Riga After an amazing weekend, we finally had a day to settle into our downtown apartment on Ausekļa (a Latvian poet) iela (street) near most of the foreign embassies and just a short walk from Old Town, the hub of the city. After a slow, lazy morning allowing us to catch up on sleep, we took …
Kakava (Pronounced Checkeva) Just outside of Riga, Ansis and Monta found an old property with a farmhouse on it. Their dream was to take the old house, fix it up, and create a place for their family of five to live and thrive. They were very successful in their endeavor. Ansis drove us out of …
Jurmula to Riga Ansis is the host with the most. We left Abragciems for Riga in the morning, but it was raining, so our plans to stop along the beaches to see the white sands was no longer possible. We did, however, sprinkle dirt from Liesma and Arnold Grinvalds’ graves onto the Latvian soil and …
Abragciems Abragciems is a tiny Latvian village on the coast of the Gulf of Riga which is part of the Baltic Sea. Many Latvians have summer homes across the coast. They finish work for the week, and then drive to their cottage on the seaside. Bruno and Maruta have just such a cottage, but it is …
Jaunmoku Pils Latvian lesson of the day… “Jaun” means “new” and “moku” means “torture” or “torment.” “Pils” simply means castle. So every time you drink a “pilsner” you are drinking a bit of a Latvian castle. We finished our visit in Talsi by attending the historical Evangelical Lutheran Church where we were greeted by another …
Talsi and Arnolds Grinbergs After Kuldiga, we drove to Talsi to spend the night. We found out that Ansis wanted us to visit Talsi because that is where our Uncle Arnolds lived after World War II. He was a soldier in the Latvian Army fighting for the German side when the Russians began to move in. …
Kuldiga the Pearl of Kurzeme We spent the rest of the afternoon in Kuldiga. First, we rode the train all around the city watching a strangely translated video explaining some of the really cool sights of the town. We crawled through the cobblestone avenues soaking in the history of this beautiful city. The train was …
Kuldiga: One of Latvia’s Gems and the Draudzigs (friendly) Latvians Disclaimer: Again, I apologize for the lack of Latvian characters. After we met at the gas station, Bruno took Vitauts while Ansis drove Sue, Glen and me to one of Latvia’s most beautiful and historical cities, Kuldiga. As we were driving, Ansis explained that this …
July 9, 2016 Continued… The Bruno Breakfast of Champions Bruno’s arrival at 8 a.m. was a bit of a surprise. He owns the flat we are staying in as well as his own adjacent apartment. He can freely walk from room to room as they are connected by a shared storage space. He reminds me …
July 9, 2016 The Coffee Shop Spoiler: There is no coffee shop at the end of this story. And I apologize for not using Latvian diacritics for the Latvian names. Forgive me. As Susan, Glen and I were walking back to the flat on Friday night, we saw a coffee shop that was only a …