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Published: October 27th 2007
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February 2005
It might seem a very obvious statement, but Riga in February is cold! As a couple who hail from the North East, cold never really featured in the list of things to be worried about….but this was COLD! John sometimes gets carried away with the photo taking opportunities, but this was instant frost bite just taking the hand out of the gloves to snap. Welcome to the Russian front. The hat might look over the top in the pictures, but believe us it wasn’t for decoration.
This was our first visit to the Baltics and as you might have read, the other countries have now been visited or at least the capital cities and surrounds. The first impression (other than the Cold), would be that Riga is not as picture book pretty as Tallinn and has a bit more edge than Vilnius. However, it’s probably the Baltic location of choice on the drinking and thinking trail and even in bleak mid-winter there were plenty of stags and hens on patrol. We still found plenty of alternative locations where, if you value your peace and quiet, you can drink with the Latvians.
The Old Town of Riga
was fairly small and compact, bordered by the Daugava River on one side and the Bastejkalns Park on the other. It was actually a bit difficult to describe the river as a body of flowing water - it was frozen solid! Who needs a bridge, when you can walk across! It made a very scenic foreground to the views of the Old Town.
The centre of the Old Town was Livu Square. A temporary ice rink was established in it’s centre. The rink by day was a centre for the young kids to practice their skating, but by night it was the centre of impromptu ice hockey as the local Latvians thrashed groups of English who had been over indulging all day.
The pick of museums was undoubtedly the Occupation Museum -it’s free, so that is another bonus. Once a museum honouring the Latvian Red Riflemen who formed Lenin’s bodyguard, the building now houses exhibits dedicated to the Nazi and Soviet occupations of Latvia. The various exhibits display the atrocities committed against the people of Latvia and the systematic destruction of their nation's sovereignty. There seems to be some sort of debate about whether the building - best
described as a Soviet bloc - remains suitable amongst the grandeur of the others and whether the museum should be rehoused in another building in the Old Town. If you want to see some real life occupation stuff, check out the bullet holes in the front of the Latvia Radio Building.
The House of Blackheads next door is quite a contrast, albeit a recreation. It was originally built in 1344, flattened by the invading Germans in 1941, buried by the Soviets in 1948 and rebuilt in 2001 with careful attention to its original structure and exterior ornamentation to commemorate the city's 800th anniversary. As with the other Hanseatic ports, the House of Blackheads was originally the centre of a merchant guild.
The other main buildings that stand out in the Old Town are the churches, most of which have been restored or are in the process of being restored. The main players that dot the skyline are St Saviours - commissioned by British traders living in Riga and built in 1857 with English bricks on a shipload of English soil specially imported from the UK. The Soviets transformed this one into a student disco.
The Dome Cathedral
Daugava River
A very frozen Daugava River to be precise! is the largest place of worship in the Baltics, measuring 187 x 43m and with walls two metres thick. The Cathedral also has one of the biggest organs in Europe - 6,768 pipes! The guidebooks will tell you that the Riga Dome Cathedral is not to be missed - not that that's likely to happen, as it's the sort of building you see from just about anywhere else!
If you want to get a better perspective of the city, visit the Skyline Bar at the top of the Reval Hotel - the tallest building in all of Latvia. It looks down on the Orthodox Cathedral - this one was a planetarium during the Soviet times, but the congregation reclaimed it in 1990. The Reval Hotel is just along from an interesting area of Art Nouveau architecture - a bit neglected after the last 50 years or so, but interesting viewing.
We took the train out to the seaside at Jurmala. It’s probably as well to do your research on this trip, because there doesn’t actually seem to be one place called Jurmala - it’s a group of towns that front the long beach. We got off at Majori,
which seemed to be the centre of the action or at least as close to action as you are likely to get in the middle of February. They are exaggerating about the long white sandy beach - it was certainly white when we were there, covered in snow to be precise. The Baltic was frozen solid. At the water’s edge you could see sand - beneath about six inches of ice! I’m sure it’s very nice in summer.
The weather obviously meant that there wasn’t going to be a great deal of sport on the horizon - even the ice hockey teams were playing in far off places in some Baltic / Russian mini league. The stadium at Skonto Riga has been rebuilt to a degree since independence and now is a tidy little 10,000 ground of one tier stands next to the Skonto Sports Hall.
As there was no sport at all, we took our inaugural steps into the world of culture. The Latvian National Opera and Ballet is in Bastejkalns Park - a top snowballing venue near the Freedom Monument - and the tickets are a steal. It cost less than £2 to see the ballet.
We never thought we’d repeat the exercise (which we subsequently did in Estonia), but it’s a worthwhile couple of hours. The locals take it ever so seriously and get dressed up in their Sunday best. If you are offended by fur coats - best stay away!
The “drinking and thinking” opportunities are widespread and it’s so cheap. The currency - the Lat - which was almost on parity with the pound also made it easy to calculate your bargains. Whilst beer is obviously John’s tipple of choice, Miranda indulged in some of the local speciality - Rigas Black Balsam. Rigas Balsam is some sort of herb based, alcoholic liquor that looks as though it has the texture of a heavy crude oil mixed with treacle. I am advised that it’s very nice, although in Bar Balsams they seem to specialise in burying it in a variety of cocktail type guises to help it flow. Bar Balsams was one our favourites, although from time to time in our visit it seemed to be overrun with the types that wear long leather coats and drive a Hummer with blacked out windows.
If you are looking for another look at Latvian
life, head over to the Central Markets. The markets are full of real wheeling and dealing inside what were built as Zeppelin hangers in 1930. The Academy of Sciences better known as Stalin’s birthday cake is nearby looking very similar to his birthday present to Warsaw apparently.
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