Kuldiga

I have been really bad with my updates with nothing for a couple of weeks so I am now playing catch up. 

After we left Riga we took a slight detour because we had read that Kuldiga was a nice place to visit. It has the widest waterfall in Europe and so we though why not. We could not see any formal camp sites close by so elected for a free overnight stop in an empty carpark just behind the small pond. 

After a peaceful night we were off to explore the town on what can only be described as a beautiful morning. So my first picture for you is a waterfall and I can almost hear you thinking that it does not look very wide. And you would be correct for this is NOT the widest waterfall it is simply a waterfall that we passed on the way to the widest waterfall.



And so our walk brought us very quickly to what IS the widest waterfall in Europe and the first thing that must be said is that it is certainly not also the highest. In fact I am not entirely sure how high it needs to be, to be classed as a waterfall but this must be close to the limit. It is 249m wide and in spring floods can apparently get to 270m.


After the waterfall we came to a viewing tower where, after a climb to the top the view is pretty nice. Sheila counted the steps for us and if I had done the blog in a timeous manner then she might have still been able to remember. She likes to count steps when we are ascending things. I think it takes her mind off the climb. Anyway as a tribute to her we can see that there are 7 flights of stairs and to the best of our recollection there were 12 or 13 stairs in each flight making a total of between  84 and 91 steps. The picture suggests that it was leaning at an angle and there is a reason why it looks like that. The reason is that it WAS leaning at an angle. The leaning tower of Kuldiga.


I was particularly impressed to find at the bottom an information plaque which was clearly written in two languages. The one on the left is Braille which considering that it is a viewing tower seems a tad on the ironic side. 

After making the ascent the view is indeed quite splendid and worth the effort.


Back in town we spotted this rather intriguing statue of a very lifelike (and complete) naked man. My investigations on your behalf suggest that it is a temporary sculpture which is part of an exhibition where works of art (if this is art) were placed in unusual places in the town. We never spotted any others that we are aware of.

Further on we found a guy having a cup of tea and Sheila could not resist joining him for an imaginary tea. He is not part of the aforesaid exhibition but is seated there indefintely.  Ēvalds Valters (1894–1994) was a legendary Latvian actor, writer, and former Latvian Rifleman—deeply connected to Kuldīga (originally from Planeza parish, now part of Kuldīga municipality). The Sculpture: "A cup of tea with Ēvalds Valters" was created by sculptor Oskars Mikāns, the piece was unveiled on April 1, 2016, the eve of Valters’s 122nd birthday, in Kuldīga's Town Hall square

Valters is remembered as a charismatic, witty personality and a proud patriot—famously quoted: “I love Kuldīga so much… just saying its name makes me happy”.

And I am now happy that I have completed the first in a series of catch-up posts. Our next stop was to be country number fourteen (I think I miscounted in a previous post) Lithuania.


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