Riga: Home of £2 Steins

Day 85

With our run through the forest the day before being such a challenge, we decided to take a similar route but this time on our bikes so we didn’t end up so knackered. 

It was a very humid day again and although on the bikes, it felt like going up the hills was far harder than running up them the day before. We rode along the ridge and took a slightly different route to what Claire had run the day before, coming out into a grassy field and near some houses. It appeared that the track ended until a lady came out of her house and told us that the track continued just around the corner.

Claire doing a good job balancing the bike over the narrow planks to keep you out of the swamp.

We took her advice and ended up coming out near a small town and rehabilitation centre. That’s one strange thing we had noticed about Latvia – the amount of rehabilitation centres they had. I’m not sure if it’s because they just advertise them more readily, their population has a rather high demand for rehabilitation, or they were just covers for secret Soviet bunkers but they were everywhere!

Another Latvian Rehab centre. Seriously, what's wrong with them all?

After going through the town, Claire recognized where we were from her run the day earlier and we then headed down a very steep hill at speed, coming out at the bottom near a sandstone cave, which had scribing’s/graffiti that appeared to date back hundreds of years. After a quick look, we made our may up the road a little bit further and then decided to head back to the van as by this stage we were quite hot. 

Sandstone cave at the base of the hill.

Some of the graffiti on the rocks was from the 1800's.

Being so close to the river and running low on water, I decided to head down to the sandy section of beach on the Gauja and have a quick dip. The water was cool but like most of the places we have swum along the way, you get used to it after about 5 minutes and can strike up the courage to get right under.

A fisherman floating down the Gauja as we passed on our bike ride.

Showered and packed up, we then started our journey to Riga, which was only about an hours drive south from Sigulda. We arrived in around about early afternoon and did not having any pre-planned spot as we thought we should be able to find something ourselves with such a big river running through the town. 

In the end we got a very detailed view of Riga, as we drove around the city for well over an hour to try and find somewhere suitable. To be honest, the outer edges of Riga were so run down, dirty and dodgy that we were having second thoughts about staying there at all. 

In the end we reverted to recommendations from other wild campers and found a secured car park about 500 metres from the Riga camping ground which only cost just over £3 per night, compared to about £17 at the campground. 

It was a good location being very quiet and we unpacked the bikes to head into the old town, which was only a 5-minute ride across the bridge. Much of the old town is cobbled streets and closed to traffic, so very difficult to ride on. We locked up our bikes and made our way through the city on foot.

Our timing into Riga couldn’t have been better as we were arriving during what appeared to be a large (and free) music festival. There were a large number of stages set up around the town, with different artists and bands playing throughout the day and night. This also attracted a lot of people, which added a real buzz and excitement to the city. 

Riga in full swing with their music festival.

For those of you that read the blog about Bremen you may recognise this fellow - it's Old Roland.
Apparently doesn't have a last name either - a bit like Sting and Bono I guess.

An interesting mirrored sculpture in Riga.

After wandering through the town for a couple of hours, we found a restaurant for dinner. With prices a lot cheaper than many places we had been, we decided to treat ourselves with dinner out. There were quite a number of options, however, we decided on a place called Lido, which was more like a buffet restaurant where you would pick your food from the counter first. It was quite a popular spot with the locals as the food and drink was so cheap.

Outside the scene of the great seat stand off (see the next blog for details) - Lido Riga.

We ended up getting a pork knuckle with sauerkraut, chicken schazlik with salad, a stein of beer and glass of wine for about £10! 

£2 Steins and a £6 Pork Knuckle with Sauerkraut and boiled egg. Oh Yes!!!

Absolutely stuffed from the pork knuckle and stein, we decided to round the night off with a few more drinks at another restaurant/bar, which had a live Latvian Blues band playing. It was great to actually go out and enjoy a few beers with some live music, as this was never really possible in Scandinavia with the exorbitant prices of everything.

Enjoying the Latvian Blues Band and atmosphere of Riga.

Fantastic Latvian Blues Band - check them out here if you want http://www.latvianbluesband.com/