Cities, towns and other interesting places of BALTIC STATES

OK, let's take the Baltic's caleidoscope, shake it... and what we see here, at first glance? Well, of course, it's just a coincidence. That's my birth town.

BAUSKA - the town between rivers



Bauska is a small and charming town in southern Latvia, just 60 km from capital city Riga (and 20 km from Lithuania's border). Bauska has an excellent natural setting - it's located on the shores of two rivers, part of the city is on valley, part - on the hill. Bauska has quite large historical district, as well as beautiful nature park around Bauska castle and hillfort, where both rivers flows into each other, making the third.

BAUSKA: Main facts

POPULATION: 9348 (01.01.2016)
AREA: 6,3 sq km
ETHNIC COMPOSITION: Latvians (77%), Russians (11%), Lithuanians (6%)
TOURISTS: ~200 000
FOUNDATION (TOWN RIGHTS): 1609

Bauska is easily accesible from Riga by international road Via Baltica which connects Tallinn, Riga and Kaunas and goes further to Poland. It has it's downside though - this important road goes right through the town and the incoming traffic (Bauska has heaviest transit traffic in Latvia, except Riga) means that Bauska is not as calm, silent and clean as it could and should be. There has been plans about building the ringroad but they have been postponed again and again because of the lack of funding for road infrastructure and the attitude of central government which doesn't consider Bauska ringroad a prioritary project. Currently Bauska council tries to convince the government to include the ringroad project into the same development phase with RailBaltica railway construction but the Transport ministry says the nearest time when Bauska could get it's long needed ringroad is only around 2028-2034.

Via Baltica road coming from Riga direction, entering Bauska town. In the future, RailBaltica railway line will be built just a few kilometres to the right side from the road:



When you drive into Bauska from Riga side on Via Baltica, right after crossing the bridge over one of the rivers (Mēmele), the historical centre of the town reveals itself. To the left side from road (Kalna street), you can see Bauska Townhall square.



Bauska Townhall square is located right next to Via Baltica road (Kalna street) when entering the town from Riga direction:



The Townhall building itself is a nice historical landmark, although it's not authentic, but similarly as House of Blackheads in Riga, built as a replica. The original Townhall building didn't suffered in a war but it was started to gradually demolish and neglect already in the middle of 19th Century. Townhall building reconstruction was finished in 2011.







Townhall square is the main square of the town, here Festivals, fireworks, festive markets etc. events are organized. Townhall square in Christmas time:





Bauska Townhall square from above. Kalna street (Via Baltica) with it's transit traffic seen in the upper part:



Historical district or Old Town of Bauska is layed out alongside Mēmele river, on the "valley" part of the town. They're basically two streets - Rīgas street and Plūdoņa street - which stretches around 1 km in lenght and offers both masonry and wooden buildings from 16th to 19th Century.



Rīgas street from above, Mēmele river to the left:



Rīgas street:





Rīgas street from riverside:



House on Rūpniecības street:



Wide street in a small town - Kalna street (part of Via Baltica):







Older (lower) part of the town at Mēmele river and newer (soviet time) apartment district up on the hill:



But the opposite side of the town, at Mūsa river bank, is built up with private houses:



The oldest building in Bauska Old Town is Bauska Holy Spirit Evangelic Lutheran church which was built in 1594 in Late Gothic style. It was used by town's Baltic German population. The original building didn't have a tower which was built a bit later. The tower which initially was a high steelpe tower was two times strucked by lightning (1799 and 1815) and thus it got it's current look with 4-sloped roof.



Let's take a look at Bauska castle direction:





The greatest tourism asset of Bauska is Bauska castle and Bauska nature park around it.

Bauska castle and Bauska nature park - the place where two rivers becomes one:



Bauska castle was originally started to built in 15th Century and construction continued till the end of the 16th century. The old section of the castle featured a great watch tower, 3.5 meter thick walls, a prison under the tower, a garrison and a drawbridge at the gates. Nowadays the castle consists of two parts - the ruins of an earlier castle and a later palace. The castle have gone through decades long renovation works which are finished now. Bauska castle museum is one of the most visited museums in Latvia - some 170 000 people visits it every year. It's just 1/3 less than seemingly much more popular Rundāle palace museum (10 km from Bauska) which is the most visited one in Latvia with around 240 000 visitors per year. Bauska castle offers also an observation tower where one can get nice views over surrounding nature park area.











