Bike travel journal: Day 2. April 28. Bauska (Latvia) - Panevezys (Lithuania) on a bicycle

Distance: 118 km, Bauska - Panevezys ("Pas Rapola", ~20 km south)

Total distance:
Profile: + 272 / - 259 m
Expenses: 0
Memory of the day: Japanese bath under the rain

Juris had to go to work in the morning, so we quickly cooked some oatmeal with raisins (well, before that we went to the river so that he would take a dip - I didn't go for it, as I recently had a cold), and off I went.

First I needed to figure out a route. Google maps just doesn't want to show me bike routes ever (it tells me that it's impossible to bike anywhere) so I use graphhopper.com now. I decided I wanted to avoid trucks and tried the less busy roads. About 11 I left Bauska.

And soon I realized my mistake. Well, it wasn't that bad, but I didn't expect it: there was mostly rocky dirt road for about half the way to Panevezys.

Some time I was able to go at quite an adequate speed, other times very slow (my tracker makes these "splits" of the way and one of them featured a drawing of a turtle!). It seemed like I was flying after asphalt started again around the place called Svobiskis.

Somewhere in Lithuania police stopped me and asked me where my safety jacket is. Told me it should be worn during the day too. Ok. Good that I have it now Смайлик «wink»

I reached Panevezys around 6 p.m. (having left about 90 km behind) and still had about 20 to go. I needed to check the exact location so I spent some time riding around town looking for some open wi-fi (advice: go to the bus station).

Last bit of the way was again quite eventful: several km before my destination I was attacked by a pouring rain. Good thing I was passing near some rest stop which had a roof.

Also last 6 km was mostly in the forest, dirt road again.

When I finally reached the place I was surprised how cool it was (well the host sent me a link and it probably included pictures but I only checked the map). They are opened for tourists but Dainius also hosts couchsurfers which come quite rarely (I guess Panevezys is not such a tourist destination :))

so he decided to make a Japanese bath ready for me as a special present. It was very relaxing and I hope it helped my muscles not to get sore the next day (I also massaged them for a bit in there).

Dainius was busy talking to some tourists for a while and then soon he needed to go to Panevezys so we didn't hang out much. I cooked some food for my muscles - lentils, then went to the bath and finally to bed.

Couldn't sleep for a while so decided it was a good time to start with an exercise routine I promised myself I would do (I'm kind of worried I'd get an awful "biker's body" and lose strength and muscle in most places). Basically I decided I would do bodyweight exercised (duh, it would be quite a hassle to look for gyms everywhere) and for now I'll be following the 200-situps and other similar programs for pushups and squats. I also hope I'll stumble upon some bars and will practice pull-ups - I want to be able to do them again.