Day 58 - St Petersburg on Foot

Despite having enjoyed our stay at “Baby Lemonade” our first task after (a latish) hostel breakfast was to pack up and move our gear around the corner to the Apple Hostel. (No, not the iHostel!). Unfortunately, it panned out that they were able to offer us a private room (or in reality, an eight bed dorm to ourselves) for tonight only, so we checked in then returned to the Tourist Centre to find yet another hostel for tomorrow night. The same young woman was at the counter and it seemed to take her a little longer this time to find us a room, which turned out to be back very close to the “Soul Kitchen” who messed up our original booking. Once again it seems to be a dorm to ourselves rather than a single room. The instructions on how to find it seemed the most complicated yet, so I hope we succeed in tracking it down tomorrow morning.

Product placement!

With that sorted we headed off down Italyanskaya Street towards the heart of the historic Centre. At the canal we went left to have a look at the Kazan Cathedral which was beautiful inside, but with some sort of chanting service in progress we didn’t have too much of a look around. The voices of the choir, with the Cathedral’s acoustics, were lovely to listen to though. Back outside we continued west on Nevskiy, which is actually the main street, until we reached the Admiralty. I noticed that one enterprisng local establishment seems to have won rights to add itself to the local road signs. With another left we reached St Isaac’s Cathedral where once again 250+ steps beckoned us so that we could get an elevated view of St Petersburg from the Cathedral’s colonnade. It was still pretty overcast at this stage and the wind was quite strong, and a bit nippy, up on the viewing area.

Back on the ground we continued on to the Neva River which was looking a bit bleak and choppy in today’s weather. We crossed the river via the Dvortsovy Bridge and on the other side we saw a wedding party getting ready for the Bride & Groom to be photographed releasing white doves (how romantic!). Laura also had the chance to pat a young bear cub that a man was hand feeding with a small bottle of milk.

The Cathedral Spire

Continuing across Birzhevoy Bridge we entered the small island that is home to Peter and Paul’s Fortress (sorry, no fortress for Mary). This was the site of the first fort in St Petersburg when Peter the Great wrested control of the area from Sweden in the early 1700s. As we were buying our combined entry tickets to the various buildings I warned Laura NOT to look for a lizard in the souvenir shop, but she looked anyway and found the very nice example with gemstones along his spine that I had seen. The Cathedral is the burial place of all the Tsars (including Nicolas II and his family, whose remains were reburied here in 1997 on the 70th anniversary of their execution by the Bolsheviks). It is magnificently decorated inside, but it is currently undergoing restoration so you don’t get the full effect at the moment. Its spire is apparenty still the tallest thing in St Petersburg. We also had a look through the Commandant’s House, which houses a very well-presented history of St Petersburg up to the time of the First World War. From just outside the fortress wall we were able to take in the view across the Neva River and the stately buildings that line the water front, including the Winter Palace.

Leaving the Fortress we crossed the Troltskiy Bridge back to the historic centre. We walked through Mars Field and had a look at the eternal flame memorial for the victims of the 1917 Revolution and Civil War that followed. Next we crossed the canal in the direction of the Summer Palace and Gardens. Sadly these were closed for restoration in July 2009 and it seems that they have some way to go yet. In the next street we had a look for the Museum of the Blockade (1941-1944), but didn’t manage to find it. However we did stumble across an intriguing courtyard. All its walls were covered in fairly intricate mosaic pictures, and lots of mosaic sculptures were scattered around. There was even a little park where the play equipment was decorated with mosaic tiles.

Church of the Spilled Blood

Crossing the canals at the other end of the still-under-restoration Summer Gardens we passed the Engineers’ Palace on the way to the Church of the Saviour on Spilled Blood, built on the site where Tsar Alexander II was assassinated in 1881. By now it was too late to go inside, but we did walk around to have a look at the outside and even had a peek at the neighbouring Mikhailovsky Gardens.

And that was us about done after today’s big walking tour, so we headed back to our room to put our legs up for a short break. Then it was time for dinner, which tonight was at a sort of Russian fast food place that mostly offered pancakes, but also did “buckwheat porridge”; each with various accompaniments. We decided to try one of each, though we opted to steer clear of the fillings that involved cabbage or horseradish. We agreed that the buckwheat porridge wasn’t too bad. We also agreed that they were not filling enough to do without dessert!

We checked out a supermarket and bought a few things on the way back to our room. Once there I set about trying to find a site that allowed free steaming of tomorrow morning’s Rugby World Cup match between Australia and Russia, but was unsuccessful.

Day 57 - Estonia to Russia

We had a plane to catch about lunch time but our first objective, after breakfast, was to do a bit of shopping at the markets. We bought one of the items we wanted and then worked out how much we needed for the other plus our accommodation so I knew how many more Euros I needed to extract from the friendly local ATM. This enabled us to buy the other souvenir we needed on our way to the bus station to catch the regular #2 bus to the airport. Curiously, there is a #2A Airport Express bus that runs slightly less often and costs twice as much. Since the airport is only 4kms away paying the extra for the express bus didn’t seem like a terrific investment. As it was the 10:58am #2 bus arrived on time and by 11:19am we had not only reached the airport but checked in as well. Of course it helped that there was absolutely no queue for the four check-in counters available.


That left us with 1h:40m to kill as we waited for our 1:00pm departure, some of which we filled in spending our last Euro coins at a coffee shop. Unlike some other international airports I could name, where you are required to be there at least two hours before your flight, based on our experienced today I’d say 40 minutes would be more than enough at Tallinn. Mind you, Tallinn International is not that big and our Estonian Air Regional Saab 340 Turboprop plane (with just 11 rows of 3 seats) wasn’t much bigger. We can’t complain about the flight though, which left on time and arrived five minutes early. Of course on a plane that size you’d be disappointed if you were expecting a three course lunch meal!

It seemed like we taxied a couple of miles after we landed before being off loaded onto a bus for the short trip to the terminal. No real problems getting through immigration etc, but I was surprised by how small the arrivals hall was. We were due to pay the balance of our pre-booked accommodation in cash at check-in so while I visited one of those nice little ATMs again, Laura had a chat to the Information people about how we were to get to our accommodation. It turns out that none of the metro lines reach the airport so we had to catch a little minibus to get to the metro. The minibus was easily found though we suspect the driver “ripped us off” on the fare by about an extra A$0.30 each! Navigating the metro system wasn’t too hard though I would make three comments. Firstly, the stations seem to be a long way apart – so far we were wondering if we’d finish up back in Tallinn! Secondly, the stations are really deep underground, so deep you’d have to think they were designed to double as bomb shelters. And finally, the services are pretty good – we never had to wait more than a minute for a train.

To cut a long story short we found our lodgings, the “Soul Kitchen”, only to learn that they were over-booked and actually could not find a record of our booking for a private room. At least the young lass was able to find us accommodation at another hostel closer to the city and refund us the deposit we had paid. So we backtracked one station in the Metro (it just seemed like 3kms) and found our alternate accommodation, the “Baby Lemonade” (seriously, where do they get these hostel names from?) quite easily. However it transpired that things were still not quite as we had hoped – our “private room” was a six-bed dorm that we would have to ourselves, but only for the first night. Well the dorm to ourselves was going to have to suffice for tonight, but we’d have to make other plans for the next two nights. Three points worth noting was that the “Baby Lemonade” was cheaper, it looked much cleaner and more modern, and the young woman who checked us in was unfailingly pleasant and helpful.

