Blogs from Riga Region, Latvia, Europe

Almost four hours in the bus and the countryside we observed confirmed our understanding that agriculture is not the mainstay of the Estonian economy. Very little by way of settlement and vast acres of forest constituted the landscape. On the Daugava River not far from the sea Riga is another gem with different facets from its neighbouring capitals. Here the Old Town has lost its ring-wall and the old and new flow gently together on the east bank, which is mainly, old. The west bank contains newer residential and office towers, we only ventured there briefly. The old, old town is further delineated by what seems to have once been a moat but which is now a lovely canal through park all the way, cutting off a piece of land from the north near the sea-boat ... read more

This entry includes a text about our short stay in Riga on June 14: "It is all too simple. We took an Ecolines bus from Berlin to Riga. The bus turned out to be very convenient and there was even an attendant and we could order meals and drinks; but there were only several persons on this route. The trip took the whole day and we passed several cities and towns like Suwalki, Marijampole etc. On arriving to Riga, I had a feeling that it seemed very much like our own Russia, something remaining from the Soviet era. There was a 4-hour wait till the bus to St. Petersburg. I bought a map and we left the luggage at the station; there was Russian speech everywhere. I wanted to have a short walk seeing the main ... read more

Six weeks of planes, trains and boatmobiles on the Iceland/Scandinavian/Baltic merry-go-round brought us to our full stop in the region, the little surprise packet of Riga. With Latvia's history sharing a raft of parallels with Estonia and geographically separated solely by that thin man made line we call a border, I'd imagined Latvia's capital Riga would be a carbon copy of sister Tallinn up north. Not so. For a start the language is completely different, not that I can tell. It's also not as dollied up. No period costumes in the streets here and the old town is a lick of paint short of Tallinn's slick veneer and clean lines. The facade also throws up more visions of its Soviet byways. The heart and soul of the younger populace is, however, Western European to the core ... read more

...... read more

Friday I stayed in Warszawa city of Statues. All their old and new heroes but also Mr Reagon are to be seen all over the city.Did some sightseeing in the centre and the old town, an Unesco world heritage site ,and had a 2 hours panoramic tour by coach. Compared to three years ago not much difference only they keep building new offices, houses, stations but still an awful lot of old communist style buildings. In Waeszawa you ee like everywhere in Poland still lots of priests and nuns , young and old and churches are full/... read more