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Latvia is an amazing country for vacation. Whether you want to explore magnificent Art Nouveau architecture of Riga or enjoy aristocratic leisure in the old manor house, you will be surprised and delighted by the amount of attractions this beautiful country has to offer. One thing you definitely shouldn't miss is the spectacular Rundāle Palace, which I can personally describe as the 'Vesailles of Latvia'.

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Rundale Palace – Latvia

Rundale Palace – Latvia

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. It is situated at Pilsrundāle, 12 km west of Bauska

It was constructed in the 1730s to a design by Bartolomeo Rastrelli as a summer residence of Ernst Johann von Biron, the Duke of Courland. Following Biron’s fall from grace, the palace stood empty until the 1760s, when Rastrelli returned to complete its interior decoration.

After Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was absorbed by the Russian Empire in 1795, Catherine the Great presented the palace to Count Valerian Zubov, the youngest brother of her lover, Prince Platon Zubov. He spent his declining years there after the death of Valerian Zubov in 1804. His young widow, Thekla Walentinowicz, a local landowner’s daughter, remarried Count Shuvalov, thus bringing the palace to the Shuvalov family, with whom it remained until the German occupation in World War I when the German army established a hospital and a commandant’s office there.

The palace suffered serious damage in 1919 during the Latvian War of Independence. In 1920, part of the premises were occupied by the local school. In 1933, Rundāle Palace was taken over by the State History Museum of Latvia. It was dealt a serious blow after World War II, when the grain storehouse was set up in the premises and later, the former duke’s dining room was transformed into the school’s gymnasium. Only in 1972 was a permanent Rundāle Palace Museum established.

The palace is one of the major tourist destinations in Latvia. It is also used for the accommodation of notable guests, such as the leaders of foreign nations. The palace and the surrounding gardens are now a museum.

Anyway, coming down from the north, Estonia, first up was Cesis and the first of many castles.

Cesis Castle was built by the crusading Knights of the Sword in 1207 who evolved into the Livonian Order, served as a base for their master until the Swedes payed them a visit in the mid 16th century who turned it into an administrative centre for the whole of north eastern Latvia. The Russkies then came along in 1703 and took it from the Swedes, severely damaging it in the process and then left it to fall into ruin, until now when it has been partly reconstructed as a lovely tourist attraction.

The doors you didn’t want to go through, the plaque on the wall stating ‘From 1940 – 1941 and 1945 – 1991 the Cesis district branch of the communist regime’s oppressive organisation ‘Cheka’ was located in this building. Here people were humiliated and tortured and their homes, families, freedoms and lives were taken away.’

The things we took, and continue to take for granted in our own western countries.  Makes one thankful for the fate of being born where we were.

With that, it was a short drive to Amata River, a tributary to the Gouja River for an overnight stop beside the river, and all to ourselves.

We woke up to clear but hazy skys which after setting out on a five km walk soon turned to rain. We were off to a lump of the Devonian sandstone rock, said to be of a mysterious and magical type and the forests around were frequented in times gone by by witches. Yes, a lovely walk beside the river but the cliff face wasn’t quite so wonderful.

After shaking off the raindrops, a short drive took us to the Kuku Cliffs on the Gouja River, a better example of the sandstone rock native to this area.

From there, another hop to the Ligatne Nature Trail, a zoo in the wilderness that shows animals native to Latvia in their natural habitat.

Love owls, but we were disapointed in that the park was supposed to show these natives in their natural habitat, which in some ways it did as you drove through the countryside to see these animals in small cages, which were in turn in their natural habitat.

Not sure why the poor Brown Bears had to be at the foot of a steep hill in a mud bath with some veg thrown down a shute to them, but maybe that is their natural habitat.

With somewhat heavy hearts, we were off to Sigulda to find another overnight spot, but we felt so uncomfortable that we ended up checking into an hotel, if nothing else we had a hot shower and a chance to sort out some photos.

The medieval castle of the Livonian Order currently being restored to it’s former glory, stands on the edge of the valley affording fine views of the opposite bank, which also had two other castles, or mansions more like. In front of the medieval castle was the new castle, quite a strategic place in its time.

Yes dear, I’m listening. A statue in the grounds, a rather stern looking woman with the man in the background reading, a bit like me and her, though I would have a laptop in my hands!

Loved the tin men in the park, what looks like a school project to make soldiers out of scrap metal, quite possibly representing the unarmed struggle against the opressive regime.

