Riga

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In December 2001 I visited Grimsby on the East coast of England with my pops for a football match that will live long in the memory... for me and my Dad that is, the reason for this unmemorable event was that we both agreed that it was the coldest we had ever been in our lifetimes.
Biting wind, driving rain and sleet, and two seats on row 1 with no roof above us all contributed to a shivery, dithering 2 hours at Blundell Park.

Fast forward 8 years and myself and Rebecca booked flights to Riga in Latvia, I was convinced that my Grimsby experience may be beaten, in a "how cold can you get" kind of competition.....


Latvia along with neighbours Estonia and Lithuania were accepted into the European Union in 2004,
Riga in particular is known more for its nightlife and stag weekends, although we missed bare chested men during our visit, maybe it was just too cold to get that belly out.

I smartly booked a hotel a couple of miles outside of Riga Centre for our stay, prudently seeing the cash saving in doing so, unfortunately my sense of direction went awol upon arrival, and my stubborness that "it wasn't far" resulted in a trudge down a Latvian A road, until a Gentlemen in a mobile phone shop pointed us in the direction of a bus stop..... this was after testing my multi-lingual skills on a road sweeper had little effect.

Indeed we did manage to learn a few phrases, although pronunciation left a lot to be desired,
Hello = sveiki, Thanks = paldies, and thanks to the automated bus stop speaker "nakuma piercula" means "next stop". Impressive.

Four days were spent wandering around the UNESCO accredited old town which was very pretty, also there was the usual cathedrals, churches and panoramic views.
In the Centre Freedom Monument is an impressive structure which signifies independence away from the Soviet Union, in the daytime there is a symbolical changing of the guard, in fact every hour, on the hour, two soldiers are replaced by two more, with much foot stomping and gun waving, the two hardy souls stand perfectly still come 20°C in summer or minus 20°C in winter.

We could have headed to warmer southern Europe during our week off, but for some reason we decided to visit Latvia in the Baltic States. Visiting the Baltics in late October could have been worse, the temperature dropped to zero, and we barely saw blue sky during our 4 days here, but it was pleasant to have a few days away.

.....so the answer to the opening paragraph is that Grimsby is still officially the coldest place on Earth.

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Photos

Guardsmen
Changing of the guard

stormy weather
Riga

Street Art
Old Town

Autumn
Freedom Monument

Daugava River
Riga

Art Nouveau
German Jugenstil Architecture

Young Busker
Riga

Comments

[Tim]

pictures
These pictures are a very informational and the city is beautiful. We are recently returned from a visit to Mexico where we met a nice lady from Latvia who lives in RIGA. We plan a trip to the Baltic states this summer and will stay in Riga and then travel to the coast. We also plan on visiting the countries south and north, about 9 countries total. I guess that will be the countries on all sides of Latvia. It was great meeting this lady who told us the best places to visit and, she spoke English very well.