Tag: Riga

Still in Lockdown, in our parking spot! Reg has now had his vaccinations and is allowed to socialise. We have been on a few short walks already. Lockdown rules have enabled us to catch up with some family, at a distance and Reg has begun to meet people and dogs.

We wanted to continue our look back at places we’ve been and this time we’re looking at the Baltic States – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.

Estonia

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• Tallinn – we headed for the campsite in the city but weren’t impressed so headed out of town , slightly instead. We did stop at the Memorial to Communism, which is located next to the viewing platform for the Olympics. We returned to find the Baltic Chain Tile and had a quick tour of the city, but it was an incredibly busy, sunny Saturday.
• Pirita Harbour – a stellplatz in the marina. The marina was where the Moscow Olympics 1980, held their sailing and rowing events. There are the Olympic Rings, the Olympic Flame cauldron and various other statues celebrating the Olympics.
• Lake Peipsi – we stopped here at a campsite on the shores of the lake. The otherside of the lake is the edge of Russia! The campsite was lovely, small and quirky.
• Pärnu – a traditional Estonian town on the edge of a river and on the Bay of Pärnu, in the Baltic Sea.
• Hiiumaa and Saaremaa – two islands in the Baltic Sea, off the eastern coast. They are accessible by ferry and when we arrived the weather wasn’t playing ball! We were able to visit Hiiumaa, but not Saaremaa, as the ferry between the two was cancelled.

Latvia

• Riga – our base for three nights and the location of our filming for Erwin Hymer and Etrusco. We stopped at the campsite in the city and wandered around with a film crew (Luke and Frank) for two days. We stumbled on the changing of the guard at the Freedom Monument, visited the Museum of Latvian National History – which told the story of the change from an independent country to a Soviet State and back to an independent country, and found our first tile of the Baltic Chain. We also first met up with Karen and Colin http://www.rewindthegap.co.uk, and their dogs Lily and Oakley, in their Burstner Motorhome, Billy. They are also bloggers for Erwin Hymer and Burstner.
• Jurmala – the beach resort outside Riga, and where we continued our filming (we also stopped on the way back on a country road to be filmed driving). The beach was lovely and sandy.
• Salaspils Concentration Camp Memorial – not far outside of Riga. It is a memorial to those who died in the work camps of the Russians, and also as a Nazi Concentration Camp.
• Sigulda – one of the nicest and friendliest campsites we have stayed at. It is relatively new and on the edge of a lake. We also wanted to go to the Bobsleigh centre, but didn’t check the opening times. Camping “Lakeside” Sigulda, is also where we had to be towed off the grass.

Lithuania

• Zarasai – our first port of call in Lithuania. Zarasai is surrounded by lakes. We stayed in a campsite by one and had visited the Observation Circle on our way into the town.
• Geographical Centre of Europe – just north of Vilnius, near the village of Purnuškės.
• Vilnius – the capital city and a completely different place to the rest of Lithuania (in our opinion)! The campsite on the edge of the centre, was a quirky place and had a lovely feel to it. We walked around the town and found our remaining Baltic Tile.
• Ninth Fort – another monument to those killed by the Nazi regime.

As always, thank you for reading. We’ll continue our review of places we’ve been, next week. Stay safe.