Roja is a fishing town at the mouth of a small river in north-western Latvia, on the coast of the Gulf of Riga, and it carries the sea in its character. The harbour is a working one, with fishing boats, a small marina and a smell of salt and smoke, and the town has a long maritime history. A fishing museum tells the story of how people along this coast lived and worked, from the sailing boats of the nineteenth century to the large collective fleets of the Soviet era, when Roja was a significant fishing port. The beach nearby is wide, clean and often empty, and a pine forest runs along the dunes.
The area is on the edge of the Slitere region and the Livonian Coast, where a small community of Livonians, a Finno-Ugric people closely related to the Estonians, once lived in fishing villages. Their language is almost gone, but the culture is still honoured, and a few villages near Cape Kolka, the northern tip of Kurzeme, keep the traditions alive with festivals and flags. The Cape itself, where the Baltic Sea meets the Gulf of Riga in a swirl of waves, is a short ride to the north and a popular spot for watching the clash of currents and for finding amber on the shore.
The ride along the coast is a pleasure of an unhurried kind. The road runs through forest and beside dunes, with the sea glimpsed through the trees and the surface generally good. It is flat and quiet, with long straights and easy bends, and few vehicles outside the summer season. Elk and deer cross at dusk, so be watchful, and expect patches of sand blown across the tarmac. In summer, the roads are busy with local holidaymakers, but they are never crowded. Autumn is a lovely time, with the forest turning gold and the sea moody and grey.
Roja has a handful of shops, cafes and a small petrol station, though the choice is limited, and the larger town of Talsi, about thirty-two kilometres inland, has more stations and supermarkets. It is sensible to fill the tank in Talsi or Tukums before heading up the coast. Local food focuses on fish, with smoked flounder and salmon, fish soup and rye bread, and you can buy it from kiosks near the harbour.
The sunset here, over the open water, can last a very long time in summer, and the sky turns every colour from orange to deep blue.