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Category: Latvia

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(Latvia 11: Liepāja)

Posted on 5 July 202319 July 2023 by Rob Ainsley

With the End to End done, I holed up in a cheap hotel in Liepāja for a few days to catch up on sleep, laundry, writing assignments etc. I did manage to explore the place by bike meanwhile, though. Which is the best way to do so, as it’s a Marmite sort of town: not…

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Latvia 10: Aizpute to Liepāja

Posted on 4 July 202319 July 2023 by Rob Ainsley

I completed my Latvian End to End in emphatic fashion today, dipping my front wheel in the Baltic at the beach in Liepāja, the country’s westernmost place. The guidebook calls the town ‘gritty’, and it certainly was: the ferocious seaside winds kept blowing sand into my gob. Which is odd, because one thing I’ve got…

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Latvia 9: Kuldīga to Aizpute

Posted on 3 July 202321 October 2024 by Rob Ainsley

Another short day, made shorter by winds unexpectedly favourable. Shortly outside Kuldīga I had the welcome sight of communications towers, showing I’d reached some sort of summit. But this is a land where the highest waterfall is dwarfed by a bungalow. There are potholes in Britain deeper than this ‘summit’ was high. Between Kuldīga and…

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Latvia 8: Sabile to Kuldīga

Posted on 2 July 202320 July 2023 by Rob Ainsley

Latvia’s Niagara Falls, Latvia’s Venice, and Latvia’s Pub Brawl Capital: welcome to Kuldīga, where there really is plenty to write home about. If you can find a postcard. Good luck with that. After a week of sun, the forecast today was gloomy: heavy rain between ten and three, horrible headwinds after that. So I was…

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Latvia 7: Engure to Sabile

Posted on 1 July 202318 July 2023 by Rob Ainsley

With strong westerlies forecast for my final westward riding, I’ve set up four short days. I’m not here to break records, I’m here to have a good time. I’d rather be happy than right any day. I just wish I knew which day. Today was essentially a one-pattern ride, along tarmac roads through woods and…

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Latvia 6: Rīga to Engure

Posted on 30 June 202318 July 2023 by Rob Ainsley

The coast was clear today. So I rode along it. Cyclists ‘doing the Baltics’ usually follow the coastline, whereas my End to End of Latvia is mostly inland. (The joke being, of course, that you rarely see the sea from Latvia’s ‘coastal’ roads: they’re generally a few hundred metres away from shore, screened by pine…

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Latvia 5: Sigulda to Riga

Posted on 29 June 202315 July 2023 by Rob Ainsley

It’s only 35 miles between Sigulda and Riga. The road route is unsuitable for bikes because it’s a busy expressway. Locals ride on the shoulder, but it can change abruptly in width and surface. I’m all for experiences of the real, everyday, local Latvia, but A&E is not one of them. However, the cycle route…

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Latvia 4: Cēsis to Sigulda

Posted on 28 June 202315 July 2023 by Rob Ainsley

Castles, caves, camels; wild swims, nuclear bunkers and black swans; ski-slopes, bobsleigh runs and glimpses of Switzerland. Today was short on distance but big on variety. My hostel breakfast provided excellent company, because I had the place to myself. With time in hand I could then wander round Cēsis’s parks and old town streets. In…

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Latvia 3: Jaunpiebalga to Cēsis

Posted on 27 June 202315 July 2023 by Rob Ainsley

Today I drew a line in the sand for my journey. Metaphorically. And also literally. Because the line was in the sand of the railtrail west from Jaunpiebalga, and it was about two inches deep. It had looked a promising cycle route on Openstreetmap, marked enigmatically ‘MG’, following the old rail line out to Gulbene….

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Latvia 2: Alūksne to Jaunpiebalga

Posted on 26 June 202313 July 2023 by Rob Ainsley

The forecast was for drizzle all day, so I wrapped everything in plastic bags, put my sunhat, sunblocker and sunglasses out of reach, donned my rainjacket, and set off. For the next twelve hours it was sunny and baking hot. It was also, rarely for the gravel-based Latvian rural road network, tarmac all day. Even…

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