Month: August 2025

I stayed up far too late last night hanging out with a crowd at the hostel. Along the way I learned a great deal about the Czech Republic power grid, as one of the group members works in the main control office, where they recently had about a quarter of the country go dark.

I left the hostel about 8:30 am after the hostel-provided breakfast. The first 20 km out of Riga had bicycle path. The roads here however are so inconsistent that at one point I was riding on paved bicycle path, next to a gravel road!

On the one hand, OSMand incorrectly identified roads today as unpaved; I rode all day on paved road. On the other hand, that means I can’t rely on the data from OSMand for whether roads are paved. On the gripping hand, the low level of traffic I had hoped for failed to come to fruition. Not until the last 30 km did traffic decrease enough to enjoy the surroundings.

I’m spending the night in a hostel (that isn’t a hostel) in Aizkrakule. To reach it I had to cycle through a tunnel underneath the dam.

I heard back from the South African couple, who congratulated me on being in Aizkrakule one day out of Riga. They are staying in a hostel on the other side of town after two days of cycling to get here from Riga.

Research shows that roads are significantly better in Lithuania. I’m curious what happened to all of the EU money for Latvia that I saw correspondingly spent in Romania and Bulgaria on road improvement.

Need to spend more time tonight with the map, but I think I’m going to route myself more southward and end up in Lithuania tomorrow instead of three more days in Latvia. Should also put me closer to my intended schedule.

I woke to rain. From my hostel bed!

The rain passed soon, and I set off to explore. My first visit? To the KGB Museum, located in the former KGB office. The incredibly animated guide lead us on a spectacular interactive tour.

Sobering.

Latvia gained its freedom from Soviet Russia only in 1990. The KGB functioned as secret police, hiding their identities. They would grab people off the streets, dehumanize then, keep them in this prison for 2-3 months, then either execute them or send them to the Gulag–camps of political prisoners. How can many Americans not see what’s happening?

I have heard guides speak in Estonia and Latvia, both about the Soviet occupation, and the war in Ukraine. I can hear the steel behind their voices. The guide at the KGB prison said every good Latvian boy keeps a Kalishnikov in their basement. They he laughed and said he was just kidding. They had two hands. Two Kalishnikovs.

I returned to the hostel to grab my coat. And just chill for a while before returning to the Old City.

I returned to the Old City, wandering from market to market. I explored back and forth, before finding a supermarket and stocking up for tomorrow. I spent the evening in the hostel common area, just enjoying the ebb and flow.

I heard back this morning from the South African couple, heading out into the rain. While I plan to ride to Aizkraukle tomorrow following (and then surpassing) their route, an update from them tonight could radically change my plans.

I woke at 5:30 am as the wind pummeled my tent. Muzzy with sleep, I thought how much easier my day would have been if I could have packed up dry. It took me a while to realize, “It’s not raining yet”. Eventually, I slowly burst into action. I packed my gear and relocated it to the shelter provided with the camping area. Then I unstaked my tent and carried it as a kite to the shelter. The rain started 10 minutes later while I packed and ate breakfast.

By midmorning others moved about. I spent most of the morning (and into early afternoon) chatting with them as we all waited for the rain to stop. One couple was from South Africa. The other woman was from France. They had all arrived via the same route I had followed. We all agreed that had been terrible, and that we didn’t want to do it anymore. In tinkering with OSMAnd, I found an option to display road surfaces, and even the larger highways occasionally have poor unpaved sections.

After a lot of discussion of cycling history, favorite apps, and routes, we all changed our plans. Arielle (from France) would take a train south to Lithuania. I and the South African couple would leave Riga headed southwest along the southern bank of the Daugava River. I plan to stay in Riga today and tomorrow, while they likely head out tomorrow. They cycle 50-60 km / day, so I might well catch up to them. We traded contact info so whoever rides in front can feed data to the other.

