Tallinn to Ventspils
It's a relatively long ride today and given the ferry timings we have all day to do it, so we take advantage of the noon checkout.
On day 39 I decide to sort my tank bag. Curious but not unexpected. Lots of crap; mentos, stickers, greek receipts, bottle openers, hand on a stick, opened Aloe Vera, cables I forgot I bought and enough coins to melt down and make a small car.
With still time in hand I take another walk out to the old town in the morning Sunshine. Dave has asked him to get him a souvenir of Estonia, so I buy him some 'Colonel Gadaffi' branded matches.
Hotel sorted, overnight bag put together for the ferry and we're off. Getting out of Tallinn is easy which is good news. I wasn't particularly looking forward to the run to Ventspils though- mostly straight for the run until Riga, and then an orbital navigation to pick up the main road out to our destination and the Scandlines ferry. However, it was a great ride and I guess you never can tell.
We head back to Parnu beach for Pizza at the famous Steffani's. En route we see plenty of bikers now, which we haven't seen for some time. We stop at Statoil, where a biker chap on a V-Max tells us to watch out as there's a Police speed trap 5km down the road. Good work, fella.
I get some export beer that will be exported.
Back to Parnu beach and Pizza. There's a queue, but it is worth a wait. Point of note, the Estonians won't queue properly, and the waitresses won't seat you. Keep your eyes out and get a table. Having been gazumped we almost have to physically seat a group of 4 non-Estonians in front of us who don't get it, our British sense of fair play preventing us from just walking past them. Well done us. I swear, if we didn't make it perfectly clear they'd still be there now. It's no reflection on the service though, or the pizzas, which incidentally are something else. We're sitting on a great terrace in the sunshine, by the beach, served by a lovely young lass who is full of good manners and smiles. We have some funny pizza with pickled onions, coffees and humungous ice cream sundaes.
We linger for a while, under no pressure, very relaxed and chilled. Locals come by and examine the bikes, pointing here and there. There are sure worse places to be on a Sunday afternoon.
The pizza is huge, so I get a take away box which conveniently fits on the bike.
Back to the road and towards the Latvian border again. The weather is beautiful, blue skies and 25 degrees. Just right, and we're whizzing along in the pine trees.
We see an Estonian Police bike coming the other way. We wave, he waves back and gives us a flash of Blue lights and a woop of the siren. Cool. By golly, I think he likes bikes, don’t you know.
We cross into Latvia. Going is still good, but all of a sudden we see plenty of Policija on the main road to Riga.
We catch and follow a police Volvo cruiser for about 10k or so. We sit wisely and patiently behind. Eventually he spies someone tanking it the other way and does a quick u-turn, off in pursuit.
As we approach Riga we get a sequence of supremely fun and interesting biking. A deer crosses in front of us ahead, just by a 'Deer' sign. A man wanders across the road with two dogs behind freely roaming, where the traffic is fast. He's not interested in if his dogs make it.
On we go; there's a man in the middle of the road, a cyclist who has stopped trying to retrieve a lorry wheel. I slow the traffic to a halt with my hazards being sure to take plenty time to do it. He looks mighty relieved. I toot the horn and give him a big thumbs up. He waves back and returns the thumb.
A beligerant pedestrian walks straight out on a crossing over a dual carriageway where all the traffic must be at 60-70. Lots of brake lights.
We're cut up by Uncle Albert in a Land Rover Freelander.
It rains and there's a pretty rainbow. Ahhhhh.
We round Riga and on to the road to the coast. It rains, and the road surface is now poor, repaired and rutted with two tyre-track rivers.
We get to the new surface, it stops raining, we get gravel again. But then there's a relieving 'Euro Project' sign and the road becomes grand. It is a great run, we push on at 70-80 and the going is interesting with ups and downs and turns but all fast and flowing. There's little traffic.
It becomes a lovely evening and we trundle in to Ventspils at around 10.30pm. It is still very light. Ventspils is vey charming for a port town and much changed since my last visit- but very closed. With the light so good it slips our minds that it is so late. Even the nearest 'Hesburger' according to Garmin is 117km North, so it is back to the Petrol Station for some late night snacks.
'No alcohol' says the petrol station lady; we're outside licensing hours. Bother
It isn't just us then.
I hope the bar is open on the boat, I'm bloody gasping.