Aarde Villa

Sääritsa

Lake Peipsi

Estonia

August 21, 2014

“How did you find this place?”  Thomas asks me.   “With great difficulty,” I respond.

Since this is my very first day driving with a GPS device, I am having some trouble learning the subtleties.   Plus that sweet lady up in the satellite hasn’t a clue when, unexpectedly, a main road is closed on the route to my destination.  Even my maps have no indication of this small town that lies somewhere between Mustvee and Kallaste.  So I read my guidebook, follow my nose, and ask directions of a couple of teenage boys who speak good English.  Eventually, I find my way down a narrow country lane to the Villa.

“No, no, that’s not what I meant.  How did you know about this place?” asks Thomas, an astonished Estonian. 

Tartu

Estonia

21 August 2014

Estonia, rich in history, much of it bloody history, provides the traveler with a variety of unique sights and sounds.

The oldest Stone Age settlements date back 10,000 years.

Finno-Ugric tribes from the east, probably from the Urals at about 3500 BCE, mingled with the Neolithic peoples and settled in present Finland, Hungary and Estonia.  They left behind their language system, so different from the surrounding Indo-European languages.

The Vikings arrived in the 9th and 10th centuries.

Tartu

Estonia

August 20, 2014

Jewish Cemetery, Roosi Street, Tartu

Herr Schapiro buried his young daughter here (1898-1922) and then his wife Hinde Simon (1923).

The Bakst Family is here.  Slomo (1872-1940).  Liuba (1868-1949).  Boris (1901-1941).

Kune Lea Kaplan (1876-1926)

Aisik Grinson (1847-1924)

Ernestine Flachs (1868-1910)

Aron Liebermann (1879-1925)

Samuel Blum (1860-1913)

A.J. Sois (1886-1913)

Abram Pasternak (1864-1928) was buried here by his wife.

Segulda 

Latvia

August 26, 2014

Cool.  Rain.

“Latvia” is printed on a sign of deep blue with a circle of gold stars.  It is the only indication that I driven across the boundary of the sovereign nation of Estonia and into the sovereign nation of Latvia, both members of the European Union.  

Barriers?   Uniforms?  Questions?  Paperwork?  None of the above.

No anger.  No fear.  No fences between good neighbors. 

How civil.  How civilized. 

Unfortunately, unlike the “Union,” the weather is not cooperating.

For two days, I must forcibly eject myself from the comfort of the Villa Alberta to see the local castles.

Salaspils

Latvia

August 25, 2014

Dear Family and Friends

“Is it a mitzvah to recite the Kaddish?”

Here’s why I ask: 

Twenty kilometers southeast of Riga, off the main highway, at the end of a narrow road, I park my car in an empty lot.

A dense forest of tall silent trees lines both sides of a broad gravel walkway.  Except for an elderly couple off in the woods gathering mushrooms, I am alone as I make my way down the long path to the distant monument. 

An enormous recumbent slab of grey stone marks the dramatic entrance.  It appears to have fallen on its side to an angular position.  The black inscription reads, “AIZ SIEM VARTIEM VAID ZEME.”  I walk under the slab and enter the site.

Villa Leonardo

Ventspils

Latvia

August 29, 2014

Dear Friends,

Leonardo serves me a breakfast that could feed a small army.

A pitcher of both orange juice and tomato juice, eggs, chicken, smoked fish, assorted cheeses, salad, fresh fruit, bread, butter, jam, pastry and Bodum French Press coffee.

My “apartment” is twice the size and much more elegant than my flat in Bangkok.  The kitchen and bathroom have every gadget needed for a lengthy stay.

The grounds of the Villa are seductive.

Why leave?