Sigulda

Morning at camp Sigulda.

Looking for the caves... 

Found some ruins...

And a castle.

And a cafe.

Castle surroundings.

Annika fixing the bike.

Out on the country side.

Having a break in the country side.

Dinner at the mill.

Annika with the dogs.

Araisi windmill

After breakfast we took our bikes and went looking for the caves but we never found those...but instead we found a castle, then a cafe and then we went to get our stuff and headed towards Cesis. It was a hot day on the country side. First the roads were good but then we ended up at horrible gravel roads where we had to drive really slow, then we headed out to the big road and traffic was really heavy. That was scary but then after a while we turned to a smaller road heading for Cesis. It got late and we saw a windmill so we went up that small road and we asked if we could camp there. There was a house next to it and they said we could camp there. Such a cosy place. They even had a tap of water we could use and two dogs which made Annika happy. We made dinner as the sun set over the fields. Now we are in Gauja nationalpark.

*Gauja nationalpark was the first national park in Latvia founded in 1973 to protect the unique nature values of Gauja valley and it's surroundings.

*In the highest hill are the majestic wings of the windmill of Araisi which was built in the middle of the 19th century. It's a so called dutch mill. Already in the 14th century mills of such kind was built in Latvia. The top part of the mill can be turned towards the wind with a special mechanism. It was possible to ground flour for brown bread and forage, as well as to make groats.