Well, here we are in Gulbene and, as expected, there’s not much to do.
That’s fine, though, because we’re only here for one night and we’ve already done what we came here to do, namely to ride on the narrow gauge railway to Alūksne and back.
The drive here was an easy one, with many stork sightings along the way. The last forty or so kilometres were along a gravel road, a shorter route than the main road, which gave us time to check into our hotel and have a drink before heading to the railway station.
We’d hoped to make the journey on a steam train; that’s what it shows on the railway’s Web site. It turns out to be a bit deceptive, though, since the actual train used is a diesel locomotive, pulling a single carriage. Still, it was narrow gauge, which is unusual, and I think it was also Lukie’s first journey by train, so for that reason, it was memorable.
There wasn’t a lot to see on the way to Alūksne; just trees, fields and the stations we pulled into, although calling them stations is misleading, as there was usually nothing at the stop other than a sign next to a dirt road.
Gulbene is the first stop on this trip where we’ll be spending only one night. Every other destination so far has seen us stay for at least two nights, which has made for a much more relaxing pace than on some trips we’ve done. The hotel is nice, but seemingly empty. We may, in fact, be the only guests here, which is how it’s been in a couple of the towns we’ve been to.
Tomorrow, we continue south to Daugavpils, a town just 25 km from the Lithuanian border and just 33 km from the border with Belarus.
The guidebook descriptions make it sound so grungy that we really have no choice but to stop off there for a night. Well, it can’t be any worse than Cork.