Day 54: Riga

MAY 27 - Purchase, online, bus tickets for tomorrow. Most buses going across to Lithuania leave at night, so have to work a bit to find one in the middle of the day.

This little admin task out of the way, along with some reservations a month or so down the road, we cross into Old Town again. It really is a place to just wander, the cobblestone streets bend around in confusing (medieval) ways, and tiny alleys shoot off in any direction. Plenty of tourist trap material here, but also a lot of old architecture and charm.

The steeple of St. Peter’s Church, looming above a side street in Old Town.

House of the Black Heads, taken at the best angle possible considering the position of the sun. This was a sort of merchant’s guild, established in the 14th Century. Over the centuries it endured as a focus for businesspeople wanting to network, and to throw parties. Also, over the centuries, parts were added until it attained the form shown above. It was destroyed by German bombs in 1941, and what remained was demolished by the Soviets in 1948. A great number of donations by the Latvian people, and by business leaders, led to its complete reconstruction in 1996-99 as a museum.

Where did the idea for a lighted Christmas tree come from? Well, according to Latvia, in 1510 a group of partying merchant Black Head members dragged a pine tree to their guild on Christmas eve, covered it with decorations and flowers, then lit it on fire. It became a yearly tradition thereafter.

Ceramic heating stove inside the museum. Have seen a lot of these in the last month or so.

A lowly foot soldier with mere chain mail head protection. If she were special, she would have a suit of plate mail armor.

This soldier is obviously drunk and should be thrown off the ramparts.

The dance hall. Keep in mind, this was all reconstructed from historical records prior to WWII. A great deal of effort went into it, as it obviously was deemed important to preserve.

So why ‘Black Heads’? Well, the original merchant founders wished to honor St. Maurice, an Egyptian military leader from the 3rd Century who led the Theban legion of Rome. He is often depicted with strongly African features. All of the insignia (as shown above) and much of the symbolic decor in the museum features this.

Go to our favorite Riga restaurant for lunch, which is one of those places where you point at the food and they fill the plate for you, then weigh it (I first did this in Brazil years ago). What is fun about it is that many of the servings are Latvian dishes, so we can try out a number of different foods.

Off to the National Library of Latvia, which is across the river from much of downtown Riga. It was impossible to capture this building in a single photo, as it is truly massive, and an unusual, triangular shape. It was a real slog to enter, as we had to show passports and fill out a digital form with photo to be assigned library cards. There was a good view from the top of basically all of Riga (there are seven floors, plus a few observation deck floors above). Not so many books in English, at least in the kid’s section, which is where we spent all our time.

There was a sculpture exhibit in the library. They host many exhibits and talks throughout the year.

Riga Castle, as seen from the top of the library. We did not go here, as it currently functions as a presidential palace.

Latvia