Another challenge comes from the river having few bridges (but a few ferries!). Most resources are on the north side, as well as the large highway we’re all trying to avoid. The highway that large trucks drive.

Another realization came to me. I originally planned to cycle to Warsaw. My revised plan before we left home became cycling to the border of Lithuania and Poland, and taking a train to Warsaw. But I suspect at this point I’ll be doing well to get to Vilnius (capital of Lithuania), especially if the roads match our expectations.

When the rain stopped, Ariella and I headed out. Her to the train, me to my hostel. Before I went there, I had one place to go first.

From there I checked into the spectacular hostel, with the entrance literally located inside a McDonald’s. In fact, a different hostel resides on each of the three floors above.

Once settled. I set off for some preliminary scouting for tomorrow. While not the most incredible of European capitals, the city center is typical, with a large number of parks (common to many European cities), but not as much history as I prefer.

I’ve made a hostel reservation for the first night out of Riga at roughly 100 km (mapping estimates vary from 95 km to 130 km). Now to learn if the roads let me get there.

I should’ve planned to leave Riga early afternoon. I spent the late afternoon and evening doing a variety of life housekeeping back home.

That plan really didn’t work as intended. 151 km today.

I’ve been following Eurovelo 10 and 13, which have followed the same route. However, I arrived at a point that they diverge for the day. EV 10 headed straight south to Riga, my destination. EV 13 wandered off to the east before eventually looping back around to Riga. However EV 10 follows the highway I followed yesterday, which was terrible.

I’ve also learned something about the roads in Latvia. In OSMAnd, roads can be a brown track (unpaved ruts), white (generally paved and one lane), yellow (larger than that), orange (larger than that), red (good, major highway), and red with a line in it (separated highway, typically with trucks). In Latvia? Anything smaller than red is likely not paved. The condition of unpaved roads encountered today makes them excruciating to ride on. The big highways include many big trucks.

Given one life goal is not dying, my first 20 km headed straight east on EV 13 instead of following EV10 and the main highway south. I did take a shortcut around EV 13 after Limbazi, eventually bringing me back to EV 10, but bypassing the major highway section. That returned traffic to reasonable, with paved roads, and brought me to my destination campground at 85 km.

But I’d made good time. Still early in the day, the next town 10 km ahead indicated five campgrounds. Which ended up not being campgrounds, but some sort of fenced communities. Damn. And nothing else between me and Riga, 35 km away.

So I rode to Riga. It being flat with a tailwind saved me. I ended up a campground near the inner city (on the other side of the city).

That was a long day. While I arrived a day early, I’m glad I had already made reservations at a hostel for the next two nights. While I often rode 130 ish km on the 16-week Istanbul trip, I never broke 140 km. The last two days of the East Coast trip I rode 160 km with relative ease. The only other time I rode farther in a day was my first trip when I was 22, and racing to get back to England before I ran out of money. Then I had a day of 250 km. I hadn’t intended to put this day in the Top 5. By the end my riding started to get sloppy.

I rode most of the day with a tailwind or at least strong rear crosswind. After the first 40 km I was rarely out of sight of a car.

Ironically after going so far out of my way to avoid that damned highway I rode on it much of the last 30 km. But I also had an interlude on dirt track along a lake for quite a while.

The forecast tonight shows rain starting at 6:00 am tomorrow and ending at 2:00 pm. At least out if this I won’t be riding through that into Riga. Depending, I might just wait at the campground until the rain stops. Checkout is at 11 am, but it’s Sunday, and the informal registration process places tents randomly in a corner of the campground, so they can’t connect my tent to my registration.

Today I saw a variety of animals. More of the stork on a pole, the ever elusive hare, a herd of moose, and a peacock.

I left my not really a hostel at 8:30 am. I need to listen to the reviews better – the walls really were paper thin.

I figured out at least one thing Parnu us know for. Elephants.

As well as beaches.

I started out almost immediately on EV 10/13. The first 20 km were lovely. In the shade in forests

or along the coast.

