Bulduri is no longer the center of Jurmala, which is practically not inferior in popularity to either Majori or Dzintari.

The first fishing farmsteads appeared here somewhat earlier than those of the “neighbors” - historical chronicles indicate that people lived on the territory of Bulduri already in the 15th century. Like most areas of Jurmala, civilization came here in the 19th century, and already in the middle of it there were about 400 dachas in Bulduri. Unlike Dzintari, where the Russian aristocracy liked to relax, Bulduri was chosen by the Baltic Germans who lived in Riga at that time. This continued until the 30s of the 20th century, until well-known events forced the Germans to leave for their historical homeland. Subsequently, this microdistrict developed, to a lesser extent, as resort place, and, to a greater extent, as a country house.

Nowadays, many Riga residents still come to Bulduri. Most of the former dachas have been converted into expensive cottages.

There are quite a lot of pleasant places and interesting objects in Bulduri. For example, the fountain opposite railway station(unfortunately, has not been working for many years).

The Bulduri Culture House is the most beautiful of all Jurmala culture houses.

The residential development here is mixed; there are quite a few Soviet five-story buildings.

But the main beauty is those same former wooden dachas, the lion's share of which are architectural monuments.

There are also completely unusual specimens.

In Bulduri everything is done for a pleasant stay. In the dunes there is a well-kept park with wonderful benches and walking paths.

In fact, this is the yard of one of the local oligarchs, but it is also open to the public.

Multi-step staircase from the beach - so as not to escape from there without difficulty.

There is even one large sanatorium here that is still operating. It belongs to Belarus and is named accordingly.

Next to the sanatorium there is a small fraternal cemetery where soldiers of the Soviet army who fell during the Second World War are buried.

What remains from the Soviet past in Bulduri is a large semi-closed department store and a flower and vegetable market.

On the other side, Bulduri is washed by the waters of the Lielupe River. The best thing that can be done with a river on the scale of one microdistrict is to build a good embankment. There is also an embankment here, but it is still far from “good” status.

But not far from this nondescript embankment there are several extremely important objects for the city. The most insignificant of them is a small yacht club.

This bridge is the main transport artery Jurmala, the importance of which simply cannot be overestimated.

Between the bridge and the yacht club is the Livu water park - the largest water park in northern Europe (as they position themselves).

It is in Bulduri that the main city hospital is located.

And it is in Bulduri that the main educational institution of Jurmala is located - the Bulduri Gardening School. In addition, it is one of the oldest vocational schools in the region. The school's doors first opened more than 100 years ago - in 1911. The current building was renovated a couple of years ago.

At the disposal of this educational institution There is a greenhouse where they grow very tasty and environmentally friendly vegetables. Buy them (by the way, at a very low prices) can be found in a small shop on the school premises.

The rest of the project is available by tag

Bulduri is located in Latvia and is part of the city of Jurmala. Holidays in Bulduri here will be an ideal option for those who are used to combining business with pleasure.

Before you go on vacation, set a goal for your trip. Let's say you want to see the sights, wander around the city, go shopping or maybe just relax somewhere in entertainment center. Then book a place in a hotel or inn in advance. Since quite often it happens that the desired hotel simply does not have free rooms.

Hotels in Bulduri

Hotels are provided for every taste and budget. 4 star hotel located on the beach Baltic Sea. Absolutely all rooms at the hotel are equipped with bathrooms, air conditioning, safe and minibar. The hotel has a restaurant overlooking the bay, a swimming pool with hydromassage and a waterfall, and a laundry service. For children, the hotel has a games room and playground. Anyone can rent a bike or car. The beach is a short walk from the hotel. The hotel allows pets, but you will have to pay for it separately.

Those who want to spend their holiday actively can devote it to hiking, dive into the Baltic Sea and enjoy the underwater flora and fauna of Latvia. On the beach located next to the hotel, you can rent beach equipment and also do aquatic species sports such as surfing.

