Our first full day in Riga, Latvia (written from Lithuania)

Monday, June 17

Our hotel includes breakfast.  We expected the usual light fare and were very surprised when we entered the dining room and found numerous food warmers  filled with all kinds of breakfast items like omelets, bacon, rice, blintzes, and cold items such as cheeses, ham, rolls, crescents, yogurt, cereals, fruit, and coffee and tea.

This is the only place we’ve stayed in the trip thus far that had bar soap.  The size of the soap complemented the size of our room.  A brand new bar could actually fit down the sink drain, so we needed to be cautious.  Everywhere else had a variety of liquid soaps.  Jim never remembered to take his glasses into the bathroom when he showered and had to puzzle over the various potions.  It was even more challenging in St. Petersburg where half the bottles were labeled in Cyrillic.

 

After eating our fill, we took a stroll through our lovely neighborhood.

 

Just a tad beyond the construction we came across a marvelous pair of etched glass door handles.  They provided entry to the super stylish dress shop called Lalique.  It appears to have no direct relation to the continued business of René Lalique, the famous Art Deco / Art Nouveau designer of jewelry and art glass.

 

We wandered through the old town, looking at the architecture of this very old town. Since many places are closed on Mondays, we spent most of our time walking and looking at the buildings and the gardens. 

 

For the most part, streets have been quite clean.  Every once in a while, you find trash in unexpected places.

The flowers and parks are beautiful spaces.  We watched crews doing a lot of planting and by our last day, the parks were even nicer.

We stopped to listen to two older men playing a tuba and a French horn.  We decided that they are doing this to keep busy during their retirement, more than to earn money.  They seemed to be enjoying themselves and their music was good, if not great.  Good enough for a small tip.

The main square in the Old Town had pieces of art made from rocks.  Anyone from Maryland should recognize a rockfish.

 

Who's the other old goat with Ardith?

 

The animals above are called The Town Musicians of Bremen.  It is a copy of a statue in Bremen, Germany, a sister city of Riga.

Our first church visit was to St. James’ (aka St. Jacob's) Cathedral which was built in 1225. It is the seat of the Riga's Catholic Archbishop and was visited by Pope John Paul II.

Oh my, Jim got sucked into a shopping experience. Actually, he convinced Ardith that she should go into Woolhouse (not that she needed a hard push).  The outside got to him first. All the sign posts near the shop were covered in knitted wool “coats”.  Likewise for the pipes outside. 

What really convinced him to go in was a poster just in the doorway of Albert Einstein with a spinning wheel.  He asked the charming sales clerk to translate. She said “Woolhouse for yourself and your friends”. 

The whole layout of the store was inspired.  The merchandise was great too.  Ardith saw things that were amazingly well done.  She settled for a really nice scarf and a kit to knit mittens called Knit Like a Latvian.  She will work on that this summer while she cares for her sister who just had extensive leg surgery.

Another place of business that Jim like from the outside, but didn’t venture in, was a place that sold abstract pottery.

We went to the Dome Cathedral which is the principal Lutheran church in Latvia. It is the largest place of worship in the Baltic region. Most of the interior was destroyed during the Reformation and like the Cathedral in Helsinki, is generally quite plain. The pulpit is from the 17th century and is quite ornate.  

We attended a noontime organ concert which was well attended. The organ cabinet is being rebuilt, but the organ itself was in fine shape.  The young organist played a work by Cesar Franck which was light and pleasant.  Her second piece was a chorale improvisation by Charles Tiurnemire that knocked our socks off. The pipe organ was incredible to listen to and this second piece really showed the depth and range of the organ. When it was built in 1884, it was the largest organ in the world, in fact the largest mechanical device.  The interior of the organ is said to be big enough to house a symphony orchestra and chorus, if it wasn’t for all those pesky pipes – all 6718 of them.

The stained glass windows were exceptionally beautiful.  One, however, was changing its design before our very eyes.

Reflections in the Baptismal Font

There was a vaulted gallery surrounding a courtyard that contained many pieces of remains from the original interior.  Jim had lots of fun there.

Ardith enjoyed seeing the picture from earlier days in the church, especially the confirmation class of 1944.

 There was a chapel that was off limits to tourist, only worshipers were allowed.

We took a little break and ate pastry and beverages before walking in the park that runs along a canal.  

There was a love locks bridge here too.  We watched a young couple that apparently had just sealed their love.

While on our walk Jim was stopped by a lovely woman as he was taking a picture of a statue of a man and his wife.  She explained that it was of the best mayor the city ever had – in the early 1900s.   

She asked where we were from.  We told her just outside of Washington, DC.  She said she had been there several times and liked it. Jim asked why she had gone there.  She told use that she was an opera singer.  She pointed at The National Opera House a very short distance away and said ”That is my home”.  On the next day’s walk Ardith pointed out a poster on the side of the Opera House for Lucia di Lammermoor.  Jim went to inspect, and discovered that the photograph on the poster was of the same lady we had met in the park.

While Ardith rested in our room, Jim investigated the best way to get to the bus stop for Thursday.  He found one way that was good but required using stairs to take an underground passageway across a very busy intersection.  He though Ardith might object to dragging a suitcase up and down those stairs.  He saw a tiny old woman come up the stairs dragging a cart and took her picture to help convince Ardith that would be OK.  Ardith didn’t object and he didn’t need to show her the picture.

 The underpass used the same system of wheelchair ramps as St. Petersburg.

We had dinner at Key to Riga restaurant, again eating outdoors. We had an appetizer of dark toasted rye tips with herb sauce. Jim had barley and hazelnuts, braised ribs and sauerkraut. Ardith had pork tenderloin, mashed potatoes with thin beet slices. Ardith had homemade red wine cake.

At the next restaurant across the square, there was a red truck with a sound stage and lights set up for a rock group to perform.  

Our restaurant had two costumed musicians playing traditional music. The rock group initially drowned out the traditional music, but the rockers took a break and we got to enjoy the ones who were being paid to play for us.

Our waitress wore an outfit that reminded us of Sweden. 

While we were eating dinner, we watched a very large truck maneuver the narrow street next to the restaurant in order to pick up one of the ice cream vender carts.  Apparently they drive around the old town and pick up these carts at the end of each day. 

After a leisurely walk we returned to our hotel.  From our room, we could see the sun cast a beautiful hue on the Academy of Sciences Building.  We could dream of other sights we had seen during this wonderful day.