Day 18 - Jelgava, Latvia - Let it Rain in Mass

Joan's View

We went to mass this morning at 9:00. The other option was 11:00, but guess what? The rain was starting around 11:30. I had to get a picture of the priest dousing holy water on us after mass. It was a mini broom that he dipped and used to bless us. I guess they are used to getting wet here.

This beautiful Orthodox Church was on the way to the Catholic church. ➤

After mass we got some pastries at a grocery store and headed back to the Airbnb.

While it rained, Tony decided to take the bike to a local car wash but was unable to get the hoses to work even using translator. He managed to apply the chain cleaner that Robert from the Riga bike store gave him. Tony came back and cleaned the bike more outside of our Airbnb. 

We are staying in a building behind the host's house. Their dog camped right outside our door. She must know that Luna is vacationing at Wade & Linda's with Roxy & AJ, and somebody needs to protect us.

After the rain passed around 3:30, we explored Jelgava some more. We walked around the grounds of the Jelgava palace. It was a former Duke's palace that was destroyed during World War II and rebuilt. It is the largest baroque style building in the Baltics. 

Massively impressive

We walked to the sand sculptures on the Island. Here are a few of my favorites:

Zeus

I like the way that Jelgava displays their locks of love. Instead of locking them on bridge railing like most we have seem in other cities, they provided these metal trees. Tony is hiding in one of the trees.

Check out the beautiful fountains that you can walk under along the riverbank. Tony is not hiding under those.

Dinner was at a restaurant on the island. We opted to eat inside because the mosquitos are still in attack mode. I got served gloves last night with my sandwich and we see lots of people use them here. Tony ordered a burger tonight and decided to use the gloves with his messy burger. 

Tony's Extras

While we were at Mass, I was looking at all these old people. To think, just a little over 30 years ago, they were being persecuted by the Soviets for being Catholic. We are so blessed in the United States to never having to experience that. You can just sense how much they love Jesus.

After dinner, I finally found an ice cream cone my size.😂😂. Tomorrow we say goodbye to Latvia. We will be leaving Latvia tomorrow with clean and well oiled chains😀

Day 17 Jelgava, Latvia - Riding Again with a little Rain

Tony's View

It sure feels nice riding again!! Completely different routes than originally planned, but feels good. We almost made it without rain. The last 5 miles it sprinkled, but no down pour. We waited to leave until 11:00am, when we were planning to leave at 10:00am. It worked to get us on the road dry.

One of first turn styles to go through on this trip and I got stuck. So my faithful riding partner jumped off to get a picture. I got unstuck and crossed the railroad.

I did get wiser and went around the next one. 😀👍

We rode by a youth Saturday soccer. They have a great facility with nice stands, fields and benches. Not your typical USA youth soccer field.

We were feeling pretty confident with the rain radar, so we decided to hit the Farmers Market in a town on the route. Might have been the reason we rode in the rain, but it was worth it.

We were supposed to go the way on the left to get to the Interstate but ended up getting to the Interstate on the picture on the right. Funky way to get to the Interstate.

Here are two pictures of being on the Interstate. Notice the wide shoulders. We were on this Interstate for 5 miles and we were booking it at around 16mph.

Then we spent 4 miles on this busy road with a 1 foot shoulder and appreciated the Interstate. I had to keep a very straight line to keep on the small shoulder and away from the traffic. We were flying on this road, too. 

We went to a Bread, Honey and Milk Festival when we got to Jelgava. Joan wanted to take a picture near the bees since it was a honey festival. Since it was also a milk festival, I got an ice cream cone.😀 We later got some onion cheese after tasting several of them. We got there close to closing time.

We found a bronze sculpture that really related to our trip in the Baltic States. It was actually raining when Joan took the picture. 

One more bicycle ride before the day was over, Joan would be sitting on the back, but someone needed to take the picture. 😀

Joan's Extras

We all know how Tony likes to wait. This picture was in the morning of Tony doing his wait.

Dinner tonight was at Central Cafe on our walk back from the festival. More great food, but even more interesting was the ceiling. Might be even better on a bedroom ceiling. 😁

Day 16 Riga, Latvia - Warm Day, Frozen Insulin

Joan's View

Waking up, Tony started right in on revising the bike routes. Once again, it looks like it's either highway or gravel roads, and as much beating as the bike took, we are doing the highways. 