Dedicated bicycle path. The next 20 km had all of that and a headwind.

At 40 km I Facebook messaged and then called a campground in front of me. OSMAnd showed camping, but I couldn’t find camping on their website, which looked more like a fancy resort hotel. However, they assured me they had camping for only 10 euro. Shortly thereafter I passed the RMK (National Park Service) campground I had considered but had reservations about.

Then I rode into a construction zone. The first 5 km were corrugated, and the next 10 km only slightly better. Vehicles passed me leaving clouds of dust. I found a use for my bandanna.

That ended only a few kilometers before the Latvian border.

I love these power line poles with a platform on top for these storks. I’ve seen them all over Europe.

Shortly thereafter an incoming solo cycle tourist switched sides the road to talk to me and I met Mike. Mike lives in the Netherlands and currently cycles around the Baltic counter-clockwise. He’s on month two of a three-month trip. He mostly wild camps (self-describing himself as a hermit). In conversation he’s cycled roughly four times as far as I have. Given his response that I try and cycle 100 km to 120 km a day, I suspect his ratio of days on the road is even higher. He’s riding a bike with a Rholoff hub and belt (internal gearing), which he really likes. He’s traveling with a laptop and nice camera, but has no social media presence. He just likes photography. He recommended Japan. He also let me know that if I don’t like winds I should never go to Patagonia. He’s ridden the Camino (he was wearing a Camino jersey), as well as walked it twice. Starting the traditional way, from his home in the Netherlands. We probably talked over an hour before the two of us went our separate ways.

My small back road then turned into a busy 2-lane highway for the last 7 km to the campground. Really each day I need to just ride the first 40 km!

Arriving at the campground the receptionist greeted me warmly, and directed me to the bath house and camping area. The camping area is a lovely open flat field. With only me. And the high winds that followed me much of the day. With the threat of rain I sheltered my bicycle near the bathhouse.

Travel problems notwithstanding, I arrived fairly early. I spent part of the evening trying to connect the middle part of my trip, and found a rail to trail path that should connect things nicely.

I went to bed feeling grimy. Shockingly that didn’t change by morning.

More time in Estonia points out subtle differences between Estonia and Sweden. There are bicycle paths, but they don’t extend as far from the city, they’re narrower and slightly less well maintained. The roads have a shoulder, but it’s narrower than it was in Sweden. The roads are well maintained, but not quite as well as Sweden. In a few places I found the asphalt sloshed up, in the same manner I saw in Hungary and Romania, where the road wasn’t built quite right.

I picked the direct route to Parnu, on a small highway. Traffic was light for the first 20 km, but when it picked up I didn’t have anywhere to go. A lot of the day after that was being passed by large trucks. Almost always giving me plenty of room but it’s still nerve-racking. It wasn’t until 15 km out of Parnu that I managed to route myself off the highway and then eventually back on to bicycle path. About the same time my route merged back with Eurovelo 10/13.

OSMAnd showed a number of hostels in Parnu, but only one appeared in booking.com as available. A very functional hostel, but that’s about it. It did come with a drying rack and drying yard, providing the chance to get everything washed and dried. And getting the tent dried out as well. Without the mosquitoes.

Speaking of which, the main zipper on the tent is struggling. So far I’ve always managed to get it to close, or I probably wouldn’t be writing this after the mosquitoes from yesterday.

One of the showers in the hostel wasn’t working. While it was easy enough for me to switch showers, I messaged the host. He came by to take a look, and I had quite a pleasant conversation with him.

Parnu has a surprisingly high number of hostels. Parnu also has the best surfing in the Baltic. Otherwise there’s not much here.

Not sure how, but I’ve lost a pair of underwear. I noticed the absence a few days ago, but figured they were just lost somewhere in my gear. However a dedicated check today showed that they’re just lost somewhere. Not like it’s the first time that’s happened.

