The last riding day. Not a long one, but not so convenient with passing through the busy Jurmala and Riga.
Jurmala has some bicycle paths, but I chose to ride along the road until the Rigas Iela. Especially the cycle path on the Juras Iela is a fail: too narrow for bot pedestrians and cyclists, one-way for cars so that when going to east, it’s not really possible to ride on the road either. So, I turned to the pedestrian area in Majori. As I was not in a hurry, I went to a krogs to have a light lunch. I was lucky to find out that they also had the world’s best beer in the tap: Abula.
From Jurmala to Riga, there is a separate bike path. It’s a bit narrow and quite bumpy, but makes the travel quite easy. The route to the Riga center is signed as the bike path ends. After crossing the Vansu tilts bridge it becomes a nightmare to ride the bike. I rode through old town, cobblestones, cars, a lots of tourists. Then I found a way to the riverside cycle path, which saved me from navigating the market area and the Maskavas Forstate area. Outside the lovely old town, the Riga is plagued with 4 – 6 lane roads with huge ramps. The pedestrian crossings are scarce and even then you end up waiting up to 6 minutes for the green light.
But I did find my way to the Firefighter’s Hostel I had booked for two nights. It’s cheap and crappy, not very inspiring neighbourhood, but ok for a short stay. After settling, I headed to a public sauna, Pirts Alpars. I had asked advice for finding public saunas in Riga, and I got a site with listings, descriptions and opening times (http://www.saunakulttuuri.com/category/riga/ , in Finnish). Alpars is on the Maskavas Iela, so it was 20 min tram ride from the hostel. I had a good bath and scrubbed all the sweat and dust away.
2394 km altogether
Kristiina Ullgren 