The next day, we started our trip quite early to Sigulda. We took bus around 9 and arrived one hour later in Sigulda, which is part of Gauja National Park. After dropped by to its visitor center, getting a free map and some important schedule, we decided to take a cable car to Krimulda at 11. The Krimulda castle is now being used as a rehabilitation cente. We also visited the ruin of the old castle and then walked (a bit hiking actually) around 30-40 mins to reach Turaida castle. We visited the museum, climbed the tower to get a nice view of the national park, and spent sometime exploring its surounding park. We took a bus to return back to Sigulda to visit the Sigulda castle before leaving Sigulda at 15:50. It was a nice castle hopping :-)
We reached Riga around 17:00 and agreed that it's completely too early to end the day :-P We decided to go to Jurmala and after getting some info on how to get there, we took train to Majori at around 17:30. Jurmala is a beach resort 32-km from Riga which is famous as Baltic riviera. It consists of 14 townships spreading along the coast and Majori and Dzintari are the main townships of Jurmala which is linked by Jomas iela, a 1-km pretty pedestrian street with a lot of restaurants and shops, and a lot of timber houses. After walked along the Jomas, we explored the beach and had a dinner in a Thai-Indian restaurant. The food was delicious, I drank my fave mango Lassi (a bit strange combination indeed Thai food with Lassi :-)). It gave me a proof that I am still Asian who loves Asian food (no more potatoes plizz :-P).
We started the next day around 9 and took bus to Bauska then to Pilsrundale to visit Rundale palace. Pilsrundale is not that far away from Riga (ca. 75 km) actually, but the public transportation to reach it is not that good, so we really have to plan our schedule carefully. We reached the palace around 11:30 and bought the ticket to visit the palace and its French garden. The palace is quite impressive, a bit remind me of Versailles, but the garden is not that big (I know it is difficult to compete with Versailles :-P). We finished the visit around 13:00 and thought that we could catch the bus at 13:29. But apparently the schedule is not there to be applied, we finally got the bus to Bauska at 14:30 (no idea, whether it was too early, since the next bus was supposed to be at 14:49, or too late :-P).
We arrived in Riga around 16:30 and visited Riga central market which is close to Riga bus station. It was quite a huge market consists of six hangars, we went to the old town again after exploring the market. That day was the first day of Riga Svetki event where we can enjoy several programs around Riga. We planned to see a free musical perfromance on town hall square at 21:00 and decided to spent the time in the old town (hmm also known as souvenir hunting :-P) before having dinner in Lido restaurant in old town.
It turned out to be a very nice performance, especially the bell choir from Liepaja. It lasted about one hour and on the way to return to our hostel after it finished, we found out that there was another musical performance in Vermanes garden. It was a live orchestra playing along with a movie, Vidzeme Symphonic Orchestra Latvian film music evening, Riga: old glory seen with a modern eyes.. It was really a beautiful performance, I have never seen something like that before... kind of perfect way to end our visit in Riga.
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