Chapter 3 Latvia-Riga -Waldeck-Rundale-Mosothen. September 2019.

In the foyer of Waldeck, the former von der Recke hunting lodge with Una Ile, Illona von Sass, me, my wife  Monique Aird and Peter von Sass

Various von der Recke Ancestors hanging in Waldeck. This is my maternal grandfather.

A classroom in Waldeck

Professor Una Ile who showed us around, Waldeck

Side view of Waldeck with front view of Monique

Illona, Peter and Monique in front of Waldeck

Former stables of Waldeck

Another of my ancestors now hanging in the lodge.

Our first leg started off trying to get from home to the Montreal airport. This trip can normally be done under 40 minutes. So, being prudent travelers we set out by taxi at 4 PM for a 6.30 pm flight. Well, Montreal traffic has become so messed up with construction everywhere that it took us an hour and 45 minutes to get to the airport.

We boarded our Boeing 787 of Air Canada for our flight to Frankfurt with a connection to Riga on Lufthansa. I had booked premium economy class seats as we usually do on long flights as they normally provide more comfort and space. Not the case on Air Canada on the exit rows. The seats are so narrow that we were most uncomfortable. Because the tray tables are in the armrests, the actual seat width is about 4 inches less than a normal economy class seat.  7 hours cramped in those seats made us unhappy campers. I intend to launch an official complaint to Air Canada when I get back. Perhaps I can recover some cash. I doubt it.

We arrived in Frankfurt on time but then we were hit by Frankfurt Airport.  This airport has grown into an endless line of terminals stretching well over a mile.  First, we had to walk a half-mile to get to immigration.  The officers were obviously in no hurry to process people. I suspect they were actually doing a slow down protest. Then we had to line up again to go through German Security which is a major pain and inefficient. They ran my hand baggage through the scanner  3 times before I got it back. I have no idea what they were doing but that alone cost us 25 minutes.
We then had to walk about a mile to get to the gate of our departure plane.  All this took us almost 2 hours. That is the last time I will transit through Frankfurt. What a zoo!

We arrived in Riga and were met by our prearranged driver, Aldis who would do our transport for the full time we are in Riga. I figured that his services were about the same cost as renting a car and far more convenient. We got to our Wellton Riverside hotel and checked into our room overlooking the river.

We decided that we would lay low that day and try and recover from our travels. With lack of sleep, walking huge distances and a 7 hour time difference, we were both bushed.  In the evening, we went walking around in the area behind our hotel and found a charming area of restaurants with outside terraces in the street serving all kinds of foods  We had dinner and went back to the hotel and called it a day or a night, actually both.

The next morning we met up with our friends from Canada, Peter, and Illona von Sass. They had been neighbors in Montreal in the early '60s. They had bought a flat in Riga where they come each year for a month as they are very attached to Latvia where he was born and she also has family ties.  The flat is in a nice old building and has been redone in an old-style with lovely floors and period decorations.  It is situated around the corner from the Canadian Embassy.

Interestingly, the building had been lived in by Russian occupation troops during the 50 years that Latvia was part of the Soviet Union. When the USSR fell apart, Latvia became an independent country in 1991 and the Russian occupiers had to leave. Apparently, they were so infuriated in having to leave, they proceeded to damage as much as possible the buildings they had to turn over to the locals. The results could be seen in this apartment where sled hammers had been used to ruin wrought iron and holes had been punched into walls.

But, many Russian civilians chose to stay in Latvia. The result is that 30% of the population today in Latvia is Russian.  That figure goes up to 60% of the population in the city of Riga!  As a result, one hears Russian spoken all over the place and in all of the stores.  Good for me as I was able to start using my Russian even before getting to Russia.

The Latvians, who do not remember with favor the Russian occupation, make it difficult for the Russians to become Latvian citizens as they demand that they be able to speak Latvian.

We walked around Riga which has the most amazingly beautiful collection of Art Deco buildings. Renovation efforts of many years serve up breathtaking facades in multiple colors with all sorts of carvings and statues gracing the buildings. One sees clearly that this city was one of the richest in Europe at one point.  After several hours of walking, we sat down to a nice lunch at the Flying Frog restaurant.

That evening we met up again with the Sass and had dinner at a very typical Latvian style restaurant called Lido.  They serve traditional Latvian food and much of it reminded me of food my mother used to prepare as her family came from this area.

