When it arrived , at first glance I thought this card was from Finland or at least a Nordic country because of the style of the wooden buildings. But no, it's from Jūrmala in Latvia. There may be a reason for my mistake because the town has over 4000 wooden buildings including 414 of historic importance and under protection. Some of the buildings were designed by Finnish architects though most were German and Latvian.
Jūrmala was a resort favoured by Communist officials in the time when Latvia was part of the USSR, because of the beautiful beaches and attractive houses.
Jūrmala is in fact made up of a number of small resorts, one of which is Majori where the card was posted on 17 July 2009.
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My goodness, Latvia is so beautiful. I would so love to go there. These buildings are incredible. I would think there would be much more U. S. tourism to that part of the world from the U. S.
ReplyDeleteI'm surprised too, that it isn't a better known destination. I read that it has suffered since the USSR leaders no longer visit, and even went into some decline. Tourism is gradually starting to pick up now though.
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