Saturday, March 29th
This morning I enjoyed breakfast with the couple from Brooklyn. After checking out of our rooms we were on the bus with 'Magic', our bus driver, heading south to Latvia. Simona let us know that we were expecting an unusual weather day for this time of year - warm (low 50's) and sunny! With such good weather she arranged for a stop at Vitrupe Beach, on the Baltic Sea, so that we could at least see it up close and take some photos; we could even touch if we so desired. While enjoying the sea breezes Simona had some special Estonian liqueur called Vana Tallinn for everyone to taste. It was incredibly sweet, and the herbal taste was hard to describe. It didn't taste bad, but I did not finish my shot - reminded me too much of cough syrup.
Back on the bus Simona told us about the sea. It is known for the sand dunes that it creates along the shore as there are a lot of strong waves. A unique feature of the Baltic sea is that there is only 7grams of salt per kilogram of water (very low salinity), due in part to the multiple, large rivers that flow into it. When she was a child she used to spend her summers by the sea. It was very common for Lithuanian families to do that back then, but prices have now risen (unsurprising) and many resorts have been built. For anyone who loves amber (fossilized tree resin used in jewelry), over 90% of the world's amber comes from the Baltic region! As such, there are a myriad of amber options available all over Tallinn, Rīga, and Vilnus as they're a sought-after souvenir. Pieces of amber torn from the seafloor (often during harsh winter storms) are cast up by the waves and collected by hand, dredging, or diving. There are nine countries with Baltic Sea access: Germany, Poland, Russia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Sweden, Finland, and Denmark.
Latvia has about 2 million people and 300 miles of coast on the Baltic. There are many mixed families in Latvia (Russian-Latvian) because of their time under Soviet Rule. Rīga has had a high population of Russians living there for many years, and in the 1980's it was nearly 50-50 (Russians-Latvians). Still today there are a lot of mixed families because the Soviet Union chose Latvia to build lots of factories and sent Russians there to work. After the collapse of the USSR most Latvians chose Latvian passports (they had previously had both as the Russians allowed them Russian passports). As a result, you can hear quite a bit of Russian spoken today, despite Latvian not being a Slavic language or having anything in common with Russian. As it was in Estonia, the Latvians are very pro-Ukrainian because of their not-too-distant time of oppression by the Russians. Many of the Baltic countries are attempting to become more energy independent, despite the increased costs of doing so, because they do not want to support Russia by purchasing their oil and gas.
The capital of Latvia, Rīga (pronounced "ree-gah"), is known as the Art Nouveau capital of the world, and quickly became my favorite location on this trip. I've also heard Rīga called the "Paris of the North" due to roughly 1/3 of the buildings in the city centre being in this delightful architectural style. We arrived at our hotel (Radisson Blu Latvija) and shortly after I was heading to the Old Town for some wander-time.
Gorgeous afternoon sun today and clouds in the forecast for tomorrow, I determined to take full advantage of the stunning facades and cobble-stoned streets around me. Photo opportunities were abundant and my handy Maps.me app gave me freedom to wander without getting lost. For those who don't know me well, despite having nearly 30 countries under my belt I'm still horrible with directions and am very, very easily lost. The top of the St. Peter's bell tower gives you 360-degree views of the town, so the clear, sunny skies spurred me to do that today too. The 9€ entry fee was well worth it on such a fine day, and my one dimensional photo cannot do the real view justice.
The first mention of the church is from records dating to the early 1200's, but it's current footprint was mostly created during renovations in the 15th century. With a history of that many years, the church took several hundred years to be fully built and has been partially destroyed and rebuilt numerous times (fires and wars, more fires and more wars). The most recent renovations were finished in the 1980's, and the church was added to the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1997. At
the back of the church they had a very fascinating display pertaining
to the Reformation in this area of the world (St. Peter's is a parish church of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Latvia).
We have an Old Town Rīga tour tomorrow, so I knew I would be able to get the "facts and figures" tomorrow, but I believe I hit the highlights today. Back at the hotel I rejoined my group and we headed to Piazza Italiana where we enjoyed a lovely dinner together. I sat with Irv & Roz (the more I get to know her the more she reminds me of my Grandma Barb), Bob and Bernadette (the couple with whom I had enjoyed breakfast this morning), Rose (from Chicago), and native Floridians Jack & Yvonne. The food was delicious and the company was nice as well.