The next morning Aldis picked us and the Sass's up and we headed to the former capital of Latvia which used to be called Mitau and is now named Jelgava. All of the German names used by the Baltic Nobility have been changed over to Latvian names, except Riga. The purpose of the trip was to find a hunting castle that belonged to my mother's family called Waldeck. Over the years my brothers and I have visited this building which had been almost completely dilapidated during the Soviet Area (1945-1991).  The family story our father used to tell was that the Keyserlingk family landholdings were far more impressive than those of my mother's von der Reckee family. He would show the Keyserlingk estate house called Staniuny which was more a one-story country house. In 1989, my brother Ted and his wife came to Latvia and discovered this von der Recke holding which was a large 4 story hunting lodge built with turrets and rather elaborate decoration. Brother Ted went in and found the place was being used as apartments for older people. He even met a lady who remembers my mother. When my brother returned home he confronted our father with pictures of this impressive building.  Our father never again talked about property holdings...

We drove out of Riga and after an hour we approached Jelgava. I remembered that the lodge was on the left as one entered Jelgava and sure enough there it was.  But now the building had been completely renovated and housed the landscaping faculty of the department of agriculture of the local university. It was in beautiful shape with landscaping and detailed painting of the walls. We walked around the building and I glanced through a window to see a lady working on a computer. I taped the window and the lady indicated to me to come around to the side door. We were received by a charming and very beautiful lady called Una Ile. Una welcomed us when I told her that the building used to belong to my mother's family. Una is a professor at the university and besides being the mother of 2 girls she has a Ph.D. and is working on a second Ph.D. in architecture.  She then produced a very nice 50-page pamphlet in Latvian, English, and Russian describing in detail the renovation work done on the building. We were given a guided tour by Una who was quite charming and proud of the renovation work done. The place looked impeccable with offices and classrooms occupying all the space. The height of the visit was to see pictures of my mother's (and therefore mine) relatives which the University displayed prominently on many of the walls of the building.  After a visit of over an hour, we signed the guest book and thanked Una for her hospitality.  A great morning and I must say it was moving for me to see the pictures of my relatives who were now decorating their renovated building.

This shows the von der Recke hunting lodge before renovation and as it is now.

We then went on to visit the castles of Rundale and Mesopoten which were in excellent shape. Rundale used to belong to Duke Biron and is about half the size of Versailles. It is completely renovated with a huge French garden in the back, just like Versailles.

The entrance to Rundale castle. It was designed by Bartolomeo Rastrelli who also designed the Saint Petersburg  Peterhof Palace, Winter Palace, Catherine Palace and the Tsarkoye Selo Palace which are the famous palaces of Saint Petersburg. Rundale was where he started and when the Tsarine visited Rundale she said; "I want a palace like this but bigger...

The Throne or Gold room of Rundale

A tile oven used to heat rooms. These had been originally imported from Holand but destroyed over the years. They have been remade recently by Russian handicraft people who also remade the tile ovens in Peterhof in Saint Petersburg. All tiles are hand painted just as the originals had been done.

The white room of Rundale

Another view of the Rundale Gold room.

Mezoten is a smalle castle that was given to the Lieven family in 1795 by the Russian Tsarine to Charlotte von  Lieven who had been a  tutor in the Tsar's family. It now operates as a hotel and is also in top shape. The main floor has been restored and there are 20  guest rooms on the top floor.  Charlotte only spent a day in the castle on a visit with Empress Maria Feodornvna...It remained in the Lieven family until 1920 when it was taken away from Anatol Lieven by the Latvian government. It was destroyed over the years and then renovated by the Latvian government. In 2001, it was reopened and stands today amid a beautiful park.

This the front view of Mezoten today.

The middle floor is open the full length of the castle.

The main entrance.

After visiting so many castles, Alvis took us to a wonderful Latvian in Bauska which is a little village near Mezoten. Only a few houses are making up the village, we were shown into a huge restaurant seating several hundred people. The food was very healthy and I was introduced to  KVASS, which is a drink made with black bread and soda water. Very tasty.

This is the famous Kvass. It is made from leftover black bread or pumpernickel. It can even be fermented into a type of beer. 

This is an excellent snack made up of pieces of toasted black bread which are dunked into

a fine sour cream and garlic sauce. Very tasty and rather filling.

The next day, Monique and I again ambled around the old town of Riga which is another jewel of renovation. The buildings are so nice to see and the squares have lots of outdoor cafes where one can sit and admire the buildings. There are 4 huge churches in the central area with the oldest dating back to 1209.  It was a nice way to spend the day. We headed back to our hotel to have a nice last visit with our friends the Illona and Peter von Sass who presented Monique with a beautiful amber broach as a souvenir of our visit.

Alvis picked us up and drove us to the airport. After a short 1 hour flight, we were in Saint Petersburg where we were met by our travel agent and driven to our hotel, Alexander House. It is a renovated home with 20 rooms which are all beautiful and the atmosphere is so cozy with fireplaces, reading rooms and a wonderful interior garden. We were shown to our room called the Marrakesh room (no room numbers, just names).

Tomorrow we start our visit to Saint Petersburg.