Wednesday's forecast predicted late morning rain so we headed out early to see Riga before the worst rain hit. Unfortunately, Andrew was in even more pain and his face looked terrible but he took some ibuprofen for the pain and we hit the road. We even managed to walk with Mack and Sophia for a little bit before they went off on their own.
We were all carrying jackets and raincoats ready for the rain but in the meantime we were overly warm - a nice feeling for a change.
The city was absolutely asleep at 7:30 when we started wandering. We had the town to ourselves.
Which was fun but also means I can't remember what any of these building are. I believe the one above was an outer wall to a palace but I can't find proof to verify that 🤷.
St. Jacob's Catholic Cathedral of Riga, identified on line.
The Three Brothers Latvian Museum of Architecture was closed but the three houses looked pretty cool.
This unique structure was set up in front of St. Peter's church and had swings, benches and large mirrors so you could take fun selfies like these ones.
Who needs an armadillo sculpture?
Natali informed us that Riga was famous for being a cat city in part because of the The Cat House.
Built in 1909 with a cat on each turret.
Sculpture based on the Brother Grimm story, the Bremen Town Musician, said to bring good luck if their noses are rubbed.
A little break while we decide what to do with everything closed until 10 or later.
The market is open so we head out again and are happy to see our first Latvian mammals...rats...well okay maybe not that excited but we are Easton's so we take a picture and count it.
Riga's Central Market's first impression was fishy, literally so much fish. The kids were ready to take off but Natali discovered that the fish was all in one building so we skipped that one and moved onto the next. Can you say pastries?! We all picked out different treats and were very happy, especially Emily with her meringue.
We headed back toward the main part of the city and I desperately needed a bathroom.
Luckily we found a pay for use one by the Latvian Academy of Sciences. It was in the top 10 grossest bathrooms I've ever used, but when you've got to go, you've got to go.
The Yellow Church of Riga, an orthodox wooden church built in 1825.
The Riga Great Choral Synagogue Holocaust Monument displays what remains of the Great Choral Synagogue build in 1871 and the largest synagogue in Riga before it was burned down on July 4th, 1941 three days into the Nazi occupation of Latvia. Other synagogues across the city were also burned that day resulting in the deaths of over 400 Jews.
The somber location honored the many Latvian Jews lost in the Holocaust.
Natali then led us to another cat image of Riga, or so she thought. You can't fool the Easton's - that's no cat.
But this is a cat...a friendly collared and well mannered cat who recieved 15 minutes of abundant attention while we basked in the strangeness of the fox on the wall.
"Born For Freedom", as AI later informed me, was created by a father and son team and made of steel, rope, and glass. It was built as a protest of the fur industry.
We spent a few hours at the Riga Ghetto and Holocaust in Latvia Museum learned all sorts of new things.
The Riga ghetto was home to Jews from Latvia, Germany, Austria, Bohemia, Lithuania, and Moravia during WWII, most of them were eventually massacred.
We also read about the SS St. Louis incident of 1939, where 907 Jews sailing from Hamburg, were denied entry into Cuba, then the US, and forced back to Europe to land in Antwerp, Belgium. Tragically, many of them had to return to their countries of origin and at least 254 were killed in the Holocaust.
After that solemn education we needed to find some joy so we stoped at Crumble Cake and tried a traditional apple cake and a lemon cream cheese cake. Both were fabulous and we enjoyed eating them outside where the rain had yet to start falling in spite of predictions that it could start any minute.
We went back to St. Peter's church to go up the tower but we decided it was too expensive so we went in search of lunch instead and Lily found a sleeping kitty.
We found a lovely place outdoors, but covered to eat lunch and finally got to try potato pancakes. It was sort of like a hash brown but with sour cream and lingonberry jam on top - super yummy.
The beetroot soup was less appealing and tasted more like radish soup to me, but the pumpkin soup was delish.
One of the best parts of Riga was the gorgeous flowers all over town. Every store front, restaurant, and home seemed to have flowers blooming along the street.
Rigas Ratslaukums, or Town Hall Square, is a cobbled 13th century market square including the famous House of Blackhead seen behind us.
At this point Andrew was in a lot of pain again and we were all waring out. We needed some gelato to get us moving back to the boat for nap time.
The rain waited for us to get back on the boat, for which we were grateful because everyone still had rooms filled with wet items, especially shoes.
We enjoyed our last night on the boat doing ballet leaps down the hall, playing a geography game in our room, raiding the buffet, and packing our bags.
Our show for the evening was the best of the week with illusions, tricks, glow in the dark hula hoops and areal silks. It was a nice way to end.
Our last night of trivia was less impressive with only 5/10 but I felt good getting the correct answer to, "Which musical has been the longest running on Broadway?" Phantom for the win.
No comments:
Post a Comment