Originally built in for 1736 for the Duke of Courland, Rundāle Palace sure had its ups and downs. From the opulent halls once filled with aristocrats conversing in room after room of sitting rooms, great balls full of dancing and frivolities, to being used as a bunker for allied forces in WWII. It was painstakingly…

The train is an hour ride from Riga, and this train is not in a hurry. It slowly puttered it way forward, and I had assumed half the train was going to alight in Sigulda too, as a group of about 50 people had appeared at Riga station and my brain immediately convinced itself this…

Visiting the Old Town of Riga, I picked a spectacularly wild day. As I approached from the city centre just about everyone walking by had a marathon bib on, and steady stream of kids were adorned on medals. At the freedom monument, marking the entrance from new to old Riga, it seemed like the entire…

The four hour bus journey to Riga, Latvia, was as smooth and uneventful as I expected it would be. The Lux Express coaches are comfy and have onboard wifi, which I kept checking on my email for any new messages from the apartment I booked. But for most of the journey, I had already downloaded…