This morning the sun rose at 5:03, but we ignored the sun for several hours and did not stay up until the gentle melody of the chimes from the clock tower of Rundale Palace woke us. After breakfast in the camper, we went and had a look around the mansion and the surrounding gardens. We were there five minutes before they opened for visitors, so we were the first group who was allowed to go through the museum. We were completely alone, and it was amazing to see the state rooms and private rooms of the Duke and Duchess of Courland. The palace was built between 1736 and 1768. It is in Baroque stile with a lot of Rococo.
The mansion was mainly restored to its original state, and you can see in what a wealth and beauty this royals lived. After the palace we visited the French Baroque Garden of Rundale Palace.
It covers circa 10 hectares and was created by Franscesco Rastrelli in 1735. There are planted 32818 lime trees, 500 chestnut trees and many other trees and bushes and roses and flowers and … We saw a lot of gardeners, that were taking care for the garden, cutting the hedges and roses, or cleaning old leaves. There was also an OpenAir theatre, an Oriental pavilion and a Labyrinth, which we mastered with a lot of laughing.
Then we started the journey to Riga, we had to drive only about 70 minutes, then we parked the car next to the river. We took a walk into the center of the city pass the Riga castle, went through the old town to the House of the Black heads.
Because we were hungry, we went to the restaurant “Fridays” and had a great meal with burgers, Tacos, salad and spare ribs. Food was really amazing. For drinking we had a strawberry lemonade, I seldom tasted something better.
Then we continued our way to the Freedom Monument, pass the National Opera to the Riga Central Market. On the way back to our car we saw a building that strongly resembled the Empire State building. It is the Latvian Academy of Science, the building is impressive. Then we went still pass the Riga Navity of Christ Ortodox Cathedral and through the Kronvalda Park back to our camper.
After more then 20 000 steps we decided to drive further north and sleep near the beach of the Baltic Sea. We came half an hour before the sunset and made a short walk along the beach.
Sunset was at 22:01 We are staying on a small parking place only 20 meters from the sea, it is quite windy and unfortunately there is a lot of seagrass on the beach, that has a quite a strong smell. But it is calm and we are expecting a peaceful night.