Baltic Trip - Ventspils      8th - 9th June:

8th June

Attractive Ventspils Marina

    When I took over the watch at 4am, in the eerie "permanent" twilight I noticed a smudge of land nearby, and I asked Alan what it was. He cheerily replied that it was the same piece of land that I had been looking at when I had finished my watch at midnight. He showed me a plot of our course over the last four hours; it had been a gentle meander including one complete loop.
    This variable direction low speed wind continued for the rest of the day, and to avoid another night of drifting, we switched the motor on and arrived at Ventspils as the sun was setting.
    Ventspils was a much industrialised town, a large refinery greeted us on the way to the harbour, and once in, we berthed in a basin just by the fishing basin, a wonderful reek! Worse was to come, within 50m of our basin, a dull, grey concrete building sprouted six low height chimneys, all spewing out huge volumes of a white cloud of dust and smoke. Fish and wood entered at one end of the factory; smoked fish and pollution exited elsewhere. We had been warned about this by the German chap we met at Haapsalu.

Chain Chair

    The berthing arrangement was stern to buoy, and bow to quay. A couple of Dutch guys lent a hand in taking our bow ropes. Alongside us were six Dutch yachts. The harbour master appeared at the same time and went through his spiel in the best English he could muster, which was marginally better than our Latvian.
    We had already eaten en route, so we celebrated arriving at another country with the remains of the fruity cider. With that, Alan decided to call it a day.
    I needed to stretch my legs so I wandered out to the end of the south pier to watch a large ship coming in, and also to survey the land, or what I could see of it. I caught the remnants of the setting sun; there were still plenty of people out on the long sandy beach which stretched out south from the pier. Whilst looking out to sea, I felt a warm waft of air from the land brush the back of my neck, and the smell of smoke. I turned around half expecting to see someone lighting a BBQ on this extremity of the pier. To my surprise there wasn't, I was being immersed in the output from the same chimneys next to the marina about half a mile away. Rather than stay out in the pollution, I made my way back. At least it might keep the flies at bay.

9th June

Street in Ostgals District

    After a quick shower in the facilities block that had never been cleaned or renovated since Stalin's days, we attended to some boat repairs; a never ending job. While Alan was checking his washing, he met up with one of the Dutch crew. He learned that the adjacent six Dutch boats would be heading up to Helsinki, where they would join a flotilla of thirty vessels heading for St Petersburg. They too were using the services of Vladimir; it looked like our Russian friend was going to have a busy season.

Livonian Order Castle

    Ventspils developed around the Livonian Order castle, built along the Venta River. It was chartered in 1314 and became an important mercantile city of the Hanseatic League. Situated at the mouth of the river, where it empties into the Baltic Sea, it is an important ice-free port. In 1939, the Red Army established a base here, and an oil pipeline was built to the port. As a consequence, large amounts of oil and other mineral resources from Russia are loaded aboard ships at Ventspils. Indeed the city became USSR's leading port in crude oil export. The revenue from port services has made Ventspils the wealthiest city in Latvia.
    An explore of Ventspils was the order of the day, passing through the Ostgals district on the way. Up until the mid 19th century, Ostgals (Harbour End) was an open sand field with wind blown sand dunes. The travelling dunes invaded the harbour making it shallow and impeding operation. After unsuccessful attempts to stop the drifting with foliage, the tsarist Russian government issued a decree in 1836 for all farmers, who would like to settle in the dune area, to render a range of benefits such as: releasing from compulsory work for several years, supplying timber for building and foliage for landscaping from the state forests free of charge, even paying for each building that was constructed. Thus, in a relatively short period of time, Ostgals was formed with its tiny cobbled streets and peculiar constructions.
    Following the bank of the river Venta, we came across a sculpture of a cow. We were to find, through the course of the day, several sculptures of cows. Ventspils is one of a number of cities across the globe who have held a cow festival (don't ask why they are held - the first occurred in Zurich in 1995). CowParade in Ventspils took place in 2002.

