Rogaine Over, Back to Riga

Two weary rogainers return from 24 hours in the woods 

By noon the Rogaine was over.  Leo and Bryan did not do as well as they'd hoped, but they came 5th in their age class.  They found the course very difficult, with the foliage in the meadows over their heads.

The worst was the presence of giant hogweed, which was growing throughout the course.  It contains a photosynthetic toxin that causes horrible blistering and even blindness. Leo and Bryan were very careful, but Leo got a very small patch on his hand.  We saw other participants with big blisters on their backs and faces.

We bagged all their clothes and threw them in the wash when we got to Riga.

Leo and Bryan napped the rest of the day and in the morning we drove back to Riga.  Highlight of the day was when we stopped for lunch in a small town kafejnica.  No English spoken, but I was ablessed to decipher potato pancakes.  For 1.50 each we got 3 delicious potato pancakes and a dab of sour cream.  Bryan went all out and for 1 euro more got an additional mystery ingredient which turned out to be a pile of lox!  Soup was .95 euro.  What a deal!

We're back at Riga City Campings.

Our home in Riga, with decontaminated clothing hanging on the line

Last night we had supper at a place that served Russian dumplings cafeteria style, also super cheap, though it took us a while to figure out how it's done.  You serve yourself, then pay by the gram.

This morning was devoted to laundry and sorting out rental car and cellphone issues.

In the afternoon we walked into town and did a walking tour of the old town. I forgot my camera so no photos, but it's very pretty.

Again the highlight was lunch in a vast cafeteria of traditional Latvian food, with I don't know, 30 different menu items.

The campsite is on an island so I went for a short walk and found a row of sheds which were used to house boats.  That's an old abandoned factory in the background.