Mid-Level Bidding Again

I wrote about the Foreign Service assignment process in these blog entries from 3 years ago: Mid-Level Bidding Game and Mid-Level Bidding Continued. Now it's time to find a new place to work since my current tour ends next year. Yes, I'm tenured for this career through retirement, but we all have to compete for new assignments each time our tours end. It's the same crazy game as last time so I won't rehash the whole painful process.

Castles in Lielvārde Latvia

 

Lielvārde is a little town along the Daugava River about an hour drive southeast of Riga. They have a reconstruction of a wooden castle similar to the one in Tērvete. There's no need to choose a favorite between them since they're both fun to explore. There's a castle ruin on the other side of town in the manor complex. The nice park grounds around it with huge carved poles are a great place to stroll around. Finally, there's a named waterfall listed on their tourist board. If you're not interested in the castles then skip to the end to see that amazing wonder.

Castle Of The Livonian Order In Sigulda

Siguldas Viduslaiku pils (Castle Of The Livonian Order In Sigulda) is a great place to hang out. The castle compound has some interesting shops, food, and ice cream. It's about an hour away from Riga by car. We took the train to Sigulda last summer and explored Turaida Castle, so see that post for another Sigulda tourist spot.

Daugavgrīvas Cietoksnis - Star Fortress

Daugavgrīvas Cietoksnis is a fortress originally built in the Swedish Livonia in the 17th century. There's more history at the link but the current structure is newer.

"The fortifications of the fort were completely rebuilt before the outbreak of the First World War. During World War I, the fort was bombed by German air forces. Soon the Germans took over the fortress, and in 1917, the German Emperor Wilhelm II personally inspected it. In 1940, the Soviet navy took over the fortress."

It's only open on the weekends but it's an interesting space to walk around and explore in Riga. It's across the river from old town and near the mouth of the river.

Jelgava Latvia

Jelgava is a Latvian city about an hour from Riga. The nice place to hangout in Jelgava is an island named Pasta salā. No, this has nothing to do with Italy since pasta means postal in Latvian. The Postal Island is the site for their annual sand sculptures in summer and ice sculptures in winter. We haven't been in winter yet but we'll do that this winter. There's a sculpture garden, restaurant, and a cafe with great treats to sit by the river.

Tērvetes Dabas Parks

Tērvetes dabas parks is a nature park but there's some really cool stuff in it which fully justifies the drive there and small price of admission. It's almost like some sort of natural theme park.

There are zip lines and climbing areas which seem to be popular across Latvia. There's also a tall observation tower which is another thing they like to build here in various places. The park has large paths which are easy for all ages and strollers. There's smaller more natural paths winding between the main roads to get a little closer to nature and see less people. Those can be challenging for strollers but some people were doing that too with their families.

The really unique thing about this park are all of the carvings and little buildings on the trails and in the various Gnome or Dwarf villages. We didn't even get to the other side of the park for the Fairytale Forest so we'll have to go back someday.

https://www.mammadaba.lv/tervetes-dabas-parks

Tērvete Wooden Castle

I love castles! This is a really cool reconstruction of a 12th century wooden castle. It's a unique experience to wander around inside what they believed to be the fortification style of the Semigallians with some artifacts and some recreations in the museum. They were the Viking Age people of the region before the Kingdom of Livonia. There's a long rich history of Latvia to explore. This timeline link covers prehistory to modern Latvia.

This is across a street from the park where the original castle stood on a hill. We also hiked over there through the nice park so the rest of the pictures are of that area.