Monday, 14/09/2015. The LEO Weekend is over and it’s time to move forward to the next destination, Estonia. But before leaving the wonderful city Valmiera, LEO Elisabette took me for a wonderful day-trip to Cesis and it’s surrounding. I mean, look at the pictures below – this nature and towns are so awesome and it was the perfect weather to enjoy every single minute of this day.
If you are BMX enthusiast you for sure know Māris Štrombergs, 2 times Olympic Games Champ, 2 times world champion and 3 times European Champion in BMX. He’s from Valmiera and this is his track where he grew up and trained.
On our way to Cesis, we stopped by some caves out of sandstone which were pretty nice to walk in and engrave some messages 🙂
Cesis itself is a wonderful town with lots of old buildings, an impressive castle and lots of green space to hang out and relax. At Izsalkušais Jānis we had a gorgeous dinner with local specialities. Jhummy – once you get the chance to be in Cesis, go there!
Believe it or not, they have a ski-ressort in Lativa including a ski lift.
There was even more – a valley to Gauja (the river) which offered amazing landscapes and a great camping site which I would love to visit one day again. Nothing there but nature and silence! <3
The second last stop of the trip was the Araisi Lake Dwelling Site which is a popular tourist location with original and reconstructed remnants of Latvian prehistory. It is a unique nationally important archaeological site: remains of the 9th–10th centuries Latgalian fortified settlement on the island of Āraiši lake
On the way back to Valmiera (where my car was parked) we stopped by Āraiši windmill, which also gave an impressive view of the landscape around it.
Hell yeah. What a great day that was. Full of activity, nature, fresh air, walking and wonderful moments. On my way to Tartu (Estonia) where my next stop was I took this images from houses on the border between Latvia and Estonia.