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Published: August 6th 2014
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Travelling in the Baltics is easy, traffic is light, public transport is generally excellent and efficient although the bus trip from Saiuliai to Riga was unpleasant due to the heat and lack of ventilation. When I arrived at the bus station I was a little disoriented, after wandering around for awhile I was getting frustrated so I took a taxi to my hotel, I hate taxi drivers, he could have pointed to the hotel which was only about 100 metres. It makes me angry that I wasted 10 euro.
I wandered around the old town a little that afternoon, Vilnius old town was more lived in, where as Old Riga stunning as it is, is more tourist oriented. My map wasnt great, so after getting a better one at a tourist information centre, I wandered around a little, to be honest as the days go by I am tiring and my motivation is waining a little.
Next morning after breakfast I headed to the bus station to book a bus ticket to Tartu in Estonia before wandering around the central market for a while. I then headed for the cities Soviet era scyscraper (only 17 stories), Ruth and I
had seen three or four in Moscow, I decided to go up and look at the city from a birds perspective. The view was fantastic, Riga is an attractive city, the large sheds which host the market used to house Zepplins in the last century.
I then took a trolly bus to the art nouveaux district to look at some very attractive old buildings most of which have been or are being restored. Then I headed to the old town visiting the Latvian war museum in the Powder Tower then wandered the maze of streets down near the castle, there are tour groups around the place but they were easy enough to avoid. I then went to an excellent supermarket where you can get a really good salad for a Euro. After resting during the afternoon I ventured out to one of the many cafes for dinner, they have these little police cars zooming around the lanes booking drivers who I assume are driving the wrong way down one way streets.
There are a few more things to see in the old city so will probably do those today but first thing this morning I caught a train
out to the Dambini stop to visit a Nazi concentration camp, the stop is in the middle of a forest, no people anywhere and no signs anywhere either. So I headed off into the forest to search for it but after an hour I gave up and went back to the station to wait for a train back to Riga.
I then went back to the central market looking for souvenirs no luck though so I bought a punnet of strawberries, put them in my fridge and wandered back into the old town for lunch. I then went looking for the Cat house and the place where the first christmas tree was decorated, finding more stunning bulidings in my travels.
I did visit a number of souvenir shops looking for mashtroyska dolls but the quality is poor and the prices are as much as 10 times higher than Russia. Perhaps I can do better in Estonia or Finland, moving on tomorrow after breakfast.
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D MJ Binkley
Dave and Merry Jo Binkley
Needing a break
Sometimes you need a vacation from the travel and new experiences. When on the road for long periods of time we have encountered sensory overload. I would like to see where the first Christmas tree was decorated.