Baltic Sea Shore and Liepāja Sunset

We made a quick stop in the outskirts of Ventspils for lunch in a cafe. After our inexpensive shashlik and rice meals, we walked around only for a few minutes, wanting to get back on the road quickly. Ventspils is known for being Latvia's richest city, and for being very tidy. My cousins actually complained that they feel it is too sterile! The town has quite a bit of fun and colorful public art, such as the ladybug below.

We continued our drive down the Baltic Sea coast. The area along the shore between Ventspils and Liepāja is rather rural and there are not many sights to see, but we did make two stops: first at the Užavas brewery store. I prefer wine, but of course Latvia is known for its beer. I was searching for gifts, and did find some.

Our second stop was at the Jūrkalne beach, which was quiet and peaceful. Bryan made his way down to the beach itself, while I chose not to climb down those crooked stairs. Ironically, in trying to climb up a small sandy hill at the top of the dunes, I slid, fell, and pulled a muscle (definitely could have been worse!). However, the view from the dune into the sea was lovely.

By the time we found our Liepāja hotel, Vihelmīne, we were quite tired. Our hiking/walking/climbing in the morning had lasted four hours, and adding that onto too little sleep meant that I - for one - was beat. I catnapped, read, rested, and tried to find some energy to at least see something in Liepaja. I asked the hotel employee to recommend a restaurant for dinner, preferably where we could eat seafood. She suggested "Pastnieka Māja" (The Postman's House"), which was only a block away. It was a restaurant that I had heard of before (it is highly rated on TripAdvisor), and was excited to try. Bryan and I both had the salmon dish, and it was marvelous. Service was very friendly and helpful, and the ambiance in the space is modern, yet comfortable. For dessert Bryan chose the brownie with ice cream, which was enormous and which he definitely enjoyed, while I had a strawberries and cream dish which average in my opinion. If you ever happen to find yourself in this town, I highly recommend enjoying a meal at "Pastnieka Māja"! I rarely take photos of my meals, but these were too pretty!

We ran back to the hotel, as it was getting to be sunset time, which was 9.39pm on May 14 in Liepāja if you like details. (For reference, around the time of the summer solstice, the sun will set in Liepāja at 10.31pm and rise at 4.45am - Latvia has many hours of daylight during the summer.) We wanted to witness the sunset, and Bryan wished to put his fancy camera and tripod to use for some colorful photographs. Many of these vacation photos are from Bryan's camera - most photographed by him, some by me, while others are from my smaller/cheaper/less fancy point-and-shoot. Thanks to a few clouds, we were treated to a delightful sunset.

Having visited Liepāja a number of years ago, I was dismayed to see more abandoned and run-down building than I recall on previous visits. It was too dark as we returned from the beach, but there are a number of absolutely stunning historic buildings which are decrepit and falling apart.This is a common problem in Latvia, and it's sad to see. Later a friend explained that the country's real estate laws are quite prohibitive when it comes to buying fixer-uppers. Apparently the law dictates that a buyer must not only qualify for the mortgage, but must have a separate pot of money which would allow him/her to fix up the house (to code) within one year! To me this seems incredibly counter-productive and illogical. If this law is really as strict as my acquaintance said, then it's no wonder the Latvian countryside and many towns are dotted with concrete carcasses and sad once-beautiful historic buildings.

The photo below, however, is of some of the better grafitti that I spotted. It says, "Kāds ir Tavs šīs dienas izaicinājums?" Translation: "What is your challenge for today?"

Seashore, Salmon, & Hockey: Kurzeme's Gulf Side and Kolka

Having tended to the injury as much as possible, we continued by driving toward the shore, which on that side of Kurzeme is the Gulf of Riga. Thanks to the map of Latvia I had purchased at a gas station (otherwise we had a GPS that Bryan had procured and that was generally very useful) and to the helpful "landmark" signs dotting the roadside, we were able to stop at several places typically overlooked in an English language guide of the Baltics. The first of these was"Kaltenes akmenaina jurmala", or Kaltene's rocky seashore.

Three swans enjoying the rocky seashore

More rocks!

Look, I discovered a waterfall at the seashore!

In search of lunch we headed to Roja. The first cafe we encountered was closed according to some locals who spotted us walking around in our search, but they directed us to a wonderful restaurant called "Otra Puse," (literally translated: the other side; it is next door to the Hotel Roja). Here Bryan savored his potato pancakes with cheese sauce, while I enjoyed the lox (which I ordered without bread - confusing the waitress, but I had my own stash of gluten-free bread along!) and cream of mushroom soup. The mushrooms were a tiny but tasty variety that I had never eaten before. For dessert we wisely chose to share the the house specialty: homemade black currant ice cream with vanilla sauce. What a fantastic ending to our meal! The creaminess and slight sweetness of the sauce worked perfectly with the somewhat tart ice cream.

