Bicycle touring Latvia: Pilsrundāle to Valmiera

Wow, Latvia was great — good riding, excellent sites, friendly people, nice forests. Rīga turned out to be one my favorite cities, and I also really enjoyed Rundāle Palace and Gauja National Park.

Crossing a border without any border posts always makes me happy. We crossed the border from Lithuania on a dirt road near the Sarkaņu kapi cemetery. The only post was this one:

IMG_20240829_151927 by bryandkeith on flickr

Our campsite near the school in Pilsrundāle had too many mosquitoes, and that, I think, was my biggest complaint in Latvia — mosquitoes, sometimes even during the day in the forests.

IMG_20240830_074109 by bryandkeith on flickr

Nearby was a small park with two sundials. One was a typical sundial — see? it’s about 06:50,

A normal sundial -- looks to be about 06:50 solar time by bryandkeith on flickr

but the other showed Italian hours, in other words the number of hours till sunset. Here’s a photo of that sundial, but there’s no sun on it yet ’cause I was too early.

This sundial shows the number of hours until sunset ("Italian hours") by bryandkeith on flickr

But no one comes to Pilsrundāle for the sundials. The attraction is the fantastic Rastrelli-designed Rundāle Palace, a baroque palace for the Dukes of Courland.

20240830_103012 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240830_102625 by bryandkeith on flickr

If you’re not familiar with the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia, well, you probably should be. After establishing a colony on the Gambia River, they headed to the Americas and established a colony on Tobago. They were early European importers of American products, including apparently potatoes, and thus — though potatoes certainly aren’t from Latvia — Latvians feel a bit justified in calling potatoes their national dish.

If you’re not familiar with Rastrelli, well, you’re going to be if you follow this trip till to the end (future posts). Here are some photos of typical Rastrelli interiors:

20240830_115314 by bryandkeith on flickr
20240830_120251 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240830_115951 by bryandkeith on flickr

The luxurious throne room had a niche for the duke’s Chinese porcelain collection.

IMG_20240830_120017 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240830_121204 by bryandkeith on flickr

Check out the details on the stucco decorations.

20240830_120936 by bryandkeith on flickr

Most of the ceiling paintings were done by Italian artists.

IMG_20240830_124250 by bryandkeith on flickr

I loved this place and had never seen anything like it before, but — spoiler — we ended up seeing seven more Rastrelli buildings before the end of our trip. Rundāle Palace is his earliest so maybe we can follow the evolution of his style?

20240830_130549 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240830_124530 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240830_131522 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240830_133656 by bryandkeith on flickr
20240830_115033 by bryandkeith on flickr

We found this bridge to cross the Lielupe River to Mežotne Palace.

IMG_20240830_155521 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240830_165931 by bryandkeith on flickr

We crossed the Lielupe again at Staļģene and just after swimming were invited to spend then night at Klāvs and Evelina’s house. They made dinner (chicken on the bbq) and breakfast for us, and then when it was raining in the morning, we all went together by car to visit Bauska Castle.

20240831_130131 by bryandkeith on flickr

It’s a utilitarian fortress, now a museum, so different from the luxurious palace that we had visited the day before.

IMG_20240831_115235 by bryandkeith on flickr
20240831_124830 by bryandkeith on flickr

It was fun to meet Evelina and Klāvs and worked out well to visit the castle while it was raining. We had sunshine for the afternoon ride to Jelgava, the capital city of the Duchy of Courland and Semigallia.

IMG_20240831_154615 by bryandkeith on flickr
20240831_172047 by bryandkeith on flickr
Jelgavas Svētā Simeona un Svētās Annas pareizticīgo katedrāle

We can think of Rundāle Palace as the Dukes of Courland summer palace. In Jelgava we saw a larger baroque palace by Rastrelli, Jelgava Palace, the Dukes of Courland winter palace.

IMG_20240831_174317 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240831_174844 by bryandkeith on flickr

Continuing north we had some nice forest riding and made it to the coast — for the first time this trip — at Jūrmala. Özgür and I attempted to go swimming in spite of the cool weather and very shallow sea.

