Halfway between Vilnius and Tallinn we spent a night near the lovely town of Cesis, located by the Gauja National Park.
While researching accommodation in the area I found the Karlamuiza, a beautifully restored 18th century manor that now serves as a guesthouse. It is the perfect place to stay, especially if you enjoy being in the countryside and quiet surroundings.
Needless to say, we loved it here. We stayed in the Elisabeth room, which is quite large and even has a small kitchenette. Outside the Autumn colors were starting to show, and at the back there was an apple bursting orchard.
And we met the neighbours' cat, who couldn't stop purring for us ....
Just before sunset we decided to drive into Cesis for dinner. We headed towards the castle first and slowly made our way down to the gardens below.
It was a beautiful evening and the light was just about perfect. The gardens, as you can see, were quite outstanding.
We still had time for a quick peek at the local church, and then had dinner at one of the local restaurants in the main square (nothing out of the ordinary, if I recall correctly).
The next morning we still had time for a quick visit to a couple of local attractions. This area has actually a lot to see and do, and we could've easily found enough to distract us for a week or so. This time we chose to visit the Araisi windmill.
The windmill is quite interesting, and we made the acquaintance of yet another friendly kitty ....
We had also planned to visit the Araisi Archeological Open Air Museum but when we got there we realized a) we didn't have any Latvian currency left and b) we still had a long drive ahead of us, so we just took a quick look from the outside.
A bit further on, still in Latvian countryside, we stopped for a walk in the woods. It happened to be wild mushroom season in the Baltics, so everywhere we passed by we'd see cars stopped by the roadside (with their occupants busy picking mushrooms somewhere out there in the woods) and several people selling them as well.
Now, we know nothing about mushrooms so we didn't risk picking any, but some of them sure looked quite appetizing ....
More photos:
Cesis
Karlamuiza
