Whilst being in Latvia, we've been asked several times if we had been or were going to Sigulda... Every time we responded no, we hadn't been and were told we 'should go, it's very beautiful this time of year.'
Today, we found ourselves with an almost free day (just a meeting with Liga this evening that we didn't need to plan for) so after a bit of investigation, we decided to head to Sigulda. We also invited along Liene, who has been fabulous at translating for us, and we wanted to spend a bit more time with her!
An early start found all 7 of us on the bus at 815am, and heading out of Riga listening to the quality radio, playing tunes such as Faith and Hips Don't Lie. At Sigulda, we found the tourist information and headed out to see the sights! Whilst we were there we visited two castles, two highly graffiti-ed caves (carving dating back to 1667, not just casual graffiti!), at least two churches, climbed two towers, went on a cable car across the valley, walked up and down a couple of hills (Latvian mountains!), saw the walking stick park, and the folk statues park. We also found time for a wander around some stalls and some of us bought tiny walking sticks!
I think we were there a few weeks too late to see the autumn colours in full swing, but there were some incredible views all the same, especially from the top of the towers... The Latvians are right - You SHOULD visit Sigulda!
When we got back to Riga, we had half an hour chill out in the hostel before the best text ever 'hey girls, are you hungry? Do you fancy dinner?' yes Liga, we were hungry!! Up and out again, off to a Latvian buffet place with very good food! While we were eating we discussed plans for our final few days in Latvia (we're cramming four meetings into 24 hours!) and some more programme stuff and had a bit of chat about GOLD as a whole. It was a really useful (and yummy) dinner meeting!
Now we're back for an early-ish night before packing and repacking again and planning tomorrow!!
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