7 days in Riga - what to do

On 2 Oct, 23:17, "tim....." wrote:
Thanks for the replies.

So what did I do?

Off to European country number 37!

The flight: *Baltic have a small 50*40*23 carry on limit and as my normal
"max" carry on roller case is too big, I went out and bought the biggest bag
that I could find that was under the allowance (a shoulder bag at 48*30*23).
This was just big enough for a week, but I would have preferred one on
wheels! *When checked in I found that there was no measuring frame and my
bag was manually examined (and passed easily) by the clerk. *I noted on
board that many people had much larger bags, the size of my normal roller
case! *Oh well! *Baltic assign seats, the plane was 2/3rds full, we arrived
on time and were bussed to the terminal at Riga.

On arrival I got a "starting" amount of 80 Lats from the ATM and found the
airport "express" bus due to leave at 23:30. *I noticed that the "normal"
bus was two platforms away and left at 23:15. *The last express was 00:45
and I later discovered that the last "normal" bus 23:40. *I think that I did
the right thing getting the express. *The bus only had 8 seats and left full
with 2 passengers remaining on the pavement! *5 of the pax were airline
staff (they signed for their fare) and they got off at the first hotel, one
more at the next and me at the station.

Next the hotel. *After looking at my options I decided that I wanted to take
the day trip to Daugavpils so as this meant catching the 07:10 train I
wanted somewhere near the station. *The only one who's pictures (on hrs)
looked interesting was the Nordic Hotel Bellevue but I was a bit put off by
the 99 Euro per night. *Fortunately, I went to the Hotel's web site and
bagged an "economy room" at 69 Euro - sorted. *483 Euro for 7 nights B&B in
a 4 * hotel.

The Hotel fittings were about as expected for a four star, but my economy
room was tiny - there had to be some disadvantage :-)! *It was also
unnecessarily warm, the heating wasn't on so I've no idea why this was. *I
find it hard to believe that the fridge in the corner was the culprit, but I
have no other solution to suggest. *Finally, the breakfast was rubbish for
this class of hotel. *The "cooked" breakfast was completely cold and other
options were sparse. *If you don't need to be by the station there are other
4* options to choose from at this price!

Day 1 (Tuesday) bright and sunny. *One of the things that I wanted to do on
my visit was to ride the tram network, all 8 lines! *I discovered from the
web site that a 5 day ticket was available, so the first thing that I wanted
to do was to find out about this. *I walked from the hotel through the
southern part of the old town to the Info Office and got the assistant to
write down what I wanted. *I then wandered around the main square and back
to the hotel via a different route. I noted that nothing in this part of the
old town was particularly spectacular.

I tried to buy my tram ticket from the kiosks at the station but they all
shook their head and said no (one said "no no no no no", which I thought a
bit unnecessary!) *Eventually, one assistant tried to explain in English
that this ticket wasn't available until "next month"! *I gave up with this
and bought 10 single ride tickets at 40 sents (45p) a ticket.

In the afternoon I caught the train to Jurmala. *In fact I caught the train
to Turkums and came back. *There are two stations at Turkums (I and II).. *I
assumed that they would both be 'near' the town but the second is in the
middle of nothing, about 4 km from the town. *No matter, there's only a 40
minute turn around, no time to do much even from the other station. *The
train to Turkums stopped at all (24) stations on the 65km ride and cost
nothing (OK 1.50) each way. *I have no idea if I was allowed to make my on
and off stop enroute back so I bought individual tickets for each leg.

There are automatic announcements on the trains of station names and there
is an LED display, but that is not used. *A "conductor" checks and sells
tickets, there seemed to be one conductor for each separate carriage of the
train. *On the way back I got caught out by the "this is X, the next station
is Y" announcement and got off a station early. *I didn't realise this for
ages as Jurmala is "famed" for its wooden houses and the area I was in had
lots of wooden houses and the site of several wooden sculptures including a
"turtle" which is apparently something to do with a local fairy tale. *The
beach was nice (and sandy) the houses were nice, but even after I had got to
the main centre at Jurmala there was nothing very touristy other than a
pleasant walk! *In the end I had walked from Dubulti to Dzintari so I think
that I saw enough of Jurmala to decide.

I looked in the Estate Agent's window and saw that the local apartments cost
from 200 to 700,000 Euro (splutter). *I bet that the average local worker
can't afford that!

Back in Riga Central I wander around the shops (in the station mall) and the
adjacent market. *I note that the prices in the shops for normal everyday
things are around the same as in the UK, in the market they are a bit
cheaper. *(Actually, I initially thought that it was all a bit cheaper than
the UK, but I'd got the exchange rate the wrong way around, I thought that 1
lat was worth 90p instead 1 pound is worth 90 sents, so 1 lat = GBP1.10!)

