February 9th, 2010 
Sheila Simkin The Historic Baltic Republics continues…
The group headed south into Lithuania today with a jam-packed schedule. We now have a dedicated bus that will be used for transport until the tour ends. A short stop at a RIMI Supermarket in Bauska to buy food for lunch except us. We settled on a rotisserie chicken, Armenian bread and mega pastries to eat for dinner since the Klaipeda e.t.a. was 7:30 p.m. (Must confess…we snarfed down the pastries way before dinner. They are just so darn good.) Not only was Bauska on the old trade route between Riga and Lithuania but Napoleon’s army transited through in 1812 on the way to Moscow.
The bus passed the atmospheric Bauska Castle…View image… on the short 12 km/7 mile drive from Bauska to Rundale Palace but there wasn’t enough time to stop. Rundale Palace was built in the 18th century by Anna, Empress of Russia, for her lover Count Birons who became Duke of Courland…View image. Being Anna’s lover sure paid off for him until she died when he was promptly banished to Siberia. Hey…I’ve been lost in Siberia. How many people do you know that can say that…or want to say that? The palace then stood empty until Catherine the Great presented the palace to her lover, Prince Zubov in 1795.
This 138-room palace was built by the same architect who built the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and is beautifully decorated with reproductions, some fine paintings…View image, and furniture…View image . Rundale Palace suffering serious damage beginning in World War I and lasting through World War II. Restoring Rundale Palace is an ongoing project of the Latvian State since it is one of Latvia’s biggest tourist attractions. Currently, just 48 rooms are open to visit.
A guide led us on a two-hour tour of Rundale Palace…View image…entering up the Parade staircase in the east side and into the central building occupied by one elaborate room after another. The Gold Hall (Throne room), White Hall (Ballroom), Grand Gallery and smaller rooms with collections of Chinese and Japanese porcelain…View image. cut-glass chandeliers…View image, hand-painted ceilings…View image… incredible attention to detail…View image…with even a crane sitting on a nest…View image, original parquet flooring in a few rooms…View image…
Each room entered directly into another in typical Palace format. There was no such thing as “privacy” in those days. Just imagine the royal nobles walking through your bedroom on the way to the next bedroom while trying to sleep or bathe. Rundale Palace was no exception and the elegant corridors seemed endless…View image…as we made our way past a bathroom..View image… views of the huge courtyard…View image, and chimneys. One had a gigantic stork’s nest still sitting on it…View image. I also don’t know if you’ve ever seen how they heated the rooms in Palaces. With at least 20-foot high stoves covered in Delft tiles and stoked from the bottom (or so I was told). Even with a monster like that in every room, I seriously wonder exactly how much heat it gave off and these were still the originals.
If you want to visit the beautiful French formal gardens, there is an extra charge and would make a wonderful excursion on a warmer day. There is also a museum in the Palace’s stables but we didn’t really have enough time to visit that either. Two more sites were still on the agenda for today.
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