Lutheran church in Riga
We were off the boat right at 8:30, among the first passengers to disembark. As we walked south from the ship we caught up to the mother and daughter from Colorado with whom we ate supper last night. They too had cut the chapter on Riga from Rick Steve’s book, and were using it to find their way around the town.
We wanted to get some money, and thought that we would need Lat’s; however the mother and her daughter told us that they had changed to Euros in January. We didn’t know that, and so hadn’t brought any Euros with us. We found an ATM, but when we tried to break a €20 note at a convenience store by buying a package of gum, the clerk wouldn’t do it (we did find a store later in the day to do so).
Narrow streets of Riga
Old town Riga is very interesting. Since we were in town early there weren’t yet too many others walking the street, but that soon changed and we saw many tour groups, speaking many languages throughout the day. We saw many old and very nicely restored buildings. Some of the streets are the narrowest we’ve seen so far. Other streets are very wide and modern, and have heavy traffic.
The streets of old - town Riga
There are many churches in Riga. We were in an Anglican, a Lutheran and a couple of Roman Catholic churches before lunch. Each of them was in a different state of repair. Since this was before we’d managed to get any Euro’s in change, we gave American dollars in change.
We also stopped in the Art museum. We did not go on a tour, but did go into the free lobby which has a lovely tile floor.
It was a bit rainy in the early morning, but later it cleared by about noon. We were looking for a Latvian ethnic food restaurant. The first one we went in to had no room, as it was fully reserved for a tour group. Another one across the square wasn’t yet open. Its sign said it opened at 12 noon, and it did open just shortly after that. We were the first guests in; they only let in three other parties, as they were expecting a tour group of 40. We had a very nice lunch — a bread bowl of sauerkraut and pork soup and a pork sasuage and spiced cooked cabbage which Enid and I shared.
After lunch we went to a small museum, Mentzendorffs House, whis is a restored 17th century aristocrat’s house. It has very nice wooden floors, and to protect them you are asked to put slippers over your shoes.
Russian Orthodox Church
Next we walked to the Russian Orthodox church. It has been beautifully restored. The inside of the church is absolutely magnificent, but does not allow you to take photographs. They also had a sign asking women to cover their heads. Enid did, with her rain coat hood, but I saw several women that didn’t do this, even though they were wearing scarves and could have done so. The altar area of the church was magnificent with large icons, and covered with gilt.
Art Nouveau building
Our final destination in the city was the art nouveau area. There are a couple of blocks of the city where they have restored some beautiful buildings (there are many art nouveau buildings in the city, but many of them are not repaired fully).
Art Nouveau decoration on building
After leaving the art nouveau area we walked back a park. There seems to be green space throughout the center of the city, along the canal. It was now a beautiful afternoon, and people were out rowing in small boats on the canal. The park also has free wi-fi (after you watch a 15 second ad in Russian or Latvian) so we checked our email, and I downloaded the map of Visby for tomorrow.
It started to rain again just as we approached the cruise ship. It was warm enough that we’d put away our rain jackets, so we got rather wet before we got re-embarked on the ship.