The two halves of Jurmala are separated by a clearly visible bottleneck on the map - approximately halfway along the city, Lielupe forms a bend, approaching the sea only 350 meters. This isthmus contains a main street, a railway, one row of cottages and the residence of the President of Latvia behind a high fence. Here the main street of Jurmala, which changes its name in each village, acquires its characteristic appearance, captured in the title frame. It was already filmed somewhere in Dzintari, but in principle the landscape between Dubulti and Majori is approximately the same - villas, fences and tall pine trees. Well, however, there are a lot of abandoned villas between Dubulti and Majori, which is actually not typical for Eastern Jurmala:

3.

Majori opens the building of the Jurmala City Council - an absolutely dull, although renovated, Soviet “box”. Near it, I was caught by the rain that had been gathering a couple of hours before, and I waited out it under some kind of canopy, looking at this gate. These are the remains of the first sanatorium in Jurmala, "Marienbad", founded in the 1870s:

4.

The abandoned Stalinist building behind the gates, similar to a former maritime terminal (was there one in Jurmala at all?) is actually one of the buildings of the sanatorium, which after the war was transferred to the department of the Baltic Fleet.

5.

Here is the central square Majori with Lachplesis and the unfortunate snake - just to the left of the frame border is the station shown in the first part.

6.

Very beautiful villa almost opposite the station:

7.

And the memorable building of the Majori Hotel (1925) opens the local promenade - in Jurmala this is not an embankment (after all, in the Baltic the beach is always separated by a wooded foredune), but pedestrianized street Jomas.

8.

And he deigned to come to me in the summer seaside resort! Even despite the rain, the street is crowded, and I think from the gloomy faces, as if people here are not on vacation, it’s easy to identify Russians.

9.

In general, before the trip it seemed to me that there should be many “new Russians” in Jurmala, who had retired after the “wild 1990s”. But now I would describe the most popular type of Jurmala holiday-goer a little differently: a middle-aged woman, usually arriving with a child, but without a husband, and with an invariable stamp of dissatisfaction with life on her face. , who created whip-worthy ecstasy on the Moscow-Riga train on the theme of Soviet nostalgia. As a child, her mother took her on vacation to the Baltic states because it was Europe and she could take a break “from our reality”; Now she herself simultaneously dreams of Europe and is nostalgic for the Union, and it is the combination of these two seemingly mutually exclusive things that she finds in Jurmala. Besides, he “doesn’t like the heat.”

10.

Cafe "Uzbekistan". Not in Moscow, please note, not in Sochi - but in the Baltic states. Make yourself at home!

11.

Souvenirs. Pay attention to the first shelf with soap - thanks to the Stenders company, which arose in post-Soviet times, the production of soap, including all kinds of exotic aromas and consistencies, became one of Latvia’s economic niches in the European Union. The next kiosk is also typical - they sell amber there.

12.

Monuments. On the left are the couple of poets Rainis and Aspasia, for Latvian literature something like “if Pushkin were married to Akhmatova.” On the right - well, just cats, apparently so that Russian tourists would not be so gloomy.

13

And the architecture here is very nice, and Jomas looks like a city street, not a country street. As I understand it, most of the buildings are from the time of the First Republic:

14.

15.

Although the street is dominated by a multi-storey Soviet-built hotel:

16.

Having had a snack at the local Lido (the choice is 10 times less than in Riga), I got caught in another blow of rain and jumped under the canopy. It rained for about 15 minutes, but very heavily. This was the beginning of the Atlantic cyclone, under which the last week of my stay in Latvia passed - during this time I visited, among others, the already shown Sigulda, Cesis, Aluksne and Gulbene with their narrow-gauge railway....

17.

So, about architecture. There are also buildings from the Second Republic here, and they are also quite pleasant - weaker, of course, than, but in the same style.

18.

19.

