Categories
Europe Latvia

Rundale Palace

As one of the countries shining glories- the Rundale Palace is  popular and it is easy to see why. it was definitely one that we would pay entry for- to get a tour and see the interiors as well as gardens. 

Here is the e-guide to it if you would like your own guided tour :).

It was from Rundales that we drove to Kaunas – and that has been described already earlier.  After spending a couple of nights here -mainly drying out the tent and our gear- as well as sightseeing of course – we drove back to Poland.

Once we arrived back it was real busy catching up with everyone -finally meeintg the sister, celebrating Grandpa’s 92nd birthday! Spending time with the nephew and also meeting his 18-year-old daughter. So, it was as intense as we usually seam to pack it in …and a few days after arriving it was time for me to make my way back down south to where my parents stay.

All was not lost though as we had made rough plans for him to come visit down south-for my birthday -which was in a couple of weeks. It was a sad goodbye before I picked him up at the Wroclaw train station some weeks later. We packed in more activities and meeting more of his friends that were Wroclaw based -who he hadn’t seen in years -so it made for interesting catch ups 😊. The time came though for me to get back to my planned travels- and fly to Iceland-and Greenland from there. We kept it going long distance- and as I eventually made my way to Australia the distance grew even larger. In the end of the day- a few months down the track- we didn’t make it in the long term. 

Either which way – a time I look back at real fondly !

Categories
Europe Latvia

Lake Burtnieks

Lake Burtnieks was not some official planned stop- but as we drove and enjoyed the scenery a time came when we needed to find some place to camp-so why not by a lake – why not this one? This relatively simple decision ended up being a pretty adventurous one as the we ended up crossing fields through which only tractors should drive.  Neither of us were sure if the car bottom was going to be able to make it across the ruts! But somehow it did!! Phew- and we were the only ones there for the night, so it was lovely and peaceful but also the damn coldest night!! Did some wood collecting and thought it would be good to make some potatoes on the fire- well—they turned out to be charcoal by the time we fished them out!! Ooops!

 

After the lake we continued -down a much easier road-thank goodness! We were headed towards the castles around Sigulda however we ended up not staying for too long and there was some concert taking place and it was rather busy. We spent another random night somewhere in the forest before heading to a palace that I have been excited to see for a few months now!

Categories
Europe Latvia

Riga

Riga was even quieter than Vilnius from a tourist perspective- it was a very odd feeling when we hit the main square and there were hardly any people?! Are we in the right place -we wondered?!? So many stunning Art Nouveau buildings in the city- and so beautifully maintained and restored! The city also has beautiful gardens, and we spent a lot of time walking around enjoying it all!  

 

One of the first things that caught my eye on the drive in was the tall and very familiar building of Latvian Academy of Sciences. This was not because I had been here before but because there is a very similar building in Warsaw- The Palace of Culture.  

Categories
Europe Latvia

Western Latvia

After catching the ferry across the river mouth again from Smiltyne to Klaipeda we kept along the coast and headed north towards Latvia. As we hadn’t booked any accommodation, we just went with the wind depending on what we wanted to see or how we felt about a place. The distances are also not big and the roads were pretty good- so you can cover a lot of ground with longer stops. I had also been keeping an eye on the weather as we planned to spend some time on the island of Saaremaa -Estonia. However, when we planned to this was going to be rainy for a few days- so we were working around trying to avoid this band of weather.

We stopped at Liepaja as the golden domes of The Naval Orthodox Cathedral of Saint Nicholas caught our attention. No photos were allowed inside, but the outside was rather eye catching. On the northern outskirts of town were the Northern Forts but these were pretty disappointing and dilapidated. And caused a stumped toe in jury to my dear travelling partner.

We kept going up north towards Kolka -where there was a small national park. We had a late lunch BBQ on the beach and kept heading all the way to Riga! This is Latvia’s capital city.