EV 13 – Iron Curtain trail with new signage unveiled in Latvia
In October Latvia became the seventh country to unveil EuroVelo signposting along the Iron Curtain Trail, joining Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary and Serbia.
This first phase of signage was unveiled last month on a 50 km stretch of bike path in Vidzeme province in the north of the country. This will be extended to cover all of the North Latvian section in coming months. In tandem with the launch of this signage, the Vidzeme Tourism Association also unveiled a series of new cyclist information panels and sheltered bike parking in urban centres along the route. The signs were unveiled by Latvian member of parliament Romualds Ražuks in the town of Saulkrasti on the Baltic coast.
It has been a busy summer for our Latvian EuroVelo Coordination Centre on the way to implementing the CentralBalticCycling project. More than 600 signs have been set-up as well as 16 bicycle parking stands and 12 information stands. Vidzeme Tourism Association also led 4 bike tours during the inviting over 150 participants to test out the new routes.
When completed the Iron Curtain trail will join 20 countries along the former border between East and West, an itinerary running 10,400 kilometres from the Barents Sea in Norway to the Bulgarian Black Sea coast.
Interested in trying it yourself? EuroVelo 13 will run for 560 kilometres in Latvia – you can find out more about the route and its development here. The section between Riga and the Estonian border is now complete, linking cycle tourists to destinations such as Tallinn, Helsinki and St. Petersburg.