There had been a storm and lots of rain during the night.

The morning is cloudy with some rain, 20C warm makes it very sticky.

I enjoy breakfast in my apartment in Villa ReeDe. Eventually I hit the road, the rain is less and less. Roads are very nice and I also manage to find some forest roads with wet sand on.

I find a great Restoran where I get some lunch, it’s in the same town where old Dutch firetrucks go to die.

In the afternoon the weather improves, there is a strong tailwind. I skip the scenic route of LatEst and opt for the smooth paved roads.

I try to find accommodation in Estonia but as I near the border only Estonian and Russian is spoken and most attempts fail. Best offer I got was (maybe) a cottage in a field without water and electricity for 30 Euros. I decided to go for Ape in Latvia instead, at least there was a (H) in the map I got, so maybe there would be something.

Ape is a small place but I spent a good while looking for this accommodation, found a vodka fueled local cyclist who looked like he exactly understood what I was looking for. He showed me a patch of grass behind some buildings where he apparently thought it was a good idea to camp.

Eventually I found a small sign with a number which I guess had something to do with accommodation, I called it and it sounded like Russian was the only language spoken. So I gave up the search and tried to locate the tourist information, once I found it they had closed 25 minutes ago.

So stuck in Ape, the next accommodation was far away, I started to look at all the maps I had and there was a hint of a guest house or similar in one of them. I found the street and rode it up and down a couple of times. I saw nothing other that normal houses, no sign of any accommodation. Just as I was about to leave I bumped in to a local that didn’t speak anything that I was compatible with. But I showed him the map and he knew the house, he walked over there and shouted from the street and a lady appeared.

She called her son and he could translate, yes they had a guest house, or more of a spare room which I could have for 15 Euro including breakfast. The place was really old and broken, but I slept well anyway.

I decide to bike to Gulbene the following day and stay for a day of rest there, I am still suffering from biking the heavy bike all day.