Caffe 'Lielā Pietura' Review in Grobiņa, Latvia

| Restaurant reviews | 16 seen

Caffe 'Lielā Pietura' literally translates as 'The Great Stop' and there is no surprise of this name, this cafeteria is actually located close to the ... a bus stop in Grobiņa, connecting capital city Rīga with Liepāja. This cafeteria serves traditional Latvian cuisine for a very reasonable price.

Bus stop 'Grobiņa'

Rīga - Liepāja interstate buses takes a stop here

Cake 'Old Riga'

Traditional Latvian cake named after a lovely Old Riga,filled with cottage cheese in sugar... or something

Raspberry cream

Really delicious deserts here at Lielā Pietura

Solyanka soup

Interior at Lielā Pietura

Chop dressed with cheese and tomatoes and served with potatoes

The Bottom Line

Caffe 'Lielā Pietura' indeed is a Great stop when travelling to or from Liepāja city. Prices here are much lower than in capital city. Deserts are just tremendously tasty. Definitely worth of a visit.


Livonian Order Castle Ruins at Aizpute

| Military Heritage | 16 seen

I have always been into a digging stuff and walking around old ancient sites is just one of my favorite activities to do. Also I'm into a history. So it's no surprise I visited a site called Livonian Order Castle Ruins at Aizpute.

If you are not familiar with what a Livonian Order actually is - in short: The Livonian Order was an autonomous branch of the Teutonic Order and a member of the Livonian Confederation from 1435 to 1561. If you are up to for a longer version, please read this article on Wikipedia: Livonian Order 

Meanwhile, please enjoy some photos I captured here:

Livonian Order Castle Ruins

Tourist sign near Aizpute castle ruins

Castle mound

Tourism info near Aizpute Castle

Entrance at Aizpute Livonian Order Castle

Old fortification walls at Aizpute Castle

Old fortification walls at Aizpute Castle

Aizpute Castle

Seems that some renovation/conservation works have been held here - I can see that roof has been changed here and some new bricks have been added.

Aizpute Castle


Aizpute Saint John’s church

| Churches and Monasteries | 5 seen

The Saint John evangelic Lutheran church in Aizpute is one of the oldest churches in Courland, historical region of Latvia.  On a rainy day I took my DSLR camera and headed to Aizpute Church mound to photograph this ancient site. Latter I was surprised to learn that on this place, prior a church were built was an ancient Curonian castle.

Church mound in Aizpute

This church is built on a mound, you can see a view from this mound in above image

River Tebra near Aizpute church

And what a wonderful island on it

Aizpute church has been built in 1254

According to chronic's, prior to church building here, there was and Curonian fortress. 

In the year  1254, in the place where German crusaders robbed and ruined the ancient Curonian castle, a castle was built. Read: Around Aizpute 

Church mound in Aizpute

Aizpute Saint John's church

I played a little with perspective here

Aizpute Saint John's Church

The only one decent photo of Aizpute Saint John's church I managed to capture from this mound. To get a more interesting…


Kazdanga Mill Lake And Its Surroundings

| Lakes | 23 seen

Kazdanga Mill lake (Dzirnezers, Dzirnavu ezers in Latvian) and its surroundings is lovely I would even say a touristic place in a small Latvian village of Kazdanga.

Someone (perhaps you) will find a lot of outdoor activities to do here - starting boat ride on that lake ending cycling around this area, I learned that you can even smoke a fish here (didn't try)

Located in a very close distance to the impressive Kazdanga manor Kazdanga Mill Lake and its surroundings is a must-have attraction while you are in Kazdanga.

Kazdanga Mill lake

The mill was built in 1840, it has been completely rebuilt and only the external façade provides a small insight into the times, while the mill dam is very well preserved. 

Kazdanga Tourism board

Park close to Kazdanga Mill lake

Kazdanga Mill Lake

The mill lake or mill pond is flooded on the Alokste River and there are many springs in its depths and banks, so the depth is unequal.

Tourist signs near Kazdanga Mill lake

You are guided to: Parking lot, rest area, bicycle path and ... fish…


Kazdanga Manor

| Tourism objects | 27 seen

Kazdanga manor is located in Courland historical region of  Latvia.

As I have already stated back when visited Snēpele manor -  Latvia is a land of old manor houses and palaces, they dates back from the times when German nobles ruled this territory. A lot of manors one (perhaps you) can find in a historical region of Courland. 

As usual, I took my camera and headed here to photograph this manor.

Old tree alley and cobble

I spent a few minutes on this cobble playing with my gorilla pad and my cameras aperture settings, and in fact, I really enjoy this image.

Kazdanga manor

I did find some similarities in this image with Chateau Mukhrani back in Georgia. This time I didn't use a tripod.

Speaking of this Kazdanga manor - it turns out there is a local museum located inside. I didn't visit it because of I'm more fond of architecture. But you should give it a try (to visit a museum)

Carved sculptures near Kazdanga manor

 

Kazdanga Palace is located in the village Kazdanga , Latvia. The first manor house was made out of wood…


Valtaiķi Evangelical Lutheran Church

| Churches and Monasteries | 60 seen

When I was back in Germany and visited Germany's most visited landmark - The Cologne's Cathedral my travel mate said to me - it (Cologne's Cathedral) doesn't impress me as much as Valtaiķi church in Latvia. I looked at her - and asked, what? Seriously? Yes, she replied - the stained glass at Valtaiķi church are more impressive than here at Cologne. 

