Blogs from Sigulda, Vidzeme Region, Latvia, Europe

July 12 part 1 - Happy Birthday me. I was saving today's day trip for my birthday in the hopes that it would be a good one. It was. I decided to get up early because I was hoping to make it to two different towns in one day. Really ambitious for an old lady, I know. I got on the 8:10am bus to Sigulda and was there by 9:15. I knew it would have to be a good day as the song I heard playing on the bus when I got on was The Never ending Story, from the movie of the same name. Love it. The bus station had a mini version of my favorite place, the info office, so I asked about the best route and she gave me a map and highlighted ... read more

After 4 days back at work from my last holiday, I was back in the air again as Ben and I went off to explore Ireland. We flew into an overcast morning in Dublin and after finding our hostel, I played tour guide as Ben had never been to Dublin, or Ireland before. We walked through the streets and explored the main sights before the inevitable happened and we wandered over to the Guiness factory to take the tour (me for the second time). The tour was brilliant once again and we spent an hour or so at the bar on top of the factory, looking out over the city as we enjoyed our free pints. Following that, we wandered the Medieval and Viking Quarter before finding a pub to settle down and watch some football. ... read more

After a couple of days in Riga we decided that it was time to see some greenery and head to the countryside, so we jumped on a train and headed to Sigulda in the Guaja National Park, 50km east of Riga. Arriving in the early afternoon, we had plenty of time to explore the little town. We stumbled across the 'bobsleigh' run, which we had a couple of goes on, although i wasn't too keen on the chair lift back to the top! This is sport number three in the Evans training for 2012, never content with a steady run, Tom insisted on flying to the end, although the dismount was less graceful! After an afternoon of physical activities, we found the local cafe for a cold wet refreshment, and being only 75p a pint, we ... read more

Riga'da geçirdiğimiz 4 günden sonra bir minibüse ( Letonya'da şehiriçi dolmuşlar ve bizdeki gibi şehir merkezinden ilçelere giden minibüsler var) binip orman içinde bir yerleşim merkezi olan Siguldaya gittik. Otobüs terminalinin hemen yanındaki oteli pek beğenmedik. Daha önce Lonely Planet'ten baktığımız otellerden biri olan Villa Alberta'yı bulmak için elimizde harita sırtımızda kocaman sırt çantaları yürümeye başladık. Riga'dan da daha sessiz olan Sigulda'da ağaçlarla kaplı bir yoldan 15 dakika kadar yürüyerek Villa Alberta'ya ulaştık. Her odası farklı tarzda döşenmiş olan villanın bize ayrılan odası ise country tarzında döşenmiş, renkli ve çok şirin bir odaydı. Odamızda biraz dinlendikten sonra karnımız acıktığı için tekrar şehir merkezine döndük. Şehir merkezinde sadece iki ya da üç tane restoran ve bir ma... read more

After a very early morning start, flying out of Liverpool, we arrived in Riga in time to meet our friends Craig and Julia. They had been in Lativa an extra day and after picking up a hire car, had spent the night in the coastal resort of Jurmala. We were headed for Sigulda but first had to drive straight through the middle of the capital. It was snowing. After about a hour's drive, we arrived in Sigulda and after a quick search of the area, booked into a couple of rooms at the "Melnais Kakis" (Black Cat) hotel (a choice swung by the fact that they had a pirate-themed bar in the basement called the "Jolly Roger"). We dropped off our gear, had a long lunch in a local cafe and then set out to the ... read more