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Published: November 30th -0001
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The Laima clock
This is a favourite rendezvous for local lovers. Wednesday 15th September
The plane flight was uneventful and after several hours we arrived in Riga. It was good to be able to read signs again, even if they were in Latvian. The heavens opened as we left the airport and made a dash for the bus-stop. Very little shelter was afforded by the shelter and by the time the bus got there we were both soaked.
The bus was a double unit, we getting in the middle of the rear unit. We had the correct fare and waited for the conductor, who never came. When an inspector alighted we were told by some locals we should have got on at the front and paid the driver. Great when you aren't warned of this, the bus is full and its pouring with rain. Luckily for us a young chap near us didn't have a ticket, he caused a bit of a problem after which he was removed from the bus with the inspector in tow. Lucky!
A local girl pointed out where we had to get off, after which we followed directions we had downloaded from the Net and found ourselves in front of a large shopping
Freedom monument
It was first unveiled in 1935 and is a symbol of freedom and Latvian independence. It is inscribed in Latvian with words which mean "for fatherland and Freedom". centre, wet and not sure where to go. Judy left Rags to guard the luggage and set off to get her bearings. She returned 10 mins later, had found the hotel about 150m away and we eventually checked in.
The hotel is a converted old building and our room was up a couple of flights of stairs. It was small but clean and comfortable, and after settling in we set off to explore as much as we could before it got dark. We used the City Guide - Riga Insight. We have found these really useful in other cities and fortunately after some conversation with a fellow traveler on the bus, he gave us one.
Rags found a page that had directions for an Old City walking tour so we decided to follow it. We started at the National Opera House, a really impressive building with many columns. The tour took us past the Freedom Monumnet, Dome Cathedral and square, Riga Castle and an interestingly named, House of the Black Heads. We loved the feel of the old city with it's cobbled streets and ornate old and decorative buildings. Judy checked out the many amber shops
on our tour as she is looking for a pendant to go with the earrings she has at home but didn't find "the one". Of course, the fact she is looking for a gold setting doesn't help as some shops only have silver.
Before dinner another foray was made to the supermarket for some Latvian snacks for tomorrow. Judy must be getting a taste for vodka as she picked one up to take with us.
An Italian dinner was had at the little restaurant attached to our hotel. Food seems relatively cheap here and Rags ate a whole pizza while Judy had some home made lasagne and a glass of NZ white!
Thursday 16th September 2010
Breakfast was meant to be at 8am but when Rags went to check the young lady who had been on duty all night said it was ready. The Red Roof Inn we found was right in the heart of the Old Town, has small but pleasant enough clean rooms, is quiet, and has a very friendly & helpful staff. We would strongly recommend them.
Riga was an added bonus to our trip and one we thoroughly enjoyed.
The Three Brothers
These are supposedly the oldest domestic buildings in Riga and date back to the 15th century. they represent different stages of medieval dwelling houses, when buildings were made on narrow land plots. We wished we could have stayed for longer and would love to return to this part of the world!
By 9am we had checked out and had caught Bus 22 to the airport. We didn't take any risks, paying the driver as we entered. At the airport we had to go through the ridiculous motion of having to balance the weights of our bags, Judy's being 1.2kgs over the 20kg allowance but Rags' bag of 16kgs not offsetting this. A little commonsense would go a long way.
An hour delay on the ground after we embarked was annoying, the plane waiting for a large group of cyclists coming in on an another flight. We ended up sitting amongst a couple of, we think Greek, groups who yelled across to each other and seemed to have hearing problems as they had to speak very loudly all the time. Luckily this stopped soon after take-off and we had a reasonably pleasant flight.
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