Blogs from Latvia, Europe - page 8

Riga, Latvia Loved this place. The pictures will give you an idea of what a joy it was to spend 10 days here. It was surprising to trade 2 US dollars for 1 Lat. This city is large enough to get lost in and spend an unplanned day wandering the streets without a plan, but small enough to cover in 2-3 days if you are in a crazy rush.... read more

In the middle of August, my friend Hetty spent a long weekend in Riga. We arrived there on a Wednesday night, Hetty had flown in from Munich and I from Hamburg. It was perfect timing, and we started our long weekend that we had both been looking forward to with a nice glass of wine in the hotel bar. This was a kind of curious experience. We wanted a glass of red wine each, Cabernet Sauvignon, to be precise. The bar tender said he was sorry that the wine was not cold – which of course was perfectly fine for us. Who drinks cold red wine?! Then he started opening a bottle of white wine and I had to tell him that we actually wanted RED wine. But finally, we got what we wanted and enjoyed ... read more

On Monday we rented a car in Riga and headed east. I was enjoying the scenery when ahead of us on the far side of the road a blue ball of light blazed outwards. Thoughts of aliens and superheroes flashed through my mind in the seconds it took for Keith to mention that the top of a tree had splintered off and fallen across the power lines. Sure enough, as we neared the spot, having slowed considerably, there were leaves and bits of branch scattered across the road. I was surprised it hadn't started a fire. We continued on to Segulda - an attractively laid-out town - and looked around the Livonian Order castle ruins and the New Sigulda Castle, which was more of a stately home, built by Prince Kropotkin in the early 20th century. ... read more

Arriving in Riga (population 706,000), after Moscow (population 10 million), is like taking off tight pants (or trousers for our British readers). You don't realize how much you are holding in until you don't need to anymore. Don't get me wrong. Moscow is interesting and worth visiting. Hearing what the people were told about the west wanting to take over the world is eye-opening. Gone are the old ladies queuing to buy bread or cabbages before they run out. The stores are modern and their shelves are full. The people like to dress up and go out and certain establishments have dress codes. Keith was denied access to the Radisson resturant wearing his below-the-knee shorts. Maybe it was the English-style shoes and socks ensemble. It's a vibrant city with plenty to see even without viewing the ... read more

Cobbled streets and cars are not a good mix for a quiet surface and we were woken by the increasing amount of traffic going by the hotel as the day got underway.We did however have another good nights sleep on a comfortable bed and long may that continue. Riga,being a compact city meant that we thought we could do our walking tour in 3 or 4 hours and so we didn't need to be in too much of a hurry to get out and about. With the tram at the front door of the hotel we had that option to get into the city but we opted to walk the distance and take in the ambience of the older part of the inner city that we had found ourselves staying in.We found a more direct route ... read more