Latvia and Lithuania - Week 14

We arrived in Riga, the capital of Latvia and parked at the City Campsite. It said on the sign that it closed on 15/9 but there were still plenty of people using it.

The first day we walked the 2kms to the old town and wandered around the cobbled streets looking at all the old buildings and churches. We called in to the tourist information to see if they had a free walking tour but we were too late, the last one departed St Peters church at 12 midday. We carried on looking at different statues, taking photos of some of them and crossing over the river and through the park to Freedom Square. 

By this time we’d had enough so found a little restaurant away from the main drag to have some tea. We’d been on the road 90 days so used this as an excuse for treating ourselves. We ordered some food and then Andy asked for a Diet Coke, the lovely lady tried to understand to no avail, so he tried again, coke with no sugar, aha!! We got water with no ice lol. Bless. Her English was far better than our Latvian so we couldn’t complain. The food was delicious 😋
By the time we got back to the campsite (after calling into the supermarket for milk) we were beyond shattered.

The second day we did nothing apart from catching up with blogging stuff and chilling out. Sometimes you just have to stop and recover.

The third day we walked back into Riga and made the walking tour just in time. The old town is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is a maze of cobbled streets and Art Nuevo buildings, churches, cafes and sculptures. The most important place to the Latvians is Freedom Square where the lady holds up 3 stars representing Latvia’s 3 provinces. You learn a lot on these tours and it always amazes me how you can walk past something that seemed so insignificant and yet when you hear the story behind it, it blows you away.

For instance, there’s a stone slab containing a pair of footprints just near the shops, no writing, nothing. This is the story ... On August 23, 1989, the simple act of holding hands freed six million people in the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia. More than two million people joined hands in a human chain that began in Tallinn, Estonia, stretched 600km across Latvia, to Vilnius, Lithuania. These footprints mark the middle of that line ... how amazing is that?!!

We visited Bremen, Germany within the first week of our trip and took a photo of the 4 musicians, something that Bremen is famous for. On the walking tour around Rīga, we were shown a similar monument. This one represents the Bremen musicians peering through the invisible iron curtain (that was) looking over to the west. Most people could reach the first 2 animals but apparently, because Andy could reach the cat, he’s going to return to Rīga every 2 years!!

We also managed a walk around the market too. It’s housed in old Zeppelin Hangers which I also found fascinating. 

We enjoyed our time in the city.

The next day we headed for the coast. Jūrmala, is another nice spot and only approx. 30kms from Rīga. It has gorgeous white sandy beaches and some posh houses of carved wood. It was very popular in Soviet times for holidays for the high-ranking communist officials, drawn by it's beautiful properties, hotels and spas. We could see why too. You had to pay a road toll of €2 on entering the town but the parking was free so that was ok.

Next on the list was Rundale Palace. What a palaver getting there. Some of the roads in Latvia are good. Some of them are bad and some are downright ugly.

We arrived at the Palace at teatime. The first car park said parking between 09:00 to 23:00 only so we parked in the second car park. They let us stay there overnight for free.

The Palace can only be described as opulent, the photos really don't do it justice. We thought Osborne House was extravagant lol. 

I really wanted to visit the garden but they were digging it up. From the windows of the palace though we could see a second garden. So we visited the Palace in the morning, went back to Harriet for lunch and planned to view the grounds in the afternoon. By this time it was getting so hot we gave up, choosing instead to drive a bit further south across the border to Lithuania. Thank heavens the ExsisT has air conditioning.

The first place we headed for, after crossing into Lithuania, was the Hill of Crosses. You can pay €2.90 to stay 24 hours in a motorhome. There are a row of stalls selling souvenirs and wooden crosses for anyone to buy and place on the hill.

It really is a sight to behold when you get there!! I’ve honestly never seen anything like it. The reason for it is mainly due to those pesky Russians!
The Lithuanian travel website said ...
Nowhere else in the world you will find such a place – The Hill of Crosses is a unique sacral place, amazing and the only one of its size and history in the world. This world well-known shrine is frequented by tourists. People of different nations and religions bring here crosses with their names, intentions, and pleadings for clemency.
In Soviet times, the erection of crosses was not tolerated, and the hill became a non-desirable, even forbidden place, opposing the Soviet ideology. On the night of 5 April 1961 all crosses were bulldozed and crushed, and then pushed downhill. Wooden crosses were burned right on the spot, metal ones were taken to the metal scrap and melted, and concrete and stone ones were crushed with crushers and used for road construction. After the first devastation, later the Hill of Crosses was periodically devastated for four more times. However, the more fervently the hill was being destroyed, the more powerfully it would be rebuilt. People were stubbornly bringing crosses at night, despite the dangers, prohibitions and persecutions of authorities. The Hill of Crosses became a symbol of an unshakable faith in the people, their sufferings and hopes ...
Wow, just wow!!

We had the idea of travelling down to the west coast to have a look at the Curonian Spit National Park as it’s another UNESCO World Heritage site. We were overdue a washing day so found a nearby campsite and before we booked in, asked the owner if he had laundry facilities. Yes he said, I will do it, 5kgs for €3! How could we say no? 2 hours later we had 2 bags of clean washing, hung on the washing line, in the lovely warm breeze.

After doing some research we found that we had to pay to take Harriet on a ferry to the Curonian Spit and although it was only a 5 minute crossing, with the toll money when you landed, it would have cost more than our daily budget. Not only that, the weather turned overnight. It was like someone had flicked a switch and summer had come to an abrupt end!!

We’ve driven to Nordkapp, the furthest north you can drive to in mainland Europe.
And now we’ve driven to the centre of Europe, 20kms north of Lithuania’s capital city Vilnius. We stopped there overnight too. There’s not much there in the way of a tourist attraction, but there’s a big column on top of a compass and surrounded by flag poles. There’s also a huge boulder inscribed with “The Geographical Centre of Europe” and another compass which we think makes the centre. We took photos of both just to be on the safe side lol.

Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania, always reminds me of one of my favourite films, Hunt For Red October. Marko Ramius (Sean Connery) was, as Alec Baldwin described, not Russian. He's Lithuanian by birth, raised by his paternal grandfather, a fisherman. Later on you find out he was from Vilnius. It’s the first time I’d heard of the place. Who knew today we’d actually be visiting. Sometimes I can’t believe how lucky I am. 

We found a great parking spot, right by the castle and within spitting distance of the old town. It was guarded and cost us €6 for just short of 24 hours. Vilnius seemed as if it was 2 cities, the old bit, a UNESCO World Heritage site, which needed quite a bit of tlc and across the river, the new swanky, no expenses spared bit. We took the City Bus Tour, €12 each to get our bearings and decide what we wanted to see. Some of the roads were closed because the Pope had been doing his stuff the day before. We thought we’d missed him but later on, lots of people were lining the streets and the police were out in force. After waiting for 30 mins we watched lots of vehicles drive past with police escorts. One of them had the Pope inside. So we didn’t miss him after all.

Oh, and Andy asked me to marry him and I said yes :O)