Located in the Mežotne Castle, the saloon offers fine and tasty dishes and beverages. Tours of the ornate castle are available, and the location has one of the loveliest English-style landscape parks in Latvia.

Latvian cuisine: Potato pancakes, rolled marinated herring, trout with potatoes in their jackets, blood sausage with lingonberry sauce, grey peas with bacon, stacked rye bread with cranberry jam and whipped cream.

Special foods: “Bauska Thaler” – pork in the form of a thaler with a sauce made with Bauska beer.

The historical centre of the Tāšu Estate is in the Ālande (Telse) River Valley near Lake Tāši.  The current estate was built by the von Korff dynasty, and the mansion dates back to 1734.  Inside there are valuable Baroque fireplaces, the main entrance portal made of sandstone from Gotland, the original stone floor in the hall, parquet and wall panels.  The front door, windows, stairs and other details were installed in the early 19th century

The German order built a stone castle here in 1242, and only a few fragments of it remain along with a vaulted cellar in which local wines can be tasted if you register in advance.  The castle of the Duke of Courland was here later, but it was destroyed during the Great Northern War in 1701.  Reconstruction of the park involved wooden pathways and bridges, information stands, a pergola and a fountain.  There are 22 sculptures in the park that are the work of Līvija Razevska.

This is one of the most colourful and architecturally interesting parks in Lithuania.  It was rebuilt and expanded between 1898 and 1900 by the renowned dendrologist G.F. Kuphaldt.  The park had more than 200 types of plants, more than 100 of which are still growing.  There are various roads and pathways that offer a sense of the mightiness and beauty of the park.  A dendrological trail with markers offers information about 15 rare trees.

Found on the right bank of the Daugava, approximately half a kilometre upriver from the Skrīveri Agricultural Institute, the hill is in a place where the bank of the Daugava River Valley is split by the deep Ašķere stream valley.  The castle hill was occupied beginning in the first millennium BC, with antiquities from the Lettigalian and Livonian tribes found there.  During the 13th century, a brick castle was built on the hill, but it was sacked during the 17th century.  Nothing remains of the castle.  The castle hill is also known as Raven Hills, and it offers one of the most beautiful views of the central part of the Daugava.  In the direction of Rīga, there is a field with a white cross that represents an ancient church.  There is a hiking trail along the Ašķere stream.  The area is well improved with four trails.  The longest is the Daugava trail (10 km).

This route offers most unusual views.  Seda is the only town in Latvia with Soviet-era planning from the middle of the last century, featuring a central square and streets stretching from it in a star pattern.  The architectural style of apartment and public buildings is rather exotic.  The Seda Swamp yielded peat moss during the first period of Latvia’s independence and is one of the largest industrial and environmental territories of its kind in Latvia and the Baltic States.  Former peat fields have partly become flooded and are overgrown with reeds, thus creating an outstanding environment for nesting water birds and migrating birds which rest at the swamp.  Peat is still being extracted, and perhaps you will be lucky enough to spot the “little peat moss train.”

Route information from Latvijas Lauku forums

The rock is in the square outside the Skrunda Cultural Centre.  It was installed in 2005 in honour of the victory of Col Oskars Kalpaks and his battalion over the Bolsheviks.  During the Latvian liberation battles, on January 22, 1919, the Bolsheviks occupied Skrunda.  Kalpaks’ battalion headed toward the town on January 29 from the Rudbārži Estate.  After a three-hour battle, the victory was won, with the battalion taking over a strategic line near the banks of the Venta River.   This was the first victory for Kalpaks’ men after many retreats, and that inspired the rest of the liberation battles.