Now, as I have some coins in my hand, is time to talk about the money. *The
sents look suspiciously like German pffenings, but are worth three times as
much. *The coins are very deceptive, a few small coins that looks like about
50 cents is actually 5 Euro. *It's very easy to "give away" the high value
coins without realising.

I can't find a restaurant in the locality and as the hotel is rather
expensive for dinner - mains starting at 14 pounds (the lunch is better
value at 8 pounds for three courses) I buy dinner in the supermarket. *I
regret this as what looked liked chicken tasted decidedly smokey and was
purplish inside. *Well it was a different experience, it didn't make me ill
so no harm done!

So ends the first day. *That's all I have time for now,

If I you want to hear some more please ask, otherwise I'll assume no-one is
interested

tim

....top notch old boy, please go on....

On Thu, 2 Oct 2008 22:17:16 +0100, "tim....."
wrote:



If I you want to hear some more please ask, otherwise I'll assume no-one is
interested

tim

More! More!!!!

Keith (formerly of Bristol UK)
now moved to Berlin/nach Berlin umgezogen

"tim....." wrote in message
...
Thanks for the replies.


Been a bit busy, perhaps you thought I'd forgotten this :-)

Day 2 Wednesday - fIne and sunny: Minor disaster. Wake up to find my foot
blown up like a balloon and hurting like..... Fortunately, this is a know
problem and I have some pills for it, but they will take a day or two to
kick in so I will have to have an easy day. Decide to go to Cesis.

First breakfast. It becomes apparent that each day there is a "special"
item on the table. Yesterday's was Swedish meatballs (which are uninspiring
when clod!) and today's is porridge, again cold. No-one has touched this.
If they aren't going to serve it hot, why do they bother?

At the station I again go to the "wrong" window and the bored assistant
sends me away! At 83 Km away and using trains that go to the Estonian
border you might expect that there would be fast trains to Cesis, but no
they are all stations. I later inspect the timetable more closely and see
that the details list the stations that the trains DON'T stop at, most have
none, one or two in this list!

A trip to Cesis is an easy schedule, realistically there is only the 10:00
with a 12:00 arrival there and a 15:00 back I had hoped to see if I could
come here on the bus, combined with a trip to Sigulda, but the foot put paid
to that idea. I buy a return ticket because I saw on the webs site that it
was cheaper, but the saving is 12 Sents in 3.50 Lats, so no need to do this.
The ride is through forest almost all of the way. Once outside Riga, few of
the stations seem to be in a town but are just halts in the forest that (I
assume) a town (or village) is close to. But nevertheless, they are still
well used. This is also the train to Sigulda and it is full of foreign
tourists (my immediate companions are German) going there. I make a mental
note to catch the earlier train when I go there.

This is a cute little town, but worth no more than a couple of hours.
There's a town square next to a castle, next to a castle, next to a pretty
park, next to a pretty park, next to the brewery building, next to a pretty
park and um, that's it. Apparently much beer is still brewed in this town,
but not in this building and both castles are ruins. There aren't many
tourists either (this is the last week of the season), apart from me there
are just two school groups. The castle(s) (joint ticket) cost almost
nothing to enter and the rest is free.

I had hoped that I would find a tourist restaurant for lunch/tea but I
don't, so I go into a self service cafe. This is clean and modern, but
basic. I point to a "thing" in batter that looks like it is almost an
omelette but the server spoils the surprise by telling me that it is pork,
with potatoes lunch cost 2.40 lats.

Here's the point at which I am going to discuss toilets. Both today and
yesterday there didn't seem to be one on the train and the ones at the
stations were absolutely disgusting, no more than you would, very
reluctantly, use for a pee up the wall. There is recent evidence that the
locals do use them, they must have stronger stomachs than me. Fortunately,
if you need such facilities (which I didn't today), there is a toilet
building by the castle but this was the only one like this that I saw all
week. The country needs to invest in those "superloos" that many countries
have. (I'll come back to this subject!)

I now have an hour left before my train an not much to do. I wish that I'd
not got the return ticket as there are 15 buses a day back to Riga and
chances are there is one before the train (It doesn't even occur to me to
waste my train ticket!) I wander back to the station and find the local
market. There are stalls selling lots of strange foods. One seems to have
about 115 different "hams". Actually, they all look much the same but they
have all been "started" so I guess that they must be different. In one
counter there is what looks like a dried/cured chicken, I've never seen this
before. I find a counter selling honey and they have some candles for sale
and I assume that they are bees wax (BICBW). As my sister want some of
these (her offspring are allergic to synthetic wax) I buy some at 50 pence
each. I'm on to loser with this though, either they are what she wants so,
as she's found nowhere else to buy them, I won't have bought enough or they
aren't, in which case I will have wasted my time. Oh well!

