Day 8 - Klaipeda to Riga, Latvia

The start of our second week, heading for our seventh country.

We left our hotel, the Navalis, at about 9.30am for the drive due north along the Lithuanian coast.

As we drove along the coastal route, Wendy read about the one remaining Lithuanian Soviet underground missile site. Apparently all the other sites, which were in Latvia, have been demolished. This one is located in the middle of the Zemaitijos National Park about 80 kilometres from Klaipeda, so we changed our route and drove inland. The roads once again were almost totally free of traffic and, with a cloudless sky, it made for great driving.

We reached the national park and drove through lovely wooded hills and past many azure blue lakes.

As we headed into the park we came across this rather strange sign by the side of the road.

We stopped and read the information plaque that said the sign referred to a giant ash tree which was located just a few yards away. The tree is the largest ash tree in Lithuania!

We hadn't found where the missile site was located but came across the park headquarters. Inside, we met Aousha, a delightful young lady who spoke perfect English and told us all about the missile site. She showed us numerous photos of the site and of the missiles that were housed in four gigantic silos. One interesting fact was that the 179th Rocket Regiment, who manned the site, were used in the deployment of missiles to Cuba! She told us the site was about 10kms back along the road we had just driven along, but suggested that first we should go to a lookout point above Lake Plateliai which gave good views of the park. We drove the short distance and parked. We walked down towards the lake and took some photos.

Nearby were some trees in full bloom and underneath were these lovely white flowers.

We then drove to the missile site which took us about twenty minutes. The last five kilometres was on dusty gravel roads. The site is being renovated and we couldn't go beyond the entrance gates but could clearly see the concrete domes that were slid over each silo to protect the missiles. It was quite an eerie place to visit and brought back memories of the cold war.

Two of the four domes that covered the silos.

We left the site and the park and soon crossed over the border into Latvia. On the way we passed the 3,000 kms point of the tour. You can see we were on one of the gravel sections from the description of the road on the SatNav.

As soon as we were over the border, it became obvious how much poorer this region of Latvia is than Lithuania. We went past many buildings in a dire state of repair and their condition reminded us of houses we saw many years ago in Eastern European countries.

We soon came to a long section of extremely dusty gravel road and each time a car came in the opposite direction, we had to slow down to a virtual stop as we were completely blinded by the dust.

By now, we were getting quite close to Riga and made the decision to drive to the coastal town just to the west of Riga, Jurmala. We parked close to the beach and walked through the pinewoods to the Baltic. Once again we saw beautiful sandy beaches stretching in both directions. Wendy took this photo of a cyclist making his way along the beach.

 

Wendy looking up at two jackdaws. This one we managed to photograph on the sand before it flew up into the trees.

We stayed about fifteen minutes and then drove the final 20kms into Riga, arriving about 4.30pm.

We met up with the others who had each taken different routes to Riga. We exchanged stories over a great meal in a small restaurant, a fitting way to end another wonderful day on this Baltic adventure.

Bob, waiting for us as we were leaving the restaurant.

We have two nights here, so tomorrow will be devoted to sightseeing, which will mean a restful day for us all.