Estonia	Part 2
	Latvia
	Lithuania

Friday 5 September 2014

Pärnu - Riga: 181 km / 112 mi; 2:36 u.

We drive in a southerly direction along the coast to the border with Latvia. At the border we can move on without any formalities. In Latvia the roads are in a noticeably worse condition than in Estonia. Estonian roads are perfectly smooth whereas the Latvian ones are narrower and full of bumps, potholes and a patchwork of repairs. We arrive around 11 am in Riga, capital of Latvia. By accident we drive past the Gallery Park Hotel  and it takes a lot of effort to get back there again because of all the one way traffic streets.  Once at the Hotel we are received with extreme courtesy and we immediately get a tour of the building. We are on the first floor in a classic room. The car is parked for us (for a hefty fee of 25 euros per day).
We take a break and go into the city. First we go to a LMT store, where we buy a SIM card. € 5.65 for 10 GB. We have lunch in the old town at a grill restaurant. We then go and look for a post office to buy stamps. It takes same searching before we find one at the bus station.
Back in the old town we climb (with an elevator) the Peter's Church tower. From the top we have a beautiful view of the city and its surroundings. A number of new buildings have been added to the skyline since our last visit nine years ago . The city is a lot livelier and also attracts considerably more (weekend) tourists. There are lots of side walk cafés, bars and beer gardens. We see lots of groups of young men, who are here for a (drinking) weekend, especially from Britain and Scandinavia.
We walk back to the hotel. At 18.30 we arrive at restorans Vincents, the best restaurant in town. Many celebrities have gone before us as Ban Ki-moon, George Bush, Queen Elizabeth and our own Beatrix, judging by the pictures at the entrance. We get a delicious five course dinner presentedwith matching wines . The bill amounts to 309 euros. We have a wonderful evening.
Weather: sunny 19°C / 66°F

Saturday 6 September 2014

Riga - Gauja National Park: 54km / 33 mi vv; 0:55 u.

Breakfast is a little complicated. We have to order from a menu and some things are included, others are not. After breakfast we have the car driven in front of the hotel and we are off to Sigulda,  a village in the Gauja national park. Here we take a look at the Lutheran church from the 16th century and the new Sigulda castle. The new castle is more of a grand country mansion, which is now in use by the town council. Behind it lies the old castle, a fortress built by the knights of the sword in the 13th century. During the Nordic war it was partly destroyed. From the ruins we overlook the Krimulda palace (now a sanatorium) and the Arch Bishop's castle on the opposite bank of the Gauja river. We walk along forest paths to a viewpoint (Paradizes kalns) with beautiful views of the valley and the river. We walk back to the car and have a simple lunch in the village. We then drive to Āraiš near Cesis, where we visit a reconstruction of a 9th century settlement, that was built on an artificial island and thus was well protected. Wonderful to see how people lived here 1,000 years ago. The site is quite difficult to find, because both our map as the Garmin navigation device it does not show it. From the website we pick the co-odinates, we enter into the Garmin. That works.
The next stop is a bunker for the Civil Protection Organization during the Soviet era. This is not so easy to find either. You In the village of Līgatne, you must follow the signs to a rehabilitation centre. In 1962, after the Cuban Missile Crisis it was decided in the Soviet Republic of Latvia to build a command bunker for the Civil protection organization, in which 250 officers could survive a nuclear attack for three months. The longest exercise lasted only four days. The bunker was covertly built under a "luxury" resort for the party leadership. The function and location were kept secret until 1994, a few years after Latvian independence and was made accessible only after Latvia's joining NATO in 2004. The holiday resort is now a rehabilitation center. The bunker is 9 meters underground. Tickets for the tour are sold at the reception of the rehabilitation center. We are guided by a guide, with a great sense of humor giving an insight how the Soviets thought to be able to survive a nuclear war. Noteworthy is that the fuel tanks were not sufficient for a 3 months stay by far. We also get a small meal in the cafeteria, which consists of Soviet dumplings. Nothing has substantially changed since the mid-1980s. The techniques used are very simple. Not so much because there was nothing better available, but mainly because the equipment should be easy to maintain and repair needed in times of isolation. All inscriptions are in Russian especially the ideological banners on the wall. After the visit it takes approximately one hour to drive back to Riga.
In the evening we eat in a Indian restaurant near Peter's Church.

Weather: sunny 22°C / 72°F

 

Sunday 7 September 2014

Riga - Rundale: 79km; 1:10 u.

