Of Lenses and Moose: Riga!

So... Riga at last! It will probably take me several days on and off to get this online, but I have at least sorted all the pix now. They weren't as good as I'd hoped - the subject matter was fantastic, but when skies are grey and overcast the photos do lose the impact.

Our hotel was in the centre of the Old Town. I was surprised how quiet it was. Tourist season hasn't properly started of course, but it's a major Stag destination - and there were several groups on my flight, all applauding madly when we landed, silly b*******s. The same groups were there on the flight home, groan. With the same applause. And naturally when I got on - close to last, no point queuing at the gate for hours, there was somebody in my seat each time. "They couldn't sit us together as a family, so we hoped you wouldn't mind...." Well, I always do mind! I paid the extra £8 each way to choose my seat, and if they didn't then they must expect to get stuck with separated seats all in the middle of rows of 3!! They don't call it sleazyjet for nothing....

The Old Town doesn't really have resident Latvians, they all live further out apparently. (We did a food tour with a local guide & got lots of interesting info.) The Old Town these days is all offices and hotels. And cobbles. Lots of cobbles. I'd taken a nice pair of boots for our planned "posher" meal out on Saturday. With heels. They stayed in the suitcase. Food was great actually. We ended up in really nice restaurants the first 2 nights, with terrific food. Not dirt cheap, but cost less than we might have expected, given good wine too. Try Googling Rocky Mountain Oysters - they were my starter the first night, and actually most tasty.

Maria arrived early that evening, a few hours after me. I'd had a look round, found the supermarket for water (and wine) for the room, and had a good kip. The next day we went on our food tour. Actually we were simply walked to the Central Market and toured round there, but it was a nice walk to and fro and the guide was very interesting. The Cenral Market is now located where the old port used to be - it was moved further out of town a couple of centuries ago. As the market got bigger the old port warehouses were found to be inconvenient. So after WW1 (1920s) they flattened the lot, dismantled 5 Zeppelin hangars from elsewhere in the country and rebuilt them there. Ideal! In the winter everyone aims to have their stalls indoors, in the summer a lot move out. There isn't really any price war, as everyone is selling the same produce bought from the same farms.

There are 5 hangars, 4 in a line & 1 behind at 90 degrees to the others, but you can't really work it out here

You don't tend to find some of this stuff in the UK butchers!!

We spent the rest of that day wandering (with a bit of shopping here and there....). There was some sun, though unfortunately it didn't last. The Central Market is just outside the Old Town, but after we went back into the cobbled centre and quartered that. Lots of camera work and a decent lunch.

Out of order - taken on Maria's phone. Lunch!

If you remember my Moscow pix this may seem familiar....

Yep, another Stalin skyscraper

Cobbles!

There was quite a lot of odd art about!

Cobbles....

Jacob's Barracks - we both bought lovely linen summer frocks in the little shop down the stairs of that first door along the long length

The Powder Tower - last remaining tower from 14th century fortifications

Restored remains of old city wall, Powder Tower is behind me and the Barracks are to my right

Swedish Gate, just past tower ahead of Maria in previous. Named for brace Swedes who defended Riga centuries ago, last remaining gate

Told you there was odd art

More cobbles...

This is the Beer Taxi!! Little seats face a central bar, think you can hire it (presumably for Stag dos)

Square by Cathedral - lunch spot was in front of cream building on RHS

Moose!!

The Three Brothers - yellow in middle & either side - Riga's oldest residential buildings

Date on yellow brother is 1746 - green brother is 1646

White brother is 15th century (yellow is on immediate left as looking at photo)

Door of yellow brother

More cobbles!

Swedish Gate from the other side

The Cat House - the 2 cats up on the turret had their behinds facing the house of the Great Guild as the owner had a grudge, but he was made to turn them to face it

Cat House door

The cats!

We did find some interesting wine this trip!!

We dined that night at a restaurant in Jacob's Barracks, a "new take" on traditional Latvian food. It was very tasty - we had duck which was really quite something, and a spicy soup starter, very good though with chorizo in I fail to see how it was really related to traditional Latvian fare. (Pigs, potatoes and veg feature mainly.) We were given fresh bread with various dips - a fairly typical pesto, one of the best I've ever had, and fruity ones with raspberry, blackcurrant and a third I can't recall. There was nothing traditional about how that was served! We were sat at the "bar" looking straight at the open kitchen, as it was busy and there were no free tables - we thought it was an excellent position, able to see everything they were doing.

The next day we walked. And walked. We started in the Old Town, visiting the Ratslaukums (Town Hall Square), which we hadn't got to the day before, and then heading out beyond the Old Town to the Art Nouveau district, one of the most impressive areas of this in the world (according to the guide book I bought from Amazon). We passed the French Embassy - purpose built for them and still in its original use; there was the Freedom Monument, built in 1935, which amazingly survived the Soviet occupation that followed; the Russian Orthodox Cathedral, completely stunning - we used the linen scarves we had bought from a street market we'd just passed to cover our heads so we could go in, and were lucky enough to see the tail end of a christening - wonderful icons with the usual candle holders in front (which naturally we helped fill), lots of the icons the old traditional ones covered in silver except for the faces; then we took refusge in the 26th floor Skyline bar in the nearby Radisson, to avoid a passing shower - a good excuse anyway to get one of the best views going of the city (not to mention parktake of a couple of nice cocktails - I chose expresso martinis as they had the convenience of alcohol AND caffeine); then on round the Art Nouveau district. Some of it had been beautifully restored, some is in the process of being restored, and some of it is just begging to be done next. There were still loads of cobbles, and our feet were exhausted by the time they got back to the hotel. We stayed local that night and had a much simpler dinner. And the next morning we shared a transport to the airport and went our separate ways....