Latvia 2023

JUNE 2023

At 06:30 our taxi collected us from home, then collected Rob en-route to Gatwick Airport. Our destination: Latvia.
Almost three hours in the air got us to Riga, Latvia’s capital. Then a short taxi ride to our apartment in the old town.
After recovering from carrying our bags up eight flights of stairs, we ventured out to explore the old town. It was pretty hot by now, but a light breeze took the edge off. First stop was for a late lunch in a delightful square tucked away from the main streets. Then with the food providing the energy, we continued our walk through the historic and cobbled narrow streets, stopping regularly to admire the many places of interest. The old town is very compact so we didn’t have to walk far between attractions and it wasn’t busy which added to the enjoyment.
Around 18:30 we stopped for refreshments and a snack. Then around 22:00, made our way back to the apartment to rest in readiness for tomorrow’s full day of exploration.

Riga Central Square

Riga Old Town

Remnant of the Soviet Periods

Riga, Three Brothers. The houses together form the oldest complex of dwelling houses in Riga. Each house represents various periods of development of dwelling house construction

Riga, House of the Black Heads

Riga

After a reasonable nights sleep, with all the windows open as the A/C wasn’t working, we awoke refreshed ready for another day looking around the old town. It was busier now, as a cruise ship had arrived.
The previous day we just wandered around and stumbled upon places of interest. Today we had a plan and our first stop was a Lutheran church with a tower that would provide views all over the city. After a couple of flights of stairs, a lift took us to viewing deck about mid-way up the 123 meter tower.
Having had a good look at the city from above we continued to explore at ground level. Just north of the old town is an attractive park dissected by the Pilsetas canal. This was our next destination.
We joined one of the many paths that ran along the edge of the canal, passing old gas lights that used to illuminate the area in times gone by. It was much quieter here, away from the noise of the city. The silence only broken by an occasional screech of a hooded crow. We sat in the shade for a while, watching the world go by, before continuing our journey.
The area on the far side of the park is where you find the embassies, but also the next attraction on our list. This part of Riga is famous for its Art Nouveau architecture, with more than 800 buildings, it's the largest collection anywhere in the world. The best and most flamboyant examples can be found on Albert Street so this is where we spent most of our time.
The day was heating up again by now so we retreated back into the old town for shade and lunch. Well fed and watered we continued our exploration in the afternoon, with more places of interest and a visit to the central market.
Drinks and supper in the centre of town almost completed our day. All that was left was a sunset visit to the canal in hope of seeing one of the resident Beavers. Although we didn’t hold out much hope, we were lucky and spotted one transporting a water lily to its den.

Riga old town

St Peter Lutheran Church

View from the Church Tower

Riga views from the Tower

Cobbled streets of Riga

Art Nouveau building

Art Nouveau Building

Albert Street, known for its Art Nouveau building and named after Bishop Albert who founded Riga in 1201

Poster facing the Russian Embassy in Riga

Market in Riga

Cherries at the Market

Art Nouveau building

Canal

Beaver

It was now time for a change of scenery. Once we had picked up our hire car, upgraded to smart new SUV, we began our drive south. As soon as we left Riga the scenery changed completely. The busy hassle and bustle of Latvia’s capital city had been replaced with a calmer rural environment. Farmland surrounded by forest is what we had now, interspersed with the occasional small town. It was also the land of White Storks. They were in the fields, next to the road, on roof tops and occupying massive nests on purpose built platforms or in trees.
As we drove south we quickly realised two things. Firstly, Latvian’s drive fast and will undertake some pretty crazy overtaking manoeuvres. Secondly, the lack of road signage makes it hard to know what the speed limit is, fortunately our navigation system helped us with that.
Just over an hour of driving got us to the main attraction for the day, Rundale Palace (1). We had booked tickets for the house and garden, but first had lunch in their cafe. Spread over several floors we followed a marked route entering one room after another. Baroque art work decorated the walls whilst furniture and other items gave an impression of what life was like over the time of its occupancy. It was then into the garden that filled several acres behind the house. Hedges lined numerous pathways whilst many varieties of rose filled the flower beds. In front of the house a fountain formed a central display. Somehow though, it didn’t have the grandeur we were expecting, more a work in progress.
Our overnight accommodation and selected dinning was at Makelis just outside the town of Ozvara, close to the Lithuanian border. A nice dinner and a comfortable room was exactly what we needed after a busy day.

White Stork

Rundale Palace

Inside Rundale Palace

Gardens of the Rundale Palace

Rundale Palace

Rurale Roads dissecting farm land

The weather changed overnight, it was now cooler with intermittent rain. After a leisurely breakfast we packed the car and headed east. Our destination was an outdoor sculpture park at Pedvale (2) near the town of Sabile. Heavy showers accompanied us for most of our two hour journey, but it was dry when we arrived at Pedvale.
Spread out over several meadows either side of a valley are a hundred or so sculptures. International artist have used stone, wood and metal to make their creations, some of which are recognisable but most needed the interpretation pamphlet to explain what they are. We had the whole site to ourselves and followed the 6km path that guides you past most of them. It was a very pleasant walk, with only a brief shower to cool us off.

