Blogs from Kurzeme Region, Latvia, Europe

Ventspils & Kuldiga in NW Latvia 31 August 2014 What an interesting day we had today in western Latvia....weather fantastic, roads mostly good, lovely neat towns, helpful people and amazing landscaping, both hard and soft. We had a smooth trip from Riga to Ventspils, which is on the western coast and hosts one of busiest ports in Europe. This town is known for its white sandy beaches (main one is called Blue Flag Beach) and its harbour terminal for commercial purposes, including passenger terminals for ships coming from Stockholm in Sweden. The extra feature of the town is its parks, summer entertainment, ancient narrow gauge railway, cow sculptures and the medieval Livonian Order Castle. There are Adventure Parks and other sporting venues which are well used all year around. Some towns just 'mould around you' and ... read more

Ventspils is a very small town. I liked it because I could ride the bike around it in a few hours. My watch was over at 7:30 in the morning so there were very few people around when I started riding.... read more

It's my first attempt, so be gentle and pacient, please! Baltic Amber – JūrkalnePosted on April 5, 2012 Wanderer Yes, such pieces of amber can still be found at Jūrkalne’s beaches, especially during autumn storms (well, not processed and polished, as visible here). Only then You will look to go early, when it’s dawn. In fact a piece of amber is Jūrkalne itself – a small village on the coast of Kurzemes beach not far from Ventspils. Till 1925 it was called Feliksberga / Germ. Felixberg / i.e. Mountain of Happiness. Its natural beauty and integrity for many years were watched by… Soviet border guards. It was a completely closed area, and post-war generat... read more

July 11 - Crap day, all around. I couldn't sleep well last night at all, perhaps since I knew I had to get up early and leave and try to make the bus at 7am. Either way, I was checking the time all night, so the sleep wasn't good. I decided to get up at 5:30am, since I was up anyway. I packed up quietly, skipped eating, and hurried over to the other side of town to drop off my bags at the new hostel to try to make the bus. No real luck. I made a mistake as to where the hostel was, so from 6:15-6:30 I kept looking and looking. It was humid and hot as the sun had been up for hours and I was sweating with all of my gear on. I ... read more

Before we went to Latvia, I have well prebooked ahead the Behind The Bars night stay at the Karosta Prison in Liepaja, Latvia. Back in the Soviet days, before 1990, it was used to hold political prisoners, they shot more than 150 into death during the Soviet days, and the city of Liepaja was a sealed major military base for the Soviet era. Needless to say the prison is no longer running and became famous scary red brick tourist attraction in the Baltics, but we were quite disappointed that, even thou I was become a prisoner and given a cell to sleep for a night, that night was only two of us staying in this KGB Ghost House, this jail game certainly only for a group thing or school children training but not for a solo ... read more