Latvia again

Sunset at 11:16 pm in Tūja, Latvia 

Leaving Estonia, we drove our motorhome Vanni along the coast of the Gulf of Rīga, to cross into Latvia again. We soon arrived at the seaside village called Tūja. After finding a campsite there, we stayed a few days to admire the wonderful sunsets.

Tiny Tūja is right on the beachfront, and we spent an evening or two at the lovely little beach restaurant. The food was great, the view spectacular and the service good - but it was very windy. 

In fact, we had very bad wind and rain almost the whole time we were there, but we enjoyed the break and the views.

Lielstraupe Castle, Straupe, Latvia 

Moving on, we turned inland to visit Latvia's Gauja National Park. After driving through several villages, we stopped on the edge of the National Park in the small commune of Straupe. We wanted to see its 13th century Lielstraupe Castle. 

After a chequered history, including wars, fires, and changes of ownership, the castle was restored in the 20th century in Baroque style. Unfortunately, we found it closed and could not look inside. 

Leaving there, we drove north to Valmiera, at the top end of the Gauja National Park. The Valmiera region is one of the longest-inhabited in Latvia, and was settled around 9,000 years ago.

Orthodox Church of St. Sergey of Radonezh, Valmiera, Latvia

The township is not very big, and we stopped there briefly and went for a walk. We found some interesting architecture, including the attractive Orthodox Church of St. Sergey of Radonezh.

It is said that in 19th century Latvia, you could acquire land by changing your religious affiliation to Orthodoxy. Many did and soon after a wooden Orthodox church was built on the site of the brick one we were looking at.

We found a small attractive replica ‘old town’ along the banks of the scenic Gauja River, then returned to Vanni for lunch. After a visit to the local supermarket, we moved on.

Street in Cēsis Latvia

Our next stop was in Cēsis, a small town at the heart of the Gauja National Park. We found it interesting, with its narrow streets, stone houses and one-story timber dwellings.

The town has a history dating back 800 years and is supposedly, one of the best-preserved medieval cities in the Baltics. Cēsis Castle dominates the town centre. It was built by the Livonian Order at the beginning of the 13th century.

Then the weather worsened, so we rushed back to Vanni for shelter. We needed to move on and find a campsite for the night.

Marg beside the campsite lake, Cēsis, Latvia

We soon found a peaceful camp just out of Cēsis. It was right on a lake, although a little breezy with the occasional thunderstorm. 

We have noticed that lots of campers in Latvia grill their food on an outside BBQ. Whatever the weather, they are out there cooking up a storm! 

This camp provided a BBQ, so we tried it. However, the weather was far too windy so we cooked on Vanni’s inside gas stove instead. 

Our neighbours were undeterred, with several out there under an umbrella cooking away. We decided we are not as weather-tough as Latvians.

Marg at Red Cliffs, Gauja National Park, Latvia

On the way out of Cēsis the next day, we visited the Raiskums Red Cliffs in Gauja National Park. After a lovely forest walk, we found the 200 metre long and 10 metre high ancient, deep red, marble-like creviced cliffs. 

The cliffs are dotted with caves and one had a small spring of gushing water. We spotted several groups of people walking to the spring carrying a cluster of empty plastic bottles in which to take home the clear sparkling liquid.

From Red Cliffs, it was a short drive to other places in the Gauja National Park. One of these was Zvārte where we saw more sandstone cliffs and rocks.  

Leigh climbing 500 steps at Zvārte, Latvia

We drove down a shocking road to find these, parked Vanni, then paid to see them. After a short walk we found a swing bridge at the base of the cliffs which are on the river. After crossing the bridge, we climbed 500 or so steps to get to the top of a giant rock. 

After a short wander around at the top admiring the wonderful views, we opted for the short walk down. This meant going down the same steps rather than taking a circuitous and slippery forest walk. Upon reflection the forest walk may have been better as our calves were very sore the next day!

Moving on, we soon arrived in pretty Sigulda which seemed to have lots of green spaces, parks, quite prosperous looking houses and two castles, both called Sigulda Castle! 

New Sigulda Castle, Latvia

We visited the new 19th century Sigulda Castle and its beautiful gardens, then walked around behind it to find the ruins of the medieval Sigulda Castle; both very different and interesting.

Leaving Sigulda, we made the relatively short drive to Rīga. We were visiting Rīga again to get Vanni repaired after the damage caused by running over a branch a month ago. Repairs were to take 2 days, so that meant a night in a hotel for us.

After dropping off Vanni, we used our bikes to get to the hotel, which was right on the river. While there, we saw tall ships sailing up the river and docking right across from where we were staying.

Marg and Tall Ships, Rīga, Latvia

We watched fascinated and then found out that it was the Tall Ships Race coming in on the Rīga leg of the race. 

We had seen the Tall Ships docked in Helsinki, Finland three weeks ago, and it was great to see them now in full sail. The race dates back to 1956, and this year there are 99 vessels from 35 countries in the race.

From our side of the river, we could see that Rīga harbour was alive with activity. So we cycled over the bridge into the old city and visited the activities at the harbour and along the river where the tall ships had docked. We had a great time.

Leigh with the helicopter in Rīga, Latvia

We bought some Latvian take-away for lunch then wandered over to a huge army helicopter. Leigh’s youngest brother is a helicopter pilot in Australia, so we were interested in how it all worked.

Later, we cycled back to the hotel after a fabulous, but different type of day.

The next morning, we picked up Vanni from the repair shop, only to find that there was a part they could not fix. However, they had ordered the replacement part and arranged for it to be fixed in Warsaw when we would be there, in around 3 weeks. Soon after, we left Rīga and drove south. 

Cathedral of St. Simeon & St. Anna Jelgava, Latvia

Our next stop was the lovely little town of Jelgava. We read that it had two palaces and we managed to see one of them. There were also some lovely churches, and we particularly liked the blue and white Cathedral of St. Simeon & St. Anna. 

But the most interesting thing to us was that they are doing up the town centre and it was lovely. For example, on one side of a bridge in the centre, we saw a dirty creek while the other side of the bridge, the creek had been cleaned up, the sides of the creek bed had been paved, there were sculptures, and cycling and walking paths, and the creek water had been cleaned of weed etc. The transformation was amazing and lovely. 

After admiring Jelgava, we kept driving south, heading for the border. Our next stop will be in Lithuania again.

This blog describes part of our 6-month motorhome trip around northern and eastern Europe, which began in Prague.