Riga, Latvia

3 weeks ago we were a party of 31 going to Riga, Latvia for a weekend trip.
Latvia is one of the Baltic states and shows very well that it has been under Russian influence and on the other side of the iron curtain.
We lived in the old part of town, right behind the Riga Dome.

   

Riga is a strange town, where you can see how powerful this town has been, with its rich architecture, and how poor it is now, worn down and with few people in the streets.
Latvia is very bad off from the economical crisis, worse than Island, but we do not hear much about it in the papers, and it came as sort of a cultural chock to us.

Food are cheap, but all other goods are not, and there were sales in all the shops. I have never seen empty malls right before Christmas either. I guess many will be out of work there soon.

My husband and I walked around a lot, wearing good shoes, with camera in hand.
We had sugar cakes from a local bakery as a snack :-)
  

New and old architecture mixed randomly.
 

A great mural by the old town square.

Russian eggs - lovely hand work, but nothing to bring home to this house.
 
A lot of spectacular facades.

 

    
We had a lovely lunch with local vegetable soup and a glass of wine for next to no money.
The restaurant was very simple, up very steep stairs, but the food was plenty and delicious.

 
Notice the lovely glass art window in the restaurant - the building was from 1700-something     
   
Even the most worn buildings could have beautiful doors

  

or statues…..

This is what I call a tall coffee :-)
  
DH had hot chocolate - the real thing - oh is was rich indeed!

Check those windows, a gazillion small pieces in each.

There are churches on "every corner"

Riga was an experience, in many ways, and I even was very close to get robbed, but I do not keep my valuables in my rucksack, thank you.

The local market was spectacular though, but we did not take out the cameras - to many people.

Here is what I bought in Riga - linen tea towels, zippers (cheap!), embroidery floss (half price) and some silver goods. Some other goods will be found in someone's Christmas gifts too :-)

This owl needle keeper is soooo cool :-)

I lost one of my earrings on my way to Riga, so DH bought me a new pair.  I like them very much :-)

Will we go there again ?……. well…….. it looks like many of the party of 31 want to  go back next year, but I am not sure if I will join or not - time will tell.

Hanne