I researched what to sightsee during the day after Tony made headway on the routes. Somewhere in the morning, I ate my breakfast and got out the remaining red currants to put on my roll, but they were frozen. I checked the other food in the fridge along with my Sprite Zero and it was all frozen. I noticed some ice crystals forming in my Sprite Zero last night so I turned down the fridge, at least I thought I did, so that Tony's insulin stayed safe. Now, one of Tony's insulin bottles was frozen and the other may have been compromised. Tony texted our favorite doctor, Dr. Wolters, and asked her to call when she got a chance. It was 5am in Sidney and she just happened to wake up early so she called Tony. They agreed that the frozen one was unusable and the other full one was taking a risk if it would work at all. If we are out in the middle of nowhere, which happens frequently on this trip, Tony would be seriously at risk. Cara said that we have to get a prescription from a Latvian doctor though to get more insulin. Tony did a search and there was a family doctor fairly close. We walked there, but the receptionists did not speak English and seemed unable to find someone that did speak English. Tony then showed her google translator that read, "I need a prescription for insulin." The lady immediately stood up and escorted us to another room with an English speaking doctor. The doctor talked to Tony right away and searched for an insulin prescription through her little book of prescriptions. The only insulin they have in Latvia is in pen form, no vials like Tony uses to load his pump. She asked for Tony's passport and wrote a prescription that we needed to take to a pharmacy, aka aptieka in Latvian. At the first aptieka, the pharmacist/technician said that they do not have that kind of pen and none of their affiliates stock it. She recommended some other aptiekas. We started out and found another one closer to the university. It was small and some older gentleman was at the counter a long time, so we moved on. At the next Aptieka, we hit the jackpot! The pharmacist/technician did not have that dosage of insulin, but spent quite a bit of time calling around to find one that did. She was our hero for the day! 

The aptieka that we needed to get the insulin reserved for Tony was a 45 minute walk farther. We hiked more and picked up the new insulin, $34 Euro later. The doctor never charged us by the way. She said it was an emergency. Another example of a world full of kind people.

Got it!

From there and around 3:30, we decided to head back to the one restaurant that we passed so that we could sit outside and enjoy the warm weather. Tony celebrated with another beer tasting and we devoured some delicious entrees. 

Our next stop was to find an insulated bag to keep the new insulin pens cool while we are biking since Tony has a special pouch for his two vials that holds only those vials. We stopped in at one of my favorite stores, Lidl. Tony found a bag for his insulin and we both found some other goodies as well. 😁

Escalators for the carts at Lidl stores!

We were still looking for a small icepack to keep the insulin cool in the new bag. Tony had the great idea to get a small juice bottle and freeze it. I thought a juice box would have less chance of bursting when it froze, so we had to ask Chatgpt to get the answer.

Walking back to the Airbnb, we got a photo of the main entrance to the university. 

Riga has been kind to us!

Tony's Extras

What an adventure. Another thing that we have never dealt with arose today. I thought that after having some success of redoing the bicycle routes from 7:00am to noon, things were going great. We were planning to head to the Latvian Museum under Soviet Suppression and then we had frozen Insulin. First thing was to ask AI. It said Insulin is not safe after frozen. I still believe that the full bottle might not have been frozen, so there was a chance to make it to the Museum. Cara made a good point though. When I change my pump tomorrow morning and the insulin is bad, it has now gone from an inconvenience to an emergency. 

So we were off to go to the doctor and a pharmacy. After 14,000 steps later, many stops and google map researches we had the proper insulin. What caused the problem for all you diabetic nerds (aka Wade)? The insulin in Latvia only comes in pens and more importantly they don't usually have U100, they only have U200. U200 is twice as strong and would take my body a little time to adjust and make the Basel rates out of whack. There is more to it, but for the non-diabetic nerds, I decided not to bother you.

When having a beer, a bee decided to have some too. Joan got a spoon to get the bee out. You know, I didn't want the bee to get too drunk and steal my beer, so I scooped it out and set it in the plants beside us. 

Joan decided to get a picture of the bee staggering on the plant and to show everyone that it was still alive and feeling good. Speaking of feeling good, it will feel good to get back on track bicycling tomorrow, with new places to stay, new routes and a bicycle back to working condition again.

Day 15 Riga, Latvia - A Day to Replan places to stay and routes to go

Tony's View

Spent a good amount of time planning last night and when I got up this morning, I started planning again. This was the section of the Baltics that I had a rough time finding places to stay the first time, 6 months ago. Now we are trying to get last minute bookings. We got 9 bookings cancelled, 6 new bookings set and waiting on one to respond. One of the 6 doesn't have a hot water heater. Joan was nice enough to say she would heat water up in the microwave and pour it on me😡. 

Tomorrow I will try to map out routes to keep us off interstate like traffic. This is another adventure, probably tougher than a freezing cold shower with a wonderful wife pouring warm water on you. 😂😏.

After all that planning and waiting on the rain to pass, we decided to go to the old town which is 3 miles away. We ended up getting around 20,000 steps.

The first stop in old town Riga was the St. Jacob Cathedral. I took a picture of the painting of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is beautiful in person. 

In the back of the Cathedral behind a curtain was a lot of bones including femurs, vertebrate and skulls. Not sure what they were from. We did go across the street to Eucharistic Adoration. It was a beautiful monstrance.

We then stopped for a beer and when we went inside, Joan found a delicious apple strudel. Success for both of us.😀

Joan showed me this sign. Yes, she read a sign to me. I was happy about it because it is a great sign. Beer is a noun, meaning magic water for fun people😂😂😂

We then went to the central market. It was a huge farmers market that happens everyday. One of the biggest I can remember.

As part of the farmers market was a huge indoor meat market that goes on and on. Obviously this is where locals get their fruit and meat.

