{"id":21837,"date":"2016-06-02T16:03:20","date_gmt":"2016-06-02T15:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/?p=21837"},"modified":"2019-04-02T13:21:39","modified_gmt":"2019-04-02T12:21:39","slug":"paddling-in-the-baltic-hello-latvia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ourtour.co.uk\/home\/paddling-in-the-baltic-hello-latvia\/","title":{"rendered":"Paddling in the Baltic – Hello Latvia!"},"content":{"rendered":"

Zagan the motorhome has done it. Four weeks and one day since he waved goodbye to the Adriatic Sea<\/a> in Croatia, he’s now parked next to the Baltic Sea in a car park close to the resort of Klapkalnciems in Latvia (N57.03836, E23.40254<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\"Klapkalnciems

That’s what we like to see, an upright barrier and empty cash office<\/p><\/div>\n

Last night at the Hill of Crosses<\/a>, once the air started to cool we headed for bed. It’s light now until around 11pm so it is easy to stay up, but, as I found out this morning, the sun is up before 5am lighting up Zagan and waking us early. Still, we got plenty of sleep in the winter when it was dark most of the time. We have blackout curtains on the windows, but when it’s this warm we leave the skylights open and the daylight pours in. It gives us plenty of hours in the day.<\/p>\n

\"Bird

This chap was pecking around at breakfast this morning – any ideas what it is?<\/p><\/div>\n

We were on the move by 9.30am, excited by the thought of\u00a0seeing the sea again. We’d originally planned to stop in Jelgava, but it was only another 40 kilometres to the coast, so we ploughed on. Our only stop was at a petrol station, not to fill up as we did that yesterday (fuel prices are about the same on both sides of the border), but to buy a Latvian SIM. As you are reading this, we were successful! Taking an old SIM in with you really helps to narrow down what you are after.<\/p>\n

\"Internet

\u20ac4.99 for 5GB which lasts for 10 days – cheap as chips!<\/p><\/div>\n

We turned off the main red roads to cut a big corner and found ourselves on filling rattling ‘yellow’ roads. I guess these would be A roads in the UK, not motorway or dual-carriageway but not B roads either, they are white on our map and after this little jaunt we’ll definitely be avoiding those.<\/p>\n