Gradually, the building thins out again and becomes a “dacha”. Pay attention to the sign on the left - this is how the Baltic states meet Central Asia especially for the Russian tourist. The street ends at the Dzintari (Amber) resort park. Somewhere behind these trees there is a pavilion with an exhibition of vintage cars, among which there is even an authentic limousine of Nicholas II, and all of them are in working order and periodically paraded.

20.

I headed along Turaida Street towards the sea:

21.

22.

23.

Turaida leads straight to concert hall"Dzintari" is probably the largest abode of Russian pop music and KVN abroad. Despite all my aversion to these genres, I still considered it my duty to look at the legendary place, especially since “Dzintari” has acquired such a clear pop slant in recent decades, but it has existed for a century and a half, having arisen in the 1870s as a Kurhaus “Edinburgh” (let me remind you that until 1920 the village of Dzintari was called in honor of the wedding of the daughter of Alexander II with the Duke of Edinburgh), and many musicians who had already become classics performed there. Alas, I was unlucky - Dzintari was closed for renovations. As I understand it, the frame shows the roof of the Small Hall (1935), and Big hall(1962) with a roof but no walls - further in the park.

24.

Ahead you can already see a gazebo on the descent to the sea, another one stands in a pine grove on the foredune...

25.

But first, let’s move a hundred meters to the left - a week earlier, at the same time as in Kemeri, she brought me here renatar to show two houses of his authorship. Both of them are located at Yuras, 59, only one is residential and the other is guest. By the way, she has. birthday today.

26.

27.

And on a gloomy early morning, Jurmala produces a completely different impression than on a warm, even rainy, evening.

28.

Immediately after the rain, the Jurmala beach looked like this. It is almost the same width along its entire length, equally sandy along its entire length, and connects the Yumal villages no worse than a railway. That one itself is “Jurmala”, that is, translated from Latvian - seaside. Only in this part, from Majori to Bulduri, there are a lot of all kinds of cafes and entertainment.

29.

Reverse view:

30.

One of the most impressive buildings in Jurmala is the Retsene bathhouse (1914), which was a resort clinic in Soviet times, but I don’t even know what it is now. Here at any time of the year there were heated baths sea ​​water, to which pine extract was often added. At the bathhouse I again headed deeper into the village:

31.

Numerous streets perpendicular to Jomas - with pine trees and villas. The names are beautiful, although I don’t know their translation - Pilsonyu, Tirgonyu... There is also Omnibus Street here - very atmospheric. But in general, apparently, all the ex-German resorts on the Baltic are similar - pine trees, straight streets and Holz Jugendstil.

32.

33.

To Pilson for main street- a wooden church (1910), and on Viktoriyas there seems to be also a former synagogue.

34.

But Jurmala, frankly speaking, is not rich in interesting Soviet architecture, which is quite unexpected for a resort of this scale.

35.

So we went to railway. Behind it is a huge array of dachas and guest houses, but I walked along the rails to the Dzintari station.

36.

But first, another flashback: in addition to Kemeri and the houses of her own, Renata that morning showed me another object in Jurmala that I would hardly have found on my own - the so-called House with Mosaics, located precisely in the railway part on the bank of the Lielupe, at Rizhskaya, 4 (in principle, it is very close to the station, the landmark is a huge indoor skating rink). In 2010, Renata found this house and showed its decorations in detail, not yet knowing their origin (except for the date “1980”), and a year later the author Olgert Michelsons was identified and his other creations were found in Riga.

37.

One of the mosaics on the fence - there are many different scenes:

37a.

38.

They left here a long time ago, the house is now municipally owned and occupied by several apartments, the sculptures are gradually deteriorating and losing their shape.

39.

Something is carried away by the river, which washes away the shore. For some reason I took very few shots here, but Renata shows the house in detail using the links above. This is the little Latvian Hundertwasser.

40.