After the farmers market, we went out to eat. Joan said, "Look they have different size mugs." I said, "I already see the one for me." The biggest one, of course 👍😀 and they let me pour my own beer. By the way Ex-Friend Dan, it didn't allow me to push it forwards to get foam. But the mug was 2 liters. You call that a large beer. It did take me a while to drink it, but I enjoyed it.

While walking back to our Airbnb we saw this church and decided to look in. Mass was going on so we decided to stay for a while.

Had to stop one more time so Joan could get breakfast of raison bread. We then made it back to the Airbnb at 8:00pm so I could work on the blog, yippee.😁😏

Joan's Extras

Dinner was an adventure by itself. This place was cafeteria style with pour your own beer. Tony mentioned at least 4 times, "That's a big beer!" Seems like he may need some training before he goes on the Tour de Octoberfest. 

We sat at the tables outside the restaurant and got entertained by the pigeons going for food wherever they could get it. We shooed several off of our table, but we also saw one lady let the pigeons eat her leftovers while they sat there at the table. After they left, the next people to sit at that table were two older ladies. They had quite a time keeping the pigeons off of their table.

We walked back to the Airbnb via a different route through the old town and saw someone rub this cute little fellow's ears so it must be another good luck thing. Probably means no more rain on this trip?

Day 14 - Riga, Latvia - Time to Pivot

Joan's View

We both crashed early last night after yesterday's eventful day. After my fit of grumbling yesterday during the ride, Tony woke up this morning with a plan to pivot. Since we have no idea how long it is going to take to find a chain and fix the bike, how about we skip taking the bike route around the western coast and spend a few more days in Riga, then take our time getting to Vilnius? Tony put lots of time into planning that original route and finding the Airbnbs, but it honestly seemed way more fun at this point to pivot. We had a sweet Airbnb in the heart of the old town Riga, but had to be out by noon and there were was no availability tonight. That meant finding another place here in Riga on top of fixing the bike, but at least we'd have all day to do it. After a couple of hours working together, we found another place across the Daugava river. That also meant cancelling about 8 other Airbnbs along the coastal route. Most were sympathetic of our circumstances and gave us a full refund. 

Around noon, we loaded the bike, said a prayer and rode to the Bruklene bike shop. Actually, it's a bike and coffee shop. How perfect is that for Tony! Our hero repairperson, Richard, took time out of his scheduled work to help us. It took several hours of Tony working with Richard, buying new chains and cogs, and Tony drinking some cappuccino, but we were able to ride off......a few hundred feet. Something was now jumping when Tony pushed on his pedals. We got off and Tony walked the bike back. Richard saw us pull up and Tony told him he thought it was the chain ring. Eventually, through more repairs, we headed out to the restaurant, Stock Pot, in which the guys recommended at the bike shop.

The guys from the shop gave me a chair. 
I fielded questions and smiled at passerbys.

Lunch was some delicious soup. We ate next to this couple and their dog. The dog just wanted our food, but the couple was fun to talk to. The guy said that he used to work in the wind turbine business and that the weather around here is so unpredictable that the best way to get a forecast is to just look up in the sky. Radar changes constantly. We also learned on our own that Riga received more rain yesterday than it usually gets in all of August. That couple also said that it is unusually chilly right now compared to previous years. Kind of ironic since it was unusually hot on our last bike trip through Germany. 😲

Leaving there, we tried to stop at St. Peter's Church, but it was closed. We rode to our Airbnb and met our host, Evita. She strongly suggested relaxing on the terrace, so we got food from Rimi and ate on the terrace. This is where I am blogging also, in Marla's favorite chair. The one that she never got growing up. 😅

Tony's Extras

We got to the bicycle shop and went in. They decided to work on it outside than try to get it into the shop. I said I was looking for a rear chain. He looked the bicycle over and we ended up getting two new cogs, front and rear, one for Joan’s gears and one for my gears, and two new chains, Joan's and mine. After the test drive, it was still skipping. Now, they replaced one of my triple chain rings for my gearing, since I predominantly only use the middle chainring. They didn't have the exact chainring size so we went from a 38 tooth to a 34 tooth.  Robert spent 30 minutes adjusting our shifting to try to make it work better. The amount of rain and grit also affected our cables, but decided not to change them.

That grit was murder on the entire drive chain system.  I just changed them about 1,000 miles ago. They usually last up to 2,500 miles. That rain and grit really reduced their lifespan. With all that, they replaced 7 items plus 2 hours of labor, and the bill came to 210 Euros. That included a 30 Euro bottle of chain oil and  free chain cleaner for the new chain after 50 miles. Robert put some of his from the shop into an old coke bottle. He then brought out another cap for the coke bottle with a small hole to be able to squirt on the chain. What a nice guy! We picked the right shop out of 5 in the area. I told Joan it was going to be 500 Euros, so we were happy and left Robert a 30 Euro tip, which he was excited to get. 

We did get to cross this cool bridge from the bicycle shop to our new Airbnb in Riga, Latvia. The steel parapet (guardrail) was so rusted and close to failure. They had to run temporary guardrail along the side of it. This made the bikeway very narrow causing issues when passing pedestrians and bicycles from the other way. I decided to stop most of the time.

Planning is getting started for the major rerouting. I will let you know how that goes tomorrow.