View from Bauska castle side to the town:





View from Bauska castle tower:



Bauska nature park is a beautiful nature area which starts around Bauska castle. There two rivers - Mēmele and Mūsa - flows together, creating Lielupe river which later flows through Zemgale fields, Jelgava and Jūrmala towns, before entering Riga Sea Gulf. The park offers several beautiful panorama viewpoints and many paths to walk around. Bauska nature park could be the most romantic place in Latvia - there are even songs about it: "We'll flow farther like a two rivers in one...".




View to Mēmele river from Bauska hillfort in autumn:



View to Mūsa river from Bauska hillfort in a perfect winter day:



Mēmele with northern part of the town:



Mūsa and southern part of the town:



Hill is one of charming aspects of Bauska urban topography:



Practical information:

How to get there?

Bauska can be reached from Riga by bus. Buses goes often - every 20 minutes on average. The trip takes 1 hour and 20 minutes. The ticket costs 3,50 EUR. Drive with a car from Riga takes about 50 minutes on A7 road.

Where to eat?

Bauska has several options to eat a tasty meal for non-expensive prices. One of it is located right next to Townhall square - "Taverna" (Rīgas street 27). I could recommend also "Mīklas paradīze" at Dārza street 16a.

Shopping

Main shopping complex in Bauska is located on the hill - when driving in from Riga side, "Rimi" sign is noticeable already from the distance. There are supermarkets from both largest chains in Latvia - "Rimi" and "Maxima", as well as household and electronics supermarkets "SuperAction" and "Mājai un Dārzam", and many more smaller shops.

Parking

In Bauska car parking is for free and there are many parking places in the town, also at the Townhall square. Usually there are no problems to find an empty parking spot, unless there is some festival happening in the town.

Shopping centre with several competing supermarkets under one roof:



That's it! Hopefully you enjoyed the town in these photos and got an inspiration to not to pass it when you're around the region. More photos of Bauska you can see in my page gallery: http://www.photoriga.com/2017/08/bauska-town-between-rivers.html Let's say goodbye to Bauska with a full moon scene of Mēmele river:

VISAGINAS - the town of nuclear beast

Visaginas is an interesting and unusual soviet town in north-eastern corner of Lithuania. It's built and famous for one thing - Ignalina nuclear power plant, which Lithuania had to shut down in 2009, due to agreement with EU. Ignalina NPP was considered dangerous because it had the same type of reactors as Chernobyl did. The plans about new, modern station in the same place have not realized. So, how the power plant and the town looks today? I visited them in this June and this post is about it.



Ignalina nuclear power plant is closed since 2009 - but the place is not abandoned. The proof for that is not only the buzzing sound coming from the huge hangar-like building like a phantom of the times when electricity was still produced here but also quite many cars which are parked on the square next to one of nearby administrative buildings. At the same time, no living soul is visible around and there comes a feeling that power lines in the distance will start to crumble down at every moment, when Stephen King's Langoliers arrives in order to wipe this remnant of Soviet industrial power out of the earth.



I approach the awe-inspiring place slowly, cautiously - have been lazy to search for any info before and so I even don't know is it allowed to be here without permit, let alone take out the professional photo camera and shoot photos. At least in Latvia, after the latest law changes, it seems that a man with a photo camera next to major infrastructure object is regarded as a clear sign of a terrorist.



Comforting myself with a thought that no security personnel, surveillance cameras or photography prohibition signs are visible, I take some photos from available angles. They have to be found by driving in a few roads leading closer to power plant to get behind the trees. When got to some railway crossing where more detailed view of the building appeared, I noticed the first photography prohibition sign. Had no motivation to ignore it - NPP is just a grey, monotonus concrete monster made a bit more interesting only by both tripartite chimneys.



Ignalina hasn't the usual thick cooling chimneys of nuclear power plants. It's nuclear reactors were cooled in the nearby lake, the largest in Lithuania - Drūkšiai. On the shores of the lake itself there are no signs that it has assisted in so potentially dangerous process - on the other side, at Tilže village, water is clear, fishermans fishing... However, as Wikipedia informs, the power plant has circulated the lake water in huge scale - nine volumes of lake in a year - and it has polluted the lake both thermally (by heating up the water) and fostering eutrophication, both with chemical substances.