But let's get back to my main walk around Jurmala. Frankly speaking, I didn’t have time to do much here, most of all I feel sorry for the small scansen dedicated to the life of fishermen in the Bulluciems area - this is the easternmost village near the mouth of the Lielupe, which I no longer had the strength to get to, and the museum could have been closed by that time. Finally, I just wanted to swim - before that I had already swam in Liepaja and Ventspils, I saw that the weather was deteriorating, and I understood that this was most likely the last swim in the sea for years to come. So I got to Bulduri(see) and headed towards the sea along the shortest straight line. Bulduri has its own attractions, but I limited myself to contemplating the villas along the road:

41.

42. This villa from the times of the First Republic, to be fair, was seen already on the way back.

View of Dzintari beach and the foredune separating it from the city:

43.

Here, however, there is one detail - in the absence of swimming trunks and the desire to contemplate the crowd of holidaymakers, I swam in Latvia on nudist beaches. In Jurmala, it is on the outskirts, almost at the mouth of the Lielupe, and I underestimated its remoteness - but in the end I walked in a straight line, along the edge of water and sand, for 3.5 kilometers. Here the beach is no longer so civilized and crowded, and the sea has covered the shore with algae - for some reason I didn’t see this in Liepaja and Ventspils. However, behind the strip of algae the water was quite clear.

44.

The nudist beach itself looked like this. That is, in fact it simply represented wild beach, where I was the only vacationer. In Liepaja and Ventspils, in general, the situation is approximately the same - there were 50-100 meters from person to person, so keep in mind: nudist beaches in Latvia are deserted beaches.

45.

In the distance you can see the cranes of the port of Riga, and closer - the mouth of the Lielupe. Later, looking at the map, I realized that it would have been easier to go further forward, I would have gone around the arrow, got out to Bulluciems and got on a minibus there, but instead I went back, at some restaurant I went deeper into the dacha forest again and I walked along it for about half an hour towards the Lielupe station, until I finally caught some other minibus

46.

And in general, I’ll tell you straight, I liked Jurmala the least of the three seaside cities - in Ventspils and even in Liepaja the beaches are cleaner and less crowded, the cities themselves are much more interesting and original. No, I don't like glamorous resorts. Or rather, I love them in the off-season. They say in last years Jurmala is losing ground significantly, unable to withstand competition with Palanga, Ventspils and small resorts on the Latvian seaside.

In the next part - about the estates of the Vidzeme hinterland (I announced it after Cesis, but there was a good reason to wait), after which I switch to the East.

Here.
From ... here you will find the answer to the question “Will Riga (Issyk-Kul, Shymkent, enter what you need)?”

But in those days we walked a lot around the immediate surroundings, leisurely strolled along the sea right before sunset... It was very romantic... On ordinary days we try to linger until sunset. But here, we have a hotel close by, so we don’t need to get home. We saw the sun all the way to the horizon...

Walk along Bulduri before sunset.

We saw the sun all the way to the horizon. Quiet, deserted, romantic. And very beautiful!

Still, we are not alone... There are several more people. And seagulls... And the first tents are preparing to open. But it depends on the weather...

Divine beauty... I would just watch and watch... But it’s time to go to the room, I’m with the child...

Ready to watch every day... and never get tired of it!

The beaches are deserted. The sun is setting. Let's go to our hotel. Let's admire the sea view from the 10th floor. But from the 10th floor at night we didn’t see anything amazing. It’s dark, somewhere in the distance the lights of ships... But tomorrow I’ll admire the stunning view!

View of the sea, pine trees, Jurmala, Bulduri... Eternity! :)))

Walk along Bulduri, day two.

Morning of the second day. Sun. Warm. The first volleyball players are already playing on the beach. But there are still few people walking.

The beaches are still deserted. But the owners are already setting up their kiosks and tents. Preparations for the new season are in full swing.

The volleyball players have not arrived yet, but the poles for the net are ready.

Very soon there will be no place to put a blanket on this deserted beach. In the meantime, beauty, silence, romance... And not only romance, what kind of house is hiding there in the dunes?

Do you remember why such strange structures were built in the dunes of Jurmala? And they left it now, as a memory of Soviet times? But we had toilets like these in Jurmala...



Sunset on the sea.