Riga and the last of Latvia

Riga is the most cosmopolitan city we have encountered on our Baltic Tour. It has restaurants, shops, parks and 750 amazing Art Nouveau style buildings, also called Jugendstil. They were built in the early 20th century. The exterior of these buildings is very decorative often filled with mythical beasts, screaming masks, goblins, goddesses and twisting flowers and plants.

 Unfortunately, it's hard to see the level of detail in these pictures. Trust me, they are very elaborate.

The Blackheads House is one of the better known buildings in Riga. It was severely damaged in 1941 and then flattened by the Soviets in 1948. But as you see below, it stands in Riga. Somehow, someone found the original blueprints and it was rebuilt, completed in 2001. Originally built in 1344, it was basically a fraternity for unmarried German merchants. Latvia's president lives in it now.

Blackheads House

There are, of course, many, many churches and historic structures throughout Riga. We chose to wander the cobblestone streets and view the old buildings and churches from the outside. We then headed out of Old Riga toward the Freedom Monument and beyond. This monument is a symbol for Latvia and somehow wasn't torn down during the Soviet times, however, the Soviets weren't happy if you came and laid flowers at the monument. You could be persecuted. A couple of Latvian soldiers stand guard and have a small changing of the guard every hour. 

One of our guides said the view from the Radisson Hotel was really good and free if you didn't go at night. We headed up and decided to treat ourselves to a wonderful cheese and charcuterie platter accompanied by cider and beer. The church in the foreground is an amazing Orthodox Byzantine Cathedral of the Nativity of Christ. 

View from the Radisson Hotel

This part of the city outside of Old Riga has the meandering City Canal. It was once the old moat protecting the city from invaders and is surrounded by the beautiful Esplanade. 

Unlike the other Baltic cities we have and will visit, Riga has a huge Central Market full of meats, fish, produce, nuts, candies, knock-off T-shirts and dairy. It has been around since 1570. In 1930, they decided to bring in five old zeppelin hangars to enlarge the market. We are talking huge. There are something like 1200 vendors here. We wandered and bought nuts, bread and berries. Berries are sold everywhere this time of year often by older women on card tables in busy areas throughout the city. At the market, I tried a the national drink called Kvass. It was sold by a vendor from a small cart with a large tank on it. It's fizzy, slightly sweet beverage that apparently is responsible for the decline in sales of Coca Cola. I found out later that it is made from fermented rye bread. I found it to be delicious - no kidding. When Coca Cola found they could not replace Kvass in the market, they bought out the producers and started making it themselves. Ah, capitalism. 

One of the packed aisles in one of the buildings of the Central Market

Yes, those are buckets of dried fish.

 One of the reasons I am completing this blog so long after the trip is that it was nearly impossible to find computers either in the hotels or in internet cafes that could transfer photos from my phone to a cloud storage program like Google Photos. I gave up on that and just wanted to back up the photos on the phone. The computer in the hotel in Riga was so old it did not have a USB port for a flashdrive. When we went to the internet cafe where they did have many computers that looked about 10 years old and did have extra ports, it took 45 minutes to transfer only some of the photos. We gave up - at least in Riga.

There were museums and other attractions but we chose to spend our time walking the streets of Riga. A couple of women on the tour went to a spa where they had massages and something to do with birch branches. They seemed pretty happy and relaxed so I guess it wasn't bad. 

One more day in Latvia had us back on the bikes riding through the Gauja River valley to the Turaida Castle. 

 Gauja National Park

 Turaida Castle from the tower

Gutmana Cave

On the way to the castle, we passed this cave. It was a lover's rendezvous. Maija Roze (May Rose) was a beauty courted by many. But her heart belonged to a humble gardener. They met at this cave. One day, a rival suitor, faked a letter from the gardener and lured Rose to the cave. When she realized he wasn't going to let her go, she told him that the scarf she was wearing had magical powers. She told him to swing his sword at her neck and she would be protected. He swung. Her head came off and she died. So did he after he was captured and convicted. She is buried at Turaida Castle where she had lived. 

Our last stop in Latvia before heading off to Estonia was at this funky, two room bicycle museum which was within walking distance of the Baltic Sea outside of Sigulda. It is run by an old man and his younger son in a garage in the back of his house. I am still not sure why we stopped there but there were a few bikes that were interesting. The whole tour took about 10 minutes. 

We piled onto the bus for a transfer back to Riga, our third night in the same hotel. In the morning, we were joined by eight more bikers who would travel the rest of our trip with us. This was not a good thing. The group was already 11 English speakers and 12 Germans. This made 31 people! No one in our original group was very pleased as this added time to every stop: more time to load the bikes, more time to eat at a restaurant, more time to pack the luggage in the morning, etc. It certainly increased our waiting-around-time. The guides were not responsible for this, so we made the best of the situation. This is the fifth bike tour we have taken and we had never been in a group this large. 

Tomorrow we head to Estonia.