My train comes and we start off fro Riga. At Sigulda the train fills up
completely (I make another mental note to avoid this one) and as we stop at
all the "forest" stations people get on carrying baskets full of
mushrooms/berries etc that they have been foraging in the forest!

It is 17:00 back at Riga so I start on my trip on the tram lines. I use the
number 10 to Bisumuiza which travels in the direction of the TV tower.
However, as we get closer it is apparent that it doesn't actually go there
and that there is a river in between so I just take the opportunity to walk
from the end stop to a clearing buy an obviously very polluted stream to
take some pictures of it. About half of this number 10 route runs on single
track and the trams have to wait to pass 3 of 4 times en-route but there is
no obvious way of telling whether the track is occupied, they must rely
entirely on trust, I hope that there is never an accident!

Finally for today, at the end station of the train is an "official" ticket
kiosk. This advertises the 5 day pass that I was looking for as available
from Jan (2008). But it is too late now, I have 10 (um 9) single tickets in
my pocket, but it's useful information for next time (not that there is
likely to be one).

Day 3 Thursday - Fine and sunny. My foot is still a problem and I start off
with a walk through the east side of the town centre along the park to the
freedom monument. This is permanently guarded by two solders. I have no
idea what they think anybody might want to steal! Next is the Orthodox
Cathedral. An interesting building but I make no attempt to go in (I'm not
even sure if it's allowed to not) and then through the next park to the "Art
Nouveau" district, the 'famed' area of decorative houses. Frankly I am
under-whelmed, there are only about 5 of them and I've seen more interesting
decorative features in towns that don't make a deal about their "decorative
houses", and it's certainly not a patch on "Gaudi in Barcelona". There are
people who make a living offering "Art Nouveau" tours and there are actually
lots of people here on such tours - this town really is short of interesting
attractions!

As I am how half way up on of the tram lines (no 5) I ride it to the end at
Milgravis. This is in the middle of an industrial area by the dock. I
think that this is the line that you are expected to take if you have a boat
to catch, so there is still several 100 meters to go (and not in an obvious
direction). If you arrive here this way it's a not very salubrious
introduction to the city!

For the afternoon I decide on the trip to the Salaspils (Holocaust)
Memorial. According to the guide book this requires a ride to the station
at Darzini - a frequent trip on the suburban line, and a short walk through
the forest. Because there are no other instructions I assume that it will
be obvious, or well signposted, but no! At the station there are five
options - three to the south of the railway and 2 north. I take the best
made path and end up by a dual carriageway. Fortunately across this road is
a little village (presumably Darzini) and a bus stop. There are a couple of
people working in their garden so I asked them as best I can for directions.
They say that I have come the wrong side of the track from the station so I
go back and exit from the North.

Here I try both tracks but there is nothing obvious and after a few hundred
meters the track splits up and it is not obvious whether to go left or
right. After about an hour trying all routes I give up and go back to the
station. As I get there I see a sign, hidden from the platform by the
(disused) station building saying "Salaspils Memorial" and pointing in
roughly the direction that I have been looking. But apart from avoiding the
first detour this still wouldn't have helped. As you (may) recall I
organised this trip in somewhat of a hurry so I am cursing my lack of
preparation for this afternoon's waste, but even now that I am back at home
with my computer I still haven't managed to find directions to where this
site actually is!

And for my next trip of the day I take the train to Sailkrasti. This is by
the coast and I am expecting some sort of "resort", but when I arrive it is
just another "forest" station. There is a small (unmanned) bus station
across the road but no buses. As most people walked north from the station
I go that way for half an hour but I just come to an uninteresting estate of
houses. Another failure to lack of preparation. I return back to the
station for the next train home and notice that the (single) person who
walked from the train to the bus station is still waiting, so they're not
very frequent. Having got back (to tht UK) I have investigated this town
further and all I seem to have missed is a sandy beach, but I saw one of
those on Tuesday!

Back in the centre the only restaurant that I find on a second look by the
station is a Pizza place, but I don't count that as "local food". I do find
another self service cafe in the station. It is a bit prettier than
yesterday's. Again I point to an "escalope" with cheese on top and again
the server spoils the surprise by telling me it is pork. With potatoes and
a starter of wonderful cabbage soup (so she tells me) for 5 lats.

tim

I must say it's a bit disappointing when no-one makes any comments upon my
postings. It make me wonder if anyone is reading or perhaps they don't find
the type of observations that I make interesting?