We drive to Rundale, about 70 km south of Riga. We visiting the Rundale palace. It was built here in 1732 for Count Biron, a lover of Tsarina Anna. For engaged the famous architect Rastrelli from St Petersburg, who would later make the design for the Winter Palace in St Petersburg for Catherine the Great. That explains the similarity in style of the two buildings. It is a baroque palace with Rococo finishings. It situated in a somewhat unlike location, virtually in the middle of the countryside between simple farmers. It consists of a central part with two wings. Count Biron could not really see the building being completed, because he was exiled to Siberia in 1740, when he fell from grace after the death of the Tsarina . In 1763 he was able to return. Construction was resumed in 1765 and in 1768 it was more or less completed. Later Empress Catherine the Great gave the place to her lover Zoebov. In 1920 it became state property. The palace has been carefully restored from 1972 onwards. About one-third is open to the public. It is clearly a work in progress. We start in the golden hall, a representative space with lots of gold leaf and mirrors with bird figures above it. The ceiling is decorated with beautiful frescoes. A little further is the white room, a ballroom with allegorical figures, representing the four seasons. After that we visit the rooms of the count and the countess. It's all very beautiful. From the Count's rooms we have nice views of the 73-acre formal garden of the palace. That's our next goal. We are driven in an electric train around gigantic garden. The garden is perfectly symmetrical with different flower species that are in bloom during various times of the year, such as tulips and daffodils in the Dutch part. There are roses from various European countries planted here. Also from the Netherlands. Only one axis in the garden gives a view of both the palace and the fountain. There are two more ponds, but (still) without a fountain. There are also a few pavilions in the garden, including a Chinese pavilion that served as a toilet.
After visiting the palace we visit the village of Bauskas, where we have a very cheap, but decent lunch. 14 euros for both of us.

We drive back to Riga. Like everywhere in Latvia we see many cars parked along the road, and people armed with a bucket walking off into the woods. They appear to be looking for mushrooms. Back in Riga we have a rest and then go to the old town to drink coffee and do some shopping. Later we enjoy a cocktail at one of the many terraces at the Cathedral Square.
In the evening we have dinner at the Lidojosa Varda (the flying frog). We sit outside on the pavement. It is near the hotel, in the Centrs neighborhood where many of Riga's famous Art Nouveau buildings are located. Enjoyed our dinner (salmon, pasta) with a good Australian white wine.

Weather: sunny 22°C / 72°F

 

Monday 8 September 2014

 Rīga - Košrags: 172km; 2:30 u.

After breakfast we pay our bill and head north. We drive through Jurmala, the range of resorts just outside Riga along the Gulf of Riga, where we took the train to nine years ago. We take this road because the Rough Guide promises a fun ride along the coast, but that is a bit disappointing. The Gulf of Riga is hidden from view, either by houses or by a dense pine forest, which seems to run all the way to the waterline. We drive to Mersrags where we change course towards our next accommodation in Kosrags on the Baltic Sea Side of the peninsula separating the Gulf from the sea. Due to a mistake when entering the coordinates into our navigation, we make a big detour, until we noticed that something is not right. We fill in the appropriate information and then after four hours of driving we finally get there. Our accommodation, at Guesthouse Pitagi in Košrags, is in a cottage, but it's a bit simpler than we had hoped. The furniture is a bit of jumble picked together at a flea market and the room is filled with a table, sofa and beds, while the upper floor is not accessible. The owner is friendly and speaks limited German. She will make breakfast for us tomorrow.

The cooking plates heat up very slowly, so cooking is not really an option. We take a break before we walk to the beach, which is totally deserted. Košrags is located in the Slitere national park that covers the northern part of this remote part of Latvia. The weather is sunny and temperatures are as high as 24°C/75°F. Around 4pm we drive to Mazirbe, a hamlet further down the road, where we find a small shop and a cultural center of the Livonian people or Livs. This is a tiny ethnic minority related to the Estonians and that has its own language. Only 250 members of this community are left here today. End of last century The center is now closed.

We buy some things in the store and then drive to Dundagas, a slightly larger town, about 25km inland. Here we find a large supermarket and no less than two cafeterias. We have a look at the church and the local castle and then go eat at one of the cafeterias, which looks more like a canteen. Meals can be taken from hot and cold buffet. I take chicken breast, Erik balls of minced pork. It comes with fries and salad. It tastes allright and it is dirt cheap: 4,50 euro per person.
We drive back to the cottage. A sunset photo is not on the cards tonight because the sky has become overcast.

