Riga and beyond

When the day started I could have been forgiven for thinking I was in Nicaragua. The water in the shower was cold. I later discovered it was a local issue and not the hotel's fault, but I completed my ablutions anyway and managed to have a quieter, more civilised breakfast. I had slept well after borrowing the duvet off the spare bed and making a hot water bottle. I had turned up the air conditioning so the room was cool and the duvets are rather thin!

We left Riga to head for Rundale Castle in Zemgale, the valley of Silence. We drove through very flat countryside with occasional hamlets.

 We gathered that houses in the city are 9 sq m and in the country 20 sq m. Many of the villages were military villages and still have underground bunkers. So the Russians who stayed on after independence have never claimed Latvian citizenship. They can claim pensions in both countries and travel freely across borders,whereas the Latvians need a visa to go to Russia and the older people have no pension from their time under Russian control, rendering them very poor.

It appears Latvia has been disadvanted by the EU too, having been forced to give up their sugar beet cultivation in exchange for Rape and Canola. They are not happy!

We stopped en route to see Bauska castle, which was part of the fortifications between Lithuania and Livonia between the 1300s and 1600s.

Latvia has never had it's own king, only Dukes, so has constantly been under the rule of other countries, Poland, Russia, Sweden etc. They do seem to have had a pretty disadvantaged history.

We arrived at Runsdale to see an impressive palace much like the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, and it was created by Rastrelli the same architect. Although this was his first work and therefore he was more hands on. It is a fine Baroque palace built for the Dukes of Courland.

It was surprisingly quiet, so we had a comfortable tour visiting many rooms including the ballroom and various reception rooms, now used for events. 

It was spectacular and reminiscent of Versailles. There was significant symbolism in the plasterwork. Extensive renovations had taken place and it was now complete. The Russians had used it for storing food and badly damaged and neglected it, amazing given they too have wonderful buildings. But I imagine that during the strong communist era this was deemed inappropriate as utilitarianism was the order of the day.  There were 138 rooms in total.

All were magnificent and each had their stories. The parterre garden was still being created and in parts looked too new, but no doubt in time it will weather in as a fine example of the period.

We had an excellent lunch together at the castle comprising goats cheese salad, fried meatballs and creme brulee, all delicious and setting us up for the rest of the day and a siesta on the way home!

I left the coach at the market and perused the food stalls, my favourite being the fish hall- what an array of fish and so cheap, and the mushroom stalls.

I then walked to the art museum, where I saw a fairly unimpressive collection of paintings by artists I have not heard of.

I finished the day later with another walk to the art nouveaux district where I had a hot chocolate and marzipan tart in Il Capuccino. Now it's an early night as we leave at 8 am tomorrow!

Interestinglybthe hotel has a European conference for adhesives and sealants what a strange topic! Do they stick or don't they. Well let's hope the delegates stick to the task in hand....