CAKSUT 'ün Gezi Notları Travel Notes by CAKSUT

With Motorcycle to NORDKAPP-Norway
Day-6 : 09 July 2016 Saturday
from Vilnius (Lithuania)>>>to Riga (Latvia) :-Total distance : 290 km

It was cloudy and a little bit wet outside. I went down to my motorcycle and connected the Arvento GPS route plotter. I checked whether the GSM and GPS connections are working well. It was OK. Usually I keep my track to be followed on the internet. And this little electronical device is tracking my motocycle on the map. Since it stopped to send data to the system heading Warshaw I cleaned it and installed again.

Then I went to the breakfast at the hotel. The breakfast is good and rich. At the breakfast I met three motocyclists from Ukraine. They are also travelling to Nordkapp. Vladimir is one of them with whom we spoke a little bit in front of the Hotel. They departed in a short time. Vladimir was saying that they would be going to head Tallinn. After the breakfast before going going up to my room I saw Vladimir and his friends departing from the hotel. I wished best luck to them and then I went to my room to prepare for the trip to Riga. I have less then 300 km s to do today and therefore I am not in hurry.

There was rain when I departed from the hotel around 09:30. I had my rain gear on.
I will never forget !! In the first 50 kms after leaving the hotel I lost my tripod. The rubber string is broken and my carbon fibre Gitzo tripod has fallen somewhere at the exit of Vilnius.
I couldn 't recognize it and it went away. 103 km to Riga I saw a fuel station and stopped for fuel and for a coffee break. The weather was nice and sunny. I took off my raingear and packed them again. Getting closer to Riga, the rising temperature was promising also for my stay in Riga.

Entering the City Riga

I haven 't booked any hotel for Riga in advance. I crossed the Akmens Tilts Bridge and rode in direction to the Railroad Station. I searched some hotels in the downtown around the Station. I did tour a couple of times but then I turned back to the Avalon Hotel which I had seen on the main street heading to the Raiload Station entering the city.

Avalon Hotel has a modern architectural design and is at the south edge of the old town looking to the main road 13. Janvara Iela. There is also a closed private parking in the basement. The hotel is 70.-Euro for one night including breakfast. The receptionist gave me a penthouse room on the 6th floor looking to the old town.

After having shower and washing my daily t-shirts and socks I went down and used the back door of the hotel which took me directly to one of the streets of the old town. Walking to the centre of the old town I saw a lot of bars, restaurants and nice places to rest. House of Blackheads, Town Square, Museum of the History and Dome Cathedral are the buildings I saw during my first steps.

Place of the first Christmas Tree

House of Blackheads

taken from Wikipedia ...
"House of the Blackheads (Latvian: Melngalvju nams, German: Schwarzhäupterhaus) is a building situated in the old town of Riga, Latvia.^[1] The original building was erected during the first third of the 14th century for the Brotherhood of Blackheads, a guild for unmarried German merchants in Riga. Major works were done in the years 1580 and 1886, adding most of the ornamentations.
The structure was bombed to a ruin by the Germans June 28, 1941 and the remains demolished by the Soviets in 1948. The current reconstruction was erected from 1995 to 1999.^[2]

Like other Baltic countries, Latvia was under the occupation of Nazi Germans during the WW-2. And later the Soviets occupied Latvia and the people suffered a lot from their freedom between 1940 and 1991.

Little girl playing flute on the street

My Latvian Model

Latvian War Museum

The river Daugava has been a trade route since antiquity, part of the Vikings' Dvina-Dnieper navigation route to Byzantium. Riga is like a sheltered natural harbour at the ending of the river. I walked on the east bank of Daugava river in the south direction.