 
Weather: sunny 24°C/75°F

dinsdag 9 September 2014

The owner of the cottages brings our breakfast at 8:30. It totally exceeds our expectations. Meats, cheeses, an omelette, three kinds of jam, salad, a kind of pizza rolls and fresh coffee. Unbeatable! After breakfast she comes back to collect the dirty dishes. We then drive to Cape Kolka, where the Gulf of Riga joins the Baltic Sea. We have to pay for parking the car! A bit surprising - to say the least - in a region where the main road sees no more than one car driving past every 30 minutes. We walk from the parking lot to the beach and on to the point where the streams meet. It is low tide, so  at the moment it not looks very spectacular. It must be very different at high tide if the photos in the souvenir shop are to be believed. We take a walk on the beach along the Baltic Sea Side and then go into the forest. A beautiful forest with beautiful mosses and many mushrooms. The mushrooms is what many Latvian old ladies come here for to pick donning their orange plastic buckets. We walk around and return to the parking lot. The cafeteria / shop is open and we take a coffee. Then we drive to the village of Kolka, but that is disappointing. There is only a post office and two supermarkets. We buy stamps and post cards. We drive back to our cottage where we eat the leftovers from our breakfast as lunch.
In the afternoon we take two bikes, which are available to the guests of the Guest House and ride through the woods behind the dunes from Košrags to Vaide. Some of the bikes are cast-offs from the Hoge Veluwe National Park in the Netherlands! The Dutch stickers with the original instructions are still on them. The route passes through the Liv-hamlets along the coast and runs along unsurfaced forest paths. A nice route and we do not meet anyone. In Vaide we head back to main road, the P124, and ride back to Košrags. We take a rest, take a shower and drink a cup of tea. It starts to rain outside and quite heavily so. By five o'clock we take the car to Dundaga, where  this time we eat in the pub. It is a type of pub that belongs to the local hotel. We are the only guests. WhenErik orders a glass of wine a mild panic breaks out, because they apparently have no desire to open up a bottle for just one glass. But  fortunately they do have small bottles too. They have one English menu, but the waitress has problems reading it. By comparing the prices between the English and Latvian menu we manage to get our order together. It tastes reasonably well for a place like that. When return  it starts raining again.

Weather: sunny 22°C / 72F°. In the afternoon it starts to rain and temperatures drop to 16°C / 61°F

 

Wednesday 10 September 2014

Košrags - Liepaja: 182km / 113 mi; 2:30 hrs.

We get a filling breakfast from our hostess. This time with pancakes. It is more than we can manage to eat. We drive away under the cover of rain and drive over the empty main road to Ventspils. During the ride it clears up and the sun starts to shine. Patches of fog emerge from the evaporating rainwater. In Ventspils we park the car near the Town Hall Square. We walk along the Nicholas Church, which we pay a brief visit. The church has a classical look and it looks as of an observatory has landed on its roof. We drink coffee in a small coffee shop. I pay the 2.70 euro with a note of five, but that seems to be a problem. The lady behind the counter has to go to her neighbors - a "general store" - to get change. We walk on and get tn the market. A modest place with a covered part where meat and vegetables are sold. The neighborhood around the market consists of traditional wooden houses with traditional cobbled streets. Still further down, we are a few blocks away from the seaport, which is located in the middle of town. Here we see coal being loaded into ships on the way to Rotterdam. We walk along the quay and arrive at the Livonian castle. A medieval castle that was used as a prison later under the Russian Tsar. In 2001 it was restored in a  grand way and it is now the historical museum of the city. We walk back to the car and drive to the district of Ostgals (port end). This is a nice, sleepy neighborhood near the harbor with wooden houses and cobbled streets from the mid-19th century. The neighborhood was once constructed to keep the expanding dunes in check. Not all houses are equally well preserved and residents clearly belong to the less wealthy. The city has done everything to make the public spaces in mint condition.
We then drive towards Liepaja. That's about two hours south on the coastal road P122. We arrive around 12 noon. We stay in the Promenade hotel on the banks of the Tirdzniecibas Kanals. It is a converted warehouse in the port area. We have lunch in the hotel restaurant. In the afternoon we take the car to Karosta (meaning naval base). This district was created as a Russian naval base in the late 19th century, meant as an outpost against the rising German empire. The base was never tested, because in 1914 the Russian Navy retreated to Tallinn and Helsinki at the outbreak of the First World War and blocked the port of Karosta with sunken shipwrecks. The Soviets made Karosta into a submarine base. In 1993, the Soviet army withdrew to Russia and left the Russian civilian staff behind in this district. To get there we need to cross the Kalpaks bridge. It is swing bridge with Art Nouveau decorations on the lampposts. The bridge has opening times and we have to wait more than 40 minutes. Only one ships passes the bridge. Once on the other side, we see broad avenues along dilapidated military buildings from the tsarist period and residential buildings in the worst Soviet style, which are still inhabited by the Russians who stayed behind. It looks very sad. Between all that sadness stands the very proud Alexander Nevski Cathedral. It is a gleaming Russian Orthodox cathedral with gigantic domes. The church is not particularly nicely decorated on the inside, but it is filled with icons. A handful of believers worships the icons. We move to the military stockade. Here you can join a tour every hour. The next (and last) one starts at 17 o'clock. We are 45 minutes early and get the tip to go to the "manege" This dilapidated building served in the Czarist time as stables and as a riding school where an equestrian show was given by the cavalry horses every Sunday. The building dates from 1903. On the walls large photos have been put up showing Karosta then and now. Interesting.
The tour in the stockade or prison is given by an older man donning a Soviet uniform. He leads us through the complex, which was originally built as a hospital, but came in handy as correction facility for naughty soldiers and sailors. They were sent here for minor punishments for disciplinary offenses. The regime was very strict. During the German occupation deserters imprisoned here. The serious cases were executed in a forest in front of the prison. The Soviets also used the building as a disciplinary facility until 1991. The newly founded Latvian army used the building until 1997, when it was closed because it did not meet NATO standards. It stood empty until 2002, when it became a museum. We see original military objects, the room of the commander, an interrogation room and the cells.
In the evening we eat in town at Pastnieka Maja, a former post office. Quite nice.

