Day 46 - The Kurzeme Region

Flower rabbits!

Our room was in such a nice quiet location that we slept in, so had a late start to the day. Once we’d had breakfast, packed and checked out we set off to see the nearby waterfront, where Laura had fun sampling some of the play equipment on the beach. The adjacent pier also hosted one of the 27 statues of cows that are scattered around Ventspils. This was one was very big and was painted blue. We also checked out a large chair made of old anchor chain. Driving around town we were struck by the number of quaint ornamental flower sculptures (three we saw were in the shape of fish, rabbits and lady beetles), and the many and varied playgrounds for children. We also noticed in passing that even the town’s cemetery was very pretty – aided a bit by the number of pines and conifers growing amongst the graves which gave it the look and feel of a forest. In fact the cemetery looked so pretty that I hear people are dying to get in. (Hey, that joke was just made to be used here!). Although we only saw four of the town’s cows we did stumble across the markets. Laura finally tried the little red berries we have seen so often – and promptly wished she hadn’t. We won’t be buying any more of them!

Anyway. the upshot of all this unexpected sightseeing was that we didn’t leave town for Cape Kolka until 12:30pm. Our first stop was at Staldzene, just a few kilometres up the road, where we had a view of the beach and the forest of trees that come right down to the beach. Our second stop was at the old Ovisu Lighthouse which we were able to climb for a look around. We could see forests of pine trees in every direction, including in the direction of the beach 2kms away. The lady who looks after the old lighthouse was happy to show us around the little museum despite her limited English. At least she was able to demonstrate some of the early lighthouse and maritime communications equipment.

Thereafter we made straight for the cape itself, and were delighted to find that the advertised gravel road had recently been sealed, making a nice smooth road. The cape itself was a bit blustery with a couple of kite surfers making good speed. You could clearly see a line of waves were the waters of the Baltic met the waters of the Bay of Riga. We drove on a short way down the inside or eastern shore of the cape and had another look at the beach near Usi. The waters edge was still framed by pine forests that grew all the way down to the beach.

By now it was late afternoon and for the second day in a row we were well short of where we had planned to be by day’s end – namely down into western Lithuania. Rather than just retrace our steps we cut inland through Vidale and Dundaga and back through Ventspils where we had started the day. This route was quite pretty and was still dominated by pine forests, though there were some signs of agriculture here and there. We did get a bit lost going through Ventspils and ended up passing that very pretty cemetery again.

We were now aiming for Liepaja, which is some 55kms north of the Lithuanian border. Along this stretch of the drive we stopped to check out the steep 20 metre high sand dunes which line the beach front around Jurkalne. We also had a look at the old wooden stanchion bridge over the River Riva.

The Fontain Royal Hotel corridor

When we finally reached Liepaja it was quite late, so when the Fontaine Royal Hotel turned out to be reasonably priced (with breakfast included) we happily checked-in. This establishment, with its unique decor, deserves some comment, but I am at a bit of a loss to know where to start. The dining room, with its many chandeliers and walls with bare concrete columns interspersed with florid art deco murals? And filled with gold painted art deco furniture? The long dimly lit hallways with alternating dark red and blue striped walls and gauche gold painted, crown-shaped light covers on the walls? The numerous baby cots spread around the common areas on the floors? The large goanna, living in a glass cabinet, in a common room in the middle of our floor? The in house entertainment that included “Sexy Tuesday” every Tuesday night and “The Big Fuck” disco (sic) every Thursday evening. (Fortunately Sunday is their night off, so we would not be disturbed by such things). It was all so eclectic that you couldn’t help being fascinated by it all.

Given the lateness of the hour and the reasonable prices in the dining room we also decided to eat in. I would have to say that the food, though not exceptional, was at least all very nice and was delivered pretty quickly.

The final surprise the hotel had for us was its array of English language channels available on the TV. Flicking through them Laura found that it included not only the BBC World Service but about 30 other channels including cartoons, American soaps, live sport and “adult entertainment”.