Friday in Riga
Trip Start
Aug 31, 2008
1
16
37
Trip End
Oct 05, 2008
Riga,
Latvia
Friday, September 12, 2008
A little less variety than our breakfasts in Finland & Estonia, but we're getting the hang of how these breakfasts work.
When we went outside it was cold, overcast but not raining, so we started walking around to look around Riga, the capital of Latvia.
What we'd seen driving in last night was lots of Soviet style boxes of buildings, in need of a steam clean or a coat of paint. What we found today was an interesting old town - beautiful in places, a bit grotty & still needing renovating in others.
Damn! I just had a problem trying to save the letter that I've been writing, and just lost everything I'd written from here on. DAMN! And it wasn't a "then we did ... Then we did ..." but various random thoughts.
Riga doesn't appear to have had the consistent renovation & re-energising that Tallinn had. Our guidebook describes it thus "a joyous cacophony of 17th-century architecture, crumbling streets and church spires, the fairyland wonder of the World Heritage Listed Old Town is perfect for Riga's main activity - strolling".
Over the day we were approached by beggars a number of times. Mostly we just shook our heads or said no, but David did buy a postcard from one old woman who was begging.
I feel uncomfortable because I know that many of them do have a hard lot with the new high European prices, and we can afford & perhaps should help more.
Within the old convent complex
However the woman with the postcard had a little English. Begging from tourists WAS her occupation.Anyway, today we saw walked miles (& miles & miles - on cobbled streets mostly), saw lots of churches - inside as well as outside of some. There is the Russian Orthodox church, the Catholic Cathedral, the Lutheran Cathedral. There is even an English church - some English sailors were using English soil as ballast. They deposited it on the ground in Riga & claimed the spot for England - and built a church there.
Sometimes we saw something, took some photos, and then the sun came out so we went back & photographed it some more.
There are lovely gardens beside a river. The river looked beautiful when edged with gardens, but this afternoon we took an underpass (to cross a road) and found ourselves walking beside the same water as a grotty brown canal, under the road & railway - every spot was utilised.
When in the gardens we found some monuments to 5 people who died on 20 January 1991 - protesting for freedom from USSR, when Soviet special forces openeed fire on them. 2 of the dead were part of a Latvian film documentary crew. Apparently the film they were making ends with a shot of one of the film crew lying, dying, and saying "keep filming ..."
I guess that is how they recovered their country, but that was only 17 years ago. Gosh the people in this part of the world have suffered.
David is keen to see the Museum of Occupation - which we have walked past a couple of times today.
Old Town of Riga
But I thought we were too tired today to do it justice. That will probably be first thing this morning.It's ironic - I'd just been saying to David that I didn't necessarily know where everything was (David is doing a marvellous job of guiding us, and sometimes I'm just tagging along) but I was feeling comfortable with this city. (Last night I felt spooked & afraid of pickpockets etc. Today I tried to remember to hold my bag close, but I was feeling more comfortable.)
Anyway we'd been down to the National Opera House to collect tickets to La Traviata - the opera we'll be seeing there tomorrow night. Leaving the Opera House, we stopped in the gardens to photograph the theatre. We waited for a while for the sun to come out & then gave up on it.
Of course we'd not long walked on when the sun DID come out again. David was just taking a photo of some young people queueing at a McDonald's Food Express. It looked just like one of our McD drive-throughs, but these people were on foot, ordering at a microphone & picking up their food. Anyway, as I say, David was photographing that when I decided to go back & photograph the Opera House in the sunlight - I said to David "I'll just go back across the road & then meet you back here".
But when I walked across the road, I turned left at the Freedom Monument, rather than right, and went into the wrong part of the gardens. I soon recognised that this was where we'd been in the morning. I walked a bit & then decided I'd better go back to David.
Freedom Monument
Just before I reached him, I spotted the Opera House in the opposite direction in the gardens. I explained to David that I hadn't been able to take the photo, so kindly he went back with me to take that photo.The Freedom Monument - originally a statue of Peter the Great stood in the centre of this square, but in 1935, in a spirit of nationalism, Peter the Great was removed and a statue of Victory was erected in that place - Victory holding 3 stars, representing the 3 regions of Latvia.
When the Soviets were in charge, the square was made off limits, and a statue of Lenin was erected a bit further down the street. Despite the ban, the square remained a focus for the independence movement, and eventually Victory was returned to her position, and armed guards stand watch over her.
Another place we visited this afternoon was the Central Markets. These are one of the largest in Europe, and date from at least 1210. Not many tourists (obvious anyway), it seemed to be a cheap place for local people to shop - for everything from food, flowers & clothes - and anything else. There are 5 huge halls, which are primarily 1 theme (meat, cheese, fish etc) but in each hall there are some "outsiders". Outside there are lots of tents and also smaller buildings of stalls.
There is a very pretty Town Hall - from 1300s but renovated in 1999 - next to the very ugly Museum of Occupation. In the square there is a statue of Roland - not quite sure what his relevance is there.
There are various old guild buildings - some renovated, some still looking old.
We went into a number of churches today, and which was which are a bit blurred with me, even now.
Latvia's Town Arms
However we reached the Dom, the Cathedral, a bit after 11 & it was closed until 11.30, but from within we could hear organ music. There was a concert on at 12 (and another tonight). We considered each of these but in end decided to pass on them. However we did go back to look inside the Dom this afternoon.In the cloisters (of what had been a monastery, beside the cathedral) there is also a sort of museum - it almost seemed like the cloisters were just somewhere to dump "historic things, no longer needed". Here was the statue of Peter the Great, which used to stand where the Freedom Monument now stands. There were umpteen cannons, dating back to around 1600. (What are cannons doing in the cloisters of a church?) There was an old clock face, various bits of medieval wood or plaster or carving, a (sea) mine ... Sometimes there was description saying what they were, sometimes there wasn't. And remember that these were located around the walls of medieval cloisters.
As I say, it just seemed a dumping ground for various no-longer-wanted but too-historical-to-throw-away.
By the end of today my knees are very sore again and my feet were sore, but my spirits are better than they were this morning. This isn't always easy, but we are seeing some fascinating things & learning a lot.
This afternoon we went to visit St Peter's Church, but by then it was about 4.45 and the church closed at 5.30. The high steeple of this church was once wood, then brick and is now metal, and there is a lift to the top of the steeple! If the weather is good we might do that tomorrow. I don't know if I'll feel safer inside a lift that I could see from the outside of the building as it went up & down, but at least it would be easier on my knees.
So instead we decided to go back to the supermarket we've found & get some more ingredients to supplement those left over from our lunch, and have dinner "in". To make it a bit more of a treat, we bought 2 little 20 ml bottles of Riga champagne - that's what we drank at the Nostalgija Restaurant last night. I also bought a quarter - what I thought was chicken, but it was too pink for that.
Then we hobbled back to our hotel, up the couple of flights of stairs to our room, and watched a little BBC TV while we had our dinner. First consistently English channel we've had in a while, although it is mostly news.
As I say, I started this letter & lost a large chunk of it, but I have finally finished now. Our internet connection is very intermittent (as was the hot water in the shower this morning) - what can you expect in an old convent? - so that will be the reason if it is not loaded tonight.
Tomorrow evening we are going to the Opera. Hopefully I'll get a chance to write a blog before that, but if not, at least you'll know why.
Love to you from Kerry & David in Riga
