Riga

Riga was founded in 1201 and is the largest city in Latvia, home to nearly 600,000 people. It sits at the mouth of the Daugava River, where it meets the Baltic Sea. This strategic position has brought much turmoil over the years. During World War II, the Soviet Union and Germany fought over Latvia, with the USSR eventually claiming the country. As the USSR began to dissolve, a protest known as the Baltic Way was held on August 23, 1989. Nearly 2 million people joined hands to form a continuous 675.5-kilometre human chain across Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia to protest Soviet occupation. This protest was pivotal in Latvia’s path to independence between 1991 and 1994.

The city is extremely beautiful, with over 350 Art Nouveau buildings. It is like a mini Paris in many ways.

We seem adept at linking our holiday with national events. Yesterday was the Riga Marathon, with nearly 47,000 competitors. This little city was pumping.

On Friday, we visited a few of the important sites in Riga: the Cathedrals, the House of the Blackheads, and the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. The last two are side by side and are poles apart in terms of experience. The House of the Black Heads was the headquarters of the Brotherhood of Blackheads Society, a group of unmarried travelling merchants formed in 1334. They are named after their patron saint, St Maurice, a dark-skinned Moor and early Christian leader. It was very fancy inside, and the only museum where you are given a crystal glass of champagne to enjoy as you tour the building!

Karen explained that one of Riga's symbols is a cat. This came about when a resident of the city was denied entry to the Brotherhood, so he built a house across the square and decorated the facade with Cat motifs, with their bottoms pointing to the home of the Blackheads. This apparently tickled the residents of Riga, and they adopted the cat as their symbol.

Right next door is the Museum of the Occupation, a very different experience, just a few meters away. We had an excellent guide who took us through the exhibition and did a great job bringing this sad part of history back to life. Latvia only became independent of Russia in 1991, and people are concerned about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the potential for the same thing happening here again. So many people suffered as a result of the deportations and repressions, and the mission of the museum is to remind the world of the offences carried out by foreign powers. Len has played his small part with the purchase of a t-shirt.Read more