Into Latvia

Road to Daugavpils, Latvia

We travelled out of Lithuania into Latvia and crikey, the roads were absolutely dreadful with pot holes, patches on patches, and just SO awful! We feared for our poor motorhome Vanni, as we rattled and bounced our way north-east. 

In the afternoon, we reached Daugavpils, the second largest city in Latvia after the capital, Riga.

Daugavpils dates back to the 5th century and used to be on a trade route that provided links between Russia and Greece. Once part of the Russian Empire, over 50% of its population now, is Russian. This is reflected in the many Russian churches, and the soviet style housing.

 Ss Boris and Gleb Orthodox Cathedral, Daugavpils, Latvia

After looking around, we came across Church Hill which includes four of the significant churches of Daugavpils. The attractive blue and white Ss Boris and Gleb Orthodox Cathedral caught our eye. It is apparently, the biggest Orthodox church in Latvia.

We drove around a bit more finding that the town seemed quite old, dirty, tired and sad. The architecture showed some interesting red brick buildings and some of art deco style, alongside the austere soviet style.

Our next stop was Rēzekne, the 7th largest city in Latvia. It is just west of the Latvia/Russia border where we were headed, in order to get to Moscow. 

Road to Rēzekne, Latvia 

On the way, we passed many horses and carts, people walking to and from the fields with a pitchfork over their shoulder, and women in black loaded up with vegetables.

We were directed to a shocking detour road to get into the city. We finally arrived to find it nicely laid out and clean, with lovely gardens. 

We liked the 13th century Rēzekne Castle ruins, the Catholic and the Orthodox churches, and the interesting town hall. 

But we couldn’t find a camping ground, so drove on.

Our camping place beside the lake in Ludza, Latvia

We soon arrived in Ludza, a small village about 30 km from the Russian border. The village is surrounded by two lakes. We stopped there to free-camp by one of the lakes in order to have an early start getting through the Russian border the next day.

Along the lakeside, we saw several people fishing, a family having a picnic, and locals walking by. One chappie was very excited by our New Zealand signs and flag, and found it amazing that we were from so far away. In his very limited English, he made us feel welcome. 

We had a lovely peaceful night and slept very well. 

Early the next morning, we drove to the Latvia-Russia border. 

Trucks lined up along the route to the border post 

On the way to the border, we went through the tiny border town of Zilupe. Driving out, we saw hundreds of trucks lined up along the road. 

It wasn’t until we got closer to the border that we realised they were waiting to cross into Russia. 

They looked like they had been there all night, and there were lots of truckies sitting along the roadside having their breakfast. 

Boy, they really would have quite a wait, as the queue was several kilometres long.

We just zoomed up on the outside of them to get to the border post.

Approaching the Latvia-Russia border post-Moscow 609 km

At the border, we drove through Latvian passport control with no problems, and then on to Russian control. 

Our Russian visas were all in order; then they checked Vanni. All her registration numbers etc were ok. We then filled out all the customs declaration forms and progressed on through. Then suddenly......DISASTER! 

The head Russian passport/customs official rushed in front of Vanni, waving his arms around. He yelled loudly at us in Russian as though yelling would help us to understand what he was saying. It didn’t but it certainly gave us a fright! We thought that he was fishing for a bribe that would let us through.

But then he found some truckies who spoke English.

The border checkpoint

They explained that the papers we had for Vanni were not enough, and we needed a specially stamped and signed form before we could enter.

The official signalled that we should turn around. But we were worried that if they sent us back to Latvia, our single-entry Russian visa may not allow us to return. However, he indicated that we would still be able to use the same visa if we returned to that border control with the correct Vanni papers.

Three hours later, we turned around and drove back into Latvia. The Latvian officials were a little stunned to see us back and were a bit suspicious as to why, and asked lots of questions. 

Sleeping off the exhaustion of the Russian border post

Eventually, after much stress, we were back on the not-so-wonderful Latvian roads, feeling entirely shattered! 

We decided our best bet would be to head to Rīga, the capital of Latvia, because being a major centre, it would most likely be the best place to get Vanni's papers sent to us. They needed to come from the Czech Republic. 

So off we went after all that trauma, to drive the 320 kms right across Latvia, on crap roads. 

Unfortunately, we missed a turn-off somewhere and spent quite a bit of time bumping over 35 km of extremely rough unsealed road, before we managed to get back on the right road and head directly west to Rīga.

View of Riga’s suspension bridge

We made it to Rīga and found our way to the city camp site, which was close to Rīga’s amazing suspension bridge.

There we discovered three couples (from Switzerland, Germany and the Netherlands), who we had meet in Poland and Lithuania. It was nice to meet up with them again, and to off-load about our border drama.

Adding to our drama, Vanni’s fridge is faulty and won’t run properly on power. We are using it on gas instead and our gas is running out. We are eating as much as possible from the fridge to minimise the load.

Meantime, we have decided to tour this western part of Latvia while we wait for Vanni’s correct papers to be delivered from the Czech Republic - then we hope to have another go at the Russian border, provided that we still have time within the limits of our Russian visa – watch this space!

This blog describes part of our 6-month motorhome trip around northern and eastern Europe, which began in Prague.