Guest Blog by David & Donna Cole

We are Sonny, Chantal, Grayson and Lincoln’s neighbours on Delmar Drive in Ottawa. When they announced they were going to Riga, they invited us to visit them. Foolish them! They probably expected no one to take them up on their generous offer but since we do like to travel, we jumped at the chance.

Lincoln, reunited with his "other" owners

Chantal picked us up at the airport and chauffeured us to their apartment. It is magnificent! It is a very large, modern and well laid out apartment located minutes from the historic downtown area of Riga.

Riga defies categorization. It is simultaneously and by turns like Sweden, Germany, France and Russia. It is extraordinarily pedestrian and bicycle friendly. It is filled with little shops, outdoor cafes, parks, museums, historic monuments and public art. It is spotlessly clean.

The next day we went for a walk along the shoreline where the Daugava River enters the Baltic Sea. We walked along the breakwaters and an endless sandy beach. Every day the weather was beautifully warm (~25 C) with about 18 hours of daylight.

We are avid cyclists so we arranged for an independent bicycle trip through Latvia and Estonia. Over 7 days we pedaled 600 km from Riga to Tallinn, Estonia. The bicycle trip we took is described here: http://www.bbtravel.lt/baltic-bike-tours/tours/latvia-estonia- self-guided/

The cycling was fantastic! The roads were smooth, the accommodation was excellent and the motorists were generous in sharing the road. The cycling infrastructure is world class – there is an extensive network of cycle paths and dedicated bicycle lanes throughout. We saw towns, villages, farmland, countryside, forests and meadows. Latvia and Estonia (outside of the major cities) is very rural and undeveloped. We feasted like royalty every night. Two nights we stayed in castles!

In Estonia, there were many "pood"s (Estonian for shop)

How to start the day off right

At the end of the cycle trip, we spent an extra day in Tallinn to have more time to look around that beautiful and historic city. We returned to Riga by bus for one more day, then flew back to Canada.

The ride went alongside the seashore

We are extremely grateful to Sonny, Chantal and Grayson for generously inviting us to stay with them and for their boundless generosity throughout our stay. They took it upon themselves to share their apartment and be our Riga tour guides. We will always be thankful for this unique opportunity to visit a part of the world we might not otherwise have visited.

The days were long and the weather beautiful