20260330 Riga, Latvia

Yesterday morning in Suwalki our hotel made us an incredible box breakfast to eat on our early train. Well – our Vilnius hotel did not come through in the same way. Only a small foil-wrapped cookie. That’s OK, though, we still had the second sandwich leftover from our good friends in Suwalki! They spoiled us.

The service on the train was great. Good coffee, a nice brownie, and comfortable seats. We arrived in downtown Riga just after noon and crossed the street to our hotel. They checked our bags, and we ventured off into the Old City.

Like many European cities, Riga suffered badly during and after the second world war. Over 900,000 citizens (mostly Jewish) either left or perished. Much of the Old City was destroyed and has since been restored. The skyline is highlighted by many old and beautiful church towers. Ben and I toured most of streets, and were fortunate to have a private viewing of the Palace’s Changing of the Guard. Being Monday, most stores and all of the museums were closed. That, and being off-season and very cold, gave the Old Town a rather deserted feeling. We were assured by our coffee shop server that Riga in the summertime is jammed with people, especially when cruise ships land at the nearby docks.

By late afternoon we were very chilled, so headed back to the hotel to meet in a short while for dinner. We found a Russian restaurant that looked interesting. The menu featured lots of caviar (not a fan), but I chose a fish soup with large chunks of sturgeon. Very nice!

So far, we weren’t too impressed with Riga. Like two big goofey engineers, so far we had ignored Patti’s advice to check out Rigs’s ‘Art Nouveau’ district.

Next morning we froze as we walked to the market to find breakfast. The market is housed in five repurposed zeppelin hangers not far from the station. We were a bit early – most of the stalls were still setting up. We grabbed a coffee, then set out across the wide Daugava River bridge to the Railway Museum. We enjoyed the indoor displays, model railroad, and outdoor collection trains. Then – begrudgingly – we trudged, coldly, back across the bridge to find the Art Nouveau.

WOW!!! Were we glad we did. Thank you Patti. Alberta Street is simply gorgeous, and the Art Nouveau Museum displays and explains Riga’s unique style. As soon as the ‘vertical’ and ‘parallel’ motifs are identified, they pop out at you all over the city.

There are many more examples in the photo gallery below. Now we have a MUCH better feeling about Riga. Sometimes big dumb engineers have to be strongly pushed in the right direction!

Dinner was at the cafeteria style Lido restaurant beside the train station. Much too cold to venture back to the Old City to eat.

Our plan for tomorrow was to rent a car at the airport and drive to Tallinn, stopping halfway at the Estonian Train Museum. I got cold feet about driving and checked bus schedules. Much better. We cancelled the car and booked seats to Parnu, planned for a taxi to Lavaraasse for the trains, taxi back to Parnu, and second bus up to Tallinn.