Bringing Our Warrior Home: Trip 1 - Day 14

Cesis Castle

Today is the last day of the ships. So, there are still a lot of people in the city. We had been wanting to rent a car to get away from the city. I spent some time looking online and calling around for available rental cars. Many places in the city and at the airport didn't have any cars or vans available. When I was almost ready to give up my search, I finally found a place at the airport that had a car big enough to seat seven that was actually available! So my sidekick, Rachel, and I called a taxi cab and rode to the airport. Our cab driver didn't make any conversation with us, and we could only get him to give us one-word answers to our conversational questions. So within the hour, Rachel and I were back at the apartment with the car. After a quick lunch, we were off to Cecis to find the medieval castle.

Cecis is a beautiful town a little over an hour east of Rig@. The drive out to Cecis was spectacular. It was great to be away from all of the people and the hustle and bustle of the city. After finding the castle, we paid 4 Lats total and got to tour the ruins of this piece of history. With our admission fee, the kids received an actual lit lantern to carry through the dark stairways of the old castle. We spent a little over an hour climbing to the tops of the ruins and taking pictures. There were very few people there today, and the weather couldn't have been any better.

After leaving Cesis Castle, we drove to another castle ruins near the town of Straupe, L@tvia. We finally made it back to the apartment around 6 PM and cooked a spaghetti dinner. It was a mostly a good day with Warrior: a few minor issues here and there. He is learning more English words and phrases... things like "excuse me", "thank you", "that's ok".

Cēsis Castle (German: Wenden) is a Livonian castle situated in Cēsis, Latvia. Its ruins are some of the most majestic castle ruins in the Baltic states. Once the most important castle of the Livonian Order, it was the official residence for the masters of the order. It was partly destroyed during the Great Northern War.

German crusaders known as the Livonian Brothers of the Sword began construction of the castle (Wenden) near the hill fort in 1209. When the castle was enlarged and fortified, it served as the residence for the Order's Master from 1237 until 1561, with periodic interruptions. In 1577, during the Livonian War, the garrison destroyed the castle to prevent it from falling into the control of Ivan the Terrible, who was decisively defeated in the Battle of Wenden (1578).

After World War I, the house of the owners of the Cesis manor and its adjacent territory, which was in the possession of the Sievers family, was dispossessed and transferred to the army of Latvia. The ruins of the Cesis Castle were placed under the guide of the city of Cesis and were opened to public. In 1925, ruins of the castle which were deemed an outstanding model of Cesis architecture of the Middle Ages were given the status of protected monument. (Wikipedia)