I was left with no options and decided to visit this church by my own. Unfortunately, as usual in Latvia, this church was closed and I hadn't any chance to see those stained glass in close, but by reading this church's history (see bellow) I did find that it's one of the best of it's kind in Latvia at least.

Valtaiķi church

Ahh, again I was in rush, had no decent tripod and got what I got.

Valtaiķi church

Valtaiķi church

Well, I like this perspective I managed to capture here

Valtaiķi church

Valtaiķi church

One thing I could notice -  roof has been changed for this church

Cultural monument

Around the church

Shop near…


Restaurant 'Kūriņš' In Jūrmala, Latvia

| Restaurant reviews | 29 seen

Restaurant Kūriņš in Jūrmala serves a traditional Latvian cuisine. It's located close to the seashore in Kauguri (part of Jūrmala). Rumour has it - in weekends it's hard to get a table here. The reason probably is a great food, large portions and a lovely location.

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Signboard at Restaurant Kūriņš

Latvians are really into a carving, and Restaurant Kūriņš is no exception when speaking of wood and wood carving. 

Road to the sea from this Restaurant

Working hours for restaurant Kūriņš in Jūrmala

As said on this table - Restaurant is open every day from 12 to 23 (12 PM - 11 PM)

Interior at Kūriņš restaurant

Menu at Restaurant Kūriņš

When visiting a traditional Latvian cuisine you should expect a lot of variations of... chops. That's right - chops are among the most popular Latvian traditional restaurant meals. And restaurant Kūriņš is no exception, you will find a plenty of chops here.

A chop at restaurant Kūriņš

a lot of cheese added on top of this chop. Deffinetly not the healtheist food, but pretty tasty.


Top 20 Quad Core Laptops (Popular among Gamers)

| Laptop Reviews | 411 seen

Multi-core processors are not a surprise nowadays, we all are used to Dual-core processors powering our laptops, but what if we would have instead of two but four processors? Right, then we would have a quad-core laptop. In short four processors means a much faster program operating. For that plain reason, quad-core desktop computers and laptops are very popular among gamers. Although I'm not a gamer I would love to have a quad-core laptop for my everyday computing tasks. 

The higher priced are the so-called gaming laptops.  

In this article, I have listed the TOP 20+ bestselling Quad-core laptops on Amazon

Also, see: Top 20 Best Selling Hexa Core laptops

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. This article contains affiliate links to Amazon.com, by clicking on links on this page and by making a purchase on Amazon site, I will earn an affiliate income at no cost to you. Prices for laptops listed on this page are retrieved using Amazon Product  Advertising API and is updated daily. For…


Safco-Fish.GE First Fish Blog in Georgia

| Drupal Development | 13 seen

At the start of January 2015 I was contacted by a locally living foreigner, originally coming from South Africa doing some fish business in Republic of Georgia, after a brief conversation via e-mails we agreed to meet each other and I insisted I would love to see those fish ponds he is working for. Well I just like things like that. I once even visited a dairy farm here in Georgia and made some nice looking photos of cows.

Shortly we arranged a sightseeing tour. Read: South African Fish farms in Georgia and our friendship started. Soon afterwards we started to hang out, did some hiking tour. Read More: Hiking in Birtvisi. Johann (Production manager at these fish farms) guided me how to use DSRL camera as it turns out he is a photo geek. In brief - our friendship started.

I was asked could I help them out to I build a simple website for their company needs. I agreed and decided to use a minimum viable product approach in this case. So I took Drupal (I'm a Drupaller) and built a really minimal website with focus on High Quality Images (Remember manager both of fish farms and now the website is a photo geek - so it's not a problem to have a…


Zur Morschbach Hotel Review in Altlay, Germany

| Hotel reviews | 15 seen

I booked this hotel in Altlay because of it's close location to Frankfurt-Hahn airport, cheap price and free parking.  

I had like only 10 minutes for hotel research back in the Linden town. I was hoping to use hotwire for selecting a fine hotel near airport area, but unfortunately hotwire this time didn't served any hotel in a reasonable distance here. So my next move was booking.com. I didn't paid much attention of overall hotel interior as I already said - location, parking and cheap price was my main criteria. 

Zur Morschbach qualified for all my criteria. So we packed our belongings and headed here using our navi system. Didn't see anything much during our drive (it was night already)

When arrived at our hotel - I politely asked at reception, does they speak here any English. The guy was in a good mood and replied me in German - It's Germany you should speak German, and continued in perfect English. I asked could I can get some vase for a tulips back from Keukenhof's garden, and the person at reception desk quickly found a huge red bucket for our tulips. Sweet. Both us and a tulips needed just some rest and some fresh…


Blog Monthly Online Income Report - May 2015 - $373.59

| Blogging | 34 seen

Welcome to the 17th online income report. Today I will write about my online earnings and spendings in month of May 2015. I have been doing those report since January 2014 (Back then I earned enormous $8.37) and they help me track my online success or failures. I hope they can inspire you as well.

Speaking of previous month (May) earnings - in short last month has been the lowest since September 2014 (Although I was very pleased with my results in September, that was my second month of using Affiliate marketing and I was proud to report $287.25 in revenue).

There are a few reasons I find why my earnings felt sharply last month. In total my blog earned $433.59 what is a -41% decrease if compared to previous month (April) earnings.

As usual I like to compare how my online earnings stand to minimum and average wages in different countries. Turns our my earnings in May would equal to about a minimum wage in Latvia and would give me a pretty solid average salary in Georgia. 

My daily earnings in month of May: $13.99

Blog traffic in May 2015

May was the record breaker and did set up a new personal record…


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