20240901_124707~2 by bryandkeith on flickr
20240901_165333 by bryandkeith on flickr

The next day we arrived in Rīga and crossed the Daugava, the same river that we pedaled along our first few days in Latvia 3½ weeks earlier. Rīga was founded by a man from Bremen, representing the Hanseatic League who ruled for three centuries. Bremen and Rīga are now sister cities which is why we find a Bremen Town Musicians statue in Rīga.

IMG_20240902_164544 by bryandkeith on flickr

The Poles were here, then the Swedes. One Swedish king wanted to move their capital to Rīga since it was better defended than Stockholm. Swedish soldiers were housed in barracks just outside the city walls, but they punched a hole through the walls to gain access to the breweries and Latvian women. It’s now called the Swedish Gate (behind Ferda), and the street still has beers and beautiful women.

IMG_20240903_150915 by bryandkeith on flickr

The Russians defeated the Swedes and considered Rīga the third most important city in their empire after Moscow and Saint Petersburg. It seems a lot of people like this place. I loved it and thought it was perhaps the best city I’ve ever visited for walking around and looking at buildings.

IMG_20240902_180612 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240902_171058 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240902_183454 by bryandkeith on flickr
20240903_141119 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240904_095804 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240904_100455 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240904_102014 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240904_100630 by bryandkeith on flickr

Maybe that gives you an idea. Rīga Art Nouveau isn’t for everyone. Özgür was unimpressed and mentioned at least four cities in Italy — none of which I’ve been to — that he liked more. But I liked Rīga so here are more photos.

IMG_20240902_172830 by bryandkeith on flickr
House of the Blackheads
20240903_122932 by bryandkeith on flickr
Dome Square
20240903_125953 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240903_144159 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240903_165506 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240904_103148 by bryandkeith on flickr
Latvian National Museum of Art
IMG_20240904_093935 by bryandkeith on flickr

Özgür ran out of time, took a bus to Tallinn, and flew back to Antalya from there. Ferda and I pedaled east to the Latvian Ethnographic Open Air Museum. It’s a very well done site, housing wooden buildings — houses, barns, windmills, churches — from all the historic regions of Latvia from the mid-18th to mid-20th centuries.

20240905_131125 by bryandkeith on flickr
20240905_132225 by bryandkeith on flickr
Šķibe Windmill (1814) by bryandkeith on flickr
Rogovka Orthodox Church (1930s) by bryandkeith on flickr

A young Serbian student working at the site was telling me about a touring cyclist he follows on the internet. “I know Snežana,” I said. “You must be Bryan,” he said!

The rest of our days in Latvia were spent riding through Gauja National Park, much of it on fun forest paths with great campsites.

20240905_173338 by bryandkeith on flickr
Garkalne
20240905_172838 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240906_104024 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240906_113252 by bryandkeith on flickr
Krustiņi
IMG_20240906_121736 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240906_123139 by bryandkeith on flickr

Krimulda was a fun collection of buildings. The manor house is now a sanatorium.

IMG_20240906_152035 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240906_152646 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240906_163652 by bryandkeith on flickr
Sigulda

We camped near the third highest waterfall in Latvia — less than 2.5m! — and used it as a shower.

Daudas ūdenskritums -- the third tallest waterfall in Latvia by bryandkeith on flickr
Daudas ūdenskritums, Jurbrenči

Līgatne is an old paper mill town. We enjoyed visiting the wooden worker houses.

IMG_20240907_111659 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240907_113012 by bryandkeith on flickr

Cēsis is a cute town.

20240907_151544 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240907_170915 by bryandkeith on flickr

Outside some houses you can see a row of shoe statues. Each pair represents a person who lived in that house before they were killed in the Holocaust.

20240907_155247 by bryandkeith on flickr

And on to Valmiera, the end of our cycling in Latvia.

IMG_20240908_124558 by bryandkeith on flickr
20240907_174953 by bryandkeith on flickr
20240906_130418~2 by bryandkeith on flickr
20240908_125346 by bryandkeith on flickr
20240908_123907 by bryandkeith on flickr
IMG_20240909_130830 by bryandkeith on flickr
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2 Responses to Bicycle touring Latvia: Pilsrundāle to Valmiera

  1. sage says:

    I lived in Riga for 2 years. Worked in Jurmala. Love that city too.

  2. Mike Painter says:

    “You must be Bryan,” he said!
    You’re famous in all sorts of places!

    Lots of nice sights and sites there.

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