Estonian Beach Volleyball
Our group at medieval castle
Entrance to the dungeon
Me at castle with lantern
Art noveau house - sure reminds me of Gaudi
Like my hat?
Looking up the staircase
Stained glass window - reminds me of Tiffany's
Memorial scultpures as concentration camp
last bit of city wall - Riga
Apartment art nouveau
Riga, Latvia – A Lovely City
Friday, May 19
Friday, May 19
We left Latvia this morning and I am now on the bus traveling to Estonia. Riga is a beautiful city and we had a wonderful three days there. Although Latvia has many of the same problems as Lithuania (depressed economy, high unemployment, high cost of living, and declining population) to the traveler it seems like a sophisticated, highly cultured, and well-taken care of place. Riga appears prosperous in the past and nowl.
Our hotel was very beautiful, grand even, and was across from a beautiful park. It was a great place to walk and we had fun learning our way around the old town.
The first day we were here our tour guide, Mina, played a game with us in the large market which is apparently the largest market in Europe. She assigned 3-person teams to purchase enough of food item for all 16 of us to have at the end of the after. Mike, Judy, & I got “maize”. By communicating with several Latvians in the market we learned that maize is bread and we bought some dark, dense, brown bread with some nuts and fruits in it. After completing our purpose we wandered about the various pavilions (meat, fish) and vegetable stands. There was a lot of variety, including some icky things like pig snouts, but the quality of most items appeared very good. The vegetables and fruits looked very fresh – not sure where they are grown. Prices seemed pretty good.
In the afternoon we wandered about the old town and had a great time. In the early evening we attended an organ concert in the Lutheran Cathedral. The organ was huge and the place had good acoustics. However, I can only take so much organ music so we lefte after 50 minutes.
We found a restaurant/bar nearby and decided to stay awhile because it had a wonderful duo (piano and trumpet/vocalist) doing retro American music e.g., Frank Sinatra, My Funny Valentine. They were great! Of course due to the Latvian accent My Funny Valentine was My Funny Wallentine. Upon our request they did a very enthusiastic and tuneful “New York, New York”.
Yesterday we visited a concentration camp about 20 miles outside Riga and also a separate location nearby that was the place to which a separate group of Riga Jews was marched, forced to dig their own grave, and then shot. This place had a pseudo cemetery with head stones for some of the victims.
The concentration camp had some large sculptures representing the prisoners. These apparently included Jews, political prisoners, and a few others the Nazis wanted gone. The children were separated from the adults and the children were used as the source of blood transfusions for German soldiers until they couldn’t produce more and they died. Of course this visit was pretty heavy and it was good to return to Riga and leave this sad memory for thinking about later.
We came back to Riga and the local guide showed us some of the beautiful art noveau architecture. Riga was one of the centers for this type of architecture in the early 1900s. The buildings are mostly apartments which were built for wealthy Riga residents. We visited a house museum with furnishings from the period. It was a great travel back to a different time – made you also realize how cosmopolitan and “western” this city was back at the turn of that century.
The architecture reminded me a lot of Barcelona/Gaudi. I think he must have come here for some inspiration.
Last nighant several of us went into Old Town for dinner. The restaurant was a bit unusual as it had a huge variety of ethnic specialties – Indian tandoori, Thai, Greek, and even several types of fajitas. We were pleasantly surprised to the food was actually pretty good.
We were sad to leave Riga this morning. It far exceeded our expectations and though it is doubtful that I will pass this way again, I would like to return for a longer time though it is doubtful that I ever will.
On the way to Estonia we made an interesting stop at a medieval castle that was destroyed by Ivan the Terrible in around 1670. There we found a very interesting man who makes jewelry in the way they did in medieval times. He also had quite a collection of ancient jewelry that had been found by this site. Sybil and I both bought bracelets.
Later we also stopped at a beach in Estonia and saw wind surfers and beach volleyball – just like home.
Our hotel was very beautiful, grand even, and was across from a beautiful park. It was a great place to walk and we had fun learning our way around the old town.
The first day we were here our tour guide, Mina, played a game with us in the large market which is apparently the largest market in Europe. She assigned 3-person teams to purchase enough of food item for all 16 of us to have at the end of the after. Mike, Judy, & I got “maize”. By communicating with several Latvians in the market we learned that maize is bread and we bought some dark, dense, brown bread with some nuts and fruits in it. After completing our purpose we wandered about the various pavilions (meat, fish) and vegetable stands. There was a lot of variety, including some icky things like pig snouts, but the quality of most items appeared very good. The vegetables and fruits looked very fresh – not sure where they are grown. Prices seemed pretty good.
In the afternoon we wandered about the old town and had a great time. In the early evening we attended an organ concert in the Lutheran Cathedral. The organ was huge and the place had good acoustics. However, I can only take so much organ music so we lefte after 50 minutes.
We found a restaurant/bar nearby and decided to stay awhile because it had a wonderful duo (piano and trumpet/vocalist) doing retro American music e.g., Frank Sinatra, My Funny Valentine. They were great! Of course due to the Latvian accent My Funny Valentine was My Funny Wallentine. Upon our request they did a very enthusiastic and tuneful “New York, New York”.
Yesterday we visited a concentration camp about 20 miles outside Riga and also a separate location nearby that was the place to which a separate group of Riga Jews was marched, forced to dig their own grave, and then shot. This place had a pseudo cemetery with head stones for some of the victims.
The concentration camp had some large sculptures representing the prisoners. These apparently included Jews, political prisoners, and a few others the Nazis wanted gone. The children were separated from the adults and the children were used as the source of blood transfusions for German soldiers until they couldn’t produce more and they died. Of course this visit was pretty heavy and it was good to return to Riga and leave this sad memory for thinking about later.
We came back to Riga and the local guide showed us some of the beautiful art noveau architecture. Riga was one of the centers for this type of architecture in the early 1900s. The buildings are mostly apartments which were built for wealthy Riga residents. We visited a house museum with furnishings from the period. It was a great travel back to a different time – made you also realize how cosmopolitan and “western” this city was back at the turn of that century.
The architecture reminded me a lot of Barcelona/Gaudi. I think he must have come here for some inspiration.
Last nighant several of us went into Old Town for dinner. The restaurant was a bit unusual as it had a huge variety of ethnic specialties – Indian tandoori, Thai, Greek, and even several types of fajitas. We were pleasantly surprised to the food was actually pretty good.
We were sad to leave Riga this morning. It far exceeded our expectations and though it is doubtful that I will pass this way again, I would like to return for a longer time though it is doubtful that I ever will.
On the way to Estonia we made an interesting stop at a medieval castle that was destroyed by Ivan the Terrible in around 1670. There we found a very interesting man who makes jewelry in the way they did in medieval times. He also had quite a collection of ancient jewelry that had been found by this site. Sybil and I both bought bracelets.
Later we also stopped at a beach in Estonia and saw wind surfers and beach volleyball – just like home.
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