Our first official vacation of the summer was primarily to visit my brother and his family in Germany. But, the Hubby and I have wanted to see some of eastern europe for a while, so we added a side trip to Latvia which turned out to be a genius idea!
For scheduling reasons we hit Latvia as the first leg of our vacation. We spent our time in the capital, Riga, and stayed in a hotel in Old Riga which put us within walking distance of the lovely churches and buildings of the town.
The main building here is the House of the Blackheads which was apparently a guild for unmarried German merchants working in Riga. The building was originally constructed in 1344, but bombed by the Germans in 1941 and ultimately destroyed by the Soviets in 1948. This current building was reconstructed in 2001 to celebrate the city's 800th anniversary and designed as closely as possible to the original building.
The steeple in the back belongs to The Dome Cathedral. A beautiful church where we went to an organ concert one night.
In addition to being an impressive building in and of itself, it was at the center of activity during the days of The Barricades in 1991 when Latvia repelled attempts by the Soviet Union to retake control of the country. Being in a building like this was part of the attraction of visiting Latvia. It's a place with more than just an ancient history that you might read in books but the relatively recent events that took place here: things that we remember happening and watching on tv, but that the people here lived through.
Another lovely church in Riga is St. Peters. The outside has lovely sculptures and inside there is an amber chandelier. Amber is all over Latvia, made into jewelry and other decorative objects. It apparently is found on the shores of the Baltic sea.
While not as big and impressive as the Dome or St. Peter's, I found the pretty white and blue "Our Lady of Sorrows" Church was my favorite. It's a Roman Catholic church built in 1785 and it looked like a cake topper or one of those tiny building you light up at ChristmasL
What I was most looking forward to, and had poured over photos of in magazine articles and travel guides about Riga - was the Art Nouveau architecture all over the buildings in Riga. I've never seen anything like it anywhere else.
Our hotel in Old Riga had a stunning facade:
The majority of buildings with these fascinating decorative facades are in the Central District. We took a walk around Elizabetes and Alberta streets and went camera crazy:
There were so many amazing details on these buildings. I was really cursing my little snap and go camera. The most interesting carvings were high up on these buildings and the sad zoom capabilities of my camera had me frustrated!
My other favorite part of Riga was Bastejkalns Park. It meanders through Riga, separating Old Riga from the Central District. There are green gardens and hidden sculptures and the whole place is relaxing with the Pilsetas Canal cutting through it.
One of the charming items in the park are a few bridges over the canal where couples attach wedding locks to commemorate their wedding:
I thought it was romantic. The Hubby thought that locks were a very appropriate commemoration of marriage. Harrumph.
From just about everywhere we were in Riga we could see the Freedom Monument:
She commemorates soldiers killed during the Latvian War for Independence in 1918.
We walked around as much of Riga as possible. The views from across the Daugava river let us see all of Old Riga:
Riga is such a beautiful city. We enjoyed every day there. The people were kind, the food was delicious and the architecture was inspiring. We hope to see more of Latvia and more of eastern europe in the future. This trip definitely left us wanting more!
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