8th
September 2015
Troopie is fixed,
and we find yet another jewel of a city in Riga.
It rained all
night last night, heavily at times, but by the time we woke up it had stopped,
and there were even glimpses of blue sky in the distance. We didn’t get our hopes up too far but
nevertheless, it was better than yesterday !!
While Janet was cooking some supper, I had tried to syphon the petrol
out of the diesel tank, and I successfully got about 9 litres out that smelled
like petrol – But was it all petrol or partly diesel ? Does petrol mix with diesel, or does it float
on the surface, like water ? I knew
there were still about another 15 litres in the tank, so until I could get
about this amount out, I was unwilling to use that tank. And try as I might, I
just couldn’t suck any more out – Got several mouthfuls – And those of you who
have syphoned fuel before know what fun THAT is !!! And it was far too wet on the ground to get
under the car to see if there was any kind of drain plug – Hmm – Needs more
thinking…….
So we set of down
through the little town of Kabli on the quiet little Baltic coast road, and
stopped just up the road at the bakery for some bread (and a fresh, hot, sticky
bun !) Then we continued, past a statue
of a wooden boat – Apparently this area has been a major builder of ocean going
wooden boats and ships for a long time.
We passed some pedestrians on the road, and then Janet suddenly said
“Did that sign say “Latvia” ? Have we
crossed the border ?”. As the sign
actually said “Latvija” my mind was actually still processing the information,
but I
Shortly
afterwards we got pushed out onto the busy main road again, and we now found
that Latvian drivers are a LOT more aggressive on the road than anyone we have
seen since probably Columbia in S America !
On a two lane highway, one is expected to drive in the ditch (well into
a cycle lane) so that others can overtake you even though there is a line of
vehicles coming the other way !! And if
you don’t move over enough, they come SO close to you that you HAVE to move
over further. OK, so if that was the way
they want to play it………
We carried on
towards Riga – And on passing a village mechanics shop I thought about stopping
to see if they could help me solve my fuel problem, but decided instead to see
if there was a Toyota dealer in Riga.
Eventually in one of the outlying suburbs of Riga we passed a Toyota
dealer right by the road, so went in there, and they said that there were no
drain plugs in a Landcruiser, so they had to pressurize the tank and blow it
out through the fuel lines, and they could not do that until tomorrow. Hmmmm. (By the way, English is not so
widespread here – Only one guy in the dealership spoke good English.) So I went outside to the car, wondering what
to do, and as the ground was dry here, I crawled underneath and checked the
tank – I saw what looked very like a drain plug to me ! So I went back in and grabbed Andris, my
English speaking friend, and took him out and showed him – And he was duly
surprised. He then got a mechanic to double check, and he agreed it was a drain
plug – And they then agreed they could help me straight away ! So they gave us a voucher for a free coffee
in their coffee shop, and half an hour later they had drained all the fuel out,
and I was set to go. Perfect. Once again the Toyota dealers around the
world have given my good and fast service.
So on we went
towards Riga, and it was rapidly become very reminiscent to me of Russia and
Sakhalin Island. Wide roads, trolley
buses and (old style) trams in grassed sections beside the road, shops that
look like normal apartment buildings, and increasingly dark and austere
buildings beside the road, several with very Soviet architecture. In fact we saw one that is exactly like the 6
or 7 Stalin buildings (as they call them in Moscow), and I later found out that
it is the Riga Academy of Science, although I need to check on that !
We saw a sign
saying “Information 8 kms” and we tried to follow these, although it wasn’t
always easy as we got into smaller and narrower streets as we got close to the
centre. Finally we found it – And by
this time we were eight in the middle of town, and in a dead end – faced with
“pedestrians and cyclists only” signs.
So we parked – But it appeared to be a restricted area, so we checked
with the waiter in a nearby bar, and when he saw our Aussie number plate he
laughed and said “You can park anywhere – they will never touch you or fine you
!” So we left the car there, right
beside St Peter’s Church, and set off to explore.
What a fantastic
town ! This almost puts Tallinn in the
shade. Narrow cobbled streets, amazing squares and buildings like The House of
Blackheads (!), St Peter’s itself with its unique spire, and just a very
beautiful feeling there. Riga is yet
another place that we had no preconceived ideas about, and yet turns out to be
an absolute gem. So after we had
wandered for an hour or more, we decided to go and find somewhere to sleep, and
then explore properly tomorrow – We had checked the weather forecast and it
said it would be relatively
So we set up for
the night, and read the tourist brochures we had collected today so we could
plan our wanderings tomorrow. Riga
certainly looks like a fascinating city.
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