Even in our short walks to and from hostels it was immediately apparent how different St Petersburg is architecturally from the places we’ve seen so far. All the buildings seem to go on forever, easily taking up one block. Also lots of wide streets, which tend to be rather traffic-clogged, and lots and lots of big squares and monuments.

Having not had a proper lunch, and lugged our gear back and forth around St Petersburg, we had by now a fairly serious appetite to contend with so we dumped our gear and set off to try the dinner place the woman at the check in had suggested, and for which she had given us a card for what Laura thought was a free “shirt”. On the way though we called in at a Tourist Information Office who gave us the name of another hostel literally around the corner from where we were. We went there straight away and were able to book a private room for tomorrow night with a good chance that we would be able to have it for our third night here as well.

With this arranged we were able to continue on to dinner feeling things were improving, accommodation-wise. Dinner was very nice (salmon seems to be relatively cheap here) and we used some of our time between courses to check out a Russian copy of Scrabble which they had on a shelf. In case anyone is interested, the Russian language consists of 31 characters and in Scrabble they are scored thus: 9 x 1 point, 6 x2 points, 4 x 3 points, 1 x 4 points, 5 x 5 points, 3 x 8 points and 3 x 10 points. At the end of the meal we found out that the “free shirt” was in fact a “free shot” – which turned out to be a layered shot called a “B52”. For the uninitiated, the variation we were given was composed of equal parts chocolate liqueur, Bailey’s Irish Cream, and Cointreau. The waiter was insistent that it had to be skulled, and since Laura is not one for alcohol it meant that I had to drink both. They were not bad I thought, but I wouldn’t want to make a habit of them. Especially if they weren’t free.

We stopped at a supermarket on the way back to our hostel, mostly to get some change to pay the balance of our accommodation for tonight.

Day 56 - Tantalising Tallinn

This morning’s hostel breakfast was rather more modest than some we have been accustomed to of late, but it was still enough to get us started on the day. After breakfast I was even able to get this blog right up to date for the first time since leaving London.


My first task today was to walk back to the Europcar office to sort out payment for the extra day we had kept the car. However I was pleasantly surprised to find that in view of the hassles we had experienced finding their office – because of the out of date information on the map they had given us – they had decided to waive the extra day’s rental fee. Perhaps all that stress late yesterday was worth it after all.

Courtyard view

While I had been sorting that out Laura had been looking through some nearby markets and she showed me some of the items that were now on the shopping list, to which we then added another. After that we started to walk along the base of one of the sections of the old city wall, detouring at one point to check out St Catherine’s Passage (which was far more pleasant than it might sound). We also stumbled across a beautiful little courtyard nearby. At one of the towers along the wall we were able to pay a few Euros each to climb the tower and walk back along the top of the same section of wall, taking in the views and having a look at the little exhibitions in each of the towers. All this time I couldn’t help noticing that in this nice sunny weather, as I was again walking around in a t-shirt, the locals were wearing jackets and scarves.

By now we were close to St Olav’s Church which was known to have nice views from its tower for those prepared pay a couple of Euros to climb its 278 steps. Of course Laura and I are old hands at this steps thing by now so we couldn’t wait to accept the challenge. I have to say that the first 60 or so steps were pretty big ones, so the climb gave you quite a good work out from the start. The view was definitely worth the climb – Tallinn has acquired a few high rise buildings in the last decade but maybe only one is actually taller than the church tower. However the view also gave a strong hint that the day might not be destined to stay sunny and fine much longer, with some serious looking clouds rolling in. On the way back down I counted the steps out of (morbid) curiosity and could swear there were only 259, although Laura reckons I just got dizzy on the long, continuous spiral stairway and lost count! We had a quick look inside the church but even the windows were rather plain.

Old City wall

Back outside we walked around to have a look at Fat Margaret’s Tower, named for a large canon it was built to house, not some poor obese former resident. We followed another old section of the town wall around until we just happened to stumble on a very nice little bakery shop, so we had a little rest while scoffing a few of the local delicacies.

Suitably nourished we continued our walking tour by heading to the upper old town. From a number of points here you could get a view out over the city in various directions. It was particularly striking at one point that you could look out over the old red roofs and quaint streets of the Old Town in the foreground to the ugly Soviet built apartment blocks in the distance. We had a look inside the Alexander Nevky Cathedral, but unfortunately there was no photography allowed so you’ll just have to take my word for it that it was pretty magnificent.

City view

We exited the upper old town via the “back stairs” in order to go just outside of the Old City quarter to have a look through the Balti Jaam Markets. These were a rather drab affair and clearly not aspiring to service the tourist market as they sold mainly practical shoes, clothes and fruit & vegetables (some of which looked a little past their use by date). A few stalls did have interesting Russian memorablia though, such as old helmets and small busts of Lenin.

We were feeling a little bit leg weary by now so we started weaving or way back towards our hostel with the aim of putting our feet up for a little while. Not long before we reached it, and before a little detour to see the less than impressive “Master’s Courtyard”, the weather started to get decidedly damper.

After a short rest we decided to go and see the Museum of Occupations, which required us to don our rain capes for the first time since Riga. Luckily, since central Tallinn seems to be a pretty compact place, we didn’t have all that far to go. The museum turned out to be rather interesting, and seemed to have a slightly different slant on the factors leading up to independence from the USSR. Despite leading the push for Baltic independence, videos featuring figures prominent in the Estonian freedom movement felt that it was more to do with the inevitable collapse of the Soviet economic system than decisive agitation by Estonia. As it happened, we lingered so long that we had to get the attention of one of the staff upstairs to let us out because everyone else had left and the front door was locked. At least by now the rain had stopped.

We went back to the markets to check on the things we were planning to buy but they had all packed up for the day so we just bought a few supplies at the supermarket for tomorrow’s travels. Then it was just a matter of walking back to the same pancake restaurant we had been to last night to have dinner there again. Different pancakes of course, but every bit as tasty. It was a quiet night in after that as I had some photo club web site pages to update.

It is a bit of a pity that we ended with only one day to explore Tallinn, as I have to agree with a number of people who have told me that Tallinn is the most beautiful of the three Baltic capitals. However I don’t know where we could have taken a day from our itinerary, in fact we could have used more time in each country so far, so ultimately we just didn’t have enough time over all.

Day 55 - Palmse to Tallinn

When I first looked out the window this morning I wasn’t sure if the day was just misty or actually raining. However the water pouring from the downpipe of the building opposite was a pretty good clue that there was more than passing drizzle in progress. Bumma – we had plans for a 14 kilometre walk around the Kasmu Peninsula of the park today before returning our hire car in Tallinn this afternoon. However no need to be too downhearted yet, there was still another hearty hotel breakfast banquet to be dealt with.


By the time breakfast had been consumed and I had written a few days backlog of postcards to my offline reader, the rain had actually stopped so there seemed no reason not to at least attempt a shorter walk around the Kasmu Peninsula. On the way into Vosu we picked up a German hitchhiker who was looking a bit damp; he’d spent the night in a bus shelter after arriving late in the park and was now lugging his 25kg pack to Vosu. After we had dropped him there and I’d posted my postcards we drove on to Kasmu and started with a look at the shoreline near where the walking trail started. It wasn’t looking quite so threatening by now – the odd glimpse of blue sky even – so we grabbed our plastic capes and decide to take a chance on the weather.