Anyhow on we go,

One thing that I forgot to mention last time is, after the shock in Jurmala,
I looked in the estate agents in Cesis. Here you can buy a small house for
25-40,000 Euro. Much more affordable and within my expectations.

Day 4 Friday, another fine day. I decided that today is the day to go to
Daugavpils so I am up early. I leave the hotel at 6:50, before breakfast is
served. I buy my ticket and find the train. It is only 4 cars and almost
full so I am lucky to get a window at all, let alone a facing one! It does
at least have soft seats (which the local services I caught on previous days
did not!). This is an almost 4 hour ride (almost all stations!) and about
half way there we stop at a station where we are obviously waiting for a
passing train in the other direction. Half the carriage take this as a
ciggy break and, if you want to risk getting left behind, you could use it
as a toilet break.

The terrain on the way is exactly the same as at Riga, forest with the exact
same sandy soil. This whole country seems to be built on a giant sand dune.

We arrive at D and, predictably, a good portion of the train joins the queue
for the station toilets! As a main station this is by far the cleanest,
well equipped (free) public toilets that I see on this trip, but it is still
just a hole in the ground.

There is a train to Vilnius from here, but it is stupidly early in the
morning so you have to stay overnight to connect with it from Riga, how
useless.

I have a choice of staying 2 hours or 7 hours and as my intention is to
visit the "out of town" soviet fort I doubt that 2 hours is enough. However
there is the "attraction" of three tram lines that I can use to waste my
spare time.

I walk along the street to the No 1 tram depot. There are a lot of people
waiting and one comes along in a few minutes. It is "pay the conductor" and
a sign on the wall suggests that the fare is 25s so that is what I give her,
which is taken as correct. I start to realise that almost all of the staff
that I see working in public transport are middle ages women (plus a few
almost retired men). I wonder if this has something to do with it being the
middle of the day or whether this is the 'normal' type of employee for this
job.

The tram takes you into the town centre (which is walkable from the
station ) but I stay on to the end which is a 70's housing estate, noting
where the other trams go on the way.

I return to the town centre and walk to the Tourise Info office. It is shut
for refurbishment for three days (actually I don't have the faintest idea
why it is shut, I am guessing) so I go into the nearby "business" hotel and
the staff tell me how to get to the fort and sell me a nice fold out map for
30s.

The guide book suggests that this hotel is the ugliest building in the town,
all I can think is that they didn't turn around and look at the even uglier
office block opposite or walk around the corner to the appalling University
building (I can't imagine that even the dumbest local school pupil aspires
to continuing their education here!)

I take a small snack for lunch, being careful not to eat anything that might
mean that I need to find a toilet in a hurry!

Now that I have the map I see that the tram line number three goes out
almost to the fort. I wish that I'd known this before I arrived, I would
have probably gone straight there and done the "2 hour" stay!

I catch the tram to the fort. It is very derelict. The sign outside says
that it is *unique* being the only un-restored fort of its era. Well big
deal, it's unique because they haven't restored it. I pay the man at the
gate 1 lat entry and he give me a map of the site. I wander around. This
is nothing special, it is just a standard 18th C "star" fort of the same
style that you can see in many places, and you can only walk outside the
buildings because inside is unsafe. As I have lots of time, I go slowly and
waste 1 hour 20 here, but it doesn't need that, you could do it in 30
minutes if needs be.

Back at the tram stop I catch the number 3 to the other end. It takes me
some time to find this destination on the map as it is much further out of
town than expected and goes all the way to a swimming lake. I realise now
that I have used up lots of time and probably don't have enough time to do
the other tram line without risk of missing my train home, so I spend half
an hour at the lake. It is past the season so there is no-one there, though
there is evidence that it is still used, further around the shore there are
a couple of people fishing, so it can't be polluted (much!)

Back in the town centre I visit the only other building of interest, a small
church which I presume is Orthodox. It is tiny, it seems to be just a place
to go for quite contemplation rather than a place for a priest to hold a
service. There is someone in there when I arrive, so I remain in the lobby
and look through the window so as not to disturb them.

I walk slowly back to the station and catch my train home. It is twice the
length of the inbound service so it is nowhere hear as full. I discover
that it does actually have a toilet, but it is locked - no tea for me! (I
check later to see if it is opened when we are moving, but it is not - this
is most unsatisfactory for a 4 hour journey!) I get back to my hotel at
10:30 having eating almost nothing all day.

