forced off the road you would be a little out of control, potentially hit the lip and come crashing off your bike, under the wheels of the cars speeding by. It may sound like an exaggeration, but we were both pretty damn scared on that road and grateful when 25km later we found an alternative route through the village of Balbieriskis.

From then on the road was quiet and passed through rolling hills as we got closer to the regional park surrounding Lake Dusia. We set up camp beside the lake and took a brisk dip in the waters to clean off before settling in for the night. At around 3am we both got up to pee, and with her pants down Kate heard Calvin yell-whispering "A cars coming! There's a car! Quick get in the tent! Hide! Hide!". Pants were hitched up quick smart and Kate dived into the tent. Calvin, not wanting to wait for the tent to be unzipped, had rushed out of sight behind the tent. Kate asked, "Were you still peeing?". "No", came the reply. "Then why are you hiding? They know we are here, there's a tent!". The car got to the end of the dirt road, did a five point turn and headed back away from the lake. Both the car and Calvin's reaction to hide still remain a mystery to Kate.

On our last day riding we realised that Poland used Zloty's, not Euros, and neither of us had transfered any money over in order to get cash out when we crossed over to Poland. So, after finding only one disappointingly tiny store on route to the border we took a 10km detour to the nearest town with a supermarket in order to stock up with food for a few days while we sorted our money. It was the strangest supermarket we have found in Europe, mainly because of the constant coming and going of drunk people, one of whom even fell down the front steps to the store. From there it was a mixture of sealed roads and dirt roads as we wound our way south through farmland to cross the border into Poland.

The road to Poland 

Latvia

Our first stop in Latvia was at the home of our Warmshowers hosts Aldis and Dace in Valmiera. They happily squeezed us into their two bedroom apartment and gave us great company over the two nights we stayed. They shared with us some of their countries history and how the Soviet occupation had effected their grandparents and parents (Dace's mother geing born in Serbia where her parents had been deported to). We had intended to wander the town for most of the day, however our bikes were in need of a good clean after the rain, and to be honest we stunk after 9 days camping in Latvia and needed to clean both ourselves and our clothing before we ventured any further than the apartment.

Some Latvian history

Once we finally made it out we wandered two blocks and conveniently found an outdoors store that stocked Brooks bicycle saddles. Kate had sworn that if she saw one she would buy it in another attempt to battle saddle sores. Purchase complete and returned to the apartment, we had an hour to wander along the river before our host would be home for our promised home cooked meal. After being distracted by slalom kayakers practicing their sport we rushed home to create a simple stir fry - something we eat so often at home but have not eaten in months.

AMAZING new saddle - people say leather is brilliant because it is!

As Kate now had to break in a new saddle, and because we had had so many long days in Estonia, we decided to take the next few days slowly and do our best at being tourists, not just cyclists. It was a quick 35km ride down to Cesis, a cute wee town that boasted a castle from the Latgalian days. One tower had been beautifully restored and we got a real buzz from finally feeling like we were in Europe.

King of the castle

The next day was Calvin's birthday, so again we had a leisurely ride (although much more dirt road than anticipated) to Sigulda. We set up camp before the forecast rain, had a quick birthday lunch complete with cake and candles, and then set off about being toursits again. First stop Gutmanis Cave. This cave has a tragic romantic story linked to it about the Rose of Turaida and her commitment to her betrothed. After this we headed to the Turaida castle and were once again enthralled by the fortifications and clever technologies such as the heating that the castle boasted.

Hiding from the rain for birthday celebrations - cake and bread!

Cellars of Ligatne on the way to Sigulda

Gutmanis Cave with old and new graffiti. One inscription dates back to the 1600's AD  - but we couldn't find it.

