Gauja National Park, Latvia

Travelled : 134km
Stay: Cesis- free Motorhome designated carpark, €0.30c toilet, walk to old quarter. N57.31424 E25.28113 Thanks to Our Bumble for finding this one.

We weren't to sure what to expect from Gauja NP, the oldest Latvian NP established 40 years ago. We drove just over an hour from Riga to Sigulda and promptly visited the tourist office at the train station. The very friendly staff offered us plenty of info on what there was to see and walks to do. The town has a ski resort feel to it and it so happens it is! Here you will find the only refrigeratorated system in Eastern Europe under the ski track. There is a 1420m bobsleigh and luge track. Sigulda inhabitants have won Olympic medals. There are sculptures, castles,  churches, gardens, a cable car and adventure parks to see. The Turaida Museum and castle are the most visited in Latvia. Along the Gauja River there are many sandstone outcrops and caves. The Gutman Cave is the oldest attraction in Latvia.
We continued on to Ligatne Village. It has the only operational paper mill in the Baltics and has been going since1815. We noticed many dugouts in the sandstone, these 300+ artificial cellars where used by locals as storage. 

Around the area there was lots to see and do  including a nature reserve with local animals, a woodcraft museum and canoe trips on the river. We had our eye on the Soviet Bunker Museum. On weekdays the only tour for induviduals was at 3pm. More times on weekends. €12 each for 1.5 hrs and includes an authentic Russian meal afterwards! Www.bunkurs.lv N57.2560 E25.0709 As we had time to kill we went to a Park4Night spot 5 kms down the road which was a lovely parking area next to the river with picnic areas and a composting toilet. N57.2617 E25.1377. We took  the opportunity to use the river water to give Bluey a wash and had a relax. 

Imagine our disappointment when we went to the Bunker and we're told that there were no tours today! What can you do ?  wait until 12 tomorrow or move on. We continued on, never to know what the Soviet meal was to be!  

We arrived in Cesis and parked in one of the 3 designated motorhome spots and off we went to have a look around. 

The old town surrounds the old castle (in ruins) and the new castle (this was the first place in the country to fly the Latvian flag in 1988). 

The gardens are quite lovely too and if you are lucky you may see the 2 BLACK swans (Australian) that live here. Apparently they also have Wallabies in the zoo!

On another note, we had an exciting email today from our French sim provider SOSH.  Due to the changes required in Europe our monthly plan of unlimited calls and sms as well as the 40GB allowance can now be used in all of Europe! No more buying local sim cards! Yay.  We will never be able to use all our data... As we also have 24GB with UK 3Sim and some Europasim/Vodafone.It oh well never mind, better to have too much than not enough.