Blogs from Riga Region, Latvia, Europe - page 3

Day 191 Wednesday 27th July 2016 – Tartu to Riga Easy day today, with us taking our time packing and checking out at 11.30. Had a walk through this pretty town again and then sat in the park for a while to enjoy the ambience. Ended up in one of the shopping malls and decided to catch a movie, and couldn’t believe that a movie ticket only costs 2 Euros each. With the movie finished we only had 90 minutes before our bus arrived and so couldn’t eat at our usual restaurant as the service is a bit slow so decided to eat at the bus terminal and as expected it wasn’t very good. Grabbed our bags from our hotel across the road and then waited till our bus arrived which it did smack ... read more

Baltic Road Trip May 2016 Day 1 Saturday – 6 hours driving Minsk to Riga Up early – 4:30 a.m. to depart for the Belarus-Lithuania border before it gets busy 2 hour drive to the border; only five cars ahead of us 1.5 hours to cross with much checking of the trunk; a helpful Belarus border agent with minimal English; Belarus immigration check; drive Belarus customs check; drive Lithuania immigration check; finally inside the European Union Stop near Lithuania-Latvia border for coffee and special cake – sakotis on into Riga, Latvia using our great phone navigation app (OsmAnd) We entered Riga during a huge motorcycle rally and maneuvered around closed roads to our nice hotel in the old town – huge room. Lunch on a square in the glorious sunshine. walked to see some of the ... read more

No biking today, but did train and walk quite bit. Woke to cool overcast skies, later sprinkled intermittently until early afternoon. Then sun came out and heated up. Woke ate at hostel, granola, wild blueberries, lox, bread, tea and coffee - same as yesterday. Bought train tickets to Jurmala. We had read about this resort/spa area up the west coast, only 20 km from Riga. It has 5 miles of fine white sand beaches, with shallow waters of the Baltic sea. The train took about 30 minutes to get to Majori in Jurmala. We were met with a slight drizzle when we exited the train at Majori. We had brought umbrellas and extra clothes.Initially need them. We walked along the main tourist street - Jonas iela, where souvenir shops and restaurants line the carless street. We ... read more

No biking today. Started warm and part Early partly cloudy, later in late afternoon, rain began, with some thunderstorms. Rain ended early evening , but cooler. Got up at 6:00 am, ate scant breakfast. Boarded bus for Riga at 7:00 am. Arrived in Riga at 11:30 am. Went back to our Hostel in Riga - Cinnamon Sally and got set up at our new digs. We left a bag of our clothing here when we went to Vilnius. Walked around Riga some, but rain started. Finished reading the book, " the Devil in the White City". Excellent detailed book, but very creepy. H.H. Holmes is a certified sociopath. Anyway, need to find a new book. I read this and other books on the iPad. Works pretty good. Went to eat at Lido Restaurant. This is a ... read more

Heute war Riga dran. Ich komm mir schon so vor wie ein Japaner, der ganz Europa in 7 Tagen macht. Bei mir sind’s zwar nur Litauen und Lettland, aber auch zu wenig Zeit. Aber Arzttermine vorher und hinterher haben mich eingeengt. Jedenfalls war Rigau irgendwie ein Reinfall. Ich wagte mich, wie schon in Vilnius, ohne lange Unterhose aus dem Hotel - und das war ein gravierender Fehler. Es war saukalt und regnete immer wieder und mich fror meistens. Mit dem öffentlichen Bus fuhr ich ins Stadtzentrum und machte eine Stadtrundfahrt mit einem Hop-on-Hop-off Bus, in diesem Fall allerdings nur Hop on, den bei diesem Wetter dachte niemand daran irgendwo off zu hoppen, der nächste Bus kam in zwei Stunden. Schließlich war ich die einzige, die vor der Endhaltestelle ausstieg - ich ging zu den Markthallen. Sie ... read more