The Kasmu Peninsula in sunshine

As things turned out, less than 30 minutes later there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and we completed our shortened 7km walk in less than 2h:30m. In fact it was pretty much perfect walking weather, shaded most of the way so we didn’t get too hot in the sun, and even the notorious Baltic mosquitoes seemed to have taken the day off. For the first half we followed the coast, at times right on the beach, where we could see the bay strewn with lots of large boulders jutting out of the water. The beaches were also occasionally quite rocky. At the half way point on the north western tip of the peninsula there were a few derelict building that we could only assume used to serve some purpose for the Russian military. One would have offered a good view if there had been the means available to climb to its top floor. The return leg was through the tranquil pine forest.

An 'erratic' boulder

With that walk done we were keen to see some of the Peat Bog on another trail in the south western corner of the park. On the way we detoured slightly to see one of the large boulders (‘erratic’ boulders according to the local information stands) that had been dragged here from Scandinavia by glaciers thousands of years ago. This one was about seven metres high which gives you some idea of how much grunt a glacier has – especially since this specimen was only the 16th biggest in Estonia.



The peat bog

The nature trail through the bog was (of necessity) on a boardwalk, though thankfully this one was dry. Looking more than a few meters either side of the boardwalk you could almost swear that it was normal firm ground but the squelching under the board walk was a pretty good indication of how wet your feet would get if you stepped off. We only walked a kilometre or so to a viewing tower which enabled you to see that the bog was dotted with what looked like small ponds, though from the tea coloured water in the ones near the boardwalk you just knew that they would not be very inviting. I can’t imagine why it would be necessary for the information boards to say that swimming in them was not allowed, but they did.

We did go for a short drive to the other end of the Bog Nature Trail to try and work out what was indicated by the shaded area of the bog on the map. We believed it had something to do with peat cutting fields, but we couldn’t get close enough to the relevant area to tell for sure.

It was now about 3:00pm and we had to have the car back by 5:00pm so we turned tail and headed for Tallinn as fast as the motorway would allow. Which was actually pretty fast until we reached the section where the inevitable road works meant that all traffic was combined onto one carriage way. Navigation through the city was a bit easier with a better map than usual but some uncertainty about where the hostel we had booked was still allowed us one false start before we found it. No cars allowed in that part of the Old City of course so Laura hauled the bulk of our luggage to the hostel while I loitered in a no standing zone with the car.

We were ready to head for the Europcar office to return the car at 4:30pm but over the course of the next 40 minutes we were to discover that the map of Tallinn supplied by Europcar had both the wrong address and the wrong phone number for their Tallinn office. In the end Laura combed what we believed was the relevant section of the street on foot, and eventually found them after getting a hotel receptionist to ring Europcar and ask them where they were. I meanwhile was eventually able to ring their Riga Office and get the correct address, though the phone number they gave me still didn’t work. By the time Laura and I found each other as I circled the block for the second time we were both pretty exasperated with Europcar and ended up just parking in a car park near their office (rather than the multi-story car park opposite their office that we would have had to circle the block again to get to) and just took the key back to them.

After all the hassle with the car return it was a pleasure to get to our hostel and chat to the friendly Pommy guy manning the reception desk. He even arranged to switch us to a quieter room. We subsequently took up one of his suggestions for dinner, which was a pancake place that serves huge pancakes stuffed with all sorts of savoury and sweet fillings for a quite modest fee. It was nice to be able to finish dinner relatively early for a change and have a quick wander around the beautiful, (very) old town before heading back to the hostel.

Day 54 - Parnu to Palmse

Tallinn Gate

After breakfast we had a look at the nearby Tallinn Gate, the only remaining gate from the old city wall, and the map of medieval Parnu etched into the floor of an amphitheatre in the park. We also went to see the Red Tower (which is actually white) but it is closed on Mondays. We then had morning tea in a nice coffee shop in the main shopping centre before combing the Tourist Office for maps and brochures of interest.


We have a thing for exploring Baltic beaches, and since it was a nice day, our next stop was to have a look at the Parnu seaside. It was very evidently devoid of any summer type accoutrements and any people except a handful of hardy souls walking along the seashore. After a short walk, with Laura pronouncing, after dipping her hand in, that the sea water didn’t feel any colder than Coogee we drove on to look at a number of sculptures in a nearby park. There were not greatly inspiring, mostly carvings of wood or stone, but some had interesting faces on them. We also stumbled across a memorial to the MS Estonia, read about it here if you don’t already know about this 1994 ferry disaster. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MS_Estonia

The clock was ticking and there were many kilometres to be covered before we rested tonight so we hit the road for Lahemaa National Park, east of Tallinn on Estonia’s north coast. We reached Paide in time to have another late lunch from the local, rather small, supermarket. By about 3:00pm we had made it to Palmse where the National Park’s excellent information centre is located. The lady there started a 17 minute slide show on the park in the 200 seat auditorium just for us. It was interesting to read that the park management are still hoping to see the park reach the stage of having no active farming or logging within its boundaries.

A beaver dam

Given a list of some accommodation options by the centre we subsequently checked into the nearby Park Hotel, which has been superbly renovated from a former distillery. Being in the unaccustomed position of having our accommodation arranged before dark, we set off to do a couple of walks around Oandu. First was the 5km forest nature trail through thick stands of pine and spruce trees, which because of the humidity under the dense forest canopy, was very damp. Some of the path is on boardwalks made of smooth hardwood planks laid length ways, which of course are only slippery when they’re wet. One section in particular showed the effects of serious storm damage, as we walked past trees blown completely over with their entire root system, about two metres in diameter, still attached and supporting a whole mini-ecosystem of bugs, worms and fungi. Having survived that walk without any serious slips and without being carried off by Baltic mosquitoes, we drove on a little further to walk the 1km beaver trail. We didn’t see any actual beavers but we saw evidence of them with two dams they had built across the stream. The information boards on both walks were really informative, giving lots of information in both Estonian and English about the geological history of the land and the plants and animals found in the vicinity.

With darkness approaching we drove into Vosu to get cash from the ATM (our hotel doesn’t take cards), and had reached the supermarket, wherein lies the village’s only ATM, at 7:01pm to find that it closed at 7:00pm. Fortunately they let us in to use the ATM but I kept getting a system error on my card of choice (a Mastercard) so had to resort to the backup (a Visa card on a different bank) which thankfully worked. Since there didn’t seem to be any eateries open either we returned to eat at our hotel’s restaurant. The dinner was very tasty, especially the soups.

The only two complaints we had were that the WiFi didn’t work, and there seemed to be a steady stream of flies appearing in our room, though a swinging towel made short work of one problem. The heated floor in our bathroom was a real treat though – toasty warm tiles to walk on!

Day 53 - Latvia to Estonia (with a dodgy shoulder)

Despite having seen a number of sights yesterday there was still much to do in and around Segulda before driving on to Estonia for this evening. After another very nice smorgasbord breakfast at our hotel we packed up and headed to nearby Ligatne.

Brown bear

Once there we drove just out of town to do the 5km Ligatne Nature Trail, a walk that offers the chance to see wildlife native to Latvia. What this means in practice is that during the walk you see fauna such as brown bears, wild boars, wolves, elk, red squirrels, racoon dogs and tawny owls in enclosures scattered around the walking trail through natural woodlands. Whilst most of the enclosures were large, open areas they obviously still weren’t big enough to allow the animals to follow their usual roaming lifestyle, and a few spaces were basically just cages. Sadly I don’t think some of the specimens were enjoying their accommodation too much; the red squirrel seemed to be just running back and forth around the branches in its small enclosure, the wolf was trotting back and forth along the same path in its fenced area and some of the bears seemed to be confined to an area that looked rather muddy. The owl and a larger hawk certainly had very little room to move around in their respective aviaries. One highlight of the walk was climbing the observation tower built on the highest point of the walk, which means you have panoramic views of the surrounding pine forests in all directions. I just hope that the tower continues to grow in pace with the surrounding trees!

