Long weekend in Riga

Today is Rosenmontag in Germany - Fasching / Carnival! Luckily being a teacher, this means we get a holiday. With a 3 day long weekend, Marcus and I took advantage by flying to Riga :) It was a quick trip, but we saw a lot and had an amazing time. I think the highlight might have been getting to see the Latvia vs. France Olympic hockey qualifier. France won in OT, but Latvia will be going to Sochi next year.

Here is a picture gallery of our trip.

The market, with buildings originally German WWI Zeppelin hangers brought from a near by military base. Inside there are all kinds of foods sold, as well as a bit of a flea market outside.

Church of Jesus (Lutheran)

This church is the largest wooden church in the Baltic. It was burned down by the Latvians three times. They burned it, along with all the suburbs around when they believed that Napoleon was approaching. This was to stop him using the buildings, and instead getting stuck in the mud. Well, Napoleon was not actually approaching ... he went to Russia through Vilnius (in Lithuania). 

My new house in Riga :) It is a grand old house, but now in the middle of the city centre

Freedom Monument

The Freedom monument commemorates the Latvian War of Independence. It was given a new importance and meaning during the Soviet occupation - which saved it from being demolished. 

View from St. Peter's of the old centre of Riga and the Daugava River. The church is the Dom, the Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral in Riga.

View the other way from St. Peter's. The tall building on the left is the old Academy of Sciences, aka. Stalin's birthday cake. To the right is the market, just beside the railway station.

Russian Orthodox Cathedral

Apparently this is called Nativity Cathedral. We happened upon it and went in and found there was a service going on. It was interesting to watch a bit of a Orthodox service, and see such a beautiful church. Unfortunately no photos were allowed inside. 

View of the big bridge across the Daugava at night. The river was still mostly frozen from the winter, and snow was covering the ice to make it still look fully frozen (which I don't think it was!)

Communist monument in Victory Park. Only these 2 statues are left now, and there were unsuccessful attempts to blow the tower up.

"Stalin's Birthday Cake"

This building was originally built between 1953 and 1956 by the farmers guild, because farming was so important in Latvia and the USSR. It was built as a birthday present for Stalin, but he died. It then became the Academy of Science. They have a viewing platform on the 17th floor, but it was closed (possibly due to weather). Luckily they let us go up to the 15th floor and just look out the window. 

View of the Dom from the cloister

Riga's trams!

Riga's trams! We took a few trips, including across the river to Victory Park. It cost 0,50 lats per trip, or 1,90 lats for 24 hours. 1 lat is 1.93 CAD or 1.43 EUR. Most things were very cheap in Latvia, even though their currency is worth more than dollars, euros and pounds. 

The cheese stall

Back inside the market, at my favourite cheese stall. We were looking at all the cheese and the lady working there just started giving us samples of all the cheeses. I asked her which were Latvian, so we got to try those two. We decided to buy some, and to make the story short, we came out with about a kilo of one type and half of another. But why not, when it was so cheap! It cost 3,95 lats per kilo! That is about $7.50 per kilo. 

One final view of Riga in the snow :)

It was sad to have to leave today and come back, knowing that tomorrow we will be back at work. I really liked Riga and could have stayed at least another week! Even in the snow and slush I was taken by the city. 

When we got on the plane though we did get to meet Ted Nolan. We talked to him briefly and congratulated him, because he is the coach of the Latvian hockey team. In case you don't know he is a Canadian ex-NHL player and coach. He last coached the NY Islanders.