Riga

Date: 04 – 06/09/2017
From/To: Tallinn – Riga
Distance: 310 Km
Total Distance: 14356 Km
Weather: Cloudy, Sunny
Road: Paved

Today we head for Riga, the capital of Latvia. Below you can see the border between Estonia and Latvia, which was single lane traffic, since they tried to extend the highway.

Riga is a big city and we felt it as soon we entered it. The traffic was hectic and people were quite pushy. At our accomodation we were welcomed by our host and could park the bike on the property in front of the flat. That was great since we didn’t have to carry all the luggage upstairs.

 

After we settled in, we walked towards the old city. Since it was late, we just walked to the train station and back.


On the way we found these two nice shops. One was a bakery and the second one a game café, with exceptional cocktails, as we were assured by some young guys when we took a picture of the sign.


Below are just a couple of pictures taken by nicely restored houses.


The next day we walked up the old town, got to the tourist office and followed the yellow brick road J, a maped out walked where we would see most of the Riga inner City attractions. Below some pictures takes of the old town.

We were surprised to find so much german heritage. Some house have german verses over the entrance.

The ‘Balsam’ is a type of ‘Schnaps’, I would say similar to ‘Jaegermeister’. And again, some traces of German in Riga.

 


These are beautiful restored houses.


And here is the ‘Freedom Monument’. It symbolises the suffering of the Latvian people on the way to freedom.


Below is the famous ‘House of the Blackheads’ which was currently under reconstruction, so they hang a screen with a picture in front of the building side. These houses were errected in the beginning of the 14th Century, and got demolished during the second world war, but were now reconstructed.

 

Below is Sigrid with her famous dress (would fit with the chariot from St. Petersburg:-)

Below some more impressive buildings.

 

And we found a playground with sculptures of a small dragon and an amadillo, which Sigrid tried to pull back J


And here is Sigrid, checking that the playground is also fit for heavy children.

The ‘Key of Riga’ was just a nice restaurant close to the market square. On the right hand side is the marked square with an old fire engine that had a sort of Flower Power painting at the back.


And there was the knitting shop, there was everything nitted. I guess if you stay to long there, you would be knitted in, as you can see happened to the horse.


There is a monument for the ‘1991 Barricades’. In 1991 the Baltic states fought for independence, in Riga they protected strategic important buildings with barricades.

Here are the three brothers, it is the oldest building complex in Riga (15th …17th century)


And here is the ‘Big Christopher’. By a legent, he was the founder of Riga.

The Big Christopher was on the ‘Daugava’, so Sigrid couldn’t resist and had to feel the temperature. At the back you can see the modern Riga with some fency buildings.

Beeing after Lunch time, we had a look for something nice, so we found a restaurante in the cellar. Sigrid is trying a traditional (colourful) soup. J


And after lunch we found that sign, so we couldn’t resist. It was so romantic that I forgot to take pictures from the inside. I can only say, it is worth it J


On our way home we found some more town walls and Gate towers.


Walking through the park we found a larger group of people shouting. When we looked a bit closer, we saw that they watch a basketball game, and were supporting the Letvian national team.

Sgirid posing with with a french guy J

The sculpture of Barcley de Toley, he was the invetor of the scorched earthpolic, which was important to Napoleons defeat.

Some more nice churches, each of them is amazing in its own rights, but after so many churches, they start to look all the same, still beautiful.

This would be a cheaper accomodation J. Really, it is opposite of our accomodation, seems that the insurance is dragging their feeds, it was burned before 2011 (first google street picture).

This is our accomodation, just at the back of the park.


In the park, close to the fountain and some pokemon gyms, there was a nice coffee, which had a great pavlova and coffee wih authentic Latvian Balsam J

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