With Motorcycle to NORDKAPP-Norway
Day-7 : 10 July 2016  Sunday
from Riga (Latvia)>>>to Tallinn (Estonia) :-Total distance :  312 km

The breakfast was wonderful at the Hotel Avalon. There was a seniors' group of tourists from Germany. They were manouvering very slowly while picking up breakfast items . After a nice and fine breakfast which lasted a little bit longer, I packed all my stuff and took them down to the park. My motorbike was in the closed private parking place in the basement of the hotel. 
I departed around 08:50 from Hotel Avalon in Riga. The weather is grey. There is no rain though. To get rid of the downtown and the streets of the city it took around 20 minutes.
On the outer skirts of Riga on the way to Tallinn it started to rain. 
There are sheded bus stations all along the way at every 2-3 kms. One of them was good to stop. I put on my rain gear. It was something 67 km away from the city Riga. It was approx. 09:45 a.m. 
The route is fully in green forest even it runs along the coast of Riga Bay. I was presuming that I can see blue water on my left hand side but it was not possible to see the sea. On both sides of the road there are tall trees. Sometimes I saw some signs showing marine connections and beach facilities. 
Very seldomly I saw dark braunish water on my left through the trees. The view was not appealing. Riga Bay is part of the Baltic Sea.

Somewhere around 167 kms after my departure I rode into the forest on the left hand side. I wanted to discover the coast. But there was no connection to the beach. So I rode through farmers' houses parallel to the main road. After a while I merged again the main road where I stoped for taking off my rain gear and ate my apple which I hade taken from the breakfast banquet. It was 11:00 o'clock a.m.

The weather was sunny after this point. There was no rain any more. Parnu is the Estonian city far in the Riga Bay. I rode through Parnu heading Tallinn. Approx. 50 kms  to Tallinn I saw dark grey and dark bluish sky above Tallinn. I found a Statoil fuelstation on the left hand side (the place name is Marjamaa) and I stopped there in order to watch the movement of the bad weather. It was 12:16. Most probably there was a heavy storm and rain in Tallinn.

I bought a coffee there and ate my sandwich. Meanwhile, a Finnish couple with their motorbike arrived at the point where I was resting. They were coming from Tallinn and heading Parnu. They explained that the weather is really bad and rainy in Tallinn. So I waited some more time there and we talked. Approx. at 13.06 I departed from the Statoil fuelstation fully equipped with my raingear. 

The storm had passed and there was no rain but the streets were wet. I came to my hotel on the Pikk Street in the Old City. I had arranged the hotel through booking.com.

Great Coastal Gate

Right pink coloured building is my hotel

Holy spirit church

Raekoja Square-Townhall Square

St.Alexander Nevsky Catedral

View over the old town to the East

At the top-Kiriku Street

View over the old town to the North

Park in the Old Town of Tallinn

Somewhere at the Street Laboratooriumi

Entrance to the Old Town:- Great Coastal Gate

In the coffee shop

Townhill Pharmacy on the right

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.

Partial capture from the Monument of Soviet Art

Huge market halls of Riga

Left over from the market place on July, 9th.

Last cherries in the market place.

On the top of the Technical Academy-Highest Building in Riga.

South view from the top of the technical Academy.