Today was a relatively short day of 70 km. Riga, one of my target destinations, is almost exactly 200 km from here, so that sets things up well for arriving in two days. I also wanted a bit of a break. And I needed to take care of some tasks from home.

And hey, here’s the underwear.

Addendum. Arriving at a major tourist location in high season on a Saturday doesn’t provide a lot of options. So time to slow down a bit. I’ll take three days to get to Riga instead of two. The Eurovelo route now runs directly along the coast, with what appears to be a large number of campgrounds.

I left Nova this morning about 8:30 am.

My bike computer went crazy again this morning (as it did last night), but behaved once I left the B&B. I theorize something nearby broadcast on the same frequency that the wireless bike computer uses. Wireless spectrums don’t match from country to country.

My first destination today was Haapsulu. Haapsalu was too close to be a final destination, but the last place with accomodation for at least 50 km. I enjoyed the castle in Haapsalu – it was much bigger than I expected.

From Haapsalu? I had to leave the EV routes. The EV routes included ferries to the islands and I’m disinclined to add more ferries! But that did mean a long stretch of highway along the edge of a national forest.

I had plans to visit the ruins of Roude castle along the way. First I accidentally passed it by 2 km. Circling back, the access road clearly hadn’t been used in a long long time. I rode it anyway, fighting the undergrowth. I should have walked but riding, despite the struggle, meant I was moving just fast enough to keep the mosquitoes off.

Linda has mentioned to me a few times that I should stay on the coast, because she has a friend who cycled in the central part of the country, and there were lots of mosquitoes. What that fails to consider is the number of mosquitoes on the coast. When I finally reached the castle, I could just view it through the underbrush. I managed to snap a single picture before the mosquitos swarmed. I killed six on the back of one calf, only to immediately kill as many on the other. I thought briefly about digging out my insect repellent, but by the time I found it I would have been a husk and probably never be found. I beat an expeditious retreat.

While wild camping was high on my list of potential outcomes for the day, I had set my sights on a campsite marked on OSMAnd as a primitive camping/caravan site. Arriving I found a large gravel parking area with nowhere for a tent, and a local fishing. I also arrived at 4:30 pm, a bit early to put up my tent.

While yesterday I struggled against headwinds most of the day, the last 50 km I’d cycled with a tailwind. The next place to camp was another 15 km down the road, and also flagged as primitive, but managed by the RMK (national park service). Off I went, keeping an eye out for alternatives.

One reason I prefer to not wild camp is meeting people. Well. I found a lovely campground. No shower, but water (one spigot) and power (one outlet). No people unfortunately, but I still ended up in a lovely place. With mosquitoes.

I went ahead and made a reservation at a hostel in Parnu tomorrow. It’s about 70 km from here, a short day compared to the 114 km today, and 100 km yesterday. However, it positions me well for two 100 km days and arriving in Riga, where I’ll probably spend a couple days.

I woke early and checked the weather. Rain and thunderstorms were forecast from 8 am until 2 pm. But checking the radar, the rain would come from the south, and only extend slightly to the west (my direction of travel). Rain began at 8 am. I theorized if I could get a gap in the rain I could get past the edge of the storms. Which worked! I rode the first 30 km along the coast with blue skies (if grey behind me) and dedicated cycle path almost as wide as the road it paralleled.

A 30 m escarpment defines the northern coast.

Until the last 10 km or so I rode on a mix of dedicated cycle path or wide shoulder. The last 10 km? Narrow shoulder and big trucks (if mostly in the other lane). At second lunch I looked ahead for a place to stay.

I’d seen a hostel on the map last night a bit farther than I’d wanted to ride, but I’d clipped a couple of corners along the way, so I was closer than expected. However, research showed it a hostel in name only. However, while searching I noticed an AirBnB only a couple of kilometers away for only a euro more than the nearby campground.

Estonian forestry reminds me of Sweden. Construction appears a mix of modern and Russia-era construction.

