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Today we arrived in Riga, Latvia under very nice weather. Turns out that it is the best day this summer as it has been almost everywhere we’ve been on this trip. But, Rigans told us that it was also the first non-rainy day they’ve had this summer. Lucky us!
We took a bus ride that drove around the city in circles looking at things that were, by most measures, somewhat pedestrian…in other words, we could have seen the same thing just walking about town. How’s that for a play on words! You can tell that we were a bit bored on this tour. In fact, it was only a couple long blocks walking from the ship to the main part of town so that turned out this would have been the best option to see Riga.
There is quite a history in Riga as it is strategically located in the Baltic region. When you get a chance you might check it out. It is one of those places, like our next stop, Tallinn, that most people in the West know almost nothing about. It is one of those cities where the transition from the suppression of the Soviets is still visible but the signs of improvement are everywhere. Like in all the other former Soviet satellite countries, investors are building new developments, some from the ground up but also many major renovations of old classic buildings. The potential is great.
The first stop was across the river at a hotel…supposedly giving us a chance to take pictures of town. However, the town was quite a ways off and the view was less than spectacular. The walk was even less so, especially since there were a number of older people on the tour. But so be it. There are a lot of art deco style houses in Riga and a number of wooden houses that have survived and been restored and have now become trendy. There are also many beautiful buildings that reminded us of Paris and, which gives Riga the name of the “Paris of the Baltics”.
Tomorrow we’ll be in Tallinn, Estonia, a stop that promises to be very interesting as we will be doing a walking tour, on our own, of this well preserved walled city.
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