Out of Town Excursions

We have had two days staying put in Riga and done a couple of bike trips from here.

One was to the Baltic Sea resort town of Jurmala where Russian tourists come in droves over the summer months. The other was to a National Park which included a castle stop, a cave stop and a bicycle museum.

Hard packed sand, which is quite good to ride on. When the children made sand castles it looked like mud. The sea is a brown (beer) colour, really cold and no one was swimming. Where the water gets trapped behind small sand bars at low tide it is smelly. Give us Whangamata any day.

At Jurmala beach there is street after street of palatial homes of varing age and design owned by wealthy Russians. You would pay the equivalent of $NZ 600,000 - 700,000. 

A small group of us chose not to bus back to Riga and added another 25km onto our day mostly through wooded cycle paths. It was great except for this 'mossie biting' photo stop.

Fields and fields of barley. Our group spread out around the bend.

There are plenty of castles to be found in this part of the world.

We visited a bicycle museum which is a private collection of a bicycle repairer. He had the most amazing collection of mainly Latvian bikes. He had a shop and worshop display from a previous era, photos of medal winning racers and dressed soldiers with their bikes kitted up for war. 

Check out this wooden bike.

Riga Wanderings

Riga, the capital of Latvia is hosting the Song Games. There are choirs of all ages from around the world flooding this place with song. Everywhere you go you hear the choirs from inside churches, halls, museums, practice rooms and on the street.

We are staying in the middle of the Old Town surrounded by magnificent buildings. Many of them renovated after being damaged or left derelict during the Russian occupation. 

.

These hangars were used by the Germans to make Zepplin airships. Now it's the Central Market.

A couple of buskers playing Pokarekare Ana.