Sculpture Park

Sculpture Park

Our journey then continued to Kuldiga where we would overnight. A beautiful little town with its centre frozen in time. We walked into town from our accommodation and had an excellent evening meal. The route to and from the restaurant gave us an opportunity to see the period buildings that lined each street. We also took a look at the river, but planned to explore that area more thoroughly the next day.

Bridge over the Venta River, Kuldiga

Street of Kuldiga

Kuldiga

After breakfast we drove into Kuldiga, parked, and then explored either side of the river. The River Venta flows along the eastern edge of the town and has two famous landmarks at this point.
The first is the Venta Waterfall which is the widest in Europe. Just before the Baznicas Iela bridge the river falls two meters over a shallow cliff, but this isn’t the impressive bit. What is impressive, is that shallow cliff stretches across the width of the river. A distance of 249 meters. We followed a path right to the waters edge to get the best view.
The same path extended down stream, so we followed that. This gave us a good view of Kuldiga’s other famous landmark, Aleksupite Falls. The highest waterfall in Latvia with a drop of 4.2 meters. This is less impressive as the falls are manmade and could be better described as a weir. Nice to see though and an impressive bit of engineering.

Venta Waterfall

Venta River with the Venta Waterfall in the background

Venta Waterfall, the widest in Europe

Aleksupite Waterfall, the tallest in Latvia at 4.2m

Kuldiga Pastries shop

Having seen both of the landmarks there was still time to pick up some pastries from a recommended bakery before heading north west to our next location.
Our destination was the tiny hamlet of Sikrags in the Sliteres National Park. We would be self catering for the two night stay so picked up provision at Ventspils en-route. Sliteres is both a land and marine park situated in the north west of the country with the Baltic Sea on one side and the Gulf of Riga on the other. Our journey began as usual with a drive through rural Latvia, passing farmland and forest. This changed when we turned north from Ventspils. The road now was almost totally straight with thick pine forest either side. Once reaching the sign for Sikrags we turned in to the forest and progressed along a dirt road. After a bit of trouble finding our accommodation we eventually arrived. The house we had rented was beautiful, set in a clearing in the forest and only a few meters from the beach. The only thing we weren’t pleased with was the mosquito welcoming party. A quick visit to the, almost completely deserted, beach before dinner and that was our day done.

Latvia road going for ever between pine trees forest

Our accommodation at Sikrags

Beach looking out on the Baltic Sea

The following day was warm and sunny with a negligible mosquito presence. To make the most of the house and surrounding we had a leisurely start to the day. Our host had recommended a forest walk nearby called Peterezers Nature Trail, so we started the day there. The two kilometre drive through the forest got us to the tarred road. A further 12 kilometres on, the completely empty, main road got us to the car park and start of the walk. An undulating trail through the sandy forest brought us to a lake, where a boardwalk allowed us close access to the waters edge. We could hear bird life but most were hidden high in the tree tops. However, dragonflies kept us amused close to the shoreline and challenged us to get photograph whilst they constantly moved.

Peterezer Trail

Pine Forest in North-West Latvia

Peterzer Lake

Dragonfly

From the forest we drove as far up the coast as we could, to a place called Kolkas. A short walk from the carpark got us to the beach and Latvia’s cape point. It is here that the Baltic Sea meets the Gulf of Riga. Gazing out to a distant lighthouse we knew that the next piece of land would be Sweden.

Cape

It was then back down the coast in search of a boat graveyard. In the late 1980’s the Soviet Army (occupying force) enforced strict quota’s on fishing in the area which put local fisherman out of business. Those fisherman had no option but to abandon their boats and leave the area in search of other forms of employment. Today those boats lay where they were abandoned and the forest is gradually taking back what was originally theirs. A short walk from the small town of Mazirbe got us to the boats. Then with photo’s taken we returned to the car for our last stop of the day.

Boat graveyard

A further 36 kilometres south was the town of Irbene (3) and our final visit of the day. Abandoned in 1993 the whole place has a spooky fell about it. We were the only visitors and parked our car amongst the piles of ruble that were once buildings. All around us were empty and gutted apartment blocks, very Soviet in style. The school was a shell of a building with just a few Soviet books and other oddments placed on a table outside. We wandered around for a while, trying to get a feel for the place. But ended up thinking we had found ourselves in an apocalyptic Sci-fi movie instead. It was now time to head back to our comfortable house in forest.

Irbene

The abandoned school in Irbene

Remind of soviets rubis

We had a long drive the next day so planned to stops to break the journey. It was another warm and sunny day as we negotiated the almost empty roads of north west Latvia. Around an hour later we arrived at Engures Lake with the intention of visiting a tower for a bit of birding. Unfortunately the tower was closed but the forest walk by the lake was nice, even if the mosquitos were annoying.