Day 5 Saturday, fine yet again I decide that today is the day that I am
going to ride the trams as the Sunday service is less frequent. I start off
with a trip to Mezaparks which is a recommended place to go, partly for its
architecture. Again this is under whelming. The other thing to do in this
locality is the Brothers' Cemetery. This is much more interesting and
definitely worth a side trip (get off at tram stop Bralu Kapi). As I am
taking pictures of the entrance I am approached by a woman who asks me what
languages I speak. She is disappointed that I only (admit to) speak
English, I guess that she wanted to be my guide, but you don't need one
here.

During the day my ticket(s) are checked twice. Perhaps I got unlucky,
perhaps they just check on Saturdays, who knows? On the first check I see
someone is "caught" without a ticket, they hand over a few coins for which
they are given a receipt. I wonder how much the fine was, it certainly
wasn't the "average daily wage" that the guide book warns it is. (I try to
find this information from the official "rules" posted in the tram, but
fail)

I return back to the station cafe for my evening meal of meatball soup and
cabbage roulade - wonderful!

tim

On Fri, 17 Oct 2008 23:48:55 +0100, "tim....."
wrote:


I must say it's a bit disappointing when no-one makes any comments upon my
postings. It make me wonder if anyone is reading or perhaps they don't find
the type of observations that I make interesting?

[----]

It's very interesting, Tim, funny and well-written into the bargain.

Keep up the good work!

Keith (formerly of Bristol UK)
now moved to Berlin/nach Berlin umgezogen

"tim....." wrote in message
...

I must say it's a bit disappointing when no-one makes any comments upon my
postings. It make me wonder if anyone is reading or perhaps they don't
find the type of observations that I make interesting?


Enjoying it much. The group is quiet at the moment and haven't been
downloading very often ... also been on the road but, alas, not to Europe.

Riga is on my to-do list and I'm finding this both useful and entertaining.

Cheers,
George W Russell
Bangalore

Last part

Day 6 - Sunday. Dull - will it rain? it started off this dull yesterday and
turned out fine by 10:00?

I catch the 9:00 to Sigulda. The clerk short changes me and when I count it
and refuse to move she hands me the missing amount without even checking. I
suspect that this was deliberate, but why, the amount was tiny?

It is just over an hour to Sigulda and the train is quite empty, but this is
Sunday. On arrival, I find that the toilets by the station are a
semi-permanent temporary construction, it is the best equipped, but not the
cleanest I have seen on my trip, my mother wouldn't have used it, but it
wasn't too bad.

Sigulda has attractions on both side of a valley, with a cable car in
between. I get the info from the Tourist office and find that it goes
hourly at 11:00 and 12:00 and then half hourly. It's a 20 minute walk so I
better rush off and catch the 11:00 before the hoards arrive on the next
train.

The cable car takes around 30 people and there is just enough people waiting
to fill the 11:00. It costs 3 lat (I think!)each way and I buy the round
trip. The ride is spectacular, but the attractions on the other side are
not. There is a castle, a manor house and an old village, plus the cave and
a second castle along the ridge.

The castle is completely derelict and inaccessible, and the manor house and
village are not open to visitors but used for other purposes, they are of
slight interest from the outside, but not much. There isn't even a cafe
here!

After looking at the map it appears that the other attractions along the
ridge are not actually accessible by walking along the top but it is
necessary to go down to the valley floor, walk 2 km and then back up again
(separately for each). As my foot is still giving trouble I decide not to
bother - the cave is small (it's billed as the largest in the Baltic, but
it's still small) and the castle is a very modern reconstruction (the guide
book says this and the pictures of it confirm it) so I go to catch the cable
car back. But if you do want to go to these other attractions, you should
skip the cable car as it doesn't save you the hike back up the hill, it just
saves a 500 metre walk. if ever there was a place that needed a silly little
tourist 'train', this is it!

The cable car is due at 12:10 but it arrives at 11:55, obviously they have
run an extra one before the 12:00 scheduled departure. When I get back to
the other side there are 100s of people waiting for it, I guess the
timetable goes out of the window for today!

On this side of the valley is the church, another manor house and another
castle. The church is moderately interesting, but there is a service on and
once again I only get into the lobby for a look through the window. The
manor house is now a restaurant. It is supposed to be open (so the sign on
the door says) but it is not. The castle, while a ruin, is quite
interesting with some parts that you can walk on but nothing "inside"
available to visit.

