Rīga

So a quick rundown on Riga as I am super tired. I am not sleeping and I swear that moving from one hour ahead to two hours ahead is keeping me up all night!

We headed in today with little (well none actually) pre reading on what to do and see. This is quite unlike me so I felt a little unsure of what to expect. First things first we ate lunch. Most people who know me will know I am not good at two things: 1. getting up in the mornings; and 2. being anywhere on time. We therefore never tend to get anywhere earlier than lunchtime unless we have to!

Once we had lunch I asked a lady in the cafe if she could give me a map as she had a huge pile. She said no because she counts them .. but helpfully told me where the tourist information was. Map finally in hand, we took a little jaunt around the old town centre, where we found ourselves, until we saw a little tour buggy thing. It said it was five euros each and would take you around the main sights with an audio guide. Having done countless walking tours we thought we would do it in style this time - see picture of model Stuart in the buggy thing. It lasted half an hour and I was too busy watching the driver nearly mow people down to really listen to the guide but it was different and I get the gist that Riga has some old buildings - the oldest being the House of the Blackheads daring from 1334 (but renovated in 1999 of course) - a few cathedrals and a freedom monument that is currently entrapped in scaffolding.

After our little ride we headed to the Latvia Occupation Museum. In approximately a century the country went from Soviet Occupation to Nazi Occupation to Soviet Occupation. They were treated horrifically, subject to separation of families, executions, deportations to remote parts of Siberia with no food or clothing, being stripped of their national identity and forced to adhere to Soviet/Nazi/Soviet rules and ideology.

One of the favourite things that I learnt about here - and had heard of in Lithuania - was the Baltic Way. On 23 August 1989, two million people joined hands and the line stretched between Vilnius (Lithuania) to Tallinn (Estonia) to show their desire for independence. This was finally granted on 21 August 1991.

One thing I had heard of before coming to Riga was a building that is sometimes known as Stalins birthday cake. Why I have no idea and the pictures I had seen and descriptions likened it to the Empire State Building. I was excited as I had hoped it would be like the one I fell for in Warsaw. It was no way near as impressive - as you will be able to see from the picture - but took us on a detour through the market on the way back to the car.

Whistle stop tour of Latvia completed now onto a new country.Read more