Sigulda was a beautiful town, lovely old buildings and parkland everywhere, but had an uncomfortable feel about it, and we were glad to move on, Riga on the horizon.

Pulled into the camping ground in central Riga, a mere 25 minute walk into the old town. One of our neighbours, a dutchman on a two week holiday joined us for the walk into and around town, nice to have some educated company for Helen.

Riga was nice enough, but not quite as nice as Tallinn. The Old town was a mixmatch of old buildings and newish ones, a few churches dotted here and there, a statue or two, and lots of very nice cafes and restaurants.

The art gallery was a most impressive building, very beautifully done as one would expect of such an establishment. What was difficult was to get a handle on what is original and what has been restored, or even rebuilt in a faithful copy of it’s original as a lot of buildings have born the brunt of various occupying armies.

A very nice street, lots of lovely olde worlde buildings and as you can see, warm enough to eat outside even in September with some of the leaves starting to change colour. The weather does seem a lot warmer than it’s equivilent latitude in the UK.

Standing shoulder to shoulder comrades, or some such title.

The Freedom Monument, symbol of Latvian independance and Riga’s major landmark, a pedestrianised part of town where all come to meet and greet.

It is quite frightening to see what man does to his fellow man, all three baltic countries getting the attention of both Russia and Germany during the second world war. In 1941, with the German army invading and pushing out the Russians, some 70,000 Jews, about 75% of the then Jewish population where killed. As it said in the Estonian Occupancy Museum, if one is allowed to forget history, then it may happen again or some such words. But then, look at the break up of Yugoslavia, what Sadam Hussein did to his fellow Iraqis’, man will always fight against his fellow man, for whatever reason.

Anyway, back to the camping ground, get some charge into the battery and then off the next day north west to Cape Kolka via the delightful but expensive town of Jurmala. Expensive in that plod took an interest in us.

Getting out of Riga, along the main highways wasn’t so bad, Helen doing her usual great bit of map reading, looking at all the exit signs to make sure we go along the right road, looking for the coast road north west. Unfortuately, we both missed the sign saying you have to buy a 1Lat (£1.25) ticket to go through this particular town at the start of the coast road. Most countries put up a toll bridge, but they have a small layby that you need to pull over into to purchase said ticket. A hundred yards beyond the layby is a bigger layby with the Police in it pulling over poor tourists who haven’t got a clue what is going on. The maximum fine is 40Lats, some £50 or so but we were very kindly let of with a 10Lat fine. Nice policeman.

On then, clutching our receipt very strongly in hand in case another policeman pulled us over to check we had a ticket, and not even an hour later we were indeed pulled over, this time as I had only been driving with my park lights on, not proper headlights. Back out comes the driving licence and ownership papers, but this was a nice smiley policeman who seemed more interested in seeing what a magnificent beast Wallace is than actually making his daily quota.

With that, it was outa that town, not that we even saw it, nor the magnificent beach it reportedly has, and on towards Cape Kolka in the far north west of the country.

Ahh bless, they want to be together. The Cape is a meeting of two waters, on a good day one sees the two different currents crashing and fighting against each other.

What one doesn’t know, is that the locals hardly ever got to do what this elderly couple were doing during the Soviet years. In 1939 after signing the Molotov Ribbentrop Pact, the Latvians ‘accepted the help’ from the USSR to help defend against the tyranny of the west. The Soviets considered the coast regions of the Baltic to be it’s own border with the world, so built massive fortifications, based army and navy there and put up great fences to stop the locals trying to escape to the west. Strict borders for swimming were indicated along with the hours they were allowed to go there. They even went so far as building the towns and hospitals and schools away from the coast to encourage those foolish enough to want to live near the beach inland.

Just south of the cape is Europes longest beach, though not necessarily it’s nicest.

With that it was on southwards along the coast, though as on the road coming up to the cape, we never got a glimpse of water. On around Ventspils and south east to Kuldiga a wonderfully olde worlde town that had this rustic lived in look.

In it’s heyday the town would have been magnificent, sad that it seems in such bad repair, but then it does give it that rustic lived in look, and one doesn’t want everything to be perfect, it’s a fine balance trying to restore things but make them homely.

Time does indeed stand still in Kuldiga, the clock face on the church is in fact painted on.

Two longest things in one day,

Europes widest waterfall, all 249m of it. Not much of a drop, but one can’t have everything. The town was built on the banks of the River Venta, and across the river, linking both banks must obviously be europes longest red brick bridge. Well, one of the longest, doesn’t say where the longest actually is but there we go.

