Our plan was to cycle till Kandava and then hop on a train, but we struggled to reach Sabile due to the uphills in that hilly part of Latvia.
Sabile is home of the northest (more north in latitude) vineyards of the World, so we had a nice launch with delicious friend minced meat (like in the other places in Latvia, presented extremely well) and a bottle of the local liquid.
It was a very sweet apple wine, that remembered me of the “vin di póm” that my aunts drink at Christmas.
So we decided to stop for a night in Sabile and enjoy a wine tasting.
Unfortunately all the wines produced in this region are extremely sweets: apples, blueberries, strawberries, peaches are the base for the production. Too much sugar for my taste.
But once again Latvians proved to be very creative in terms of accommodations, in fact we checked-in in an ex hospital!
since 3 years the building has been converted in a hostel, but the rooms still have signs from their previous usage. We slept in a doctor room and in the common areas there were a dentist chair and some tools left around.
We shared the terrible kitchen with a bounce of Russian workers, and I risked my life when I used a bag full of groceries of one of them as trash bin…
In the evening we realized that our morning plan was set to fail anyway, because there are no trains going to Riga from this area!
The only option to leave, without cycling, is to get on a bug and hope that the driver will take our bikes on board.
Pictures here:
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