“Over­land­ing Lat­via”

The road beco­mes quie­ter as we drive across the coun­try­side towards Tukums - rol­ling fields, sleepy vil­la­ges and a few land­marks in the area. Every stop feels like stumb­ling into a secret. The pace chan­ges as we tackle Milz­kalne and Bal­done, two days of pure 4x4 trails — not­hing extreme, just enough bite to give the tires some work. For a change of sce­n­ery, we can swap mud for cob­ble­s­to­nes and take a detour to the old town of Riga before hea­ding back into the wil­der­ness. From there, the adven­ture mean­ders towards Sigulda, with a stop at the eerie, under­ground Soviet bun­ker in Līgatne - a Cold War relic that still holds secrets. We sleep one more night in a tent or guest­house before spen­ding a final day of back roads, rivers and forests. And then Strenči. The last stop. This is more than a jour­ney — it’s the story of a coun­try wai­ting to be felt mile by mile.

Things to know before tra­ve­ling to Lat­via:

Lat­via is a coun­try in the Bal­tic region of Nor­t­hern Europe. It is one of the three Bal­tic sta­tes, tog­e­ther with Esto­nia in the north and Lithua­nia in the south. It bor­ders Rus­sia to the east, Bela­rus to the sou­the­ast and Swe­den to the west. Lat­via has 1.9 mil­lion inha­bi­tants. The capi­tal and lar­gest city is Riga. The Lat­vi­ans belong to the eth­no­lin­gu­i­stic group of the Balts and speak Lat­vian, one of the only two sur­vi­ving Bal­tic lan­guages.

History:

After cen­tu­ries of Teu­to­nic, Swe­dish, Polish-Lithua­nian and Rus­sian rule, the inde­pen­dent Repu­blic of Lat­via was foun­ded on Novem­ber 18, 1918. Lat­via’s de facto inde­pen­dence was inter­rupted at the begin­ning of the Second World War, start­ing with the Soviet Union, fol­lo­wed by occu­pa­tion by Nazi Ger­many in 1941 and re-occu­pa­tion by the Soviets in 1944, which las­ted for the next 45 years. The peaceful Sin­ging Revo­lu­tion of 1987 led to the res­to­ra­tion of inde­pen­dence on August 21, 1991. Since then, Lat­via has been a demo­cra­tic, unitary par­lia­men­tary repu­blic.

Deve­lo­p­ment:

Lat­via is an indus­tria­li­zed coun­try with a high-income, advan­ced eco­nomy that ranks 39th in the Human Deve­lo­p­ment Index. It is a mem­ber of the Euro­pean Union, the Euro­zone, NATO, the Coun­cil of Europe, the United Nati­ons, the Coun­cil of the Bal­tic Sea Sta­tes, the Inter­na­tio­nal Mone­tary Fund, the Nor­dic-Bal­tic Eight, the Nor­dic Invest­ment Bank, the Orga­niza­tion for Eco­no­mic Coope­ra­tion and Deve­lo­p­ment, the Orga­niza­tion for Secu­rity and Coope­ra­tion in Europe and the World Trade Orga­niza­tion.

Geo­gra­phy:

Most of the Lat­vian ter­ri­tory is less than 100 meters above sea level. The lon­gest river on Lat­vian ter­ri­tory is the Gauja with a length of 452 km. The hig­hest point in Lat­via is Gai­ziņ­kalns at 311.6 m. The length of the Lat­vian Bal­tic Sea coast is 494 km.
Lat­via has four distinct sea­sons. Win­ters have average tem­pe­ra­tures of ‑6 °C and are cha­rac­te­ri­zed by sta­ble snow cover, bright suns­hine and short days. Sum­mers are gene­rally warm and sunny, with cool evenings and nights. In sum­mer, average tem­pe­ra­tures are around 19 °C, with lows of 35 °C. Spring and fall bring fairly mild wea­ther.

Kit­chen:

Lat­vian cui­sine is very simple and hearty — pork is the most com­mon ingre­di­ent. Com­bi­ned with various vege­ta­bles, depen­ding on the sea­son, fresh or pick­led, it is a staple food for Lat­vi­ans. For those with a sweet tooth, the tra­di­tio­nal Lat­vian des­serts are honey cake and bread soup, both of which taste much bet­ter than the name sug­gests.
Lat­via is famous for its beers — we have many his­to­ri­cal and con­tem­po­rary bre­we­ries. In fact, we are curr­ently in the midst of a bre­wing renais­sance — many new craft bre­we­ries are sprin­ging up, each with their own inter­pre­ta­tion of a cen­tu­ries-old clas­sic.
Our truly uni­que tra­di­tio­nal drink is black bal­sam. It is said to have a heal­ing effect — it con­ta­ins extra­cts from num­e­rous plants. The locals pre­fer to enjoy it with their cof­fee on long win­ter evenings.

Nature:

Our route takes us through the Milz­kalne nature reserve, which not only offers breath­ta­king views of nature, but also exci­ting geo­me­try. Apart from Milz­kalne, there are many natu­ral beau­ties to enjoy during the tour — most of the land is covered with forests. In Octo­ber, you can still catch the fla­ming colors of the autumn lea­ves or enjoy the Nor­dic cha­rac­ter of the tall, slen­der pine forests rea­ching for the clouds while firmly roo­ted in a colorful car­pet of moss.
It is more than likely that we will see some wild­life on our trail — Lat­via has a large popu­la­tion of deer, elk, wild boar and various birds of prey.

Weni­ger lesen…