Blog Archive: April 2015

Update: Originally I visited Skrunda - 1 in Summer 2015, Skrunda -1 is closed for public visitors in 2022 Skrunda-1, also known as Skrunda-2, is a ghost town and former Soviet and later Russian radar station located 5 km (3 mi) to the north of Skrunda, in Raņķi Parish, Kuldīga Municipality in Courland region of Latvia. It was the site of two…

Latvia is a land of old manor houses and palaces, they dates back from the times when German nobles ruled this territory. A lot of manors one (perhaps you) can find in a historical region of Courland. I found this interesting Snēpele manor during a trip back from Kuldīga town. Since I'm eager to improve my photography skills, I did find just…

Bangert's restaurant is kinda a new restaurant located on the banks of river Venta between Old Brick Bridge and the Venta Waterfall on Pils street 1 in Kuldīga. I first visited this restaurant last summer and found it a really great. So on the lovely Springs Sunday when I was doing some photo-shooting near Venta river banks I insisted we should…

The Venta rapid forms a widest waterfall in Europe. It's located very close to Kuldīga town centre in Latvia. See: Flying Fish over Venta Rapid in Kuldīga I took my DSLR camera and decided to master my photography skills, couldn't say it improved drastic, but here is the thing I was told by a good friend a professional photographer:  If I…

Brick bridge in Kuldīga over the river of Venta according to some sources is the longest of its kind bridge in Europe. I believe nobody actually pays attention to the lengths of this bridge instead I believe the reason everyone enjoys it - it just looks great. Since it looks great I spent some time here to improve my DSLR photography, I actually…

Seems this place is out of the business in 2021, instead there is a liquor store Bistro Elvi is a restaurant-style catering place offering a home-style cuisine, today I will speak about one located in the town of Skrunda.  Bistro Elvi in Skrunda town is located in a local shopping centre also called Elvi and actually is part of Elvi chain. Close…

Some Latvians prefer to call Bakery Lāči a top notch place for foreigners to visit. So I decided to visit this place and make some short review of it. This bakery is located outside the capital Riga and you can reach it by driving route A9 (which is a highway connecting Riga to Liepāja) - in case you are up for a Courland tour, you can make a…

Iļģuciems is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Riga. History of this neighborhood dates back to the early 13th century. Back in 1236 a small manor was built here and given the name of Hiligen geest hove (Heiligen Geist Hof) in English meaning - "Holy Spirit Convent", from which latter originated name Iļģuciems in Latvian - at first Hilgzeem, then…

Bakuzi cemetery (Latvian: Bākūžu kapsēta) is located in region of Courland (Latvia) in parish of Rudbarzi, Skrunda Municipality. The history of this cemetery dates back to at least to mid 18th century (I found old grave cross with dates of 176o-ties). I believe back in those dates some German nobles were buried here. In history of Courland and…

Riga International Airport, also know as RIX is a largest airport in the Baltic states located in capital of Latvia. Airport is located some 13km distance from city centre of Riga. I was agreeably surprised by noticing it was quiet and still here at Riga airport comparing it to Tbilisi airport.  I decided to add a few photos taken at Riga airport…

Tbilisi aerial tram is just in recent years built cable cars in Tbilisi connecting Rike Park (or more precisely Europe Square) to the fortress of Narikala. It eases your travel up to the  Narikala fortress in huge. Prior to this cable car the one and only way to get to Narikala fortress was just by climbing up in the hill. For some that climb can…

The Flea market near Dry Bridge in Tbilisi is an interesting place to visit,  just to look on old Soviet time relict's, starting medals, belt buckles from Soviet military, ending movie posters of famous Soviet day films. As well you can find here a lot of old tableware (some might be even antique). Most of the items you will find here is pretty…

The other day we took again our bikes and made a pretty lovely night ride in Tbilisi. From Old Tbilisi to Didube and back. For some reason my GPS tracker (MapMyRide) didn't worked properly, it missed at least first 2 km from this route. Another thing to mention -  I have a pretty bad camera for night vision shots back at the time I didn't know how…

Rike park is a landscaped territory located close to the Tbilisi Old Town. You can enter Rike park either crossing the pedestrian bridge of Peace or from the opposite side using stairways from the Avlabari district. There is an aerial tram in the territory of the park which will bring you up to the fortress of Narikala.  The Bridge of Peace…