Panorama of Ligatne area

Once we had finished the walk (it took 1h:45m) we went back to Ligatne to see if we could tour the secret Soviet nuclear fallout bunker hidden under a rehabilitation hospital. It was built to house members of the Latvian Soviet Government in the event of nuclear war and its existence remained classified until 2003. Once there we eventually found that it could only be seen as part of a group tour and the next one didn’t start until 2:00pm (it was by then 1:20pm) and would last 90 minutes. This was just too late and too long to fit our plans for the rest of the day.

However the effort to go there wasn’t wasted because we only found out about the tours after chatting to a Latvian bikie, who was there with his girlfriend, also looking for the bunker. He was also able to answer our query about the large bikie parade we had seen yesterday on our walk to the castle. It was to celebrate the official end of the bike season – apparently the bikies in these parts are not too partial to riding around in a Latvian winter on snow and ice covered roads. Wusses! He also explained that the small plastic things that looked like windsocks, which we had seen hanging off the aerials of most of the cars in the car park, signified they were part of a wedding party.

We drove back to Segulda where our first “task” was to enjoy another nice lunch in the lovely bakery in which we’d had lunch yesterday. Then it was off to our chosen activity for the afternoon – the “Tarzan” Rope Adventure Park down near the cable car station. I couldn't help noticing as we walked along on this beautiful day that I was wearing a t-shirt, and even Laura was down to one thin jumper, but the locals were walking around in jackets and scarves.

It turned out that the rope park was at the bottom of the hill and the way to get down there was to take the bobsled ride, so that was the first bit of fun – actually a bit scary in places Laura thought, as there was no track as such, just a tiny car clinging to a single metal bar with a lot of sharp curves in it. I probably should have gone first, but it was funny watching her, from behind, brake frantically at every bend. Once at the bottom we were kitted out with our climbing harnesses which included two carabiner clips and a zip line attachment. There are a number of obstacle courses, of various grades, between the trees and we had to make sure that we were always attached to a line by at least one clip at all times. It was supposed to take three hours to do all the courses available, and there was also the option of taking the chair lift to the top and coming all the way back down on a series of 17 zip lines – a trip that was calculated to take 30 minutes.

The first course we did was not too hard, except that we were stuck behind a young boy who was distressed because he couldn’t reach high enough to unhook himself from the wire he’d just crossed. The second course we (unwittingly) chose turned out to be the hardest one (“supergruta”) because it required considerable arm strength and very good balance. After climbing a high vertical pole with just tiny indents notched in to help you, then traversing a twenty metre stretch with free-swinging ropes hanging from two wires about a metre apart, with little loops at the bottom to put your feet in, Laura finally became stuck on one part that required you to use your arms to “lift” yourself from one tiny disk-like seat on one swinging rope to the same sort of seat on the next rope. However, one of the roaming guides came and helped her across. I just cheated and use the zip line to cross, as I knew I was no chance of having the necessary arm strength at the moment with my right AC joint still recovering from my bicycle accident back in April.

The third course we chose was my downfall. It wasn’t nearly as hard as the previous one, but one element required you to swing from a platform, Tarzan-style, then catch onto a vertical rope net and climb across to the next platform from there. Unfortunately I didn’t swing the way I intended and instinctively tried to catch onto the net with my right arm. Big mistake! The wrench as I started to swing back sent a searing pain from my right shoulder all the way down my arm. I was left in mid air clutching my aching right shoulder and two of the guides had to come and rescue me by winching me to a platform and then lowering me down. That was clearly the end of the rope adventure for me.

Laura and I caught the chair life back up the hill and walked to our car, my shoulder and arm throbbing the whole way, as I contemplated how far back I had set the recovery of my shoulder. After a couple of pain killers and an anti-inflammatory we returned to the bakery where I dosed up on sugar and caffeine as well.

Thus fortified I was able to complete the 2h:15m drive to Parnu in Estonia, using the last of our Latvian Lats to fill the petrol tank shortly before the border. Actually I was feeling pretty much pain free by the time we reached Parnu, which was just as well because we had other things to worry about by then. Yes, it was the familiar hassle of trying to find accommodation still open this late in the season, and this late at night, in the dark, with only a rudimentary map. Once again Laura did commendably in the circumstances and we actually found a place to stay on our third attempt. Though I think we must have been just about the only ones staying there. Hey, if the bike season is officially over, how many tourists would they be expecting this time of year, despite the still beautiful weather? We celebrated our entry to another new country with another supermarket bought dinner, as I started to dare hope that I hadn’t done my shoulder any serious damage.

Day 52 - Jekabpils to Segulda

We were on the road a bit earlier than usual at 9:30am this morning – not bad considering that we slept in until 8:15am. We had been disturbed somewhat about 4:00am but other guests clattering in from their big Friday night out, though to their credit they settled down quickly.

Autmn colours by the river

Apart from a couple of quick photo stops to capture some of the pretty examples of trees in their autumn colours, out first port of call was the little town of Koknese noted for its old castle ruins down on a spit where two rivers join. It came very close to being flooded a few years ago when a dam was built downstream, so it now sits right on the water’s edge. I cannot imagine a more beautiful time to see it than as it was today; on a partly cloudy day, right on the water, with trees down to the waterline in a range of autumn colours. Against this backdrop the castle’s ruined walls with open arches and window spaces provided a setting that could have kept a photographer happily experimenting with different shots and effects for at least couple of hours. I didn’t have that sort of time of course but Laura and I did spent about half an hour looking around as we sampled the local delicacy of chocolate coated apple rings.

Autumn road scenery

Thereafter we drove on to where we planned to stay tonight, the town of Sigulda. After a visit to the local tourist office we delighted in the luxury of checking into our accommodation by 2:00pm! After a quick lunch we decided to check if the “aerodrium”, where you get to fly in a vertical wind tunnel, was truly closed as the tourist office advised, because the brochure said it was open until the end of October. (We have learnt to our cost that you can’t always rely on what a tourist office tells you – see yesterday’s blog).

When we arrived we found that not only was it indeed closed, but it appeared to have been dismantled. Also there were a couple of cyclists (a German woman and a French guy) who had been on the road since May riding through Denmark, Norway, Finland, Sweden and Estonia. They were even more peeved than us at the state of the “aerodrium”, as they had ridden out to it especially and been really looking forward to it. We ended up having quite a long chat about our respective travels through the Baltic states, since they were headed south while we were headed north, and we left them with the Riga section of our guide as that is where they were headed next.

We drove back into town to start the 6km walk to the recently reconstructed Turaida Castle, originally built in 1214, on the other side of the river. We would have liked to catch the cable car across the valley, partly to save some walking and partly because it was reported to offer a very nice view of the valley itself. However the huge mountain bike event that was obviously in progress was causing a real traffic jam of cars, people and bikes around the entrance to the park where the cable car starts from, so we decided to just walk down the hill. In doing so we passed of a lot of muddy and exhausted looking mountain bikers, some pushing their bikes up the hill to the finish line. About half way down the hill we detoured to see the Segulda Medieval Castle, initially erected at the top of this side of the valley in 1207. The remains of the castle were evidently under restoration, though a large area in the forecourt was setup as an open air theatre (not used in winter I am guessing!).

