Leaving Riga this morning we managed to take ourselves (or should I say our SatNav took us) through the very center of the city, followed a cobbled street and tramline for 12km or more before finally getting onto a more regular highway. Now just so you understand the Yellow Mog does not particularly like cobblestones as they tend to be a bit like those 1950s weight reducing vibration machines. It certainly dislikes tram lines as steering becomes somewhat optional once the tires find the groove. But the big bug are the tram wires. When erected during the soviet era the tram wires were often lower than the 4m height of our truck, as we discovered in Central Asia. Fortunately Vilnius seems to have upgraded their tram wires to European standards but it was quite a few kilometers before we were completely convinced.

Once onto the highway (we are still following the E67 by the way) the driving was easy enough and the scenery pleasant, with cultivated fields alternating with forest. The many villages and farm houses we passed were cute and seemed generally well maintained. Nina observed that the title for today would have to be Little cabins in the woods, and so it is. It was particular interesting to visit Latvia, Riga and the occupation museum as at University (back in those long away days) we had a number of friends whose families were recent (in those days) immigrants from Latvia.

Eventually Latvia became Estonia and the road found its way to the Baltic Coast and while we did not get many glimpses of the water we did find some access and spent a little while watching wind surfers racing along on the stiff breeze.

Despite some effort to find alternatives we eventually found ourselves in the town of Pärnu and at the gate of the towns only campground/RV park. The first glimpse of this place suggested that we had no chance, of either finding an available spot or of actually squeezing our truck through the entrance. However our pessimism was not justified. They had spaces available and we had no trouble at all getting through the gate.

Indeed once parked in our assigned space we noted just along from us was a US Winnebago Journey DL (for those not in the know this is a 35+ ft long class A motorhome - one of the big ones on US roads).

Turns out it was owned by a British couple who we got chatting to about various things motorhome and travel related.

We occupied ourselves and the afternoon with a walk into the old city (an area of a few blocks), enjoyed the afternoon sun and collected some info about ferries from Tallinn to Helsinki. That is coming up in the next few days

Nina had an experience this afternoon that has finally killed any small chance we had of availing ourselves of one of Europe's naturalists (that is nudist) campgrounds. While walking to the office building at the campground she rounded a corner to come face to face with a small group of mature european gentleman, all with very large bellies, and all wearing G-strings. When she got around to telling this story she was still almost speechless from shock, all she could say was .... not a pretty sight .... no nudist campgrounds for us.