Riga – 10th August 2017

Svieki from Latvia

After missing breaky after the pub crawl, I crawled onto the bus, slammed a few Panadol and crashed for two hours. I awoke at our first comfort stop and felt semi-refreshed. Our lunch stop for the day was in a small beach town on the Latvian Riviera called Salkrausti We checked out a real Latvian beach – no waves and grey water on this overcast morning – and strolled around this quaint little place as we munched on fennel seed encrusted, cheese and bacon rolls and huge, juicy apples.

We then drove to a cemetery on the outskirts of Riga. Latvia shares a very similar history to Estonia and the people have been occupied by the same forces. We saw a war memorial cemetery next to a civilian cemetery and both were very beautiful, leafy places for one’s body to rest for eternity.

We then rolled into the capital city of Latvia, the very regal Riga.

Our home for the night was the Radisson Blu – which is the tallest building in the city. We were on the 11th floor and the view from our window was breathtaking. A golden domed Russian church set amongst lush green oak trees. Very cool.

We joined Amazing Grace for our 4pm walking tour and checked out the Art Nouveau style architecture of the Old Town. We paused at one point to look at a building with two cat statues on the top parapets. Back in the day, the building opposite housed a guild for businessmen and one guy desperately wanted to join but was denied. In a bizarre and totally wicked way he planned his revenge on these guildsmen by buying the building opposite and placing two cat statues on top…the twist was, that he faced the cats away from the guild so that every time a guildsmen looked out the window he looked directly up the cat’s bum!!!Classic.

They were SOO furious about this and they pleaded for him to remove the cats. He wouldn’t remove them until they admitted him into the guild which they finally did. He then had the cats turned around so that they were now facing the building and the unofficial symbol of Riga is now a black cat with a raised tail.

So funny!!!

We spent the hour walking around and checking out the local sights and a beautiful park in the centre of town, but unfortunately there was so much scaffold and construction work going on, we couldn’t see everything.

Our feet were pretty tired by this stage and we had seen a sign at our hotel for unlimited tapas – so off we trotted. For 18 Euros each we got a welcome glass of sangria and all of the Spanish tapas that we could handle. The next hour saw us gorging on Serrano ham cut directly from the leg, paella, prawns, tuna, etc… Michael also joined us and we had a belter of a meal. Jen found a Spanish Rioja that she liked – Luis Canas Reserve – and life felt pretty good my friends.

After dinner we made our way to the terrifyingly high SkyBar on the 26th floor. Most of the Expat crew had a drink up here as we watched the sun slowly set and the city lights come to life. It was an amazing place for a post dinner drink and I tried the Black Balsam and the Blackcurrant Balsam. This is a local liqueur that is prized for its health benefits. It reminded me of Jaeger, but was ideal with a glass of soda water after such a huge meal.

Jen loved Riga more than Tallinn, and I also thought that it was pretty special. The people were friendly and the Old Town very beautiful. The towns are so quaint and the weather is perfect at the moment.

Well off to Lithuania tomorrow for the last of the Baltics.

Ciao…

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Riga – stunner of a town!