We resumed our trek down the hill, across the bridge, and along the walking track towards Turaida Castle on the other side. At one point this took us to the “biggest eroded limestone cave in the Baltic”, which is a massive 2-3 metres high and about five metres deep. (Apparently the centuries of graffiti engraved into the face of the cave has worn away about half a metre of limestone, so carving graffiti on it is now banned). Shortly afterwards, as we walked up the road towards the Castle, a police bike came down the hill waving all the uphill traffic off the road. He was closely followed by a constant procession of motorbikes that must have run into the thousands, as it went on for at least 12-15 minutes. Motorbikes and motortrikes of all sizes, many with pillion passengers, and some flying flags of what looked like motorbike clubs, just kept on coming and coming. It all seemed very good natured, as they waved at people taking photos (such as myself) and at the people in cars who were pulled over to allow them full use of the road.

View from Turaida Castle

When we reached Turaida Castle there was an entrance fee (of course) but it wasn’t much and we were actually grateful for the advice that the museum section closed at 6:00pm (it was by then 5:40pm) so we wouldn’t feel obliged to see it after all the other castle museums we’ve seen this trip. Fortunately the castle tower with its viewing platform at the top was open until 8:00pm so we would be able to indulge our new found passion for climbing stairs! On the way to the castle tower itself we did have a quick look at an old wooden church, but it wasn’t particularly interesting, despite the lady in period costume who was there as “minder”. Once we climbed the castle tower, being such a clear day, the view really was very good with pine forests in all directions. Being so late in the day, the shadows also leant an interesting dimension to the views.

After getting our feet back on the ground we had a bit of a look around some of the other parts of the Castle but there was nothing of special interest so we headed out and started the walk back to town. We decided we’d like to catch the cable car back (for the same reasons we’d wanted to catch it over) so we hurried up the hill (steep and almost a kilometre to the top) to try and be on time for its expected departure time. We arrived sweaty, fatigued and breathless to find that the last ride for the day had left 30 minutes ago. So we had expended all that energy only to add another 1.6kms to what was already a 12 kilometre walk. Bumma! Instead we saw the cable car trundle from the other side of the valley to the middle and start tossing out fare evaders. Just kidding – it was being used as a platform for bungy jumpers.

To cut a long story short we didn’t get back to hotel until nearly 8:00pm, by which time it was dark, and we were feeling quite hungry and very leg weary. Too tired to be bothered going out to find somewhere for dinner so we opted for dinner in the hotel’s restaurant, which fortunately was very nice and not as exorbitantly-priced as it could have been.

Day 51 - Backtracking and Bushtracking

We started the day with a sumptuous buffet breakfast in the hotel’s 10th floor restaurant, which included both vegetables and porridge (not together of course!). This also gave us the opportunity to take in what the guide book described as the restaurants “intriguing” view. We can only assume that this is code for “not particularly interesting”.

The decommissioned nuclear plant

Since Laura really wanted to see the old Chernobyl style power station back in Lithuania we decided to start the day by backtracking a little to get there. Initially this involved a few more unplanned manoeuvres getting back out of Daugavpils. That accomplished, we managed to find our way to Visaginas without too much trouble. Then as much as by good luck as good management, we were able to find our way to the nearby huge, concrete-slabbed and decommissioned nuclear power plant. The plant’s two reactors used to supply over 80% of Lithuania’s electricity needs, but they had to be shut down as a condition of joining the European Union in 2004 because their Chernobyl style design was considered too unsafe. Lithuania therefore is now dependent on electricity purchased from Russia, since they are still hooked into their grid. The decommissioning process is due to run until 2029 by which time all physical traces of the plant will be remove and only grasslands remain.

From the stern gun toting Russian looking guards at the main entrance Laura managed to elicit directions to the information centre. There we found the public relations officer, Ana, who was only too happy to first show us a video, and then answer questions. Afterwards Anna showed us parts of the facility using the internal CCTV system and then some models of how the plant used to work and how the waste storage systems will work. Or at least how the “temporary” storage system, due to last 50 years, will work. The site, or exact nature, of the “long term” storage facility has yet to be determined as so far none exist anywhere in the world.

Once we left on our way back to Latvia (again) we noticed, on passing back through it, that the model Russian style town of Visaginas contained not a single house. All accommodation was in drab Soviet style multi-storey apartment blocks. One of the few exceptions was a single row of even uglier single story blocks that housed shops. The town was purpose-built by the Russians in 1975 to house construction workers, and later workers, at the power plant.

Our drive back into Latvia was via the signposted ring road that took us well clear of that maze of ugliness that is Daugavpils. We continued north to Aglona in the middle of the Latgale region, noted for its beautiful lakes. We found the information centre at the back of the local hall, where a mass of local men were being interviewed about something – as its supposed to be the poorest area in Latvia and one of the poorest in the EU we thought it may have been job or social security related. The young lady there was very helpful and informative, though her accuracy was to be called into question as events unfolded.

The elusive Devils Lake

Deciding against the recommended WWII Museum across the road, we went instead in search of the much more promising Bread Museum, only to find (eventually) that it was closed, although the building it was in was emitting delicious aromas. Our second choice was to go and see the small picturesque Devil’s Lake, so named because of its long known effect on compasses, and in more recent times, on electronic sensors. We had been given clear instructions by the lass at the information centre about taking the third “ground road” after the twin lakes, seven kilometres out of town, near a bus stop. After finding exactly such a road and spending two hours by car and on foot perversely exploring numerous back country roads and goat tracks that eventually resulted in us circumnavigating a much larger lake, we eventually discovered that she must have meant the fifth road after the twin lakes eight and a half kilometres out of town that is nowhere near a bus stop. The lake was nice, small, blue-green and obviously very deep, but perhaps a bit of a letdown after the effort taken to find it.

Honour satisfied, but knowing we were now no chance of reaching Sigulda today as planned, we decided to get as far as Jekabpils and try and find some accommodation there. Jekabpils was yet another town with whole streets ripped up in the process of being replaced so we did one and a half circuits of the centre of town before we were able to pull up in the main square. With the Tourist Office now well past closing we were still able to find the only accommodation option mentioned in the guide – after trudging up one of the afore mentioned ripped up streets that was now just a sand track. The hotel looked all shut for the season but when I inquired at the bar next door I found that it was functioning as the reception so we were able to check in. After a supermarket bought dinner – and a futile attempt to access the alleged free WiFi using any assortment of passwords that the largely clueless bar staff next door were able to suggest – we turned in for the night.

Day 50 - From Lithuania back to Latvia

Today we had a plan, and like all good plans it was subject to numerous changes at the last minute.


Stage 1 of The Plan was to drive about 30 kms west of Vilnius to visit Trakai, which is situated on a narrow strip of land between two lakes. We missed a turn on our planned route via the A16, but we managed to find our way there anyway.

The castle at Trakai

Trakai is a very picturesque little town with a red brick castle set on an island in the lake. It was the base for the local royals in the 14th century. We walked out to the castle – reached via two bridges and a small island – and walked around it after having a look at the courtyard inside. Afterwards we went for short walk around the lake and crossed a pontoon footbridge.

We didn’t linger too long because The Plan was to make it to Daugavpils in Latvia, north east of Vilnius, by tonight. With that in mind we got directions for the necessary cross-country drive to get us from west of Vilnius onto the A2 heading north from Vilnius. However, along the way Laura decided she was keen to see the lakes in the Aukstaitija National Park near Ignalina, and see the decommissioned Chernobyl style nuclear reactor near Visaginas, both of which were actually north east of Vilnius

Therefore we continued on east past the A2 when Laura realised this took us close to Kernave, which was made a World Heritage site by UNESCO in 2004. This status was granted as a result of the evidence of settlements here going back over 2,000 years. It is also thought to be where the first king to unite Lithuania was coronated in 1253. It was a pretty little place with a number of huge archaeological mounds situated in a bend in the river. Nice as it was we wouldn’t necessarily call it a “must see” as the guide book does.

