Update: Tue 21:05

Tuesday, 27 September

As suggested the clutch cable had snapped just at the barrel end that hooks into the lever. In fact the barrel end was still in the lever and a bit fiddly to get out.

The problem with my spare is that it was severely wounded in Syria (let's say Syria as I'm not exactly sure where it took ill). The plastic shroud melted on the engine exposing the metal cable surround. This surround then rusted up in the bad weather coming back through the Balkans causing the cable to get jammed inside and the clutch to stop working. The guy who fixed it, worked some oil down the cable to get things moving and said it'd be good enough to get me home. Which was true. When I had it swapped I kept the broken cable as an emergency spare...

After a job lot of WD-40 was aimed down the Kosovo clutch cable (noting that not a lot goes down and that WD-40 seems to rot latex gloves though it does clean muck off your hands) and lots of jiggling I swapped the cables over using all my lore and wisdom about clutch cables. Rather surprisingly it actually worked. How well it's working is another matter but I can at least engage and disengage the gears. A result!

That done I've come here to the Albert Hotel. I was given the impression by the description in the LP that it would be a small cosy affair and not the large imposing (and out of place) thing it is. The USP is the little attributions to Albert Einstein dotted all around, some of which are more general utterances than anything he is specifically famous for. He may well have quoted Occam's Razor but I believe Mr Occam got there first. The attribution in the hotel is to our flouncy haired hero.

I then read the LP to discover that Riga is not particularly famous for it's eating out so I have washed my steenkin' clothes and shall dine inside the hotel instead. I've had to wash some of the clothes because of what I thought were salt stains (from my exceedingly vigorous lifestyle) but in fact I think there some hideous chemical leaching from my riding suit -- there is a "salt" stain on my Camelbak -- it would be some extraordinary effort that resulted in a salt stain through several layers of clothes. My suspicions are that the chemical is in fact the re-waterproofing goo that is being washed out in the bad weather. Go figure.

In the meanwhile, Latvia has continued where Estonia left off. In fact, it was literally impossible to say where Estonia ended and Latvia began. I realised I'd passed the border when instead of the end of Valga (Estonian side) sign there was an end of Valka (Latvia) sign at the end of the town. About 15km later there was a "Border Area" sign with a red line through it. I hope I haven't missed anything important.

Estonia had embraced all things EU with some gusto, including prices of everything, EUR1.3 for RON95. Latvia's petrol might be a bit cheaper (LK0.9-something) but otherwise what few prices have been advertised seem to be Euro-ready.

I rumbled through a couple of towns the LP recommended without feeling especially entranced (managing one photo) and had decided to come to Riga a day early when the clutch went. Riga is supposed to have some fine buildings to look at so I'd best be up early tomorrow and shuffle about town and see what's what. I think a beer is in order first.

Currently at lat/long: n56 57.510 e24 6.804

Albert Hotel, Riga, Latvia