Latvia

Tuesday 12^th Vilnius to Riga

Another traveling day – this time by bus. What a great way to travel! You just see so much. Readers of the last blog will appreciate that we have learned our lesson when it comes to seating allocation, though. We boarded our Riga bound bus only to find someone else sitting in our seat! Remember now – this is not unusual! Confidence is a wonderful thing, however. This time we stood our ground. Initially, we asked the bus driver if it was ok to sit anywhere (naturally this was our assumption). He replied, ‘Do you not like your seats?’ When we pointed out that our seats were fine but someone else just happened to be in them, he said we could sit anywhere. ‘OK,’ we said, pointing to the seats immediately behind the driver, ‘we’ll sit here.’ ‘Except here,’ he said. ‘OK then, we’ll sit here,’ we said – pointing to the seats across the aisle from the ones directly behind the driver.’ ‘And except here,’ the driver said. ‘Well then, we want our seats,’ we said. Well… the person sitting in our seats VERY reluctantly moved so that we could sit in our allocated seats. ‘Hooray!!’ we quietly celebrated. ‘Victory is ours!!’ We sat ourselves down after popping our things in the overhead rack. We were feeling very proud of ourselves (secretly gloating, in fact) when we realized that these seats actually weren’t all that great – as there was a giant pillar immediately to our left which completely impeded the view. Never mind – it’s the principle that counts! Anyway, the view across the aisle from the other side of the bus was much better so we averted our eyes to the right.

View from the left hand side of the bus (when leaning forward!) - a farming area in Lithuania

The sun sets as we enter Latvia

When all was said and done, we really enjoyed the journey and the view. We passed through beautiful forests, farming areas and tiny villages, eventually arriving in Riga by nightfall.

Found our way to our hotel quite easily and then immediately made our way to the Latvian National Opera House (literally 2 minutes walk away) to organize our tickets for the next few nights’ entertainment.

Wednesday 13^th – Riga

Wow! Riga is absolutely beautiful. When you arrive in a city after dark, you don’t really get the chance to appreciate its beauty. We are staying in the ‘old town’ of Riga – otherwise known as ‘Vecriga’. It is World Heritage listed – essentially because of its beautiful cathedrals, gorgeous city squares, cobbled laneways and crumbling castle walls.

Our first stop today was St Peter’s Lutheran Church which is about 800 years old. It has a beautiful spire – and usually you can climb to the top of this spire for a fantastic view across Riga – but today it was closed because of the fog. We enjoyed the ground level of the cathedral anyway.

Us in one of the main squares in the old town. Directly behind us is the Blackheads' House (built for the Blackheads guild of German merchants). At the left of the shot you can just make out the spire of St Peter's. You can see why it was closed due to fog!

Our next stop was the Museum of Occupation in Latvia. We spent a few hours here soaking up the fascinating and sometimes graphic exhibits outlining Latvia’s Soviet and Nazi occupations from WWII up until 1991.

At this point, we probably need to emphasise that it is absolutely, positively freezing here. We’ve come to realize here in the Baltics that when one ceases to have any feeling in one’s fingers or toes, it’s ‘cuppa time’. That means ducking into the closest café for a warming cup of tea and a ‘defrost’ by the heater. On resumption of feeling, the exploring continues.

Literally spent the rest of the day wandering – visiting many, many churches, getting lost in the plethora of laneways and stopping for the odd ‘cuppa time’. Riga is a truly beautiful city. There is just so much beauty in the architecture here.

These houses are known as The Three Brothers. The one on the right is over 600 years old. Apparently the windows at the top are so small because during the middle ages, how much property tax one paid in Riga was determined by the size of one's windows!

Finished the day with a fantastic performance at the Latvian National Opera House – Der Sandmann. This is a beautiful yet dark, contemporary ballet about the sandman. Most of us grew up thinking the sandman was the being who gently popped sand into our eyes to send us off into dreamland… but this ballet portrayed quite a different perspective! Won’t spoil the story for you – google it if you’d like to know more. Anyway – we loved it and it was an amazing production. Looking forward to seeing more of this ballet company.

Inside the Latvian National Opera House

And outside the Opera House! This beautiful building is set beside a park and a canal which are beautifully lit at night. Despite the sub-zero temperatures we had to have a wander...

Thursday 14^th – Riga

Today we focused our attention on the Art Nouveau areas of Riga. Riga is quite synonymous with Art Nouveau as it boasts over 750 buildings decorated in this style – more than anywhere else in the world. We saw some amazing buildings decorated with twisted floral wreaths, masks, fantastic birds and animals – many were quite unique. You can really lose yourself in the many streets filled with gorgeous buildings – simply ‘looking up’ to see the beauty.

Walked back to the ‘old town’ via the most beautiful park. It is truly a winter wonderland here. Enjoyed ourselves walking along the city canals and playing in the snow.

This bridge across a canal is covered with 'love padlocks'. It is a bit of a tradition for newly married couples to put a padlock, engraved with their names, onto the bridge and then throw the key into the canal.