Europe's centre

From there we realised that the route The Plan required would take us close to Europos Centras, the point which has been designated (controversially) as the centre of Europe by the French National Geographical Institute. We were interested to visit this to work out how the centre of Europe could be so far north. Having seen it we are still not sure, I will have to sit down with an atlas later and check the four points it is based on.

Before we left there Laura realised that the open air sculpture museum Europas Parkas was not far away – albeit back closer to Vilnius – and she was keen to see a maze made of thousands of old TVs with a fallen statue of Lenin in the middle. So we altered The Plan and back we went on a little side trip that involved some minor roads and one that was in the middle of a significant upgrade. When we finally made it we were not impressed that this museum – which would be almost impossible to reach without a car – on top of a steep entry fee wanted to charge extra for parking once you got there, as well as extra to take in a camera. Since we did not have a lot of Lithuanian money left – and didn’t want to get any more, I reduced our entry fee by driving the car back out of the car park and leaving it by the side of the road a couple of hundred metres around the corner.

However after all the effort to get there, and get in, we discovered that the “feature” TV maze we had come to see (and which was still mentioned in the current “Vilnius Today” handbook) had actually been almost completely dismantled in 2007 due to vandalism and the TVs rotting in the outdoors. All that remained was a metal railing outlining the original maze and a small section of four TV tall walls protected by a Perspex cover. Even the fallen Lenin statue that had been described as being in the middle had been cut in two with the head removed from the top section. MAJOR disappointment! We had a brief look at some of the other sculptures, particularly one labelled “Carousel” that you could attempt to run around like a hamster in a wheel, but felt that the whole experience was a bit of a letdown.

Of course by now it was getting quite late, so we had to abandon The Plan of visiting the lakes and the old nuclear power station and just drive straight, via Utena and Zarasai, to Daugavpils in Latvia. We put our last few Litas into petrol tank at Utena.

Finding somewhere to stay in Daugavpils proved to be an even more difficult navigational exercise that Vilnius. Laura actually did a pretty remarkable job of directing us to our first choice of lodging, given our fairly rudimentary map. Unfortunately they were closed for the season so our only remaining option was the big expensive hotel in the centre of town. Since that wasn’t too far away you’d think it wouldn’t be too hard to find. But throw in some one-way streets, street closures, and the Baltic tendency to have either no street names at intersections or street name signs in about an 8 point font, then even finding a 10 story hotel in the centre of a modest sized town can be harder than you’d expect. However find it we did eventually, after a little tour of some of the outlying Soviet style suburbs. In one final attempt at frugality we asked them if there were any cheaper hotels in town and they gave us directions to one (and a map!) but it was already fully booked so we bowed to the inevitable and returned to check in.

The smoky smell in the lobby had us worried but the room was large and well-furnished and the beds had wonderful thick mattresses that were more comfortable that some others we have slept on recently.

Day 49 - Vilnius by Segway

Although we planned to stay another night in Vilnius, we decided we would rather do it somewhere else. Therefore although there was now the chance to stay where we were a second night, after breakfast we checked out anyway.

Parallel parking, Vilnius style

We left our loaded up car in the hostel car park and walked to the Tourist Info office in the Old City. They were able to give us a full list of accommodation options in the city so we mapped out a route to go and check them out and pick one to stay at tonight. Since this route took us past the first choice we had bombed out on yesterday because they were fully booked we figured we might as well check again just in case. Luckily for us they did now have a room, so we were able to check-in and start our day exploring Vilnius.

I had picked up a brochure for Segway Tours while at the Tourist Office, and having seen these in action in both Prague and Krakow, Laura and I were keen to give them a try. Since the office was not far away we went there first. We were each able to have a little try on a segway before we booked a tour. We opted for a guided tour, rather than just going solo, so we didn’t waste time working out where to go, and also so that we could learn a bit more about the city’s history. It was going to take couple of hours for a tour guide to be available so we set off to check out the old Castle Tower and view it provides of the Old City.

We checked out the Belfry and the Orthodox Cathedral on the way to the Castle Tower. It used to be possible to walk up the steep hill on which the tower stands, but now there is no option but to use the short but steep funicular. (Our theory is that they had to close the walkways to stop the funicular from running at a loss!). The museum part of the Castle Tower was not overly interesting but the expansive view from the top of the tower was certainly very good, especially given that it was such a lovely sunny day.

Dude on Segway

We had a quick lunch before returning for our 1:00pm Segway Tour. We were joined by an Irishman, Cormack, who thankfully didn’t gloat about our recent Rugby World Cup clash. Our guide, Agnestina, was very nice and we learnt quite a bit during out 90 minute tour. It was interesting to learn that the reason for the wide nature strip between two streets was that the Russians had demolished the row of houses in between and they had never been rebuilt – in fact the cellars still existed beneath the nature strip. To be precise what Agnestina actually said was that the Russians had “damaged the houses to the ground”, which was a quaint turn of phrase. During the tour Cormack and I discussed the RWC a little. He had actually been able to watch the recent match in question and was able to tell me something about it. Meanwhile, we also quickly mastered the Segway to the extent that by the end I think Laura would have liked the chance to find out how fast they could go! They were great fun.

With the tour over we first headed back to the market had passed during our tour so that Laura could by the cute Lithuanian hat that she had seen. And having had Agnestina tell her how much it cost Laura was able to get it for the real price, not the slightly inflated “tourist” price the stall holder tried to charge.

Old City from the TV Tower

After that we headed to the TV Tower, about a 20 minute trolley bus ride away on a ridge to the west of the city, where we took in the view. The viewing platform was on level 19 and on such a clear day offered an excellent view in all directions. The suburbs built during the Soviet control of Lithuania could be clearly differentiated with their orderly blocks of utilitarian high rise. It was surprising to see just how far greater Vilnius has spread, interspersed with generous expanses of pine and spruce trees. We also saw the memorial to the 14 station staff shot by the Red Army when they stormed the tower during the 1991 uprising.

Once we had taken in the view we caught a trolley bus back into the city to walk up the hill of three crosses, across the canal from the Castle Tower (both had been clearly visible from the TV Tower). We actually managed to find the right hill to climb on the second attempt. It was a nice view over the city as the sun was setting.

From there we walked back to pick up our car and did a pretty good job navigating the one-way streets to our new lodgings. When we arrived I had to negotiate a very narrow entrance off a narrow lane leading to a small courtyard that we could park in – so small it took about a 15 point turn to turn the car around so that I wouldn’t have to try and reverse out.

It was now nearly 8:00pm so after we got cleaned up we went to a restaurant around the corner recommended by the hostel where we had a lovely dinner.

Day 48 - Nida to Vilnius

Today marks exactly 30 years since Laura and I met in Madrid so to commemorate the occasion I gave her a necklace I had bought in Australia before I left, which was enthusiastically received.

View of Nida

After breakfast our first bit of sightseeing for the day was to climb the big Parnidzio dune just on the southern edge of Nida. It wasn’t too hard a climb since there are stairs to prevent people damaging the dune by actually climbing on the sand (though it seems some still do). From the top – which is adorned with a large sundial that also marks months, equinoxes and solstices – we had a panoramic view of Nida, the lagoon, and across the dunes to Russia in the south. On the way down we took a different route through the pine forest and the outskirts of Nida back to our car.

