Gael warning in the Baltic

simondippenhall · Jul 17, 2022

I turned down the opportunity to top up my supply of crosses (which is, as befits an atheist like me, very limited!).

!)

Noting the evidence of the previous day’s rain, I set my sights for Riga, Latvia…..not far to my NorthWest.

Hotel selection was a bit more limited (on my cheapskate budget) and I ended up at the Soviet era Avitar hotel about a mile from the city centre.

My route, however, took me through the centre and yet another section with massive irregular cobbles where the Goldwing suspension worked overtime as I bounced around.

The opulent rear entrance to Avitar Hotel:

Impressive statuary and buildings of Riga:

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simondippenhall · Jul 17, 2022

I could see from the spartan interior of the Avitar Hotel that I wasn't going to want to spend two nights there, so I asked when I had to check out in the morning.

"Normally 11am...she said, but as there is no one on reception at the weekend, you can stay as long as you want".

Needless to say, I didn't take up the invitation. Because of the long light evenings, I had seen most of central Riga by the time I went to bed that night.

And I was keen to see the Latvian Rural Ethnology Centre, which had a big collection of historical wooden houses and churches reflecting Latvian life across the centuries, and was housed just outside town. So after a fuel fill up (again, around the Euro 2 mark per litre IIRC), I pottered off to my destination. There was no breakfast at Avitar Hotel, so I had stocked up at a local supermarket/bottle shop the night before- my yogurt survived the night's warmth.

simondippenhall · Jul 17, 2022

The Ethno museum was easily found and didn’t disappoint…apart from a small gaggle of French tourists, the large site was empty. And it gave a good sense of life in feudal (and more recent) rural Latvia. Only downside was the middies were rearing their head so I moved briskly, walking a fair distance.

First off was an old church:

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simondippenhall · Jul 17, 2022

Then on to a selection of other buildings:

The site was probably 100 acres and I probably saw about half the buildings.

Then it was time to head for Estonia, via the coast

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The Other PaulG · Jul 18, 2022

Really enjoying this Simon. Thank you.

I need to google the Hill of Crosses!

simondippenhall · Jul 18, 2022

Thanks Paul! Yes the scale of the Hill of Crosses surprised me, and an interesting reflection of the importance of religion to many in that country.

Here’s a schematic of the Ethnology Centre and my approximate route to Tartu in Estonia

I ended up cutting the corner slightly and not going to Parnu as my guidebook described it as party central for teenagers in summer - definitely not my gig! Only later did I read that it was also an architecturally attractive town too

.

ImAs you can see the road skirts the sea…but it wasn’t looking very inviting on this cloudy day

I did get the chance to chat to a few Piles and Germans heading for Nordkapp, as this is on the route to the Tallinn- Helsinki ferry. Listening to them describe the trip, I admired their dedication…days of endless forest and Finnish fuel and accommodation prices didn’t attract me at that point

.

Just a bit South of Parnu I swung east to head to Tartu via Vilandji.

I wanted to visit Tartu as, in addition to being an attractive city and home of Estonia’s premier university, it was the childhood home of my cycling buddy’s mother. Her story reflects many in the region, I suspect.

Her father was a professor of Medicine at Tartu University. Come the end of WW2, and the Russian occupation, his wife and children somehow made it to Vienna and behind Allied lines and eventually my friend’s mother (4 years old when she left Estonia) made it to UK. Her father was less fortunate, ending up behind Russian lines and dying not long after.

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barak666 · Jul 18, 2022

I'm in....great read as usual! :popcorn

simondippenhall · Jul 18, 2022

The ride to Tartu was very pleasant, especially on the smaller roads…until the heavens opened and I had to seek refuge in a bus shelter.

I have not been able to attach the video of the bike in the downpour so you’ll just have to imagine it…not difficult for residents of the British Isles.

I was joined in the bus shelter by an Estonian man, who got off the bus from Viljandi and was awaiting a lift from his mother in law to rejoin his wife and young children. We had a pleasant chat and eventually his MIL arrived, and later the rain petered off and I went on my way.