We rode back to our campsite in the rain, and it continued raining heavily all throughout the night. It took us a while to get started the next morning, neither of us wanting to take on the rain, but we were eventually motivated by the fact that we had Aldis's friend waiting for us in Riga who could offer us a warm shower and a place to dry our gear. Once we hit the main road to Riga we discovered it was a classic Latvian highway squashing both lanes of traffic and us on our bikes to a road with no shoulder, while cars overtook us at great speed and with little berth. After about 2km of cars screaming past in the rain we scouted out a much quieter side road and enjoyed some space again. On joining the highway again we only had another few kilometers before the roadway split lanes, widened and gratefully had a generous shoulder to ride on - perhaps Latvian roads won't be the death of us. Approaching Riga we were kindly presented with a cycle path all the way to town. We had a brief and well timed stop at a bike shop on the outskirts to try a get a replacement front pannier rack as part of Calvin's had broken and was being held together by tape. We had no luck but we did get a great bargin on a drink bottle with free electrolyte tablets and missed a thunderous downpour of rain while we yarned away with the increasingly interested salesman about our trip. Rain stopped, sun out, photo taken by salesman of "New Zealanders at our shop!" and we were off again.

Navigating the next 20km of cycle way, roads and footpaths (where one way roads appeared from nowhere) was slow and we weren't so lucky missing the next downpour. We wound our way over the Dauglava River and along the never ending Slokas iela (road), passing through ever changing areas that felt like you were travelling along a timeline from 100 years to finally reach our host Janis's small Soviet style apartment, complete with walls and roof. The only minor setback was there was no Janis. Twenty minutes later a car came flying towards us, slammed on its brakes and out popped Janis. Everything was carried up to the top floor and there we were, stepping back into Soviet era living. It was small, basic and concrete but it worked and you could imagine the regimented and limited life that would have inhabited the place previously. Janis quickly set to work cleaning out his room so we could sleep there (giving himself the foldout coach), took us out for dinner (we had offered to cook for him but he insisted) and then gave a little tour and history lesson of the area. A very generous man!

We spent the next day exploring the Old Town of Riga and all of its varied and wonderful architecture. We randomly stumbled upon the opening day for the Gum Ball 3000 race from Riga to Greece with an impressive array of flash cars and motorbikes. We then took in a very sobering and well presented history lesson at the Occupation Museum of Latvia. Neither of us had known much about the Russian/German/Latvian history and after picking up little bits of information earlier in our travel it really pieced it all together. It should also be noted that we caught the local tram in and out of town all by ourselves!

Taking in the old buildings of Riga

The biggest zebra crossing we have ever seen. Kate is thrilled because she got a free incense stick from the Hare Krishna man. She lost it after 10 minutes.

Leaving Riga was much easier than arriving. 500m down the road and on to a cycleway that lead us all the way out to the coast. We passed through many quaint seaside villages along the way and enjoyed the quieter roads the further we got away from Riga. Our lunch stop was going to be at a peaceful public picnic spot but this turned out to be someone's campground, Ivo's to be correct. Maybe he was Latvian as he lived there. Maybe he was German as he spoke quite a bit of it the language. Maybe he was Russian as he had served in The Red Army on the far side of Serbia against the Chinese. We weren't too sure, but he liked Schnapps and had probably had some already that morning. There was a bit of confusion if we could eat our lunch there but once that was established he offered us "real" coffee, cups, cutlery and Schnapps. Throughout our meal we found out that he owned 500m up the beach and 1km down the beach; it was €5 to camp; if he found us there without paying he'd call the cops who would then knock us on the head; freedom camping outside his area was bad because of all the bugs; it was 100km to Kolka (Northwestern tip of Latvia) which was very nice, and he would rather hang himself than cycle out there; he had either used a machine gun, fast rifle shooting or bombs on the Chinese and then laughed a lot while in the army (we didn't laugh at this point). This was all communicated in German, some English and some fantastic charading. A very entertaining lunch.

We continued on around the coast and began our first attempt at wild camping in Latvia - about 40km from Ivo's. We succesfully found a possie but later found out that there were hundreds of tiny little midgies come dusk and we were eaten alive.

Wild camping attempt #1. We camped on the knoll to the left.