Kuldiga was a member of the Hanseatic League between 1595 and 1618, has been the capital of Courland, where the palace that we visit later on is, and was the native town of duke Jacob, whoever he is.

Some town, no wonder it had so many beautiful buildings.

With that it was on to Bauska to a camping ground, and the following day we visited Pilsrundale.

The back of the palace, well, front I guess, as in fronting onto the gardens.

They didn’t need to go to so much trouble for us, but nice that they rolled out the red carpet up the entrance stairs.

The Guilded Hall, a perfect name for a truly sumptious room, lovingly restored after been raped and pillaged by various armies, though strangely enough, not during or after WWII.

The ceiling fresco of the Guilded Hall, depicting the merits of a state ruler. As in lounging around on a cloud with semi naked concubines and the brats you produce. Great, where can I sign up.

One of the many nice rooms, again restored and with odds and ends put in them to give them a homely feel, all the original furniture, fixtures and fittings having long disappeared.

The land the palace sits on was purchased in 1735 by the Duke of Courland who then engaged the architect of the Winter Palace of the Hermitage of St Petersburg fame to design and build something worthy and noble for him. Most of the construction work was completed by 1740, just in time for him to be exiled to Siberia, and it wasn’t until his return in the 1760′s that the interiors were decorated in the Rococo style that was so loved of that time.

On the abolition of the duchy in 1795, the palace was given to Platon Zubov, a favourite of Catherine the Great, remaining in private hands until 1920 and thereafter falling into a state of disrepair. The current restoration, begun in 1972, is gradually returning the palace to it’s former glories. Not certain who actually owns it now, bit it seems to be the state, either the Ministry of Agriculture or the Ministry of Education, both who have used it in the last century.

With that it was back into Bauska for another night in the camping ground, a quick photo of it’s own castle, make of it what you will.

Up and off the next day, across the border and on with our travels, another day, another new country.

Have also done an overview, go to the Countries / Latvia page and added additional photos on the Photos / Latvia page.

The next morning we checked out of our hostel and met Walter, a couchsurfer at the clock tower. He was incredibly generous and paid for our train ticket to his village, Babite, which was located between Jurmala and Riga. After drawing us a map, we left Walter to explore Jurmala via train. We got off at the Majorie stop and strolled down the main drag and ate a lunch at a kitsch restaurant and continued acting like tourists photographing the old wooden houses. After resting at the beach, whose waters were quite frigid, we trekked to the next train stop and caught the train hoping to get off at the stop with a grocery store but somehow we missed it and got off at the following stop. We waited for at least 20 minutes and watched numerous people emerge from the surrounding wood.

During our bus and train rides, we’ve observed many narrow footpaths throughout forests, and fields with people walking, talking, and carrying their groceries. Many people also frequently walk along and across the railroad tracks; this is so uncommon in the states and I smiled as I saw these people following their own paths rather than concrete officially approved sidewalks…

…Anyway, after tiring of waiting, we decided we would try to walk back to the stop with the grocery store. We knew there was a bridge the train went over but we thought surely there would be footpath or walkway of some kind. However this was not the case as we discovered. When we were about a hundred yards away, an angry old soviet troll with an orange vest popped out from a station booth and yelled and waved frantically at us and we in turn hastily hopped off the tracks and started following a footpath that led around and below the “troll’s” station, through some brush and towards the bridge. I think this footpath was primarily used by homeless as it was littered and overgrown. At the end of the path, a campfire pit stopped us and from there we could see there was no way to cross the river other than catching the train. And so we headed back to our stop and caught the train to the grocery store stop Lei Lupe.

From here we walked for about 30 minutes through a eclectic old village. Some houses were covered almost entirely with ivy while others appeared extremely modern. Many of the houses were wooded with with large windows filled with curtains of old Russian lace. Gardens and strange flower beds filled their small plots of land. The street (ie large sidewalk) was the main route into town via the train stop and many people were going to and fro. After asking a couple teens where the Rimi (the grocery store chain) was located, we suddenly came upon it and a waterpark. At the Rimi, we picked up a few “unknown” sandwiches and ate outside the store. I felt very much like a homeless vagrant but nonetheless it made for interesting experience and great people watching:)…When we finished, piscean Rock checked out the waterpark and now is hoping we’ll return at the end of the trip. With a few groceries for our breakfast, we leisurely walked back to the Lei Lupe train stop and caught the train back to Babite.

