The GOLDen Autumn

Post written by Net and Sarah K 

After the craziness of the day trip to Valmiera, we were lucky enough to have 2 days off to recover before the next week of training and meetings. We had met up with Laura's friend Karlis a few days before and he had suggested taking us to Sigulda - a town next to Gauja National Park, which is very picturesque. Karlis recruited one of his friends, and we jumped into their two cars and off we went! I slept for the entire journey, but I'm sure it was beautiful on the way... 

We arrived at Sigulda and our first stop was Turaida castle (although we got distracted by a church and a couple of other things on the way.) At the castle, we climbed the rather large tower, up some very narrow staircases - not great with rucksacks and a large amount of tourists! We spent a considerable amount of time discussing how we would convert it into our house - there's going to be a balcony all the way around, and a campfire room! After a difficult route down, we continued to investigate the rest of the castle, and found some buttons to play with. 

Next we had a walk around the sculpture park, and other exhibits, and found a big pile of leaves to jump in (yay for GOLDen autumns :) ) and then headed to find some lunch - proper Latvian food - meat and potatoes! We were then taken to the bobsleigh track which unfortunately was being used for actual bobsleighing, so we couldn't have a go (we're not sure if our insurance would have covered it anyway!) but it was fun to have a look around. After this, we headed back home, and I slept again - it was dark this time, so I don't think I missed as much! 

Back in the apartment, and we decided it was time for some pampering - facemasks, nail varnish and smores were all in order :D A few more of the bubbles that I bought the team were blown as well - not just any bubbles though, these ones don't pop! (it's Tuesday now, and there are still some stuck to the wall...) 

Monday found us in our favourite teahouse, curled up on the floor cushions - we were actually there to plan! We spent just under 3 hours there, planning for the rest of the week, particularly for the Training Day we have on Saturday. It was very productive, and the proximity to cheesecake definitely helped! 

In the evening, we were lucky enough to have an evening with Liga, and she took us out kayaking!! We headed off down the River Daugava, and then along the canal, and back out to the river. We didn't quite manage to see a beaver, but there were loads of ducks, and the bridges were lit up along the canal and were awesome to float underneath. Thanks Liga! 

Afterwards, we were all pretty exhausted, so it was time for bed. 

Today we're off to Jurmala again, and we're teaching them how to make woggles, so we've spent the morning teaching OURSELVES how to make woggles! We'll let you know how it goes in the next blog post.