Goblin carving

After checking out of our accommodation we drove back up the Spit, stopping to visit the Cormorant nests (now empty of course), and check out the view from Ram’s hill. Our main stop was on the southern outskirts of Juodkrante where we did a long walk through the pine forest. The path is decorated with various carved wooden statues of witches, goblins, dragons and other creatures from Lithuanian folklore. There were certainly lots of good expressive faces on some of the figures.

Thereafter we considered doing another short walk near the top of the Spit but it was getting close to the 1:50pm ferry after which there was a 40 minute gap, so we skipped that and drove on to join the queue for the ferry. Once again we drove into the wrong queue first (the one for permit holders) but we still managed to get on OK. We were pleased to discover that the ferry fare is only paid one way, which explains why the fare we paid yesterday seemed a bit expensive.

It was now decision time. We had the options of heading straight for Vilnius via the motorway or detouring back via Palanga to try and see the Russian Missile Silos near Plokstine. The guide book suggested that the latter might be closed for the season by now so we drove to the Tourist Info place we had visited yesterday to get some up to date info. The nice chap there explained to Laura that it was indeed closed, but was being prepared during this off season to re-open next year as a permanent attraction with more information in English, etc. Apparently it has proven to be a very popular tourist attraction, making it, as the chap said, “the only useful thing the Russian’s have left us”.

So that settled our travel plans anyway (though it would have been interesting to see the silo) so we set off on the 308km drive to Vilnius. It took us a little under four hours with two rest stops. We managed to find the maze that is Old Vilnius and Laura did a creditable job with our simple maps as we wove in and out of it seeking a place to stay. Our first two options were fully booked and a third was screened by a maze of one-way streets. We ended up at the fourth option, a hostel which was the cheapest and had room for one night only, rather than the two we planned to stay in town. However, since it was getting dark and navigating the maze wasn’t that much fun we decided we might as well take it.

To tell the truth we’re not sure we’d want another night here as it seems over run with single local men who smoke in the kitchen and use the women’s showers. (I stood guard while Laura had a shower, just in case). Also, while making up my bed I managed to break one of the slats.

Day 47 - Latvia to Lithuania

This morning we had the treat of a full breakfast in the hotel dining room (all delicious and filing), followed by free use of the hotel’s pool, Turkish bath, spa, jacuzzi, steam room and sauna. The pool was heated so even Laura was happy to jump in and it was nice to have a splash around, although the young boy with the family who were also there was doing more than enough splashing for everyone. Anyway, the end result of all this activity was that it was after 10:30am before we had checked out and started the day.


Before leaving town we went to have a quick look at the local markets. They were reasonably large but mostly for fresh food and clothing. Since the tourist office was nearby we checked that out for a couple of maps and some postcards. The postcards were written over a coffee in a nearby coffee shop then posted before we hit the road for Lithuania. On the way we managed, eventually, to work out how the local petrol pumps work so that we could fill up the car.

Flotsam Art

We detoured off the main road just a couple of hundred metres short of the Lithuanian border to track down the flotsam art we had read about that had been created by an old lady who collects things that wash up on the beach. We didn’t see any sign of the old lady, and not much sign of life around the buildings that were adorned with various bits of flotsam. There were a lot of bottle tops and floats from fishing nets plus things like plastic hard hats. We went to have a look at the nearby beach for ourselves and wondered why things like the various shoes we saw washed up hadn’t been included in the art work we had seen. We did walk down the beach a bit to see the line of posts out into the sea that appear to mark the maritime boundary between Latvia and Lithuania. Back on the main road we drove through the elaborate (and apparently once thoroughly policed) but now deserted border post to finally arrive in Lithuania.

Our first stop in this new country was at Palanga, which was described as a buzz of activity in the summer and a resort for pensioners for the rest of the year. Judging from what we saw, as we made a promenade down the main pedestrian mall and out to the end of the pier, it was very much in transition towards the latter. None of the rides were operating, and whilst most of the shops were open, they were by no means crowded. Even the only ATM in the street seemed to have clocked off for the season. After we had found the Information Office back up in the main part of town, and found a working ATM to get some lunch money, we actually had some lunch. However the most important thing was that after lunch Laura was able to buy her first lizard for the trip.

We drove on the short distance to Klaipeda, on the first true motorway we have seen in the Baltic, where we forked out about A$16.30to take our car out onto the Curonian Spit, via the four minute ride on a car ferry. For those who may not know, the Curonian Spit is a narrow peninsula of sand that stretches north from the Russian province of Kallingrad. (Hands up all those who knew that Kallingrad is separated from the rest of Russia by Lithuania, Poland and Belarus). The top 44 kms of the Spit belongs to Lithuania and it separates the Baltic Sea from the Curonian Lagoon, which is very important ecologically as a bird habitat. Much of the Spit is now stable due to tree growth but parts of it is still bare dunes that are moving at a rate which threatens the long term survival of the lagoon.

Amber Bay

Our first stop was to have a quick look at the Monument to the Soldiers of the Soviet Army, as we wondered if it was created before or after independence. Next was Amber Bay, once the site of a significant operation mining for amber, which at one time was almost as valuable as gold. There are some lovely wooden sculptures situated in the little bay; with an annoying array of tree branches and bulrushes that are just high enough to be in the way of getting a really good reflection shot.

Almost opposite this bay was the start of the curiously named “Cognitive dendrological path”, a walk of about 1.6kms through the forest of pines, oaks, spruce and elder trees. Although it was getting a bit late in the day we set off on the walk anyway. At one point where the path divided we took the high road, as naturally seemed befitting of our status, only to find that we may have over-estimated our worth in this part of the world. We had to backtrack and take the low road instead. We completed the walk OK, but the next bit of excitement was that just as we were almost back to our car Laura discovered that she had picked up a little hitchhiker – a TICK!! Fortunately I was able to quickly find my tweezers and successfully persuade the little pest to depart.

It was starting to get dark by now so we just drove on to Nida at the bottom of the Lithuanian part of the Spit, where we had to look around a bit before finding a very nice room to stay at the Nerija Hotel. After quickly buying and scoffing some food from the nearby supermarket we made sure to check each other thoroughly for any more little nasties.

Day 46 - The Kurzeme Region

Flower rabbits!

Our room was in such a nice quiet location that we slept in, so had a late start to the day. Once we’d had breakfast, packed and checked out we set off to see the nearby waterfront, where Laura had fun sampling some of the play equipment on the beach. The adjacent pier also hosted one of the 27 statues of cows that are scattered around Ventspils. This was one was very big and was painted blue. We also checked out a large chair made of old anchor chain. Driving around town we were struck by the number of quaint ornamental flower sculptures (three we saw were in the shape of fish, rabbits and lady beetles), and the many and varied playgrounds for children. We also noticed in passing that even the town’s cemetery was very pretty – aided a bit by the number of pines and conifers growing amongst the graves which gave it the look and feel of a forest. In fact the cemetery looked so pretty that I hear people are dying to get in. (Hey, that joke was just made to be used here!). Although we only saw four of the town’s cows we did stumble across the markets. Laura finally tried the little red berries we have seen so often – and promptly wished she hadn’t. We won’t be buying any more of them!

Anyway. the upshot of all this unexpected sightseeing was that we didn’t leave town for Cape Kolka until 12:30pm. Our first stop was at Staldzene, just a few kilometres up the road, where we had a view of the beach and the forest of trees that come right down to the beach. Our second stop was at the old Ovisu Lighthouse which we were able to climb for a look around. We could see forests of pine trees in every direction, including in the direction of the beach 2kms away. The lady who looks after the old lighthouse was happy to show us around the little museum despite her limited English. At least she was able to demonstrate some of the early lighthouse and maritime communications equipment.

