Lovely Latvia!
We left the site at Vente in Lithuania on Sunday morning and it's now Wednesday morning so I need to think back quite hard to remember what we've been doing. That's the trouble with not doing this every day, you soon lose track! The main excuse for the break is the lack of a suitable WIFI or WLAN as they seem to call it, although a certain degree of holiday over-relaxation and laziness might also have played a part!
We drove up the coast a bit to the popular resort town of Palanga, as we needed to find an ATM to replenish our Euros and it seemed worth a look. We found a carpark ok and knew we were quite close to the centre but turned the wrong way on the main street and found ourselves, eventually, coming through the sand dunes onto the beach, nearly a kilometre away from the pier, which we took to be the centre. After a pleasant walk back along the busy beach in the sunshine, there was then a long pedestrianised parade of souvenir shops and cafes before we eventually found the place where all of the different bank's ATM machines seemed to be mounted on the same bit of wall.
We felt we had earned our lunch by then so we treated ourselves at a smart looking restaurant, not the Pizza Express in the picture, before setting off a few more kilometres to the Latvian border. Apart from a lot of roadworks at the border there was no hold up and we just drove past the old border posts and checkpoints.
We found the campsite that we had selected from the Alan Rogers guide, it was right on the coast in a wooded area but very clean and nicely set out. The restaurant and bar area, with an adjacent childrens play area, was clearly popular with local families for a Sunday outing, including quite a number who had come over from Lithuania. The site was separated by sand dunes from the beach which was a long expanse of clean yellow sand quite unspoiled and nearly deserted, although we discovered that most people seemed to have based themselves in hollows in the dunes to keep out of the wind which blew quite strongly off the sea.
It did produce some spectacular waves, though. . . . .
. . . . which a few people were enjoying splashing around in.
On Monday, the wind had dropped a bit and we went for a stroll along the beach and then settled down in the dunes to read, but the pull of the sea proved too much and Edith went back to the van for our swimming costumes and we had some fun frolicking in the waves! There was no way you could swim as the waves were too fast and furious
but it was pleasantly warm and refreshing. (Fortunately there are no pictures of the event itself, just the evidence of wet costumes . . and Edith paddling beforehand!)
Apart from that bit of exertion we had a good relaxing stay on one of the best sites so far.
Both Lithuania and Latvia are very rural and relatively unspoiled countries. The very low population density makes for quiet roads and they seem to take care of their environment so there is little litter about.
The worrying thing is that they have the same 'feel' about them that I got from Poland fifteen years ago when I first visited. Unfortunately I have noticed how quickly that has changed with the improvement in living standards of the population, and the massive increase in private car ownership. I just hope that Lithuania and Latvia can somehow avoid it, or manage better at dealing with it.
Yesterday morning (Tuesday) we drove across to Riga, pausing en-route to stock-up with supplies at a 'Maxima' supermarket, in the only sizeable town along the whole 220 kilometer route. We found Riga City Camping, after driving past the turning just by the campsite and then getting lost in the city traffic for half an hour!
This is a great cosmopolitan site, with vans and cars from most of Europe and Scandinavia, including a couple of Land Rovers with roof tents and an enormous overland expedition vehicle that I need to go and further investigate!
Laundry has been done, and I have located a 'tire service center' to (hopefully) get the slow puncture on one of the rear tyres sorted out. We have picked up a nail in the tread somewhere on the way, but it has kept going, with just one re-inflation for at least a week now. This afternoon we will probably have a walk into the old town of Riga and see how much it has changed in the ten years since we were last here.
We drove up the coast a bit to the popular resort town of Palanga, as we needed to find an ATM to replenish our Euros and it seemed worth a look. We found a carpark ok and knew we were quite close to the centre but turned the wrong way on the main street and found ourselves, eventually, coming through the sand dunes onto the beach, nearly a kilometre away from the pier, which we took to be the centre. After a pleasant walk back along the busy beach in the sunshine, there was then a long pedestrianised parade of souvenir shops and cafes before we eventually found the place where all of the different bank's ATM machines seemed to be mounted on the same bit of wall.
We found the campsite that we had selected from the Alan Rogers guide, it was right on the coast in a wooded area but very clean and nicely set out. The restaurant and bar area, with an adjacent childrens play area, was clearly popular with local families for a Sunday outing, including quite a number who had come over from Lithuania. The site was separated by sand dunes from the beach which was a long expanse of clean yellow sand quite unspoiled and nearly deserted, although we discovered that most people seemed to have based themselves in hollows in the dunes to keep out of the wind which blew quite strongly off the sea.
It did produce some spectacular waves, though. . . . .
On Monday, the wind had dropped a bit and we went for a stroll along the beach and then settled down in the dunes to read, but the pull of the sea proved too much and Edith went back to the van for our swimming costumes and we had some fun frolicking in the waves! There was no way you could swim as the waves were too fast and furious
but it was pleasantly warm and refreshing. (Fortunately there are no pictures of the event itself, just the evidence of wet costumes . . and Edith paddling beforehand!)
Apart from that bit of exertion we had a good relaxing stay on one of the best sites so far.Both Lithuania and Latvia are very rural and relatively unspoiled countries. The very low population density makes for quiet roads and they seem to take care of their environment so there is little litter about.
Yesterday morning (Tuesday) we drove across to Riga, pausing en-route to stock-up with supplies at a 'Maxima' supermarket, in the only sizeable town along the whole 220 kilometer route. We found Riga City Camping, after driving past the turning just by the campsite and then getting lost in the city traffic for half an hour!
This is a great cosmopolitan site, with vans and cars from most of Europe and Scandinavia, including a couple of Land Rovers with roof tents and an enormous overland expedition vehicle that I need to go and further investigate!
Laundry has been done, and I have located a 'tire service center' to (hopefully) get the slow puncture on one of the rear tyres sorted out. We have picked up a nail in the tread somewhere on the way, but it has kept going, with just one re-inflation for at least a week now. This afternoon we will probably have a walk into the old town of Riga and see how much it has changed in the ten years since we were last here.
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