Aug 15th–Riga Latvia

 

We arrived at Riga Latvia at 10:30am this morning after cruising up the Daugava River and docking right next to the old town.  Riga was founded in 1201, and is now considered the Paris of the Baltic.   The old part has cobblestone streets, that convey a real sense of history, and is filled with sidewalk cafes.   We had our first very warm, sunny day of the trip, and it was a perfect location.  

Our first stop was Riga Castle, the residence of the President of Latvia.  We did not go inside but walked past the building.

 

Next we visited the Dome Cathedral which has one of the largest pipe organs in the world, with  more than 6,000 pipes.   Unfortunately it was undergoing its fourth renovation so we were not really able to see the organ.  We did see a lot of the materials that will be restored to the cathedral stored along a walkway and saw the beautiful stained glass windows inside the church.

We continued to walk through the streets and plazas of the picturesque old town.

We stopped for a drink at Double Coffee, Riga’s version of Starbucks, and used their WiFi. Nancy liked her Cappaccino with cream and chocolate.  The second picture is the top of the house of cats a curious building that has a couple of restaurants on the ground level but nothing else related to cats that we could see.

We stumbled upon the Maza Guild, which was a cultural and craft center from 1888, with the big hall (photo) and then to the Powder Tower, the only Tower from the old fortification system still standing.

We also saw an interesting nightclub, but as are ship was leaving at 4:00 pm, we did not get to check it out.  Overall, it was a great stroll through this delightful town.

We are sending this update from Tallinn, Estonia.  It may be the last update for a few days.  Our next stop is St. Petersburg, Russia, where we will be spending three days.  Unless you have a Russian Visa, which we don’t, you must stay on the ship except for the Guided Tours.  We are taking three excursions, and are not optimistic about finding a WiFi site.  The first day we are taking a 9 hour classical St. Petersburg tour, second day a 16 hour trip to Moscow, and the third day a 4 hour Hermitage (a museum) tour.  After tomorrow the next opportunity to check email and send the blog will be in Helsinki on Saturday.