Thereafter we made straight for the cape itself, and were delighted to find that the advertised gravel road had recently been sealed, making a nice smooth road. The cape itself was a bit blustery with a couple of kite surfers making good speed. You could clearly see a line of waves were the waters of the Baltic met the waters of the Bay of Riga. We drove on a short way down the inside or eastern shore of the cape and had another look at the beach near Usi. The waters edge was still framed by pine forests that grew all the way down to the beach.

By now it was late afternoon and for the second day in a row we were well short of where we had planned to be by day’s end – namely down into western Lithuania. Rather than just retrace our steps we cut inland through Vidale and Dundaga and back through Ventspils where we had started the day. This route was quite pretty and was still dominated by pine forests, though there were some signs of agriculture here and there. We did get a bit lost going through Ventspils and ended up passing that very pretty cemetery again.

We were now aiming for Liepaja, which is some 55kms north of the Lithuanian border. Along this stretch of the drive we stopped to check out the steep 20 metre high sand dunes which line the beach front around Jurkalne. We also had a look at the old wooden stanchion bridge over the River Riva.

The Fontain Royal Hotel corridor

When we finally reached Liepaja it was quite late, so when the Fontaine Royal Hotel turned out to be reasonably priced (with breakfast included) we happily checked-in. This establishment, with its unique decor, deserves some comment, but I am at a bit of a loss to know where to start. The dining room, with its many chandeliers and walls with bare concrete columns interspersed with florid art deco murals? And filled with gold painted art deco furniture? The long dimly lit hallways with alternating dark red and blue striped walls and gauche gold painted, crown-shaped light covers on the walls? The numerous baby cots spread around the common areas on the floors? The large goanna, living in a glass cabinet, in a common room in the middle of our floor? The in house entertainment that included “Sexy Tuesday” every Tuesday night and “The Big Fuck” disco (sic) every Thursday evening. (Fortunately Sunday is their night off, so we would not be disturbed by such things). It was all so eclectic that you couldn’t help being fascinated by it all.

Given the lateness of the hour and the reasonable prices in the dining room we also decided to eat in. I would have to say that the food, though not exceptional, was at least all very nice and was delivered pretty quickly.

The final surprise the hotel had for us was its array of English language channels available on the TV. Flicking through them Laura found that it included not only the BBC World Service but about 30 other channels including cartoons, American soaps, live sport and “adult entertainment”.

Day 45 - Riga to Ventspils

The sad news this morning was that there was still no laundry facilities, so there could be trying times ahead to test Laura’s tolerance!


There was a bit of a worry when we went to collect our hire car and found the office shut, despite the booking sheet clearly saying that they opened at 9:00am. Since nothing else nearby was due to open until 10:00am we figured we might as well wait until then before we started to panic too much. To fill in time we went looking for the Memorial of the Barricades (to commemorate those who manned barricades against the Red Army in 1991) that was supposed to be nearby. We couldn’t find it so returned to the Europcar office, which was now open.

Collecting the car went smoothly and I only managed to drive down a one-way street the wrong way once while navigating back to the hostel to collect our gear. The drive out of town was uneventful as we headed west to the nearby beach resort of Jurmala, a favourite of the Soviet hierarchy during the days of the USSR. As we drove west on the main motorway we saw a couple of signs in quick succession about having a permit to drive in to the centre of Jurmala and were trying to figure out what this actually meant when we passed a parking bay lined with what looked like parking meters. Immediately after that we were waved over by police who explained (once they found one who spoke English) that we had crossed the line before which we had to buy a permit without having done so. (It seemed we were actually on the road which went through Jurmala, not just the road you had to turn off to get there). The upshot was that we were liable for a fine of 40 Lat (approx A$72) for failing to purchase a permit before crossing the magic line. They were obviously used to dishing up these fines and clearly no excuses or pleading of ignorance were going to make any difference. So when a compromise was offered - of a 20 Lat fine including unlimited access to Jurmala for 24 hours - it was evident that accepting this was going to be the best way out (even though we only planned to visit for an hour or two). At least we received an official recept for the amount we paid, so I guess it wasn’t all going straight into the Policemen’s Christmas Party Fund.

And so we were now “free” to explore Jurmala at our leisure. The neat and clean main pedestrian mall was lined with souvenir stalls and restaurants and some upmarket shops. I suggested to Laura that the venders of T-shirts with the usual slogans like “I love Latvia”, should add a new one that says “I went to Jurmala and all I got was a lousy police fine”! Away from the shops it was apparent that a number of the nice looking villas hadn’t had any maintenance, or residents, for some time, which is a bit of a shame. The precinct itself was still quite clean and tidy.

The beach itself was unexceptional, and noticeably lacking anything that Sam would recognise as surf. The portable changing sheds placed at intervals along the beach were covered with advertising signs which was a bit of an eye-sore. Interestingly we saw a guy with a metal detector wading back and forth about waist deep in the “surf”.

Along the board walk

Leaving the (for us) expensive resort village of Jurmala we drove a little further west to the Kemeri National Park. The nice lady in the park’s information office gave us the details of a number of short walks in various parts of the park. We started with the nearby 300 metre stroll on an elevated board walk through forest with a dark-coloured river winding around us. We managed to finish this in fairly quick time without being carried off by any of the enormous (but thankfully non-disease carrying) Baltic mosquitoes. The next walk was slightly longer and took us back to the old water tower and a huge old Soviet era hotel currently being refurbished, which we had driven passed shortly before reaching the information centre. Also near the water tower was a little pavilion just below which was an ornamental fountain dispensing the sulpher water famous in the region. Apparently it is quite harmless to drink though an acquired taste - a taste which Laura thinks would actually be very difficult to acquire! It tasted like the strong rotten egg smell pervading the area, only stronger.

The lake tower

The next walks we went to check out started from next to a nearby lake, though as we pulled up there in our car a heavy shower moved in for a few minutes. Once it had passed we admired the view of the lake (maximum depth 1.6m, average depth 0.70m) from a little pontoon tower sitting just off shore. However the combination of the time of day, the freshly wet ground and the numerous mosquitoes put us off the idea of actually doing any of the walks around the lake. Instead we drove around to a lake on the other side of the park where a number of fishermen were trying their luck from the shore or from a boat out on the lake.

By now it was about 4:00pm and we had made it nowhere near as close to Cape Kolka as we had planned. Since there seemed to be little accommodation available up there (according to our sources) we decided to head across to Ventspils on the west coast and drive from there up to Cape Kolka tomorrow. Laura managed to contact one of the hostels in Ventspils and confirmed that there was room for us before we set out.

To get us back onto the main road to Ventspils (A10) we opted to take a back road from where we were, rather than backtrack to get around the national park. This had Laura a bit worried as the “road” quickly became little more than a goat track that almost needed a 4WD Drive, which our little VW certainly is not. We made it OK, though Laura has suggested that we avoid any further roads marked as a single thin line on the map!

When we reached Ventspils and found our lodgings it appeared locked up and lifeless. We rang them again and in about five minutes someone showed up to check us in and give us our room key. I guess it is getting late in the tourist season in these parts, though there was at least one other family in residence.

The only other news of note is that while we were having dinner Sam rang and broke the news that instead of being home a week after us he now plans to get a Canadian work visa and travel on there to try and get work in the snowfields. His mother almost needed CPR! Sam also broke the news that the Wallabies had managed to lose to Ireland in the Rugby World Cup. His father almost needed CPR!