Yesterday was, for me anyway, about the city of Riga. I didn't mention in yesterday's post, but I had originally booked an optional afternoon excursion to Jurmalla, a resort city on the Gulf of Riga, not too far from the city. With the temperature rising though, I didn't think I could take the sun and heat on the beach, so opted out. [I'm hoping to have a chance to put my feet into the Baltic on the way to Tallinn, though!]
This morning, I went on another optional excursion, Guaja National Park, In Sigulda. The Guaja flows through an ancient river valley that includes actual steep banks, ravines, streams, sandstone and even an actual cave! Unlike most of our US national parks, this includes not just the landscapes but also monuments, camping facilities, car parks, cafes, agriculture, towns, and even tourist cabins! Sigulda is sometimes called the 'Switzerland of Latvia' because of the hills and activities that can be done there.
We stopped at the Castle of the Knights of the Sword (aka Sigulda Medieval Castle). The original castle was built in the early 13th century as a castellum type fortress (see the tower), then later rebuilt into a convent type building. It was damaged in the Livonian War (1558-1583) and was abandoned in the 17th century. It remained in ruins until the 20th century, when it was restored.
The grounds are quite extensive. In addition to the castle ruins, there is small (and charming church), the gardener's house, a sculpture garden, places to walk, and other [estate] structures that have been restored and have various exhibitions in them. There wasn't really time to see everything but here are pictures of what I did see (well, at least some!):
The church:
The gardener's house (exhibition):
The castle ruins:
The Sculpture Garden (collection of contemporary sculptures; variety of materials including stone, metal, and wood; abstract and figurative exploring various themes):
The estate buildings (only the outside, I had run out of time to explore):
Of course, some pictures of nature (I love the bark on the final picture)!
This isn't actually the end of this excursion, let alone the rest of the day - we made two more stops before returning to Riga. But this post is long enough. I will save that last stop and the rest of the day until the next post.
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