http://www.pdsnoki.org/
Fundraising Goal: $9,000, or $9 per kilometer!!!
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You will be surprised to learn that I woke up this morning to find that there was no rain. No sun, but nevertheless no rain. So I was encouraged. I met my hosts and they quickly made me a feast of a breakfast: a cheese omelet, three hot dogs (true!), a basket of bread, cheese, cucumbers, tomatoes, apples, plums and coffee. Again, much more food than I could eat. As soon as I finished breakfast, I went back to my room to discover that it was, of course, pouring rain. This was very discouraging and the last thing I wanted to do was lose a day of cycling, and I didn't want to be a pain to my hosts by sticking around all morning, etc.
While waiting for the weather to clear, I worked with the host on the best route south. I had planned to make it all the way to Riga this day, but even if I took the Via Baltica (the direct route), it would be a 100 km ride, which I was not in any shape to accomplish. So I took out my guidebook and realized that there was a good, more rural route to a town called Sigulda, which was apparently a charming summer resort town at the end of the Gauja River valley, with beautiful views and a lot of hiking and sightseeing possibilities. Sigulda was about 80 km away and so that looked more reasonable, and there was a small town called Limbaži about 1/3 of the way there where I could stop for lunch and a rest.
Again, since the homestay was on a dirt road (and now a mud road), my host drove me and the bike about 7 km to the start of the paved road, at a little town called, interestingly enough, "Pale". I was impressed at how nice this was of him to do, until I reached for my money to pay him the 9 lats for my stay and he told me: "No no, it is 20 lats: 9 for dinner, breakfast and stay, and the rest for car". Hmm. I guess I felt that was totally fair and had already been thinking that each meal alone was worth 9 lats, but it did leave a funny taste in my mouth, so to speak.
I had joked with him in the car that while it was raining in Kuikule, maybe it would not be raining in Pale, but lucky for me that this was the case. In fact, there was very little rain the whole day and I ALMOST saw some sunshine between Pale and Limbaži...almost. In fact, most of the ride, I saw fluffy, white, illuminated clouds ahead and only grey, cold rainclouds overhead. I felt like Tantalus. And it was a little colder than before as I came into Limbaži, but not before I stopped to take a picture of a cow right by the side of the road. The cow seemed troubled by me being there and started snorting...so when I looked up to take the picture, I realized it was a bull and I was not sure whether it was chained. That was a quick picture, and I got out of there even more quickly.
Limbaži was a cute little town, so I stopped in a great little basement grotto cafe where the menu consisted of items with funny, creative names in English. The waitress/bar lady spoke very good English and was visibly pleased that I enjoyed her menu so much. For dessert, she suggested a chocolate, rolled pancake with banana cream filling. It was delicious.As I left Limbaži, though, it was getting chillier, so I swallowed my pride and pulled out my one long-sleeved biking jersey (used on day 1 already) and wore it over my other jersey. This worked well, but it was perhaps poor timing to try to get warm, because just at this point I started hitting my first hills of the trip. These were mild hills, but hauling that big pack after 170 miles in 3.5 days had my legs pretty tired. Still, it was a perfect road for me, though there still were some trucks.
When I arrived in the town of Ragana, 42 miles in, I had a choice. It was probably another 50 km to Riga on the country roads (40 by highway), or another 15 to Sigulda in the opposite direction. At this point I was thinking it might be better to go nuts and make it to Riga, since there I'd be assured of an internet connection, some laundry facilities (I was down to my last pair of cycling shorts and last clean jersey), and one or two full days of rest and sightseeing. But I didn't feel up to the ride into Riga yet, so I headed east, away from Riga, toward Sigulda.
Now, one of my maps had topographical features, and the rough guide spoke of the old German families who lived near Sigulda calling it the "Little Switzerland of Latvia", so I knew I would see some hills -- this was a river valley, after all. But as I rode the 10 km from Ragana to the last town before Sigulda, Turaida (5 km from Sigulda, on the other side of the Gauja River), I actually
saw a poma lift which apparently is used as a small ski resort in winter. The area was beautiful, moreover, and very lush. As I turned left at Turaida to ride the last 4 km to Sigulda, I found to my delight 2 km of straight downhill. I finally got to ride fast on this trip and got up to about 35 mph on that hill, which was exhilarating (though it was very buggy through the valley).But as I came to the river and saw the gondola rising towards the other side of the valley, I realized I would have to pay for my speed. After crossing the bridge and seeing the kayakers riding the rapids, I faced a sign saying "Sigulda center, 2.5 km, 11% grade". Yikes. I wasn't even going to begin to imagine getting up that grade in ANY gear for 2.5 km, so I decided to start it,
get as far as I could and then change into my regular shoes and walk the rest if need be. But instead I climbed in stages, caught my breath and then continued climbing again. I had to stop like this about 6 times before reaching the top.Sigulda was as pretty as they said. There was a beautiful church being renovated, as well as some pretty fancy new buildings in town -- some of the nicest I've seen so far outside of cities. When I made it to my hotel, it was so nice it almost
seemed like a resort or spa. It was a rustic place at the edge of town (where the hiking trails begin, next to "Peter's Cave"), newly built, but with a thatched roof and a lake with ducks:http://www.livkalns.lv/
I had negotiated a lower rate (off season, I guess), so I got this very nice room in this tranquil place for a very reasonable price -- not much more than I paid in Kuikule, all costs totaled (!).
The bad news was that the front desk informed me that while they had wifi (everyone seems to here), there was not computer terminal and the local Internet cafe had closed down recently. So this meant 2 days with no contact. But I got to know the staff a little and begged them to let me just send a couple of messages on their computer to say I was OK. They were fine with that and also told me there was a bike shop in town. They were also very curious how I had found the place and I showed them the very good review in the Rough Guide. They had never seen it, so they made a photocopy.
I quickly went over to the bike shop (though it was several miles away and I was barely able to peddle -- good thing I hadn't tried to reach Riga). I checked my tire pressure, which was fine, but was otherwise unable to do much else there, as they specialized as much in motorcycle paraphernalia and, believe it or not, skis and snowboards. Then I had a nice dinner in Livkalns's restaurant and fell asleep to the dulcet tones of German satellite TV.
Vitals on today's ride:Distance:
55 miles (total ride at 210 miles)
Today's Map: http://veloroutes.org/bikemaps/?route=21135
Soundtrack: Grateful Dead, Live, Ann Arbor, MI, 1973; Phish, Live, NY, 1993
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