Cēsis

In the middle of Cēsis is the castle park. It has been nicely renovated and is at a lake. The town has the usual cathedral and narrow alleys. Modern gas stations are next to crumbling wooden houses. There were quite a few tourist buses, but still very much on the sideline.

After a few hours we went on to Karli a village consisting of a hand full of houses. There was a nice old mansion that has been polished to meet the demands of the few tourists that pass through here. The Latvian owner talked a bit about the history of the house and more interestingly about the recent history since Latvia joined the EU. At the beginning they implemented some business friendly reforms and suddenly this chronically, economically depressed country at the Baltic Sea grew in the high single digits for several years until the US bubble collapsed. Now they are trying to get back on track. The mansion is in the middle of nature and a very relaxed place. We ate good fish for dinner and headed out early, since the longest journey of the holiday was awaiting.