The next day, when we hit Talsi for lunch, we came to a point where we were undecided where we wanted to go next. A storm was showing on the forecast but had eased a little and we were keen to start heading south to border. The options were discussed and re-discussed; pedal on south and camp somewhere with the possibility of packing a wet tent and riding in rain until the next town to find somewhere to stay and dry out in, or turn off here and head towrds the lake area of Spāre and get a basic cabin to sit out the potential storm. With our combined aged wisdom we took the appealing option of sitting in a cabin and watching a potential storm go by.

"Nah we should just camp and keep going south rather than detour."
"Yeah-nah, I thought we just discussed this. We've turned off now anyway. Nah, the lake sounds nice."
"So what are we doing?"
"The Lake!"

It was a great indecision decision. We found the Lake Usma Kempings that we had seen advertised for a cheap cabin and met our very friendly campground manager, Dace (pronounced Dat-zay). She offered us a two person cabin cheaper than we had expected then quickley changed her mind and offered us a little private house next to the lake with cooking element, fridge, beds, cutlery, crockery, fan, table and chairs everything you could want for an even cheaper price! Awesome. She then loaded us up with a 5 litre bottle of water, some sparkling water and a heater "you'll be cold, you use this...but maybe not all night." She thought we were a bit of a novelty coming from so far away and turning up at her campground and shared this with other locals staying there. Every time we saw her she would say "do you have...(coffee/food/towels/anything)? I give you ...!". She worked at the campground two weeks at a time, then had two weeks rest ("I am pension, I am old!") back in Riga. She took such good care of us!

Lovely sanctuary at Lake Usma

Lake Usma pre storm

We had decided to stay an extra day to hopefully miss the impending storm but woke to calm weather and sunshine. We were rather surprised but happy to see the sun so took the opportunity to take a dip in the lake and wash ourselves. Thunder was echoing in the background but it never felt as though much would come from it. We felt a bit lazy not deciding to contiue to ride south, but the sleep in and relaxing was great. Four hours later thunder, lightening, rain and then hail arrived. The friendly local cat (we named him Tips for his white tail tip) very conveniently arrived at our door step just as the storm started so in he came and made himself comfortable on the bed. We were all dry and all happy not to be outside. Tips was later inspected by Kate for fleas and ticks which came back positive for ticks so he was back outside. Poor fella, but we let him come back for some more pats later.

Leaving our lakeside paradise was a little sad; Dace had been incredibly accommodating to us and gave us both a big hug as we left, Tips would be missed and the serenity of the place was going to be hard to replace. The sun was out though and we headed off down the gravel/sandpit road, fish-tailing as our laden bikes sunk into the sand traps. Sealed road finally arrived much to our relief, as well as the rain much to our surprise! By the end of the day we had dried out and found a very nice lakeside camp spot (about 5km north of the township of Skrunda) with sunshine, tables and no mozzies. Freedom camping attempt #2 in Latvia was much more succesful - although Kate found a tick on herself and then tent.

Wild camping attempt #2 - less midgies, more ticks.

Border day and it started in sunshine, quickly turned to storm clouds, then rain heavily. Wet weather gear was donned only to have the sun come out shortly after. Throughout the day as the sun and rain fought for the sky we were left creating a tropical sweat storm underneath all our wet weather gear. We found out the hard way that half of our route to the border was along sandy gravel roads. Of course the rain poured when we were trudging through this section and our bikes sounded like rusty chainsaws trying to grind all the grit through the gears. We may have  complained about the weather a lot, but by the end of that day we came out in sunshine and found the whole situation quite funny. Rain had mostly dominated our time in Latvia so why would it subside now? As a bonus we got to enjoy hidden away castle ruins, church ruins and many stalk nest sightings!

Hmm, which way? Sand, sand or sand?

Hitting sealed road again was a luxury even if it was a bumpy patchwork of seal repairs. On the way to the border memories were shared of our time in Latvia and an account of rain versus sun days.

Rain:  8.5 days

vs.

Sun: 2.5 days 

(but who's counting anyway!)

We had sunshine and hoped it would be a sign of many sunnier days to come in Lithuania.