Day 12 - Limbaži, Latvia - Pink Poncho Pays Off

Joan's View

The pink poncho paid off big time today. Lots of rain. In fact, we left in the rain. We were watching radar since waking up. Tony said that he'd much rather start out dry, so when we saw a break we decided to go for it. By the time we packed up the bike and just as Tony put the Airbnb keys back in the lockbox, it started to rain. We looked at each other. "Oh well, we are packed. Let's Go!" Tony knew the first part of the route because we had walked it last night to get to Hesburger. Beyond that, we were on a 2 lane busy highway for 7 miles with some shoulder. People in Latvia, like in Estonia, are great at getting over for us though. Somewhere on that road there was a break in the rain. That is super helpful because Tony can keep his phone out to see in addition to the Garmin and the other navigation only phone that are already water proof. Also, Tony has to take off his glasses when it is raining otherwise they get all fogged up and water spotted (Mine do too when it rains, but the driver needs to see the road.)

After getting off the highway, we turned on a country highway. We had 26 miles on that road which made it somewhat easier considering we rode into more rain, and for quite some time. It was on the chilly side and Tony's legs were getting cold which meant it was zapping his energy. It took quite a few breaks to get to Limbaži, but the route was all trees and farms. Because it was all trees and farms, there was almost no place to get out of the rain. We got a few pictures when we braked without rain though.

A girl and her horse.

One of three huge nests like this, but no bird around.

Some elk people watchers.

Displaying their power for us.

At our Airbnb in Limbaži, we had to store our bike in a smaller garage near the building. Our Airbnb is new and wonderful especially after today's ride, but the garage is older. Check out how Tony had to store our bike, and the lock and key used to get into the garage. He had to take the fairing off the bike and then shove it on top of some boxes to fit inside.

Dinner tonight was a a pizzeria almost across the street. Tony also got to do more taste testing.

Tony's Extras

I was so cold today. It was 47 degrees and raining. My legs, toes and fingers were frozen and wet. It really affected my muscles. The cold weather made me feel weak. I was so excited to get to the Airbnb and take a warm shower. Regardless, it is so much fun.

It is interesting that up north here they are just harvesting winter wheat. We see some that are harvested and several that are waiting for the rain and mud to go away. Puthoff had his off much earlier than these guys. He is much faster.

We ran into a dead Badger along the road, so we stopped to get a picture. We verified that it was a badger by our trusty animal specialist, Nick Balog.

This is the State Sign of Indiana and actually it was 22 km of that kind of road. We just didn't get the sign picture until we rode about 20km and understood it. 

When at the grocery store after the rainy ride today. I was thinking I needed something to drink. I saw this bottle of wine and at first glance I thought it said Marla, but it said Marija. I looked closer and it was Mary and Jesus. The best part is that it was cheap and tastes great. It is made in Riga where we are going tomorrow.

Hoping for drier weather tomorrow as we bicycle into the center of Riga of a 600,000 population.  12 miles from the outskirts to the center.