9:00, and the 2nd of our inter-capital sight-seeing road trip, with 4 German girls and a USA couple, and Elli doing the driving and talking (lots of the latter). We got the front seat again. First stop was Sigulda, where the USSR built a concrete bob-sled training track because they weren't doing so well in competition. Now it is used by many countries other than Latvia. In summer they use sleds with wheels. Even if no-one is there training - which there was - public are not allowed on the run.
From there we went to Cesis, a town dating back to C13. They have a ruined old castle in a park, a newer one from C18 which is a museum, the 3rd biggest church in Latvia which is being restored, and some nice old buildings. We wandered around for about an hour.
3rd stop was the Sietiniezis National Park, which is an extensive forest, but in places there are farms and towns, so it's not like an Australian national park. Here they have sandstone cliffs. The stone is much easier rubbed away than Sydney sandstone. It was a nice little walk through the forest, with some up and down steps.
Forest with green ground cover, not brown leaf litter.
Then it was lunch time, and we were in Estonia. After lunch which was outside in the garden, and very nice too, we went just up the road a bit to the Valga Military Museum, which had mannikins dressed in Soviet and local uniforms, and guns and medals and other stuff, and outside there were tanks and a helicopter. All the info was in Estonian, or Latvian,or Russian, and that made it even less interesting. There had been a slow leak in one of the tyres, so while we were looking, Elli raced off and got it fixed.
Because we'd been quick with our lunch, and hadn't stressed about the tyre, Elli gave us a bonus stop at Helme, where there is a sandstone cave complex, and a ruined castle, and some more up and down. The castle has had hardly any renovation, just a few props to stop it falling, so it looks really old, and there's lots of moss etc.
Last stop was another old C13 castle, this time in the town of Viljandi. It has some quite high walls, and it's quite amazing how they have stood for so long. There was a suspension bridge, and the theatre near-by. It started to rain a bit while we were there.
It rained for the next 2hrs as we drove, past many storks getting ready for their migration. Elli said that they leave on either 19 or 20 Aug, how they know, we don't know, but by 21 they are gone to Africa. Then they will be back with the same mate to the same nest next year.
Rain had stopped by Tallinn. We walked to our hostel (not a bnb this time - can't have been any close by, but we are missing their amenities already), then went out to find take-away pizza.
No comments:
Post a Comment