Near Padise I cycled past something old and spun around to find a Cistercian abbey. Those Cistercians got around. Most Cistercian abbeys follow the same floor plan. The signs said this abbey was one of the few that was fortified. In 1559 the Teutonic Order dissolved the monastery and used the structure as a fortress.

The AirBnB was a bit remote, and I realized I might not have a plan for dinner. The kitchen resolved that issue.

I’m back in Eurovelo route (EV 10 and 13 follow the same route on this part). I passed five loaded cycle tourists today. Just under 100 km today.

Tomorrow is 50 km to Haapsalu, and then another 50 km of nothing right along the edge of a national park. Hmm.

My expectations about the ferry last night further didn’t match reality. Fairly certain what happened is the ferry made another overnight run to Helsinki with us onboard, taking advantage of low overnight occupancy to sell more cabins. More noise than the last ferry, and then up at 5 am. But at least I wasn’t trying to find accommodation at 10 pm.

Coming off the ferry, I rode directly to the hostel to drop gear in luggage storage. After that, I took the day to explore Tallinn. With the hostel only a few km outside of town, I still put 17 km on the bicycle exploring the city.

Tallinn has adopted the “we love tourists”. Everywhere older buildings are being renovated. The signs for historical sights and monuments include an English translation. And everything, even churches, includes a notable entry fee. By the end of the day I’d visited four museums, three churches,

an abandoned amphitheatre,

a former prison,

and cycled around at least most of the city walls, towers and bastions

(including 400 m underground).

Also seen many historical ships (both model

and full size).

And another submarine.

Tomorrow I head out on Eurovelo 13 to explore the Estonian coast. Camping abounds, although it comes in a bit more variety than is typical. Estonia also offers intermittent primitive sites. Estonia permits wild camping as well. I’m not quite sure what to expect but stocked up on food and water.

Didn’t get a great night’s sleep last night in the hostel. One person’s breathing cut right through my ear plugs. The hostel also had something like servers in a rack. The whine of the fans pervaded the hostel.

The weather forecast called for rain between 1 pm and 5 pm, with check-in for the ferry starting at 5 pm. I spent some time last night searching for items of interest in Helsinki to visit in the morning. The farthest was roughly 4 km away. I loaded up the bicycle to check out, and learned I could hang out in the common area after I checked out.

After viewing various things, I returned to the hostel to wait out the rain. Overall Helsinki is a city of curves and modern art. I found a display that discussed the newness of Helsinki, a city with less history than other parts of Europe. That said, they charge a lot for everything! 2 pm arrived with no rain. The forecast had shifted to have rain during the loading window. I headed out to wait at the ferry, to be as close as possible, and dreading the part of the loading process of waiting in a line of cars for up to a couple hours, unsheltered.

In the end, no rain fell, and I boarded the ferry without incident. Now being an “experienced” overnight ferry traveler, I had arranged my gear load so I only needed to pull one pannier, and leave the rest on the bicycle. Upon reaching my adorable “piccolo” small room, I did the usual, setting up a clothes line and washing my clothes.

Only to then realize I hadn’t brought an additional shirt with me! The ferry had departed, which locked the cargo compartment. I force-dried the shirt I had just washed by rolling it in each of the two towels provided.

The trip from Stockholm was 15/16 hours. The ferry did not have much lounge space as most everyone had a cabin. I expected the voyage from Helsinki to Tallinn to take 11 hours (based on departure at 7 pm and arrival time of 6 am), but I experienced a very different trip, and similar to whatever other overnight ferries I’ve taken. People (and their dogs) camped out all over the ferry. On benches. Under stairs. In the hallways. I appeared to be in a cabin as the minority. By the time I finished wandering about the ship, my shirt had dried.

Well that didn’t work out as expected. The ferry arrived in Tallin at 9:30 pm. Those who chose an “overnight” cabin stay on board until the morning, explaining any number of oddities. Everyone else disembarked upon arrival. Well, at least I got plans confused in the correct direction and have a place to stay!