Engures lake

A drive of another hour, away from the coast and through farmland, got us to our next stop in the Kermeri National Park. Amongst other attractions, the park is famous for its bog. We had enjoyed our visit to a bog in Estonia so Latvia’s was high on our list of things to do. The walk through the forest to the bog edge was less than enjoyable due to the horse flies. But once on the bog boardwalk it all became much more pleasant. For almost a kilometre the wooden walkway took us over fragile bog grass and around small lakes until we reached a viewing tower. Three flights of stairs got us to a platform which then provided us with magnificent views over the bog and beyond.

The Great Kemeri Bog Boardwalk, Kemeri National Park

Sundew, carnivorous plants

The final stretch of the drive took us through Riga. The traffic was heavy now so progress was slowed. Once away from the capital we moved freely again, arriving in the town of Cesis around 16:00. Finding the car park for our accommodation wasn’t easy but once achieved our apartment was just a few flights of stairs away (4).
We were now in the centre of Cesis, in a large apartment full of period features. Once recovered from the drive we searched out a nice place to eat, a restaurant with a secluded courtyard out the back. Just right for an evening of relaxation.

Cesis old town

Cesis street art, reminder of the holocaust

Our accomodation in Cesis

Cesis church

It rained overnight and there was still drizzle in the air when we ventured out the following day. Cesis Castle was just 500 meters away and that was our destination this morning. The complex consisted of the medieval castle, the new castle and the castle grounds.
We started with the medieval castle and were given candle lit lanterns to light the dark staircases leading to each tower. We followed a path that led us past what remained of the castle walls and lower quarters then began our ascent to visit both towers. The stairwells were narrow and dark, so lantern light was very useful. We could have used the torch on our phones but lanterns added to the atmosphere. Each tower chamber had a digital display explaining the history and daily life of the time. A period roughly covering 1200 to 1600. It was very well done and made the place come alive.
Having returned our lanterns the gardens were next. From the garden you could see the moat, some larger weaponry, medieval building equipment and where the vegetable patch would have been.
With the rain starting once more it was a good time to go into the modern castle. More of a manor house or a chateau then a castle, but still part of the complex. Lots of rooms and lots of floors explained life in the castle right up to relatively modern times. Right at the top was a roof terrace which gave great views over the town.

Cesis Castle

Cesis Castle

Candle Lantern lighting our way

Cesis castel and use of 21s century technology to explain it's history

Cesis view from the top of the castle

With rain now more persistent we picked up some nice cheese and went back to the apartment for lunch.
With the weather improving in the late afternoon we went out once again. This time to explore outside Cesis. Cesis sits within the Gauja National Park and a river of the same name cuts through a gorge nearby. The section of the gorge closest to town is known as Eagle Cliff, and this were we went. A short drive and a short but steep walk got us to the beach below the gorge cliffs. This provided a great view of the river and gorge itself.

Eagle Cliff

Eagle Cliff

For our last night in Latvia we dined al-fresco in Ruzo Square. Food and drink were great, a multicoloured fountain squirted water behind us, the castle gardens provided a green backdrop and the towering walls of St Josef’s church created a historical setting. Perfect way to finish the trip.

Our last day was a day of travel. A leisurely start, then a two hour drive to Riga airport. Most of the traffic was going in the opposite direction which was good for us. It was the summer solstice celebrations this weekend so most Latvian leave the towns for the countryside. Both cars and people were decorated with flora headdresses ready to party.
The plane was delayed slightly before taking off and then we circled over Sussex for a while before landing at Gatwick. All in all it only added about 30 minutes to our journey so that was fine. Especially as our bags came through quickly and our taxi was waiting to transport us home.
A short but enjoyable trip, the country and the people were a joy to meet.

Observations & Interesting Facts
(1) Rundāle Palace is one of the two major baroque palaces built for the Dukes of Courland in what is now Latvia, the other being Jelgava Palace. The palace was built in two periods, from 1736 until 1740 and from 1764 until 1768. Although what we see today is not all original. Events during the 19th and 20th century have remoulded much of what remains.

Rundale Palace

(2) The Pedvāle Open Air Art Museum is a State Historical Monument near Sabile, Talsi Municipality, Latvia. It was founded in 1992 by Ojārs Arvīds Feldbergs as a setting for environmental art.

Sculpture Park

(3) Irbene is a ghost town. In 1971, the Soviet Union established a secret radar center "Звезда" and built a settlement for military officers and their families, naming it Irbene because of nearby river Irbe. The town had a school, shop, sport and concert halls. The town was never marked on any maps and only the holders of a special permit were able to access it. After the withdrawal of the Soviet Army from Latvia in 1993 the town became abandoned.

Irbene ghost town

(4) City centre apartments never seem to have attractive stairwells. Both in Riga and Cesis the approach from the street brought you into a gloomy and poorly maintained stairway. Yet once you progressed through your apartment door all changed for the better. This not just Latvia, it's very common all over the world, especially in older period buildings. They say, “you can’t judge a book by it's cover”. This also goes for apartment blocks, “you can’t judge an apartment by its stairwell”.