Liepaja calls itself the city where the wind is born, and a morning on the seafront makes the claim credible. It sits on the Baltic coast of western Latvia, between the sea and a long, narrow lake, and the wind blows in from the west across a very wide beach of fine pale sand. About eighty-five thousand people live here, in a city of wooden houses, art nouveau facades, parks and a lively music scene. Liepaja is known as the cradle of Latvian rock, and each summer the beach hosts concerts.
The city has a layered, slightly austere history. In the late nineteenth century, Tsar Alexander III built the Karosta naval base on its northern side, a self-contained town of barracks, churches and an enormous naval cathedral, and the Soviets later used it as a base for submarines. Parts of Karosta were closed and forbidden to civilians for decades, and the former military prison is now a museum, where you can take tours or even spend a night. The rows of grim barracks and crumbling forts are strangely compelling, and the beaches beyond are wild and empty.
The ride from Liepaja goes inland to Kuldiga, the old town of the Duchy of Courland, about sixty kilometres to the north-east. The road runs through open farmland and forest, flat and easy, with long straights and the occasional village. Kuldiga has a brick bridge from the nineteenth century, a handsome old centre of wooden houses, and the Venta Rapid, a waterfall about two hundred and fifty metres wide, said to be the widest in Europe, though only a couple of metres high. In spring, fish leap upstream there.
Liepaja has plenty of fuel, with stations on the main roads, and good places to eat: smoked fish, rye bread and a dark local beer are all worth trying. Latvia drives on the right, the speed limit on open roads is generally ninety, and the police are watchful. Summer is the best season, though the sea is cold. Autumn brings gold in the birches and fewer people.