Rezekne day out · SESTU-KALNS Ziestu

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. Rezekne

   Rēzekne is the heart of Latgale, the eastern region of Latvia, which has its own language, its own pottery and a strong Catholic tradition that sets it apart from the Lutheran north. It lies on the river Rēzekne, among low hills and lakes, a short way from the Russian and Belarusian borders.

   Read the complete Rezekne write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Rezekne is where the day begins. Next is JACOBSTADT Jekabpils.

2. 2. JACOBSTADT Jekabpils

   Jēkabpils lies on the Daugava, Latvia's great river, in the region called Sēlija, and its older German name, Jacobstadt, tells you who founded it. Duke Jacob Kettler of Courland, who ruled this land in the seventeenth century, planted a town here in 1670 and gave it his name, in the same decade he was trying to found colonies in Tobago and Gambia. The duchy was a small, wealthy state that punched above its weight. Across the river sits Krustpils, an older settlement with a castle, and the two towns grew together over the centuries and were merged in 1962.

   Read the complete JACOBSTADT Jekabpils write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   JACOBSTADT Jekabpils comes up 88 km in. Next is SESTU-KALNS Ziestu.

3. 3. SESTU-KALNS Ziestu

   Somewhere in the Latvian countryside, on a modest rise above the Daugava, stands a marker that was once part of the most ambitious measuring job of the nineteenth century. Sestukalns is one of the stations of the Struve Geodetic Arc, a chain of triangulation points that runs for nearly three thousand kilometres from Hammerfest on the Arctic coast of Norway to the Black Sea. The astronomer Friedrich Georg Wilhelm Struve, working out of the observatory at Dorpat, now Tartu, led the survey between 1816 and 1855 to find the size and shape of the Earth, and the result was accurate to a degree that astonished geodesists. It is on the World Heritage list, with a few dozen of the stations that still survive across ten countries.

   Read the complete SESTU-KALNS Ziestu write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   176 km in you reach SESTU-KALNS Ziestu. Next is back through JACOBSTADT Jekabpils.

4. 4. back through JACOBSTADT Jekabpils

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete JACOBSTADT Jekabpils write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   back through JACOBSTADT Jekabpils, late in the day. Next is Rezekne.

5. 5. Rezekne

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   Read the complete Rezekne write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

   May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.

   Planning note

   Back at Rezekne. That is the ride.