Still rigged in Riga

Posting this from home. More to come.  Check back in 2 days.

Tuesday, June 18

We got started early so that we could be at St. Peter's Church when it opened. It has a steeple that is 403 feet tall and provides a wonderful view of the entire city.  

We were the first ones inside, but needed to stop to buy tickets while folks from pre-paid tours went past us.  There was a small elevator to take you to the top.  The guy running it strictly limited it to 10 people. The elevator was slow and took several minutes to the top. We got the second elevator up and squeezed onto a narrow platform for a spectacular view of Riga. The day was clear and the view was perfect.  Ardith is normally a bit afraid of heights, but did very well here.

From our viewpoint some areas looked as though they were filled with toy buildings.

An area rarely seen by tourists is the docks.  Seeing them helps understand that Riga grew up as a city because it had a good port, which remains active.

The steeple has been topped with a rooster weather vane since 1491.  The one from 1690 is still intact and is inside the building.  The current one was done in 1970.

The church had been bombed in 1944 and has been rebuilt in recent years.  There were photos from that and other times of destruction in the exhibit area.

The entire inside edge of the church contains an art gallery of local scenes by a famous Latvian artist.  The color ones seemed quite ordinary, but the black and whites had character.

There is a massive candelabra that was commissioned in 1596.  When the local people realized that it might be lost to wartime looting in 1940, they moved it to a church in Poland.  It was returned here in 2012.

Outside the church, there were two little girls in Latvian costumes singing folk songs and playing a Latvian instrument that looked like a dulcimer.  They were raking in the money.  A guy around the corner who was doing a good job playing cello had nearly empty coffers.  In addition to the fact that he wasn’t cute, his location wasn’t as good.

Just behind St. Peter's church is another Lutheran Church, St. John's.  Parts of this date to 1237, making it the oldest church in Riga.  The really impressive parts of this church are its ceiling and its altar.  It is still a vary active parish church.

Adjoining the courtyard between the 2 churches is a restaurant with a huge variety of roosters in its windows.  Both churches have roosters atop their steeples.

Its time for another walk through the beautiful park - this time on the other side of the canal.

We continue walking.  When we passed the Cultural Ministry Building, Jim paused to get a good picture. A half block later, a young woman ran up behind Jim and asked if she could take his picture.  She said she had seen him take an interest in the building where she worked.  When he asked her if he could take her picture she was very surprised, but agreed.

Outside of the Old Town area of the city is a district that is filled with buildings in the Art Nouveau style of architecture.  It is considered one of the largest collections of Art Nouveau architecture in the world.  We saw at least 50 large buildings with many delicate details, a definite treat for the eyes and well worth the walk.

After an ice cream break in the park, we went to the Russian Orthodox Cathedral. As we entered a rush of folks was exiting, including 4 people with big cameras and tripods  and several priests, most of whom seemed very young. There were signs indicating No Photos, but since there was a TV camera filming away there, Jim decided to take some license.   He flipped his camera into video mode and let it dangle around his neck  He got a few good shots out of that.

On the earlier piece of our walk, we passed the Freedom Monument, a memorial to soldiers slain in the 1918-20 war for Latvian Independence against Russia,  As we were there, an officer was inspecting the 2 soldiers who had ceremonial guard duty at that time.  On our way back, we got to watch the changing of the guard ceremony.

We returned to our hotel for a nap. Jim’s was very short.  He went off to explore the city market and found lots of great bargains, including pastry and fruit for tomorrow's bus trip to Lithuania. The market is in 4 interconnected dirigible hangers and overflows into the outdoors.  Things are quite neat and nicely organized.  He also found a better way to the bus terminal – no stairs and slightly shorter distance.

We strolled into old town for dinner and ate outside once again. The sky was so blue and the weather couldn't have been better for an outdoor meal. Jim had local fish with roasted vegetables.  Ardith had beef medallions, with roasted potatoes. We had Latvian apple wine with dinner.  Ardith had chocolate fondant that was baked while we waited. Three kinds of fresh baked breads were served with the meal.  While we were finishing our meal, two young street musicians began to play sax and trumpet/percussion. A great things for talented kids to be doing during summer break.

We strolled home and returned to working on the blog.  Jim has made this an obsession.  He has been spending about 5 hours a day between picture editing, writing and the mechanics of posting. Last night, he wasn't inspired to start until late.  At 2:15 AM, he realized what time it was and slept until 7.  He has also been collecting sounds for our daughter, Cheryl.  Cheryl’s business is working with audio for TV shows, films and commercials.  She asked Jim if he would capture some sounds on this trip, but didn’t get around to giving him a recorder.  When Jim bought his current camera, he didn’t give a thought to sound quality, but the first time he did a video where sound was important, he was completely surprised by the sound.  He sent Cheryl a sample of a sound.  She was pleased, so Jim is learning to listen as well as to look as he travels.