Rundales Pils

• By admin
• July 29, 2016
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Leaving Riga in the rain we headed south towards Lithuania calling in on the way to visit one of Latvia’s main attractions, the Rundale Palace. This opulent 18^th century palace was designed by the same architect as the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, grandiose but much smaller. We spent time looking around this vast palace which in one guide stated it was a gift from Catherine the Great to her lover, proving that size does matter.

Leaving the lavishness of Rundale Palace we soon crossed the border into Lithuania. We intended to spend a day in the countryside before heading to Vilnius and found a delightful campsite called Apple Island. This beautiful site was indeed on an island surrounded by a lake and apple trees.  We gingerly crossed the narrow wooden bridge to reach the site, always a worry in a 3.5-ton camper van, and picked a spot overlooking the lake and amid the apple trees. It got even better when we discovered the site had a bar.  Surrounded by such beauty and with a lakeside beach from which to swim we decided to stay two nights before moving on. Having travelled over 5000 miles the outside of the van was in sore need of a clean. The gathering of mud and dirt is made worse by the satnav repeatedly misdirecting us down the occasional narrow, unmade track which, with no space to turn, once embarked upon we had no choice but to follow until the dusty, muddy, bone shaking end.   After an early morning swim, we scrubbed and polished, restoring the van to its white gleaming self.