From Tallin to Riga, Latvia

From Tallin to Riga, Latvia

 

Sunday, June 16

After breakfast, Ardith wanted to make sure everything was ready for our departure later in the morning, including making lunches for us.  Jim wanted to explore more, especially to visit St. Olaf’s Church. When we woke up this morning, Ardith asked “did you hear all the noise at 5:30 this morning?”  Jim, as expected, said “huh?”  She said that there had been a bunch of drunks outside our window.  Jim woke at about 6:30, as usual, having no clue about anything happening.  She speculated it was from the bar at the restaurant across the street.  Jim had paid attention to posters around the city announcing a rock festival this weekend here in Tallinn.  At about the eighth building away from ours on the back street announcing a party that had taken place there starting at midnight – most likely our culprits.

 

As he walked along in the shadow of the old city wall, he decided he needed to be on the other side a bit more.   

When he went up and over, he found himself in a pleasant park.  A garden fair there was set up to show folk ideas of what to plant in different places and a variety of ornamentation ideas.

 

He could see St. Olaf's on the other side, so decided to cross back to the Old Town at the next gate.

He caught up with an old couple slowly making their way through the streets.  They made a turn and went in to what Jim later saw from the rear was a Ukrainian Orthodox church.  He was tempted to stop in there, but kept his sights on St. Olaf's.

People were assembling for a 10AM service at St. Olaf's.  Jim watched the comings and goings from the rear.  Our guide book said this was a Lutheran church, so Jim was a bit taken aback by the fact that nobody wore robes.  He stayed through the organ prelude, some opening talk and one hymn that was projected on screens and walls of the old church.  The only word he could decipher was Jeesus.  

He later found out that St. Olaf's had been a Lutheran church for 400 years, but had been sold to Baptists 50 years ago.  For a few decades, it was the tallest building in the world at about 520 feet.  Subsequent rebuildings reduced its spire’s peak to just over 400 feet.

He continued his walk through Old Town, making sure that he had walked every inch of every little street. 

Among his discoveries was an open air theater.  It was on a site intended for an indoor theater, but funding for that fell through on several occasions.  Funding the arts is a challenge everywhere.

In all the cities we have visited thus far there are Natural History Museums.  Jim volunteers at the Smithsonian's Natural History museum and thinks about visiting these, but there hasn't been enough time.

While Jim was working on wearing out shoes, Ardith looked out our window and saw a group of young Japanese women pondering a map.  She recalled the times we had done the same.  She grabbed her camera and took a picture.  They saw here and waved.  Ardith returned the wave.

Our apartment was a long block away from the office.  Rather than drag our luggage along the cobblestone street, Jim decided that it would be best if Ardith would sit outside our apartment while he turned in the key, then arrange for a cab to pick us up.  The office was located between 2 shops.  You needed to punch the number of the room on a keypad to get buzzed in to the foyer.  Jim pushed 3 then 8.  Only 3 showed up on the display.  He tried pushing 8 extra long and 39 showed up and started ringing.  He tried a few more times with the same result.  Finally a woman who lived in the building was entering and he went in with her.  He took the lift to the 4^th floor and turned in our key.  He asked Katriina to get a cab to pick us up at our place.  She told him to look for a yellow cab with a certain brand.  Jim walked back and waited with Ardith.  After 10 minutes, Ardith was very worried that we would miss our bus.  We finally walked over to the office area.  Through talking with a cab driver who barely spoke English we discovered that he was the one who was called for us.

We got to the bus station with about 15 minutes to spare.  When we were first planning this trip, Ardith was a bit concerned about taking some long bus rides.  On our first day in Tallinn, she looked on the internet for bus lines and read descriptions of buses.  She liked what she read and actually looked forward to our trip, once we had reservations.  We weren’t at all disappointed.  Our Lux Express bus was very clean and well appointed.  The bus had WiFi, a power outlet, a bathroom, lots of legroom and a hot beverage bar.

 

 The trip from Tallinn, Estonia to Riga, Latvia took 4 1/2 hours through very rural and mostly unpopulated countryside. It rained heavily for the first part of the ride, but the sun came out and it was beautiful weather for our arrival in Riga.

Jim had again making noises about walking to our hotel, but we hadn’t precisely located it on our map.  We also had no local currency.  At the bus station there was a taxi very near where we got off our bus, not at the designated taxi stand.  We asked if he could take us to the address we showed him and pay in Euros.  He said he could do that for 10 Euros (about $13.50).  Our hotel turned out to be about ¼ mile away, so we grossly overpaid . All of our previous cab rides have been 5 or 6 Euros for much longer rides.  Jim plans to figure out how to make the return trip without a cab.

Our hotel is called Wellton Old Riga Palace Hotel.  It is on the edge of the Old Town in the part that has not been fully restored. The are many buildings nearby that are being torn down, except for the facades, and are being restored or renovated. It is a convenient location for walking in the old town.

Our room is about the size of a linen closet but the bed is comfortable and the bathroom is fine. We have had wonderful showers and lots of hot water in all of the places in which we have stayed.

After checking into our hotel, we wandered into the old town looking for a place to eat.  Jim found a restaurant in the guidebook that sounded interesting but after walking quite a distance, we realized it was much further away than we originally planned to walk.  Jim wanted to stop to take pictures along the way, Ardith wanted to eat. 

We turned around and found an outdoor restaurant that had a western theme, wait staff in vaguely western garb, and recorded western style swing music. We didn't have western food but what we did have was great.  Ardith had beef stroganoff and whipped potatoes.  Jim had risotto with strips of duck breast. Jim had a panna cotta topped with rhubarb, accompanied with compressed fruit. Ardith had marzipan cake. The entire meal was wonderful and the service was super. Outside dining is the norm here in Riga.

Across from our restaurant was another with fascinating decor – huge lampshades and a guitar statue.  We returned to our hotel and slept soundly.