Riga to Jurmala

We had a "morning of leisure"- no tours. We originally had no plans at all but then arranged to meet our Latvian travel agent, Linda. I had found Linda and Baltic Travel Services on the internet and had been a bit concerned about the validity of the whole business, although I was mostly reassured by getting no hits when I Googled "Baltic Travel Services +rip-off +fraud + scam". I had asked to hold back some of the cost of the trip until our arrival, and Linda had graciously agreed. She came to our hotel lobby so that we could pay the balance. It was so nice to meet the person that I had been working with for so long- at the last count, there were well over a 100 emails between us. She even brought us a box of Latvian chocolates. Yum!

A few hours later, we checked out, gave our luggage to a driver, and met our guide for the day. Here was our itinerary:

Starting in Riga, we’ll pass over the Daugava river and follow the rail line to reach the seaside city of Jurmala. The idea of our tour is to show the city of Riga and her suburbs as we pass out into open green lands before arriving in Jurmala. Along the way we’ll ride through Riga’s suburbs, past beautifully renovated wooden houses and Soviet era blocks of flats, and through the fields and forests separating Riga from Jurmala.

The bicycle path to Riga is a fun ride in itself. It is around 20km in one direction, flat, smooth and very easy going for most cyclists.

We crossed this bridge when leaving Riga- on a nice bike lane.

unrestored wooden building

and one that's been restored

the bike path

resting my butt

back in action

It was pretty much as described and I'm glad we did it, although I haven't biked for so long that my butt hurt for two days. I was concentrating hard on staying upright so don't have photos of Barry biking, but he really was there with me.

We were lucky the weather held, as when we reached Jurmala we stopped at our guide's favourite cafe to try his favourite local beer and then the skies opened. It was only 50 meters or so to our hotel's door; we got soaked to the skin and we were freezing! Thankfully, this hotel also had a wellness centre (spa) and we were able to warm up by visiting various types of saunas and pools and steam baths.

The hotel is located on Jurmala's walking/shopping street and we walked only a few metres to a nearby cafe for a "typical" meal. We believe that if you don't like potatoes, bread, or beer, you won't be happy here. There are thriving craft beer producers all through the Baltic countries- some good, some not so good, some so strong it could lead to blindness! It's also the right season for drinking cider, which I am enjoying although it's harder to find a dry cider- they seem to like their ciders and wines on the sweet side.

our hotel room balcony and view

Jurmala is a small seaside resort on the Gulf of Riga and is a very popular destination for Latvians and others from the Baltics as well as Germans and Russians. At the beginning of September, it is very quiet, as once school has started, the tourist season is pretty much over.

The following day we relaxed by taking a few walks on the beach, shopping for linen clothing at the end-of-season sales (I had not been aware that Latvia is well-known for high quality linen items), going back to the wellness centre, and eating one of the best meals of this trip- layers of crispy potato pancakes smothered with chicken, onions, and cauliflower in a heavy cream sauce. Yum again!