After a short nap, we headed back to Riga with Walt and treated him to a beer and pastry. We exchanged some great stories and had some interesting conversation as we strolled/skipped/swayed through the filled streets of old town. Around 11:30 we headed back to the train station to catch the midnight train back to Walt’s place. Before the night was complete, Rock and Walt jammed out with some guitars. The next morning we rode into Riga with Walt (who was on his way to work…he’s a scientist investigating the properties/potential of cow manure as fuel) and said our goodbyes to our very kind host.

It was now around 10:30am and we inquired at the tourist info. center about the next train to Leipaja, which was our next destination. We bought tickets with reserved seats for the 11:05 bus and waited (yes there is a lot of waiting on this trip–it’s helping me practice patience:)) While sitting at amidst tired Latvians and hungry pigeons, I started to snack on some chips. When I accidentally dropped a tiny piece of a chip, a finch like bird suddenly arrived with his posse and the chip was no longer. I thought the birds would go elsewhere but instead one actually flew towards my chest as I was raising a chip from the bag to my mouth! I looked around and saw no one else eating and so the bag of chips was put up and I sat waiting feeling too much like a monk:)

After checking our luggage below the bus and paying an additional lat or two for such, we boarded the fairly prompt and completely filled bus and prepared ourselves for the 3.5 hour journey by snacking on some cheese sandwiches. However, our plastic bags and foil seemed incredibly loud as the entire bus was silent as we left the station. We’ve never experience such before and tried to modify our whispers into nonverbal communication so to respect the “peace.”

The countryside we passed was mostly flat with many old soviet era looking barns and a few cemeteries hidden in patches of pine forests. Several bogs and a few lakes were a blur beyond the bus window. Deep greens and yellow fields were exaggerated by the stormy blue/gray storm that followed us on the journey. A few communities contained a church or a store but much of the ride was through the vast and beautiful countryside.

After 3.5 hours and one bathroom break (public bathroom usage costs .20 Lat), we arrived in Leipaja. Our hostel did not provide specific directions so we were without such nor with a map. However, there was a large glass bulletin with a map of the city and so I took a picture and used my camera to help direct us to the street the hostel was located on. Rock suggested we hop on a tram and we did. This saved us at least 15 minutes of walking around with our heavy packs but when we somewhat randomly jumped off, we had to backtrack a bit and seek direction from passerbys. After taking photos of some buildings and bizarre sculptures, we arrived in our nondescript hostel. The building looked like all the other crumbling brick buildings but once we were buzzed inside, a very clean and hospitable place awaited us. We hand washed some clothes and then visited the nearby grocery store. Rock prepared a delicious fish/rice dinner and we chatted with fellow travelers from Germany and Australia.

I’m looking forward to checking out some churches and the beach today. The weather is looking promising and it’s quite sunny…horray for the simple things…now for lunch!

Photos here!

Rundāle  Palace is one of the most outstanding monuments of Baroque and Rococo art in Europe, it is situated at Pilsrundāle, 12 km west of Bauska, in Latvia. Located about 80 KM from the capital Riga, Rundāle  Palace is an architechtural pearl created by Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli designer of the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg. Built as the summer residence of the Duke of Courland Ernst Johann Biron the opulent palace was completed in two stages from 1736 to 1740 and 1763 to 1768.

Rastrelli was invited to design the palace by Biron, a favourite of Russian Empress Czarina Anna Ivanovna. The sudden death of the Empress in 1740 resulted in Biron falling out of favor and being banished to Siberia for 23 years. Biron was eventually pardoned and returned to finish his project, the Palace finally reaching completion in 1768. The resulting masterpiece is a magnificent example of Baroque style incorporating elements of classicism.

After Latvia was absorbed by the Russian Empire in 1795 Catherine the Great gave Rundāle  Palace to her lover Count Zubov as a gift. His young Widow, Thekla Walentinowicz remarried Count Shuvalov, bringing the Palace into the stewardship of the Shuvalov family. Rundāle  Palace remained in the Shuvalov family until 1920 when it was taken over by the Republic of Latvia  as a part of agrarian reform. The palace was in a rundown state but a lengthy restoration process that is still going on today has returned much of Rundāle Palace to its former grandeur. Visitors are able to tour the museum that was opened at the site in 1972 and several of the grand rooms are open to the public including many in the eastern block including the Room of Roses and the Duke’s Bedroom. In 2004, banqueting rooms and chambers in the western wing were opened. The palace is ringed by a canal, gardens and a hunting park.