The third leg of our Baltic
journey took us to Latvia to visit Beach Village friends Olga
and Sergey, who built a home in Amataciems, east of Riga. With
them as our intrepid, knowledgeable hosts, we spent six
wonderful days and had a taste of the history, food, and culture
of the country. Before leaving Riga, our hosts treated us to
traditional Latvian fare at The Lido restaurant, one of the
eateries on Tracy's list. It is a massive cafeteria-style affair
with every type of food imaginable. The photo to the left
shows Tracy displaying the portion of the meal that we had not
yet consumed (yes, there was much more)! On the way out of town,
we passed the tennis hall belonging to Latvian sports legend
Jelena Ostepenko, the 2017 French Open winner. Her fame may be
fleeting however, as Olga has taken up tennis lessons. The photo
of Ostepenko's tennis club, shot from our moving car, is in the
photo to the left.
We arrived at Olga's and Sergey's home (photo
to the left) in Amatciems. This was our base of operations as
they showed us the sights of Latvia in a series of day trips.
The main points of interest in our visit are detailed in the
links below.
Amatciems
is a planned rural community constructed around a series of
small lakes.
Turaida Museum
Reserve: preserves Latvian cultural history from the 11th
century C.E.
Riga and Jurmala: A
virtual tour of Riga's Old town and the beach resort of Jurmala
Zaubes Savvalas
Kuinarias Festivals: a Latvian Food Festival
Padomju Selpenais Bunkurs: a Cold War
Bunker
Cēsis: a tour of the old town,
including the Cathedral and the Castle
Araishi
Archeological Park: touring dwellings from the Stone Age
to the 17th century
