I've already shared with you how knowledgeable our friend Joan is about Riga and what to see and do. When we were planning this trip Joan suggested that we should visit Rundale Palace, which is about 70 kilometres outside of Riga. I found a tour company that would pick us up and take us to the palace, so the tour was booked.

Our driver arrived at 10:00 for the day's tour. And now to the name of this entry "Everything is Illuminated". You might not have read this book, by Jonathan Safran Foer, it's the story of a young American Jew who travel to the Ukraine in search of the woman who saved his grandfather's life during the holocaust. In the story the author hires a translator and driver who drives like a maniac and provides commentary of events in tortured English, our driver Alex is an older version of this character. Greg engaged Alex in conversation, quelle surprise, and found that Alex is one of the many older Latvian who grew up in the Soviet era and now at over 70 has to work to make ends meet.

Back to our travels.

Alex picked us up and told us that there would three other passengers joining us for the day. But first another tour of the streets around Joan's flat. "Jump in, I'll show you the streets". Not what I was expecting, as I thought I'd booked a tour of Rundale Palace. Alex took us one block up from Joan's apartment where some of the most iconic art nouveau buildings are located, and guess what we where directed to the souvenir shop, politely declined but a little annoyed.

On to pick-up our three other travellers and off we go and travel to, not the Rundale Palace but Bauska to see, now wait don't get too excited, the local museum on measurement. Once again, I am not at Rundale Palace. Greg could see that I was getting that annoyed look in my steely blue eyes and sensibly said lets just enjoy the experience. Ok ,says I, lets just do that. Back in the car and onto Rundale Palace, but no we went to see some ducks, yeah ducks, but still not a palace.

Back in the car and a drive to not the Rundale Palace but a ruined fort. Now I'm putting my cranky hat on. Greg took hold of my hand which was a sign that I should take that cranky hat straight off. Then back in the car and yes Rundale Palace, hooray!

The Palace was built in the mid 18th century for the Duke of Courland. I won't attempt to explain its complex history, which involved Swedish wars, Polish wars, Russian wars and Catherine the Great. The Palace was designedly Francesco Bartolomeo Rastrelli, who designed the Winter Palace in St Petersburg. After the Latvian War of Independence the palace was confiscated by the state and after that the rooms of the palace had been used as a hospital, grain storage and a school. It was only in the 1970's that restoration of the palace commenced and it became a museum.

It's a beautiful building surrounded by formal gardens. We walked around the garden for about 40 minutes enjoying the serenity, as there were few other groups here. I recalled our visit to the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, it was difficult to enjoy it when there are thousands of people in a small space.

After our 40 minute walk we rejoin the group for a tour of the palace. For all my grumbles about our guide he provided a good commentary, although he was playing a cat and mouse game with the Italian tour group who had arrived as we entered the palace. It felt like we were sprinting at times, to get to the room before they entered.

After about three hours at the Palace we headed back to Riga and into heavy traffic. Alex had the music up loud, so we could all enjoy Latvian easy listening music. As the traffic got heavier Alex became agitated, ducking down side roads to overtake the traffic only to find dead ends. After about an hour and a half we got back to Riga at about 18:30.

Greg and I decided to eat at an Azerbaijan restaurant in our efforts to eat something a little different. The restaurant was empty when we arrived at 19:00. I looked at the restaurant menu on display at the entrance, it looked interesting. They were playing loud music videos and I was about to walk away when the waiter came up and asked us in. Only if we don't have to see or hear the music video. This could be arranged so we went in, passing a large glass cage containing a huge green lizard, which the waiter proudly pointed out. I felt like backing out then but we took out seats and looked at the menu. The english translations were brief but we got the gist of most of it.

We started with a salad and eggplant stuffed with feta and herbs and rolled in crushed walnut. For mains I had chicken in a traditional yoghurt sauce with paprika and Greg had sturgeon. We were impressed with our meal, but got the impression this was not really a restaurant, merely a meeting place for Russian oligarchs. As we sat eating our dinner it wasn't a case of being joined by other diners but seeing through traffic to rooms out the back. Nevertheless the food and wine was good and the price was modest.

The waiter who served us, who couldn't have been more than 16 and spoke superb English, was saving to go to university in America. We walked back to our temporary home tired but satisfied.