Day 13 – 06-03-2025

Our night at the camp was quite short, but it was warm enough in the sleeping bag, even though the car was quite hard. After packing the car and making ourselves a coffee from our to-go coffee maker, we tried once more to get rid of the Surströmming smell. At 8 AM, we finally set off. First stop: supermarket, to get something for breakfast and cleaning supplies for the car – the car smells like a dead animal. We sprayed the back of the car and let the cleaner sit for a while before heading to our task for the day: finding an old prison that is now a popular swimming lake.

We found Rummu easily. The place tells of a dark past with the old prison walls and towers, and at the same time, it is now a holiday spot with probably the clearest water in all of Estonia. So something dark can also become something beautiful – surely a great place in summer. Our car looked like it had taken a mud bath after this place 😉

On the way to Riga, we wanted to change the tires again – spikes are no longer needed and are not allowed in Poland. We found an old ruin by chance on the way and took a few photos. We changed the tires in Pärnu at Rehviprof – super friendly guy and good service.

At 7:30 PM, we finally arrived in Riga, checked in, and set off for an evening stroll through the old town at 8:05 PM. We saw many beautiful old buildings and many churches that are very close to each other here. We found the statue of a Ghost at a part of the old city wall and the Bremen Town Musicians in front of a church. Riga has a lot of atmosphere, and we found a very cozy, small, local restaurant for a late dinner.

The Baltic countries are a bit more difficult to navigate because the maps are not as accurate and the small places and roads are not all present (signs at the streets are not always there) – this means that we sometimes get lost and in general travel on small, not-so-fast (dirt) roads. Today we were in the car for 10 hours, covered 448 km, spent 1 hour in Rummu, 1 hour changing tires and 1 hour on foot in Riga.