Monday, August 23, 2010

Rundale Palace

Rundale Palace is a place that many visitors to Latvia go to, even locals.  I finally drove out there with Lori this past Saturday.  The day was cloudy and rainy...but I had high hopes that the weather would clear up.
Some of the interior is original, but a lot of it has had to be restored.  That happens a lot here in the Baltics...not much was maintained, so they've had to go back and restore.  But isn't this beautiful?  Pink marble with relief roses and vines!  Very pretty...but I'm not sure I'd want a whole room that way...maybe just a little for accent?
Here you can see the original and what state it is in.  They've done a fabulous job of restoring and seeing the original was quite interesting.
I imagine that the need for a "tropical" retreat was needed in the dead of winter!  But it is amazing the amount of detail and that someone used to live here...quite opulent but not the most opulent that I've seen.
I was a little hungry and so feeling a little irreverant and could not help myself from saying "I like big butts" when we walked in and saw these old dresses...that then prompted the picture of me sticking my butt out! LOL...I'm so silly...
Outside the palace is the French gardens.  We paid 2 lats to visit the French gardens, but as you can see it was rainy and I was soooo hungry (it was 3 o'clock by this point and I had ran 22 km that morning!) that we just took pictures and went to see if we could find somewhere to eat.

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