Spent some time in the afternoon at the History Museum of Latvia which has some fabulous exhibits outlining chronologically the way in which people have lived in this part of the world since the Stone Age.

Finished the day at the Latvian National Opera House – this time enjoying the opera Werther – a love story about a couple who cannot be together because she is promised to another… he ends up killing himself. Apparently when the book was originally written in the late 1700s, several young men were so influenced by the story that they began to dress like the character Werther, and some even took their own lives in the same way. Another fabulous production.

Friday 15^th – Riga

Our last full day in Riga – as tomorrow we plan to venture further from our base.

We woke to the most beautiful clear blue skies – such a change from the previous two days. This was a perfect day to climb the spire of St Peter’s Cathedral. We were rewarded with fantastic views across Riga.

Continued our stroll through Riga. This is a place where one can literally wander for days and days and days and see new things at every turn.

The Powder Tower - dating back to the 1300s. There are nine Russian cannonballs embedded into the walls of this tower - from attacks during the 1600s and 1700s.

Spent the morning in the ‘old town’, finding heaps more interesting things to see, including the Latvian Photographic Museum, which contained fantastic photos of Riga’s recent history.

Literally spent hours in another beautiful central city park – enjoying the winter wonderland.

Phil walking across a frozen canal

Ventured out of the old town to explore some more of Riga before making our way to the 26^th floor of probably the most lavish hotel in the city (not ours!!). We had heard this was an absolute ‘must do’ as the bar on this level affords the most beautiful views across the city – especially at sunset. We headed there at around 3pm (yes – nearly sunset!!) – dressed in our jeans and snow boots. We had also heard that this was quite a ritzy bar – but were we bothered? Not a bit! (Well – maybe just a bit…) Turns out most other people were wearing jeans so all was ok (didn't see too many others in snow boots, though!).

Enjoyed a couple of beverages here and took advantage of the view before heading off for this evening’s entertainment – The Nutcracker at the Latvian National Opera House. This was a beautiful performance – one of the best versions we’ve seen. Riga is amazing!

Saturday 16^th – Sigulda (Latvia)

We had set aside today for a trip to the woods beyond Riga. In summer, Latvians venture to the woods to walk in the forest, pick berries and mushrooms and enjoy the beautiful lakes and castle ruins. In winter, it is a beautiful, snow-covered wonderland.

The Gauja National Park (Latvia’s first) was founded in 1973. The main town – and our destination for today – is Sigulda – approximately 50km east of Riga.

We decided to take the bus there (just a local mini-bus) and the train back. Interesting…

We bought our bus tickets at the bus station. We had plenty of time before our bus departed so we checked out the Saturday morning market across the way. This is where local people buy their weekly provisions – fruit, vegetables, meat, fish – a real experience.

After stocking up on home baked goodies, we made our way back to the bus station. We knew we had allocated seats so were feeling quite relaxed about the whole thing when we presented ourselves at the right platform at the right time. We’re never really bothered about being the first people on the bus (even at home in Brisbane!) and usually let those who are more anxious about such things board the bus before us. So as usual we were standing at the back of the line, watching other people push through to board the bus first (with their market provisions in tow). We reached a point where no-one was boarding the bus – but there was still a queue. The bus driver was calling out something – and everyone was looking at us. How were we to know that he called you on board according to your seat allocation?? Suddenly it became obvious that everyone was waiting for us. Sheepishly, we boarded and took our allocated seats – no-one was into seat swapping here!! Every journey is different. You just can’t tell…

Sat quietly all the way to Sigulda and then enjoyed a fantastic afternoon in this beautiful part of the world. The photos say it all.

The beautiful Sigulda Church - built in 1225 and then rebuilt in the 1600s and 1700s.

The ruins of Sigulda Medieval Castle - built between 1207 and 1226 as a knight's stronghold.

View across the valley to Turaida Castle - founded in 1214

Couldn't resist gettng the cable car across the valley and the Gauja River. This is a little metal box that swings from a tiny cable meters above the tree tops.

Views of the Gauja River from the cable car

How can you resist making a snow angel?

Looking over the ski slopes of Sigulda

Met a lovely couple from England on the cable car - it's always nice to chat with fellow travellers. Journeyed back to Riga together in a very Soviet looking train (all laminex and stainless steel). Just getting on and off these trains without the aid of a platform – climbing down steel ladders onto snow and ice covered tracks – is an experience in itself.

Walked back to our hotel, looked at our watches and realized we had just enough time to head to the Latvian National Opera House and buy tickets for tonight’s performance (why not? it’s just around the corner). This time we saw a ballet – Tango plus Voyages. A thoroughly enjoyable, very contemporary production. It’s just so impressive that in this part of the world (indeed across most of Europe) they manage a different performance, a different production each night – all presented by the same company. And every night is packed out – either completely, or very nearly a full house. There are lessons to be learned here!

Finished the day off with a great meal at a local restaurant. Riga is fantastic – so much to see and do – we’d love to come here again.

But tomorrow brings another adventure… Riga to Tallinn, Estonia. Another bus journey…

Goodbye to our hotel in Riga!