Turaida

Before we left London we signed up to an all day winter tour of Sigulda and the surrounding area with a company called Discover Latvia. When organising it we had been told it was unlikely to be snowy and the tour guide at the deer park would be on holidays while we were there. Closer to the date or host alsop told us due to unseasonably warm weather a lot of the parks were very muddy and slippery.

We didn't quite know what to expect when we got picked up on Saturday morning by Janis in his family van and headed to our first stop, collecting his 12 year old son, Gustav, along the way. Driving out of Riga, the Soviet influence on the city was very apparent in the architecture, especially when compared to the art deco architecture in Riga.

Our first official stop was Turaida Castle, which was built by the Livonian's in 1214. The weather was pretty dicey and raining. We got out of the car and off we went. We visited the small church, which was one of the oldest surviving wooden churches in Latvia. Around a memorial site next to the church Janis told us the story of the Rose of Turaida. Maija Rose was a little girl when she was found among the wounded after a battle in 1600 and taken to Turaida Castle, where she grew to be a beautiful woman with many suitors. The only one with a place in her heart was Viktors, a gardener at nearby Sigulda Castle, home of a rival group. These two used to secretly meet at Gutmana Cave. One day, a suitor from the Turaida side of the river decides to Lee Maija to the cave under false pretences, to kidnap her for his own. To ensure her escape, Maija promises the suitor the magic scarf around her neck. The scarf would protect her from a blade and to prove it he should swing his axe at her neck. You don't even need to imagine what happened next, but the suitor was captured and hung for his crime. Court documentation had shown this story to be true!

On approach to the main Castle, Gustav announces that we all have to run to the top of the Tower, counting the steps as we went along. We got there, maybe forgetting to count the steps, and the views out over the valley were pretty nice, although limited by the weather. The small on site museum gave a history of the Livonia. It was interesting that although Turaida and Sigulda were very close together and only separated by the Gauja River they were never part of the same group's territories.

Back to the car, and to a buffet restaurant in Sigulda. It was tricky to work out what the food was, but we definitely had our fill and it didn't burn a hole in your pocket.

After lunch we went to a nearby spring to fill up water bottles, as well as get Janis' supply for home in lathe water drums. There were lots of locals, remembering we were in the middle of nowhere, filling up bottles for their own use!Read more