JACOBSTADT Jekabpils and Historic Centre of Riga

Waypoint introductions and full write-ups

1. 1. 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 is where the day begins. Next is SESTU-KALNS Ziestu.

2. 2. 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

   SESTU-KALNS Ziestu comes up about 54 km into the recorded legs. Next is Historic Centre of Riga.

3. 3. Historic Centre of Riga

   Riga is the biggest city in the Baltic states, and its old centre reads like a history of northern trade. The city was founded in 1201 by a German bishop, soon became a leading member of the Hanseatic League, and grew rich on timber, flax, furs and grain moving between Russia and western Europe. The medieval core, packed with merchants' houses, guild halls and church spires, still has the layout of those days, with narrow cobbled lanes and squares, and the House of the Blackheads, a brotherhood of unmarried merchants, with its ornate gabled facade, stands in the Town Hall Square.

   Read the complete Historic Centre of Riga write-up.

   Recorded stop-planning note

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

   Planning note

   about 163 km into the recorded legs you reach Historic Centre of Riga. Next is back through SESTU-KALNS Ziestu.

4. 4. back through SESTU-KALNS Ziestu

   Return visit. Read the place description above.

   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

   back through SESTU-KALNS Ziestu, late in the day. Next is JACOBSTADT Jekabpils.

5. 5. 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 at JACOBSTADT Jekabpils. That is the ride.