It now starts to rain and I hope it is going to be a short shower. The
final attraction here is the bobsleigh run, it's the one that the Soviet
team used to train on and the guide book says that you can take a dry run
down it. But it's a shambles, the attendant tells me that single runs are
only available when it is "iced", which will be from October 15. If I want
a dry run in the summer I have to go down in a "four", so I need to wait for
three more people. Some more people do turn up but we still can't go for
some other reason (that I don't understand) and these people wander off. As
it is still raining (it got worse) and I still don't have a "four", I give
up waiting and go back for the 14:00 train home.

Overall, whilst interesting, Sigulda wasn't as interesting as I'd expected,
perhaps it was the weather, perhaps not!

Back in Riga the sun is now back out again. I still have some sites in the
town centre to do which I had saved for tomorrow morning, but just in case
it rains I will do them now.

I walk to the main square (that I was in on Tuesday) where the Info office
is. The cathedral is also here and I pay the 2 Lat to ride the lift to the
top. This is good, it is without doubt the most interesting thing I have
done all week!

North of here are the Dome cathedral, the "big Christopher" statue, which
the guide map shows as towering over the river bank, and the castle. I've
just seen the castle from the air and it looked interesting.

The Dome also costs 2 Lat, but it isn't worth it, 50s is a more reasonable
fee! As for "Christopher", I've no idea where the "big" comes in (nor what
the guide map was doing!), it is just a normal sized statue about 2m high,
perhaps it's some historic joke! The castle is far less interesting from
ground level, much of it is impossible to see because of the surrounding
houses and you can't go inside because the president (or whoever) lives
there.

The way back goes past the "three brothers", the Swedish gate, the powder
tower and the house with the "cat" on the roof. It says a lot about a
town's attractions when one of the main points of interest is a perfectly
normal house that the builder just happened to put a statute (in this case
of a cat) on top!

The three Brothers - three architecturally interesting houses in a row are
actually quite interesting but they are spoilt by a bunch of louts who
insist on making silly signs as I am trying to take a picture - they have
the cheek to ask me for money and it turns out that they aren't beggars,
just a group of guys getting drunk for the weekend, so I decline.

The Swedish gate is the only one left from the original wall, but that its
only interest. If there were others, you wouldn't be here looking at this
one! The road behind it, the one that leads to the Powder Tower, is quit
interesting, it seems to be the tourist bar/restaurant street to come to,
too late now! The powder Tower is ordinary and the cat on the roof is well,
a cat on a roof! And that's (with the previous two walks) the sights of
Riga (actually there's one to come), not a world class item amongst them.

Finally, back to the station to the cafe for dinner. Potato pancakes and
what looks like beef steak, but it doesn't have the texture or taste of
beef, I hope wasn't horse!

Day 7 Monday. It's fine when I get up and as I have nothing left to do I go
and spend the morning in the Market. This is the missing attraction, built
within 5 old Zeppelin hangers (I thought that the guide book was using a
euphemism when it referred to them as that, but it isn't) this is a
fascinating place.

As you'd expect it sells food, but much much more. For example in the fish
market there are 100s of different types of fish for sale, the cheapest was
45 sents per Kilo and the most expensive 48 Lats per kilo! One stall that I
found sold only jam jar lids, what do people want these for? I guess that
they make their own jam from stuff that they forage in the forest but why do
they just need to buy lids? There is also a branch of the local supermarket
Maxima (which you can also find on the high street). It is like a down
market Aldi, so I walk straight back out again

Upstairs in one of the halls is a furniture shop. It is selling sofas and
beds in the most disgustingly dull designs that I have ever seen. Whatever
happened to "colours"? I guess that the Latvians expectations of design
must be different to ours?

On the way back to the hotel I buy lunch (which I later eat at the airport)
in the supermarket in Stockman and then investigate the rest of the shop.
On the top floor I find a self service cafe that is much better than the
ones that I have been using where all the food is cooked to order. This is
(probably) where I should have been eating!

At 11:50 I check out of the hotel and it is now raining so I catch the bus
to the airport. This bus goes from the stop under the railway bridge, so it
is very convenient. This is a "pay the conductor" bus, no hassle with
tickets!

At the airport, after I have checked in, I find the Aircraft Museum. It is
stacked full of rotting soviet aircraft. It opens by appointment only, but
you can look over the wall, most interesting.

I have around 2 Lats of my original 80 left! I didn't try not to spend it,
but I didn't try too hard TO spend it. I put it in the charity box for a
children's home.

Our flight is on time and the return journey uneventful.

Summary:

Well there's enough to do for a week, but there's nothing here to put Riga
in the top 20 cities of the world (and possibly not the top 100).

