Lovely Riga...

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Sorry, no easy train connection between Vilnius and Riga, so we took the nearly four hours easy ride on a bus. Lux Simple sell tickets for 3 euros per person one way...if you book into the first 5 seats...I did, and it was dirt cheap for a pretty comfortable bus. We would do the same for the 4 hours ride between Riga and Tallinn....but this time, on top of it, for the same three euros...we would receive complementary wifi...not bad!



I didn't even noticed the border...well, I was looking for it...but didn't see it till we passed the first petrol station and saw the change of currency. Latvia will switch to the Euro in 2014, Lithuania only in 2016...and for Estonia, it was done two years ago.



This time, I don't have any proper frequent hotel guest card which allows me all the bonuses due to a decent level. So I booked a Radisson. It was pretty cheap due to the simple fact that we are on "the wrong side" of the river Daugava. Not a real issue, as it's just 15 minutes walk across the bridge to the middle of the Old Town. They call it location, location, location...this time, nice view from our room, and a 15 minutes walk which brings a serious added discount.



We are 1st of October, and the tourist season is over...and we can feel it in the air. The kids have also switched to their winter jacket, as we are closer to the maritime weather of the Baltic Sea. But still, and this is a good news, no rain!



The Old Town of Riga is way smaller than the Old Town of Vilnius. But the miss-match of architectural styles makes it a pretty fun place to walk around. We didn't spend much time in Riga, but still had a good idea of what is around.



It was already time to head a little northern, this time to Tallinn, for our last Baltic stop...before heading to Russia...



This is also our shortest stop on our way to Shanghai...we had to have one! We arrived by 7pm, and our next bus was the next day just before 3pm. The good news, is that it also looks as the smallest city of the Baltic capitals, or at least the Old Town to tour. Lithuania as around 3 millions inhabitants...we are under 2 millions in Latvia.



The first thing that got my attention when we crossed the bridge in the evening to find a place for dinner was...this is a completely different architecture from Vilnius. The two cities have close to nothing in common. Well, the answer is pretty easy to find in history...Vilnius is Catholic, with deep roots linked to Poland, back to the Kingdom of Poland and Lithuania.



Latvia, is protestant...and seems to have had a huge link back to Germany, or at least his people. So yes, here the architecture reminded me more of the North of Germany.



We went around in the morning before joining our guide Valdes for our usual morning free tour...these are pretty amazing experiences all over Eastern Europe. We are touring that morning with only two Dutch guys and a French girl. Valdes is great when it comes to history...way more learning for three of us!



Next, the first pelmenis for the children. What is a pelmeni...easy, delicious dumpling types, but the Russian ones. After all, at least 25% of the population are Russians here. Let me tell you, Tiffany and Leslie enjoyed their first pelmenis...I knew it!



We finished our Latvia experience by heading to the Museum dedicated to the Occupations of the XXth Century, aka the Soviets and the Nazis. The museum is less fascinating than the one in Vilnius, but still pretty interesting, learning even more on the Gulag deportation of a massive part of the population. A smaller part of the museum was linked to the Jews deported and murdered by the Nazis. Till, at least 70,000 of them never made it alive.



It was already time to say good bye to lovely Riga and head for our next bus, for Tallinn, before heading pretty soon to Russia...Tallinn, coming next...

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