If Your Holiday Is Only 2 Days... Part II

Route 2, travelled in July 2006

The idea for a two-day trip - Saturday and Sunday - came from a work colleague. The three of us set off to make it happen.

Route (to follow on a map): Riga – Engure – Mērsrags – Roja – Kolka – Valdemārpils – Talsi – Jaunmokas – Riga.

More detail below.

We set off on Saturday fairly early in the morning. The day was sunny, the skies clear. The first stopping point - Engure. There we visited an old wooden church, the pier, and the rocky shore.

 Next - Mērsrags. It is the second most pronounced cape on the Latvian coast. A sandy beach and a rocky shore. One of the most powerful stones among them - the 1.5 m tall Devil's Stone.

 Nearby spread the Mērsrags coastal meadows. A waterlogged grassland and an overgrown shoreline inhabited by various bird species. Here Latvia's unique blue cows also graze. All of this is within view from the strategically placed observation tower.

 Along the way the Kaltene rocky coastline and the old Lutheran church, built in 1704 and later rebuilt in 1896, are definitely worth a visit.

Then Roja, which we chose as our overnight spot, settling at the recently opened hotel "Mare" - situated in a picturesque location at the mouth of the Roja river where it meets the sea.

 Very windy weather, with sand visibly shifting across the beach. On the morning of the next day we walked along the pier and the beach with its impressive coastal boulders.

 Kolka with its ever-present strong wind, which attests that the cape juts far out to sea.

 On the way back we stopped at the courtyard of Jaunmokas Castle (travelling in the direction of Riga along the E22, before the turning towards Tukums, on the left side). A neo-Gothic structure built to a design by architect W. Bockslaff. Originally in 1901 the residence of Riga's city mayor, it now houses exhibition halls and a venue for celebrations, with a hotel and café also fitted out.