There where Lots of Latvin music and dancing.

The Latvian's where all out having their fall festival today.

It was nice to be home for a while and for Mike and Jamie's wedding. Thank you everyone for the warm welcome home party. I have such a great family.

They had a boat race in the river on Saturday. looks a little chopy out there.

People still live in these 400-900 year old buildings. A little flower box outside the window still spruces things up a bit dont you think?

Lots of secret service out for the president. A Latvian woman is weaving headbands and springtime tulips in front of the embassy.

Independence Day Celebration for Latvia. The president of Latvia and other dignitaries attend. Lots of traditional singing and dancing.

We are standing at one castle looking out over the valley to another castle. We walked the whole journey with 3 castles, up hills, down valleys,in caves, walked through a town, had a snake incident and a gondola ride. We saw so many great things along the way. We could have drove between it in a much shorter period of time but because we choose to walk it, it took us 6 hours and we probably put in 10-15 miles just seeing things along the way. It was a great day but we are tired!

The Turaida castle was built by the brotherhood of the sword in 1214. Even though most of the castle is still just ruins, they have restored a good part of it. Locals workers dressed up like they would have back in the old times.

It was another long walk to the Turaida castle. On the castle grounds was the memorial stone of the Rose of Turaida. Many Latvins like to have their weddings performed here because of the romantic story of the Rose of Tiraida.

On our way to the next castle we came across the Gutmana caves. Spring water emerges from the sand in the cave. The water was believed to have healing powers. The cave is also known for the story of the rose of turaida in the 1600.

In krimulda were the ruins of the Krimulda castle. Dated back to 1207. The swedish army destroyed it in 1601.

Very interesting little community in Krimulda. We saw the town snake here. Melinda says yuck.

We walked for miles up and down these stairs so we could take the gondola to cross the valley to another castle.

On Saturday we traveled to Sigulda by train and went castle hopping. Our first stop were the ruins of the Sigulda castle. It dates back to the 1200.

Its springtime in Latvia....Finely. People are out planting their flowers and green grass.

We went to the town of Jurmula for an overnighter. We stayed at the Baltic Beach Hotel. This is the view of the Baltic off of our room balcony. Very nice hotel.

This was really interesting. All along the road to Ventspils we saw these huge nests balancing on power poles. We finally saw one with something in it, they were storks. This part of Latvia must be stork country because we saw alot of them.

A few more pictures from Ventspils. This is a town in Latvia on the Baltic Sea. It is a major shipping port as you can see in the one picture. Mark is milking a cow Latvian style. This other picture is where we ate lunch in Ventspils. We were a little hesitant because of the name but it wasn't too bad and we saw no 'bugins'

An Easter procession through the streets of Ventspils

Some castles in Tukums, Latvia

January was cold here in Riga. You can build a snowman here and it will last for many months.