As a tourist it is a cheap country. Hotels and eating out are comparable
with other European countries, but every thing else you will do costs
nothing, or very little. However, buying useful things as souvenirs will
cost about the same as buying them elsewhere.

Locating myself by the station was a mistake for going out in the evening.
If I ever go again (which I probably won't be) I would look for a hotel in
the North part of the old town.

tim

On 18 Oct, 18:46, "tim....." wrote:
Last part

Day 6 - Sunday. *Dull - will it rain? it started off this dull yesterday and
turned out fine by 10:00?

I catch the 9:00 to Sigulda. *The clerk short changes me and when I count it
and refuse to move she hands me the missing amount without even checking. *I
suspect that this was deliberate, but why, the amount was tiny?

It is just over an hour to Sigulda and the train is quite empty, but this is
Sunday. *On arrival, I find that the toilets by the station are a
semi-permanent temporary construction, it is the best equipped, but not the
cleanest I have seen on my trip, my mother wouldn't have used it, but it
wasn't too bad.

Sigulda has attractions on both side of a valley, with a cable car in
between. *I get the info from the Tourist office and find that it goes
hourly at 11:00 and 12:00 and then half hourly. *It's a 20 minute walk so I
better rush off and catch the 11:00 before the hoards arrive on the next
train.

The cable car takes around 30 people and there is just enough people waiting
to fill the 11:00. *It costs 3 lat (I think!)each way and I buy the round
trip. *The ride is spectacular, but the attractions on the other side are
not. *There is a castle, a manor house and an old village, plus the cave and
a second castle along the ridge.

The castle is completely derelict and inaccessible, and the manor house and
village are not open to visitors but used for other purposes, they are of
slight interest from the outside, but not much. *There isn't even a cafe
here!

After looking at the map it appears that the other attractions along the
ridge are not actually accessible by walking along the top but it is
necessary to go down to the valley floor, walk 2 km and then back up again
(separately for each). *As my foot is still giving trouble I decide not to
bother - the cave is small (it's billed as the largest in the Baltic, but
it's still small) and the castle is a very modern reconstruction (the guide
book says this and the pictures of it confirm it) so I go to catch the cable
car back. *But if you do want to go to these other attractions, you should
skip the cable car as it doesn't save you the hike back up the hill, it just
saves a 500 metre walk. if ever there was a place that needed a silly little
tourist 'train', this is it!

The cable car is due at 12:10 but it arrives at 11:55, obviously they have
run an extra one before the 12:00 scheduled departure. *When I get back to
the other side there are 100s of people waiting for it, I guess the
timetable goes out of the window for today!

On this side of the valley is the church, another manor house and another
castle. *The church is moderately interesting, but there is a service on and
once again I only get into the lobby for a look through the window. *The
manor house is now a restaurant. *It is supposed to be open (so the sign on
the door says) but it is not. *The castle, while a ruin, is quite
interesting with some parts that you can walk on but nothing "inside"
available to visit.

It now starts to rain and I hope it is going to be a short shower. *The
final attraction here is the bobsleigh run, it's the one that the Soviet
team used to train on and the guide book says that you can take a dry run
down it. *But it's a shambles, the attendant tells me that single runs are
only available when it is "iced", which will be from October 15. *If I want
a dry run in the summer I have to go down in a "four", so I need to wait for
three more people. *Some more people do turn up but we still can't go for
some other reason (that I don't understand) and these people wander off. *As
it is still raining (it got worse) and I still don't have a "four", I give
up waiting and go back for the 14:00 train home.

Overall, whilst interesting, Sigulda wasn't as interesting as I'd expected,
perhaps it was the weather, perhaps not!

Back in Riga the sun is now back out again. *I still have some sites in the
town centre to do which I had saved for tomorrow morning, but just in case
it rains I will do them now.

I walk to the main square (that I was in on Tuesday) where the Info office
is. *The cathedral is also here and I pay the 2 Lat to ride the lift to the
top. *This is good, it is without doubt the most interesting thing I have
done all week!

North of here are the Dome cathedral, the "big Christopher" statue, which
the guide map shows as towering over the river bank, *and the castle. *I've
just seen the castle from the air and it looked interesting.

The Dome also costs 2 Lat, but it isn't worth it, 50s is a more reasonable
fee! As for "Christopher", I've no idea where the "big" comes in (nor what
the guide map was doing!), it is just a normal sized statue about 2m high,
perhaps it's some historic joke! *The castle is far less interesting from
ground level, much of it is impossible to see because of the surrounding
houses and you can't go inside because the president (or whoever) lives
there.