At the shores of Lithuania's largest lake Drūkšiai, nothing attests that this water has been used to cool nuclear reactors countless times:


Interesting atmosphere prevails also in former NPP workers town of Visaginas, 7 km away from the plant (it has to be noted that Ignalina NPP isn't located at Ignalina town which is some 40 km to south-west). Visaginas, settled in the area of pine forest, is the newest town in Lithuania, built in the seventies alongside the power plant. Similarly as the citadel of Pļaviņas hydro electric power plant in Latvia, which initially was called "Stučka", also Visaginas at first got a name after a local Soviet official and was called "Sņečkus".



Soviet planners and builders have tried to implement Le Corbusier's ideals here more seriously than in which each town - wide avenues, spacious pavements with planted rose bushes on sides, more interesting apartment buildings built from bricks (alongside the usual commieblocks), etc. It all gives some feeling of a more quality apartment areas of Western Europe. Of course, only if time had not done it's part - the pavements are bumped by the roots of trees, handrails of balconies rusted, etc.


In Visaginas, more untypical Soviet time apartments of red or yellow bricks are seen:


Wide avenues:




A rare evidence of modern development (apart from omnipresent contemporary cobblestone and some shopping malls) in Visaginas is newly built Orthodox church. Why Orthodox? Of course, because more than half of Visaginas inhabitants are Russians, Lithuanians here are only 15%, Belorussians - 10%.





Visaginas population from it's peak at the end of eighties when it reached 33 000, has been dropped to around 20 000. Despite this, it's too harsh to call the place an upcoming "ghost town" as Russian propaganda media Sputnik recently did. Of course, the town is calm and silent, but also lively enough, and feels pretty safe - I didn't counter drunkards, aggressive or otherwise "shady" people there. I have no idea what Visaginas inhabitants does after the closing of nuclear power plant, how they earn their daily living, but at least for now there are no signs of overall decadence.



In overall, a visit to Ignalina NPP and Visaginas is an interesting, unusual experience. Of course, if one has a wish to see also something different from historical old towns or nature landscapes.

Visaginas is a city next to npp, so wide alleys were initially planned for safety reasons - in case of emergency the town had to be quickly evacuated. Also a loudspeaker can be seen on the right of this photo.

To this day Npp is the biggest workplace for locals, as about 2000 people still work in there and will probably countinue to do this for a long time in the future, as it's not that easy to stop a nuclear reactor safely.

People in Visaginas are very well educated, high-skilled workers, that once were workers in npp, they try to adapt to the new situation. Some started new businesses, there were a few investments, a few factories were built and unemployment is at around 13% atm, which is not as bad as it used to be.

Visaginas is the most ethnically diverse city in Lithuania, people would usually use Russian language in public life, as about half of the citie's population is Russian, 20% Lithuanian (and increasing) 10% Poles and Belarussians, 5% Ukrainians and then Tatars, Armenians, Germans, Latvians as people all over USSR there coming to the npp.

Nice thread by the way, high quality photos and perfect descriptions, keep it up!

Waterfalls of Estonia

From Baltic states, only Estonia has several waterfalls which can be called in this name and it probably won't provoke a laughter of someone from, f.e., South America.

I have visited two of Estonia's most beautiful waterfalls:

Jägala Juga is highest natural waterfall in Estonia. It's also wide enough and has rather strong waterflow capacity even in summer time. Being close to Tallinn, it's a popular tourism place for day trips from Estonia's capital. On the upper levels of 8 m high cliff a fossils of ancient cephalopods can be seen...









Valaste waterfall is the highest waterfall in Estonia, however it's not natural but made artificially - to drain water from nearby quarry. Anyway, with it's 26 metres height it looks impressive. The place itself is cool - it's a limestone cliff next to seaside. I visited it in August, when the water flow was very weak and the different color layers of a cliff was more interesting than the waterfall itself. Should return there in earl spring when the water flow is much stronger or in (real) winter, when frost makes a beautiful art of it...

Here I have to say critical words to Estonians - Valaste waterfall had an observation platform which was built in 1997. It became dangerous and was closed in 2013. Why it's not being reconstructed or replaced with a new one? It's been 4 years, and, in my view, it's a shame to Estonia's tourism industry, that one of country's coolest attractions can't be brought to order. Now only courageous travelers can take a look to the waterfall because one has to balance on the edge of a cliff to do that.