Weather: Morning rain and 8°C / 46°F. Afternoon sunny  and 19°C / 66°F

donderdag 11 September 2014

We walk into town to the Trinity Church with its four-layer tower. Unfortunately, the church is still closed (until 10am). We walk on into the old town and see the house where Peter the Great spent the night on his Great Embassy tour in 1697. The embassy was a word for a diplomatic mission led by Peter the Great for one and a half years visiting a number of West European countries, including the Netherlands. The building here (half timber) is sadly boarded up. Only a plaque commemorates this historic event. Ten years after his visit Peter came back to conquer the city. We walk to the Lutheran church, which unfortunately is closed until 11am. In front of the door we meet an Australian couple. The parents of the woman were married in this church in 1940. The woman is of German origin, but she is very reticent about that fact. Her family fled for the Soviets to Germany at the end of the War. We walk on to the lively market. We see sellers of mushrooms there. This is apparently the result of their quests in the woods with the orange buckets. There are also vendors with small blueberries. All hand picked. Many of them seem to be Gypsies or Roma. There is also a covered area with meat, vegetables, cheese and fish. At the butchers we see completed and half pig heads on display. It is all quite cheap.
We then visit the Roman Catholic Church Josef which is behind the market. The church is richly decorated with frescoes and murals. There is even a chapel in Art Nouveau style. Next we walk to the Alexander Nevski Church, the Orthodox Church, which is painted in purple and lilla. From there it is a few hundred meters to the Hika iela with stone and wood Belle Epoque villas in various states of repair and renovation. The municipality has landscaped the streets beautifully with gardens, fountains and nice paving. Now the houses will have to match that. We walk back to the Trinity Church, which is now open. The dirty outside says very little about the rich rococo interior, which looks impressive. Much gold leaf has gone into the altarpiece and the pulpit, which is supported by an atlant.

In the afternoon we drive to the National Park around Lake Pape. There in the park, a herd of wild Konik horses is roaming around. After some searching, we get to the fenced off part of the national park. There is no guide at the entrance office next to a closed gate and in the distance we see some horses wandering. According to the signs a visit to the area without a guide is strictly prohibited. We do it secretly and walk a little past the fence and photograph the horses from a large distance. When we get back to the car and call the number for the guide (+371 2 6693867), we see in the distance a jeep driving towards us. It is the guide. For 6 euros she leads us into the herd of Konik horses and aurochs. We can approach them at very close range. Sixteen horses have been imported from the Oostvaardersplassen in the Netherlands. Out of the original 16 animals a herd of 150 horses  has grown in 15 years time. The horses are wild, but not very shy. They ignore the visitors, but they keep an eye out for us. Touching and feeding is strictly prohibited. In winter they are fed (the area is too small to support them) and holes are made in the frozen lake. The aurochs live peacefully alongside the horses. After half an hour we drive back to Liepaja.
In the afternoon we drink a beer at Darbnica, an alternative style café on Liela iela. In the evening we eat at Vecais Kapteinis. The restaurant is in a restored wooden villa and even has a garden. I take Ukranian carpacio of bacon with a glass of vodka followed by duck. Erik takes a salad, followed by a pasta with chicken.

Weather: cool morning with fog. Then sunny with temperatures up to 21 degrees.

 

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