As I got closer to Tartu the rain returned and as I was peckish, I pulled up at a roadside shop and had a burger and a drink, profiting from the sheltered table. Although the burger was probably a microwave special, to me it was delicious at that point in time.

Then it was on to Tartu, where like most Baltic cities the cobble supply did not disappoint

However I had wisely snagged a hotel just outside the cobbled zone

As a result I didn’t feel the need for a caterpillar track vehicle, unlike this local resident:

Not a huge city, I soon found the university my friend’s grandfather taught at, proudly displaying its EU membership:

Also the inevitable Irish pub!

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Quattroformaggio · Jul 18, 2022

Fabulous photos and interesting reading.

Sorry to go back to your first post, but why was there a motorbike ban the A86....is it permanent?

simondippenhall · Jul 18, 2022

Quattroformaggio said:
Fabulous photos and interesting reading.

Sorry to go back to your first post, but why was there a motorbike ban the A86....is it permanent?

I don’t know the ‘ins and outs’ but it has been the case each time I have gone via Paris in past few years…there’s a handy but very low toll tunnel I have used illicitly both times and then the A86 has a very permanent looking ‘no motorcycle ‘ sign. Neither Garmin not Googlemaps allows for that.

Fortunately nothing has arrived for me in the post from France

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Orinoco · Jul 18, 2022

Great to read, enjoying the commentary and photos, I've never been that direction in my travels.

simondippenhall · Jul 18, 2022

My friend’s mother grew up (until age 4) in Sopalinn, I learned. Sopalinn is Estonian for ‘Souptown’, intriguingly, as the streets there are named after vegetables.

So off I set to walk there in the morning , it looked about 1.5kms from the centre. Lots of interesting old wooden houses, one of the areas that for some reason escaped Sovietisation thankfully:

Excuse the errant thumb!

And here’s Onion Street

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simondippenhall · Jul 18, 2022

A few of the attractive houses

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simondippenhall · Jul 18, 2022

Orinoco said:
Great to read, enjoying the commentary and photos, I've never been that direction in my travels.

Nor I, Orinoco…so thought I would seize the moment while the Russian bear was distracted.

And by chance, Estonia was the 100th country I have travelled in (well more than half have been on a motorcycle, thankfully).

On my way back to my lodgings I thought I saw confirmation that KFC was ‘sad shit’:

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Bloomers100 · Jul 18, 2022

Great report and thanks for making the effort to do it. Shame we didn't run into each other at Le Mans, maybe next year.

simondippenhall · Jul 18, 2022

Bloomers100 said:
Great report and thanks for making the effort to do it. Shame we didn't run into each other at Le Mans, maybe next year.

Cheers. Although the Goldwing is huge, so was Camping Beausejour so it’s hardly surprising we failed to meet. And as a result you missed our Brompton Folding Olympics which I narrowly edged

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simondippenhall · Jul 18, 2022

Here is my planned itinerary for the next day: NE along Lake Peipsi from Tartu (bottom left) to Narva on the Russian border, at the top right.

And Orinoco, I misled you when I said I had not been to those parts before. I did in fact visit St Petersburg (then, Leningrad) and Moscow 50 years ago when I was in 6th form and they were in the USSR.

Although it was only 100 miles to St Petersburg from Narva, I had no plans to visit

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simondippenhall · Jul 18, 2022

The ride alongside Lake Peipal was leisurely and uncrowded - can’t believe there are many visitors to Narva which is supposedly a languishing post Soviet industrial town.

Stopped for a leisurely pee and a sit in the sun, before enjoying the beautiful summer meadows of wild flowers

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Micky · Jul 18, 2022

You have a way with words, flowers and photographs Simon

Kritou · Jul 19, 2022

Many years ago that square was filled with sand and a beach volleyball championship for nubile scantily clad uni students was held over a long weekend. Drinking beer and watching those young ladies was hard work but we managed to force down quite a few pints

Gael warning in the Baltic

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