Category: Latvia

We are heading back south thru the three Baltic States. We usually don’t like to back track but the ferries that depart from Tallinn don’t go in the right direction so we are following the same roads south. We are varying our stopping points so we are seeing new things as we go south. The most interesting thing on the drive was the amount of military traffic on the road. There is a full scale NATO training exercise going on in Estonia. During our stop for gas at a Circle K (yes the same Circle K as in the states) we saw two Canadian soldiers fueling up on coffee and snack food.

Our destination today was Rundale Palace. We are generally not palace people, but it was a nice distance for us to go today. The Palace was built by the Dukes of Courland between 1736 and 1764. Latvia was known as the Duchy of Courland during this period and was ruled by a line of German dukes. The palace was their summer home.

It is built in the Baroque style, and is referred to at least by the Latvian tourist organization as the Versailles of the Baltic States. When I told Ton this she laughed and said “We’ll see.” I was a little nervous about the availability of the campground near the palace as it is a weekend, and one of the major tourist attractions in the country. We swung into the campground first to find it empty except for a German couple, the office was closed but the Germans told us they would come by in the evening and collect our money.

It was pretty busy at the palace but we managed to squeeze into the bus parking lot. It was a short walk over, and the initial impression of the palace was good. It is much bigger than I expected with a very large courtyard just what you expect from a palace.

After Latvia was conquered by the Russians in 1795 the palace was taken over by a rich Russian family until WWI. This area was taken by the Germans early in WWI and it spent the war years as a hospital and headquarters for the German army. During the civil war at the end of WWI in which Latvia gained its independence part of the palace was burned. After independence most of the palace was used as a school and part was converted to apartments for war veterans. It continued to function primarily as a school until 1978 after Latvia was absorbed into the Soviet union. In 1972 the local communist government decided to restore the palace and work continued on it until Latvia gained its independence. After independence the work continued under the new Latvian government until the palace was declared fully restored in 2014.

While it is not Versailles it is an immense building with imposing and ornate rooms. If the intent of these palaces is to project an image of power, it certainly does that.

But every time we walk thru one of these all I can think about is the operating costs. The staff to maintain the hundreds of rooms had to be huge. In a northern climate the cost of heating the place would have been incredible.

Besides the palace there is a “French Garden” in the rear that is also ornate and immense. A large part of the garden is covered in ornamental bushes and stately rows of trees. A smaller part of the garden is geometric with small ornamental bushes and flowers planted. The flowers today were almost all Tulips as the roses have not yet bloomed.

We spent a pleasant couple of hours wandering thru the palace and the gardens. The exhibitions were really well done, and the computer displays explaining the contents of the rooms were well designed and informative. We caught it on a day with magnificent weather, probably the first day on this trip that I would describe as warm. But in the end when I asked Ton if it was up to the standards of Versailles, she said it was very nice, but not close to Versailles.

We had a late start to our day because we were advised by the campground that the rush hour for Riga went well into the 10 am hour. But by about 10:30 we decided to head into town to catch a “free” tour of Riga. The taxi ride during the tail end of rush hour was less than €5 so we probably should have left a little earlier.

The free tour started at the house of the black cats. The house was across from the main trade guild hall in Riga, and was owned by a wealthy Latvian. He applied to join the guild but was rejected because at that time the guilds did not allow non-Germans to join. The elite in Riga was German for over 400 years, and the Latvians were excluded from most organizations. As a protest to being excluded from the guild despite having the means and the skill to join he attached two black cats to the gable of his home with their butts pointed at the guild hall across the street. This caused a lot of controversy and the matter ended up in court, the settlement was that the Latvian was allowed to join the guild and he pointed the heads of the cat at the guild hall.

We enjoyed the tour, but what was most striking to us was how concerned the tour guide was about the current geopolitical situation. The story of the tour was effectively that the Latvian people who are native to the area have been under foreign rule for all but 50 of the last 700 years. The first were the Germans who conquered the area in 1300’s and ruled until the 1600’s when they lost out to the Swedes for about 100 years. In the 1700’s the Russians conquered Latvia and held it until the end of WW1. During this period the native Latvians were secondary players in their own land. For the period between the wars Latvia was ruled by Latvians for the first time. That period came to an end during WWII when Latvia was again ruled by the Russians for a short time, the Germans for a short time, and then the Russians for the next 50 years.

During WWII the population of Latvia was decimated. When the Soviet Union gained control in 1939, they exiled or executed the leadership of the independent Latvian state, when the Germans conquered Latvia in 1941 they eliminated the substantial Jewish population of Latvia, and finally when the Soviets were posed to reconquer Latvia at the end of WWII a substantial part of the population fled to Sweden to avoid being ruled by the Soviets. As a result Latvia was largely depopulated and a large number of ethnic Russians moved in to keep the economy moving after the war.

When the Soviet Union broke up in 1990 Latvia regained its independence but with a population of ethnic Russians that is about 25%. To make the transition peaceful the Latvians agreed to allow the Russians to keep independent schools, so today the two populations are not well integrated and it is unclear where the ethnic Russians stand on Latvian independence versus integration with Russia.

Our guide was convinced that the only thing that will keep Latvia independent from Russia is a strong NATO and EU. They admit they are not strong enough to stop the Russians on their own so they are watching what is happening in the Ukraine with a great deal of trepidation as they fear they are next.

After the tour Ton wanted to visit the Art Nouveau part of Riga. Between the wars Riga was prosperous and underwent a building boom. That time coincided with the Art Nouveau style of architecture. One street survived the turmoil of WWII intact and has one of the best collection of Art Nouveau buildings in Europe. We went up and down the street looking at the intricate facades of these buildings with their faces and animals carved into them.

Our last stop for the day was the Central Market. The Central Market was established in the 1930’s by converting two Zeppelin hangers that the Germans built during WWI when they had captured Riga from the Russians. (I forgot about that time Riga changed hands.)

It is one of the largest central markets in Europe with five distinct halls. We wandered thru for a good while and emerged with oranges, lemons, and a local specialty of smoked sardines in oil.

As we travel around we are always discovering local variations on things we take for granted. In Latvia and Lithuania we noticed that the store opening hour signs do not have the days of the week on them but instead the roman numerals I-VII. It turns out this is because of a quirk in the languages. In both languages the name for Monday is “First day of the Week”, Tuesday “Second day of the Week” etc. So the Roman numerals are shorthand for that linguistic quirk.

We were off early in the morning after a good nights sleep in François. Before setting off we found Trena to thank her for her help and the rides to the train station. If you are planning on a stay in the Vilnius area, make sure you head to Harmony Camping near Rudiskes. You won’t regret it.

The drive north to Riga was a little over 300 kilometers, but I figured about 5 hours. We ended up on a good and quiet freeway for about half the way so we made better time than we expected. We were set up and looking across the river at the old town by 2:30, so we had a short discussion about heading over there. It is a little too far to walk, and the public transit isn’t so good where we are so we decided to save Riga for tomorrow.

The view out of the front of François is quite nice, but what we are not showing is the view to the rear. It is the place where all of the portable toilets for Riga are stored when not in use. It’s not always glamorous when you are traveling by RV.