Our flight to Thailand was scheduled out of Riga in mid-July which meant that Latvia was officially the last country on our RTW trip. In true travel fashion, we changed plans as we moved our way up Latvia’s coastline and decided to spend a few extra days in the seaside town of Ventspils instead of at Cape Kolka as we had originally intended. Part of the reason behind the change was that the bus schedule between Ventspils and Kolka was not conducive to our schedule so we were faced with choosing between spending one day in Venspils or three. Originally, the plan was for one day because I envisioned Latvia’s cape to be like South Africa’s cape and I was pretty determined not to waste time in some insignificant port town. However, Ventspils captivated us almost immediately and our decision quickly changed to a stay that lasted three days. During our time in Ventspils, we were comfortable with the fact that we had made a good decision, but a visit to Kolka confirmed that it was one of the best ones we had ever made.
For starters, we found some lovely accommodation in the home of a really nice family. Although their English was a bit limited, their warmth was enough to make us feel very welcome. Our room was a spacious attic room with ceilings that slanted. Its windows provided a magnificent vantage point for Latvian sunsets in addition to a great view of the charming garden below. This bed and breakfast style lodging fostered our decision to stay longer and if it hadn’t been for those plane tickets to start our new life in Thailand, I can imagine that we would still be there now.
The house was a stone’s throw away from the beach for which Ventspils is known. Promenades in the form of boardwalks lead visitors to stretches of white sand and this white sand meets the calm waters of the Baltic Sea. When we first stepped foot on the beach, we noticed that there were all types of interesting-looking mechanisms resembling playground equipment all around its perimeter. We saw children and adults alike sitting on giant rope loops that circled around a central axis. We observed more people standing on humongous wooden logs that swung from right to left. We also noticed adults on a few “porch swings” scattered about and children climbing on suspension rope jungle gyms. To my delight, there were shower stations for people to wash sand off and changing stalls that looked like gigantic blue and yellow dice. In the first 5 minutes, my “clean-freak” and “bright color loving” self came to the conclusion that we had finally found the beach of my dreams! Although we were there during a long holiday weekend, we did not feel as if we had to fight for our patch of sand as there was plenty to go around. We marked our patch with my blue sarong, pulled out our picnic lunch of cucumbers, meat/cheese sandwiches, and chips, and spent the good part of a day basking in the sun.
The town of Ventspils itself was incredibly family-friendly. In fact, I think this move towards family-friendliness was their “mayor’s” initiative to increase tourism at some point. Every restaurant had a children’s area full of coloring books and toys along with TV screens that played Tom and Jerry episodes nonstop. There were also lots of parks containing play areas with different themes (i.e. spaceship, pirate ship, zoo) and colorful, animal-shaped flower displays. To top this all off, there was an aquapark!! Apart from the beach, we spent our time enjoying and testing each and every water slide of the Ventspils Aquapark.
Beyond its award-winning recreational qualities, Ventspils’ old town contained buildings with architectural features that provided a bit of personality. We used a walking trail book obtained from tourist information to learn more about the sites of this historic area. Although there was hardly anything notable about these building in the grand scheme of world history, we were happy to spend time learning a little bit of local history.
Our time in Ventspils, as with most places we’ve enjoyed, came to a quick end. We moved on to Kolka with high expectations, but in the end, we found it to be a bit dull, mosquito-infested, and hard to enjoy in full without a rental car. We even decided to leave a few hours earlier than planned because we had run out of things to do. It was the “insignificant” port town of Ventspils that turned out the be the most fitting place to spend our last few leisurely days of travel freedom.
