Daddy, is Sigulda Audacious?

Before jumping on our bus across Lithuania to Poland we had a lovely three days at a Latvian homestay.

We headed to Sigulda with nought in the way of a plan but when we arrived at the "Switzerland of Latvia" we stopped off at the Tourist Information bureau and enquired about the cheapest possible accomodation. The helpful assistant pointed us in the direction of Ludmina and her lovely, if grumpy dog, Ludwig.

The first day was spent doing very little. Soaking up the snowy ambience, chilling in a coffee and cake shop, those types of things. Day two we experienced what people have described as the fairy tale atmosphere of Sigulda.

First we caught a cable car across to Krimulda. At the corner of our vision, perched on a hill, on a sunny day was a beautiful castle. At Krimulda their were various ruins and we wandered around for a little bit, looked at our map and wondered how we were going to get to Tuiraida.


"I wish there was a bus," Kate said as we stood beside a deserted crossroads.

The view of Turaida Castle from the Cable Car

And then a bus appeared. I ran over to them with my map and asked them if they went to Turaida (Check out the story behind the Rose of Turaida here . The bus driver nodded and we jumped aboard with high fives worthy of the NBA.

Turaida castle was amazing. Covered in snow, with a completely restored main tower it was exactly like something out of a fairytale. And we were the only ones there.
Later in the afternoon we checked out a tiny little cave that Kate said sucked as much as the Aurora, but I thought it was okay. Then we caught our little bus back to Sigulda.

"Invade this muthaf$#a!" (Chuck Norris would...)

In the evening our lovely homestay host dropped us off at a fantastic Latvian restaurant on the edge of Sigulda. She picked us up an hour later and took us on a tour of Latvia's remaining sights including the Sigulda Castle, spectacularly lit, and the Olympic Class bobsled.

Oh and I copped the title of this entry from Christian TV. We had cable in the homestay with about 300 channels, only all but about 24 were locked and the only ones in English were the station promo channel and the GOD channel. So we watched some Aussie spruiking a Christian rock festival called Audacious for about an hour. No shit.

Paka.

Ps. I'm pretty sure if there is a God, he hates Christian rock as much as you or me.