Scott and I had the chance to escape together for a long weekend at the end of the summer. We have some pretty fabulous friends that we swap childcare with, and our kids love spending time with their friends. So it's really a win win win for all! This time for our weekend away we choose a new country in the Baltics, Latvia. We got a taste for this corner of Europe when we visited Estonia a few years ago. Seeing how we're covering the European map Latvia seemed like a natural choice. I had also heard many good things about its capital, Riga. Pretty, compact, cheerful and interesting, Riga was a wonderful choice for a weekend away.
A gorgeous street in the heart of old town, with our hotel in flags down on the right
Old town Riga is a very social, colourful place.
Multitasking
Riga Town Hall . . . and the even more ornate Blackhead's House (originally built in 1344 essentially as a frat house for unmarried German merchants). Even though the house was demolished in the 1940's, remarkably the original blueprints had survived and an exact replica was built in 2001.
The spire of St. Peter's Lutheran Church
A lovely sunset stroll along the Daugava River (more multitasking :)
View into old town from the top of the spire of St. Peter's Lutheran church
The Rigan equivalent of the BT tower
Riga is a very lively town, but in the most delightful way. I was quite surprised by the sheer number of restaurants and cafes. There must be more restaurants and cafes packed in this city per square foot than any other European city. I'm not sure what sustains them all, but we were spoiled for choice! There is also quite a vibrant music scene and a stroll through town was a musical scavenger hunt. Here we enjoyed drinks al fresco whilst listening to a live jazz band. Fabulous!
Riga has quite a magnificent display of art nouveau. We enjoyed wandering the heart of the art nouveau neighbourhood.
We enjoyed a tour through the inside of the Riga Art Nouveau Centre to get a glimpse of an art nouveau interior.
Riga's Freedom Monument, erected in 1935 stood in great irony during WWII's Nazi occupation and the post WWII Russian occupation. Latvia was under control of the Soviets and Nazis from 1940 to 1991. It was astonishing to learn about this in the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia. And what's even more interesting is that we visited this museum on Ukraine's Independence day, who are also struggling to maintain independence against the Russians currently. Latvia is a lovely, spirited country, relatively new to the autonomy that it enjoys today.
Latvians clearly enjoy a favourable brotherhood with its Baltic neighbours, Lithuania and Estonia
The enormous halls of the Central Market were interesting to browse
The Town Musicians of Bremen, based on a fairy tail by the Brothers Grimm, was a gift from Riga's twin city, Bremen.