With our final destination for the evening being Kolka, we ventured on, stopping in the "Baltā kāpa" or white dune beach. From there we drove to "Kolkas rags," which is the horn or point of northern Kurzeme where the Baltic Sea and the Gulf of Riga meet. Located within Slīteres National Park, it is an unusual phenomenon - to see waves from the sea meet the waves of the gulf. Well, that is what I had promised Bryan, but when we arrived, the point was covered in a thick cold fog, and we could not see much at all!

A small stream at the White Dune Beach

View of White Dune Beach

Fallen trees on Kolkas rags

One surprise in our visit were the many swans hanging out in the surf. The next day a wildlife expert would explain that some swans stop in Latvia on their migration routes to spots even further north - such as Finland or parts of Russia. This is the reason there are so many lovely white swans in this area of Latvia in the middle of May.

Difficult to spot in the fog - but those are all swans out there!

This sleepy cat resides in the souvenir shop at Kolkas rags.

We proceeded back to the town of Kolka in search of our hotel. The GPS directed us to the wrong location, so I called - and even then there was some confusion, as it turns out the tiny village has two grocery stores with the same name, both located on the main street! Having finally found the hotel Zītari, we took some time to rest, then took a short drive to check out our surroundings, and returned to the hotel for dinner. My second portion of salmon for the day - a fantastically well prepared fillet - was delicious.

After dinner it was time to cheer on the Latvian national hockey team as they played Kazakhstan in the world hockey championship. We watched in the restaurant in the company of the innkeeper, a bus driver, and two local men. The game was close, but Latvia won. The tournament continued for at least a week after that, and Latvia played several other games, but this was the only one I had the chance to watch, and also the lone one the Latvian team managed to win. However, on this day the team's win was, in my humble Latvian opinion, a fitting way to cap off the first full day in Latvia.

Let's Begin the Day with Chocolate: Exploration of Kurzeme Continues

Two of my favorite foods are chocolate - preferably a quality dark chocolate - and salmon. On our first full day in Latvia, I was happy to enjoy both. After our filling breakfast, we drove a short distance to the Pure Chocolate company. We toured the (free) museum, which focuses on the history of chocolate, and is quite interesting. Some bits were a bit illogical, but generally it was a nice little museum, and the building itself is intriguing.

Entrance area of the Pure chocolate museum

Honest words of a chocoholic

Cocoa beans have been used as currency!

Then we tackled the important thing - visiting the company store, which offers a plethora of fresh Pure products. In addition to beautifully packaged chocolates, they also sell large inexpensive bags of rejected truffles -- the chocolates that did not pass the quality inspection, but still taste good. We know that for a fact because B bought a bag of milk chocolate truffles with a white chocolate filling, which we enjoyed over the next several days whenever we had a hankering for something sweet.

Steps away from the main building, the company has built a cute cafe. Apparently it can be rented for special events. Hmm, I should host my next birthday party here?

Pure Chocolate Cafe - love the windows which afford view of Latvian countryside

With copious amounts of sugar in our possession, we continued on our way to Sabile. First we stopped in the middle of town to wonder about the strange doll exhibit about which my friend S had told me. Apparently the people who own and run this bizarre attraction change the clothing on the dolls occasionally, as clothes do fade and tatter in the weather.

This one is especially for my Bulgarian friends!

Even dolls need to iron!

Easily the strangest photo we have from Latvia!

Then we visited the Pedvale Open-Air Art Museum, which took two tries to locate, including driving back into the town of Sabile to chat with the young woman at the tourist information office (I can imagine that our inquiry was possibly the only one she received that day!). So, if you ever wish to visit, when you turn off the main road at the landmark sign, follow that road for a bit until you see a smaller road or driveway on your right - it is an alley of trees - then follow that to the end, and turn right. That will lead you into the parking lot. After paying our 2,15 Euro entrance fees, we walked through the fields checking out a number of the sculptures.

The helpful woman at tourist office had given us a couple of other suggestions to check out in the area, yet the only one we decided to see was the falls on the Abava river ("Abavas rumba"). I had already warned B that waterfalls in Latvia are not comparable to those in the States. Having seen this waterfall before, I had a vague recollection of it being cute and not much else. Judge for yourself!

After playing on the playground located near the falls - and one of us suffering a minor but rather painful injury - we moved on, making our first stop a grocery store to purchase a bag of frozen vegetables to use as an ice pack for the injury.

This post has gotten so long that I will write about the remainder of the day in another! (Although writing a blog is fun, the process is also time-consuming, so you might be reading about this trip for the rest of the month as I break it up into manageable parts.)