35. Riga, Latvia Part 1
The Journey
My first daytime rain in two and a half weeks! That's what I saw when I opened the curtains in Vilnius. After two and a half weeks of dry weather (except for the evening downpour in Torun) it was a shock to the system.
I had to root around in my baggage for my waterproof jacket before leaving the hotel for the short walk to Vilnius bus station. There was no other option than to take the coach to Riga. According to my research I was still six years too early to experience the Rail Baltica project, which is a massive high-speed railway infrastructure under construction which will connect Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland by 2030.
This time, I chose LuxExpress over FlixBus as the departure and arrival times were better suited to me. The trip was expected to be 4 hours and 15 minutes. As I entered the station, I saw that my LuxExpress coach to Riga was boarding 15 minutes early, and I got on and found my reserved seat.
The service really did match its name! There was unlimited free coffee and bottled water available, and good coffee it was! There was rapid phone charging, fast wifi, and a wide range of movies to watch. The cost of a single ticket was only €9.90.
As the bus was practically empty, I could recline my seat and enjoy the wide countryside views.
These same views became quite boring after a while. They were mainly of large flat expanses of agricultural land, interspersed with birch forests. The isolated farmhouses all looked like industrial units, so farming in this part of Latvia is obviously carried out on a very large scale.
The rain was pouring down when I arrived in Riga in mid afternoon. I decided to get a Bolt taxi to the HomeExchange apartment rather than try to navigate public transport in the rain. On top of that, I quickly realised that the Riga transport app that I downloaded wouldn't work with a non-Latvian phone.
My first impression of Riga was that it was a much bigger and more cosmopolitan city than Vilnius, even though their populations are practically the same. Not for long though, as I found out back in Vilnius, Riga's about to lose that race!
I had booked a beautiful modern apartment through HomeExchange with Laure - a French national living in Riga.
It was on the fifth floor of a beautiful apartment block (below) and had a lovely view over the Riga rooftops to the Old Town and the parks. It was very central, so everywhere was walkable.
Laure's instructions for accessing the apartment were excellent but I hadn't anticipated the 129 steps that I had to climb to the top floor!
Practical considerations came first and I immediately put on a clothes wash. There was no clothes dryer so I hung the items up on hangers all over the flat.
Food and Drink
I had read all about the self-service restaurant Lido that is a Latvian institution and was keen to try it. According to its website, it offers home cooked food using only natural products and without any flavourings, colourings or enhancers. There are several branches in the city centre and the nearest to me was only a 250m walk.
I could not believe the range of dishes on offer, maybe a dozen hot and cold starters, three soups and maybe 20 main courses, including vegan and vegetarian options.
It was fabulous food, tasty, wholesome and amazing value. I couldn't think of a need to eat anywhere else during my short stay in Riga. I chose a chicken casserole with wild mushrooms, boiled potatoes and a slightly spicy rice dish containing lots of chopped up vegetables. I don't usually eat desserts but I couldn't resist a pistachio cheesecake. I opted for an own-brand Latvian beer that seemed to me to be like Guinness. It turned out to be a non-alcoholic slightly sweet concoction that I didn't enjoy at all.
Day 2
The next morning was still drizzly, and despite there being a perfectly good umbrella by the door, I couldn't quite motivate myself to head out into it - one of the small prices I pay for leaving my own umbrella at home to save weight! The forecast promised it would clear by mid-morning, so I made a coffee, settled in, and worked my way through Laure's excellent shelf of guidebooks instead.
Eventually, I decided I would first walk down to the Daugava river to get my bearings.
On the way back I headed for the "Quiet Centre" as it is called, where there is a large concentration of Art Nouveau buildings, though these can be found all over the city.
Several guidebooks say that Riga is a city where you spend your time looking up. I found this to be so true, as the series of photos coming up will show. The tops of the Art Nouveau buildings are the most interesting and intricate.
This is one of the wealthiest parts of the city, and is where most of the embassies are located. It reminded me a lot of Paris.
I did take nearly 50 photos, so below is a selection of Art Nouveau buildings that just stood out from the others.
Some tree-lined streets actually detract from the look of the buildings, even though the trees were a lovely touch of green.
So to explain what I mean by this, here is a photo of a beautiful building that was only visible through a gap in the trees.
Around the corner from here, I came across the Irish Embassy, in a very impressive building, on a prominent corner.
Opposite the Russian Embassy (below) there were signs of protest posters against the war in Ukraine.
On a side street directly facing the Embassy was the following large poster, obviously paid for by someone in authority.
Then directly in front of the Russian Embassy, the city showed its official support for Ukraine with a large display of Ukrainian flags. This echoed the visible support that I had seen in Vilnius.
My late morning stroll helped build up a huge appettite and as I was still in the same area, I returned to the same branch of Lido without hesitation.
This time I had borscht (a beetroot soup) to start, with a bread roll and a spiced red cabbage salad. For main course, I chose catfish in a spicy sauce, a cheese pancake and ratatouille. Catfish was a first for me and I liked it, especially the sauce. The great thing about Lido is you can mix and match, trying whatever combinations you wish. That's why the plate is like a Latvian smogasbord! Every item is individually priced. I finished with a cross between cheesecake and tiramisu and some rich dark coffee.
I still had two hours before my guided tour, so I headed off to explore areas that wouldn't feature on it. The very creative memorial above is to a Latvian war hero who died in the War of Independence in 1919.
To cross from the embassy quarter into the Old Town involved going through an extensive city park called Bastejkalns Park, with a canal at its centre. It was a really tranquil place to stroll and the traffic noise seemed to disappear as you went towards the centre, so that you almost forgot you were in a city.
This was the best use for a dead tree that I have seen in a long time! There were maybe a hundred brightly painted bird boxes on the remaining trunk and branches.
Like in other cities on my trip, there were lots of bronze sculptures dotted here and there. They were mostly of the genre sculpture type and seemed to feature lots of animals in incongruous surroundings!
I particularly liked this armadillo, but didn't care too much for "The Ghost of Riga" (2015) below, though it was very well executed.
I walked on towards Riga Central Market, which was widely recommended as a"must visit".
This is a huge indoor and outdoor market, spanning four interconnected Zeppelin Airship hangars built between 1924 and 1930 in an Art Deco style. It is now on the UNESCO World Heritage Site list.
It looked as if the whole of Riga was there doing their weekly shopping in the vast cavernous spaces.
The busiest kiosks were the ones selling alcohol, and there was no shortage of those.
A handful of tourists were propping up one of the craft beer bars, so I thought I would take the weight of my feet for a half an hour before my guided walking tour. I ordered a local craft beer - an IPA for a change, which I thoroughly enjoyed. The market was this curious mix of locals doing their everyday vegetable and grocery shopping and tourists sampling food and beer at various stands throughout the complex. I have to say I loved the vibe and would have stayed for a second beer if it wasn't for my upcoming guided walk - more of which in the next post.
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