Travelling Cow

Black Cow

    The waterfront walkway was prettily laid out with maritime artifacts and flowers rendering it attractive for locals and tourists alike. Across the river huge cranes were busily loading and unloading coal and ballast materials from large ships. Oil tankers used a separate terminal behind this industrial waterfront, and I discovered later, that around a bend in the river, mountains of timber lay ready for export.

Sea Cow

Life is Beautiful Cow

    The Livonian Order castle which the city was developed around, was a must see, but sadly it was closed for renovation work; a pity.
    Departing from the riverside, we walked through a series of streets with a very varied mixture of architectures, ranging form ancient looking almshouses through to modern complexes, bleak Soviet constructions to art nouveau. A large amount of the city had been destroyed during the war, and it seemed as if no cohesive planning had been carried out since then. Eventually we arrived at what could be called a centre for the old town, the market square, full of stalls selling in season farm produce, clothing and art and craft goods.

Almshouses

One of the Oldest Wooden Buildings in Latvia

    In the corner of the square was a building considered to be among the oldest wooden buildings in Latvia. The square, also known as the Town Hall Square, had maintained its historic size since the beginning of the 17th century. The Town Hall was a single storey wooden building with a small tower, where the council was planning to install a clock for an extended period of time. The building was dismantled as being beyond repair in 1850, and its location was marked with the Carillon Clock Tower.
    In a more modern part of the city, we visited the bus station and bought a couple of return tickets to Riga for the following day. By now Alan's knees and hip were giving him some pain, so he caught a cab back to the boat.

Bobsleigh Team

    Meanwhile, I carried on exploring past the Haymarket up to New Town Square, with its urban parks and gardens, to examine one of the city's many wondrous flower arrangements, the "Bobsleigh Team", depicting four "blooming" men pushing the original bobsleigh of the legendary Latvian bobsleigh athlete, Sandis Pr�sis.

	Ventspils Flowers

Traditional Latvian Dress

    I made a beeline for the House of Crafts, located in the school building dating back to 1763. As well as a range of crafts and traditional dress on display, I came across a room full of hand looms where various shawls were at different states in their creation. The room bellowed out Latvian country music, but all the weaving ladies were in another room having a tea break and natter.

Nicolay Lutheran Church

St Nicolay Russian Orthodox Church Spire

    I poked my head into another room, which seemed to be one of the original classrooms from the 40s/50s. On the wall was a picture of Nicholas II, which prompted me to ask the old lady on guard about the history. She neither spoke nor understood English, but she dragged in a young girl from a stall in the crafts section who managed to do a rough translation. Between them, after much perseverance, I learnt that from 1763 to 1835, Latvia had been occupied by Germany. Then the Russians took control until 1915. Latvia enjoyed a brief independence until World War II, when the Germans and then the Russians took control, the latter ruling until 1991. I tried to ascertain if their lives had improved since the Russian left. The old lady, like many old people in the Baltic states, reckoned that things had got worse. When the Russians were in charge, everybody had a job; not the case nowadays.
    My route back to the waterfront took in the St Nicolay Russian Orthodox Church, the outside being covered in scaffolding and the inside being the usual ornate Orthodox setting, though rather dimly lit in this case. Outside was a contrast of bright sunshine, fairly fitting for the numerous Easter decorations in the churchyard.
    It was so hot, so I returned to the boat, taking in a brief view of the busy sandy beach, well equipped with life guards and dozens of swings and play areas for children. It struck me that the city catered well for its young folk, with lots of parks full of facilities for children. Educational and entertaining programmes for children were an integral part of the cultural life of Ventspils. Ventspils families with kids eagerly attended Sunday events in the children's playground "Children's Town" and the children's park "Fantasy". The City Council regularly supplied a number of grants to help fund cultural events and free-time activities for the youth, thus promoting participation and engagement in the city life and increasing diversity of professional art.