We arrived in Riga early afternoon. We took a short walking tour after checking into the very nice Konventa Seta Hotel. This was my favorite hotel of the trip. Good sized and very comfortable room, great shower, and a refrigerator!

We had free time for lunch and I joined several of the ladies at Lido for a buffet lunch. They had lots of options but like most buffets, very average food.

We went to the Town Hall Square, a huge open space from the 13th c. It is a UNESCO Heritage Site. It had been destroyed during WWII but reconstructed after the war. There is a tourist center here, the RIGA sign, the House of the Black Heads, now a museum, and the Occupation Museum is also on the square.

In the center of the square there is a statue to Roland. I had no idea who this was, but according to our guide, he was a knight of Charlemagne. I looked him up at home and found a bit more information which I found interesting: “semi-fictional”, but the hero of the epic poem, “The Song of Roland” and also the book, “Matter of France”. There are many statues of him and they are considered a symbol of economic prosperity and self-governance.

We walked past Saint Peter’s with its huge and unique bell tower, the Cathedral, the Gunpowder Tower, Saint Jacob’s church, the old town walls, and the Freedom Monument. We stopped by the “Latvia’s Cities and Counties for the Centenary of the State”, with all the coats of arms of Latvian cities and regions painted on it. Riga is just so beautiful, great architecture and art nouveau buildings; it’s a great walking city.

We stopped by to see the Three Brothers, the oldest stone buildings in Riga, over 600 years. They now house the Latvian Museum of Architecture and we made a short visit inside and to the courtyard in back.

The next morning, we visited Riga’s Central Market. It’s along the River Daugava. It has some outside stalls but is mostly inside the old Zeppelin hangers. Signe took us through showing us big vats of all sorts of pickled vegetables, huge fish stalls, caviar, smoked and dried fish, lots of their soft cheeses. There are multiple food stalls for dining, too, even a couple bars.

I had several hours free before our next tour, so went to Saint Peter’s to go up in the bell tower. There is an elevator but you have to walk up to the third floor to catch it. These cities are definitely not “accessible”. The view from Saint Peters’s is fantastic. Great views over Old Town, the river, and further. The church nave is undergoing restoration and much is blocked off, but you can certainly hear the jack hammers. I had a great lunch at Domini Canes, close to my hotel.

I met up with the group again to visit the Museum of the Occupation of Riga. Not originally on our itinerary, but they added it since we missed the KGB museum in Vilnius. I would have gone myself, but liked the guided tour with a very smart, articulate young guide. We spent about 90 minutes here. It was built by the Soviets in 1971 for a museum commemorating the Red Latvian Riflemen. The statue for the riflemen is still on the plaza out front.

The museum has been open since 1993 and covers the 51 years when Latvia was occupied by the USSR, 1940-1941, the Nazis, 1941 to 1944, and the USSR again, 1944 to 1991. It starts with independent Latvia, from 1918-1940, the Hitler-Stalin pact, first Soviet occupation, mass deportations, gulags, Latvians in exile, the singing revolution, and rebuilding Latvia. Well laid out and great museum.

Also out on the Latvian Rifleman’s Square is another memorial. The Memorial to the Victims of the Soviet Occupation “History Tactile”. One side looks like a blanket or quilt. The other side of the memorial is a reproduction of Mērija Stakle’s handkerchief. She was deported and wrote on her handkerchief her arrest date and then other prisoner’s signed. She later embroidered the signatures with threads taken from their clothes. The original handkerchief is in the museum.

After our group tour, I visited Riga Cathedral. Beautiful church and cloister.

I walked out to the Riga Castle, it houses several museums and also the home of the President of Latvia. There was a special event or visitor, however, as there were guards outside and while I was trying to find the entrance to the museums, saw several large black SUVs pull up and their passengers greeted and lead inside. I walked along the river, out to see the KGB Corner House, saw the Opera House, and back to the Freedom Monument, where they had just laid a wreath and the guards were leaving.

I had dinner that night at Ala Pagrabs, the group joined later and we all watched the dancing.