What
a
wonderful world
Lilies-of-the-valley, May-bugs, and Sandy Beaches
Latvia
and the Gauja
National Park.
Latvia
was the last Baltic State
left for us to discover. We had already visited Estonia, from Finland
and, two
years ago, it was Lithuania. Now it was Latvia’s turn.
For
the first few nights, we had
booked a room in the Tiger hotel in Riga. It was a comfortable and
friendly
place to stay, but it is also a place where Russian visitors to the
town like
to stay. Our son has only
been in Germany for a year, so we hoped
that hearing his own language the whole time would not cause problems.
And he
managed extremely well.
We
spent our first day looking at the ‘Art Nouveau’ style buildings in Riga. On
the second day, we looked
for traces of the Middle Ages (or what is left of these) in the old
part of the
town. Compared with its Baltic competitors, Riga is a strangely
inhomogeneous
town. Sometimes a row of houses is like a wild
ride through the
centuries and styles of building. To make
up for what had been a very strenuous day for a child, we
went for a very
long trip in a paddle-boat in the evening – probably the owner had
already
started to think that we would not bring the boat back. The next
morning, we
dealt with the formalities for the boat which we were renting for our
trip. The
afternoon was spent in the Riga Garden City Metsapils.
After
these few days in the town, we
wanted to get out into the countryside. We took the train from Riga to
Valmiera. On arriving there, we liked the camping ground so much that
we
decided spontaneously to stay there for a day, and to wait until the
following
day before pushing off in the boat. Before our evening meal, there was
a surprise
of the unpleasant kind. Although Reinhold had checked our spirit-stove
at home,
it simply refused to work. It was a stroke of luck that Serjoscha had
insisted
on having a large camp-fire – which now had to be used to cook our meal.
Before
leaving, we had to get a
replacement for the cooker then, at last, we could get on
our way.
The canoe-owner put the boat in the
water just past a couple of artificial rapids. Going leisurely
downstream, we soon
left the built-up area and were in the Gauja National Park. White
sandstone
cliffs alternated with flat river banks.
The
river flowed so slowly that we
had to work – paddling. We couldn’t find the recommended camping-place
– where
we thought it would be there was a ‘No Camping’ notice. Our first
overnight stopping
place was already occupied by a group of people,
who had a good supply of alcohol in their boats – and there were swarms
of
gnats In spite
of this, our youngster
really enjoyed the sandy beach. That evening, we showed
him Maybugs, and the
next day he decided to be the
‘Maybug
doctor’. We used the paddles to rescue them from the surface of the
water.
Serjoscha let them crawl on a stick until their wings were dry and they
flew
away. A fine and quiet day, spent paddling on the water. We got as far
as Cesis,
and at last we could buy sun-cream and ice. The next day was also spent
on the
river, with breaks on sandy beaches, passing steep
banks and Maybugs in the water. This time, we stopped
overnight in
Ligatne – Reinhold was not feeling too well. Just before our evening
meal, he
started to feel worse and worse. He must have picked up an infection
from the
water. The water quality does not seem to be as good as ….. .
The
next day, the weather was worse
– and Reinhold’s condition was no better, so we decided to take a look
at
Ligatne. However, if one does not include the bus journey there, that
took only
quarter of an hour but, in the forest behind Ligatne, we saw some
interesting things.
As Reinhold’s condition was no
better by the third day, we decided to see a doctor. After a
visit to the
hospital, his condition improved. That evening, we had a big meal –
typical for
the country – in the best hotel on the square. The weather refused to
improve,
so we took the bus back to Riga. The highlight of our last day was a
trip to
Jurmala – a pity we didn’t have more time for this. But we will return
some
time.
© Annette Baur und Reinhold Strecker , January
2010