0354 Sigulda to Cesis, via Ligatne

11^th Sept 2015

Castles, more castles, and a wild ferry ride !

Cold – 3 deg C when I got up at 7.30, so it was probably a bit cooler during the night.  But we were toasty in our sleeping bags, and when you wake up to a clear blue sky, it is always a good start to the day !  Showers were “interesting” but hot – In other words there were mechanical issues with the fixtures !  But nothing we hadn’t seen before, and that couldn’t be fixed by a shampoo bottle or flip flop wedged behind the taps !   Hey ho !  Anyway, we started the day smelling sweet, and after noting that St Petersburg was still only 525 kms away, we headed to our first castle – Turaida, that we had visited briefly last night before heading to the camp site. 

Turaida Castle is actually more of a private Estate that started in about 1571, and includes many buildings like grain storage, a smithy, fish storage, and much more.  But prior to 1571, the town of Turaida started to develop in the 11^th Century when the Liv people built a wooden fortress, who lived in the Guaja valley. The Livs were the original people of what is now known as Latvia.  We walked through the old estate in order to keep ahead of a large Japanese tour party – Who fortunately all stopped at the toilets so we got a bit of a break on them – and headed straight up to the old castle.  What with all of Latvia’s other internal political issues in

the past 70 years or so, archaeological digs and renovations of castle have not always been easy, but they are starting to do a fine job now.  We have been most impressed by what we have seen over the last week or so, and today was no exception.  They continue to excavate and research, but what they have renovated has been done very sympathetically (if that is the right word), making it very easy to see how it used to be without trying to rebuild it all like a brand new castle.  It is the same with all castles around the world, that they were modified as new war machines and methods were invented – The last of these was when gun powder and rifles and canons became common place – Castles kind of lost their raison d’etre because the methods of conducting a war had changed irrevocably. 

I think one thing that caught my imagination today was the reason for putting sloping walls at the bottom on the outside of battlements – So that when defenders dropped rocks down onto the heads of attackers, instead of just landing on someone’s head and killing him, the rocks hit the sloping wall, shattered into many tiny pieces and effectively became shrapnel shooting off at all sorts of angles horizontally and killing or injuring many more.  Never thought of that one !!  I also found it fascinating that they found animal and bird footprints in some of the old bricks, and even etchings by humans on some. 

After climbing towers and reading hundreds of documents, we headed back through the estate, visiting the grave / tree of one Rose of Turaida, who died in 1620 when she was attacked, but resisted and stayed faithful to her true love, and as a result has become a focal point for young Latvia Lovers.  We visited the old smithy and had a chat with him, and the old baths, a focal point of Latvia life even today.  And in the cart house, in addition to the old carriages, they also had a number of sledges, some of which were very reminiscent of ones I used to use on snow slopes in Devon as a boy ! 

We wandered until we were pretty exhausted, and hungry, and then went back to the car.  We found a picnic spot down near the Gauja River, and then headed towards  Ligatne, although this was not without fun as a couple of roads we took ended up as dead ends !!  We eventually made it, and then headed off on more dirt roads, through little villages, towards Cesis.  Outisde Ligatne we passed many old wooden houses, still very much in use, and very much more “rustic” than we had seen previously.   Then, in a little town called Gaujas, we came round a corner and found

a river……with no bridge over it !  But there was a kind of ferry – with a single car on it – a small hatchback.  It looked very primitive – Basically a couple of hulls and a wooden deck bolted on top !  When the hatchback drove off, the platform / ferry rocked quite a lot, so I wasn’t sure about 3.5 MT Troopie !  Once the little hatchback was off, the ferry man waved me on down – So I went on down !  The little wooden ramped seemed strong enough, but once Troopie’s front

wheels hit the deck, the barge tipped quite alarmingly, so when the rear wheels came on, there was now quite a drop of about 6 or more inches !  Hmmm.  The ferryman kept waving me forward and forward in order to balance the ferry, until our bumper was virtually touching the thin wooden pole that was all that was between us and the river !  Eventually we seemed level, and we set off.  That is, the ferry man grabbed the cable suspended across the river and started pulling, and the ferry started moving across the river, although the whole ferry turned sideways in the current, held only by a couple of rollers through which the cable passed, and which was all that prevented us floating away down the river !

All I kept thinking was the song “Don’t pay the ferryman, till he gets you to the other side” !!!  I wasn’t parting with my money before we got there !! Needless to say, we arrived in one piece, although on driving off the ferry we again had quite a struggle as it tipped before the rear wheels got off, leaving me with a 6 inch ledge to climb up !   And then we were off and away !!  What an experience ! 

We drove through some delightful countryside, all through the Gaujas National

Park, until we eventually came to Cesis.  This town was first established in around 1250, and centred around the fort that was first built in 1209.  Since then, even Ivan the Terrible attacked it in 1578, and though the castle has been destroyed or rebuilt several times, the town has survived largely intact, and is very much a medieval town. 

It was about 4 pm by the time we got there, so we spent the next couple of hours exploring both the old and the new castle (built in the late 1700’s).  We were given candle lanterns and told we would need

them, and then set off to explore the dungeons.  These required us going down a metal ladder through a narrow opening – Quite interesting to say the least !   Then it was on to the North Tower, which is where we needed the lanterns – No electricity in this town yet.  And it WAS dark going up the winding stairs !  Good view over the town and the valley from the top of the tower though.

From there it was on round the old castle, in a state of being renovated, but once again, all done very sympathetically, and with good signing in 4 languages (Latvian, Russian, German, and English).  After the old castle, we went into the “new” one, which was more of a historical museum of the area, and while very interesting, we were both starting to feel our age – We had climbed several tall towers up winding staircases, and descended into dungeons, and in between had walked for several hours – So we called it quits and headed to a camp site once again down beside the River Gauja, just below the city of Cesis.   We shall go back into town tomorrow morning for a look around.

In the meantime, we once again have a delightful camp site down by the river, and I have taken a couple of Ibuprofen for my pains after the last couple of days, and am looking forward to a good night’s sleep !!

 Pics are here :-  https://picasaweb.google.com/110185357936043625130/0354SiguldaToCesis?authkey=Gv1sRgCIXEt4Svx-OFBA