The way back goes past the "three brothers", the Swedish gate, the powder
tower and the house with the "cat" on the roof. *It says a lot about a
town's attractions when one of the main points of interest is a perfectly
normal house that the builder just happened to put a statute (in this case
of a cat) on top!

The three Brothers - three architecturally interesting houses in a row are
actually quite interesting but they are spoilt by a bunch of louts who
insist on making silly signs as I am trying to take a picture - they have
the cheek to ask me for money and it turns out that they aren't beggars,
just a group of guys getting drunk for the weekend, so I decline.

The Swedish gate is the only one left from the original wall, but that its
only interest. *If there were others, you wouldn't be here looking at this
one! *The road behind it, the one that leads to the Powder Tower, is quit
interesting, it seems to be the tourist bar/restaurant street to come to,
too late now! *The powder Tower is ordinary and the cat on the roof is well,
a cat on a roof! *And that's (with the previous two walks) the sights of
Riga (actually there's one to come), not a world class item amongst them.

Finally, back to the station to the cafe for dinner. *Potato pancakes and
what looks like beef steak, but it doesn't have the texture or taste of
beef, I hope wasn't horse!

Day 7 Monday. *It's fine when I get up and as I have nothing left to do I go
and spend the morning in the Market. *This is the missing attraction, built
within 5 old Zeppelin hangers (I thought that the guide book was using a
euphemism when it referred to them as that, but it isn't) this is a
fascinating place.

As you'd expect it sells food, but much much more. *For example in the fish
market there are 100s of different types of fish for sale, the cheapest was
45 sents per Kilo and the most expensive 48 Lats per kilo! *One stall that I
found sold only jam jar lids, what do people want these for? *I guess that
they make their own jam from stuff that they forage in the forest but why do
they just need to buy lids? *There is also a branch of the local supermarket
Maxima (which you can also find on the high street). *It is like a down
market Aldi, so I walk straight back out again

Upstairs in one of the halls is a furniture shop. *It is selling sofas and
beds in the most disgustingly dull designs that I have ever seen. *Whatever
happened to "colours"? *I guess that the Latvians expectations of design
must be different to ours?

On the way back to the hotel I buy lunch (which I later eat at the airport)
in the supermarket in Stockman and then investigate the rest of the shop.
On the top floor I find a self service cafe that is much better than the
ones that I have been using where all the food is cooked to order. *This is
(probably) where I should have been eating!

At 11:50 I check out of the hotel and it is now raining so I catch the bus
to the airport. *This bus goes from the stop under the railway bridge, so it
is very convenient. This is a "pay the conductor" bus, no hassle with
tickets!

At the airport, after I have checked in, I find the Aircraft Museum. *It is
stacked full of rotting soviet aircraft. *It opens by appointment only, but
you can look over the wall, most interesting.

I have around 2 Lats of my original 80 left! *I didn't try not to spend it,
but I didn't try too hard TO spend it. *I put it in the charity box for a
children's home.

Our flight is on time and the return journey uneventful.

Summary:

Well there's enough to do for a week, but there's nothing here to put Riga
in the top 20 cities of the world (and possibly not the top 100).

As a tourist it is a cheap country. *Hotels and eating out are comparable
with other European countries, but every thing else you will do costs
nothing, or very little. *However, buying useful things as souvenirs will
cost about the same as buying them elsewhere.

Locating myself by the station was a mistake for going out in the evening..
If I ever go again (which I probably won't be) I would look for a hotel in
the North part of the old town.

tim

.....Tim, do you have any fotos ?

"Rnuge13" wrote in message
...
On 18 Oct, 18:46, "tim....." wrote:
Last part

Locating myself by the station was a mistake for going out in the evening.
If I ever go again (which I probably won't be) I would look for a hotel in
the North part of the old town.

tim

.....Tim, do you have any fotos ?

I have about 500 (lots of doubles!)

I haven't done anything with them yet - I haven't even backed them up :-(

Off to Athens in 2 hours!

Perhaps in three weeks!

tim

On 20 Oct, 10:59, "tim....." wrote:
"Rnuge13" wrote in message

...
On 18 Oct, 18:46, "tim....." wrote:

Last part

Locating myself by the station was a mistake for going out in the evening.
If I ever go again (which I probably won't be) I would look for a hotel in
the North part of the old town.

tim

....Tim, do you have any fotos ?

I have about 500 (lots of doubles!)

I haven't done anything with them yet - I haven't even backed them up :-(

Off to Athens in 2 hours!

Perhaps in three weeks!

tim

....well, its a dirty job.......but someones got to do it.....