Riga
Happy Birthday to Hermes and communicator! Today has been a cauliflower cheese day.
Two weeks ago I went to Riga for a wedding. I was on Latvian ground for almost 25 hours, of which an hour or so were in the airport, so it was a flying visit in all senses. I could have gone a day earlier, and had a much simpler journey, because there are direct flights from Manchester on Tuesdays and Thursdays, except that I couldn't be sure the Old Trafford Test wouldn't last into Tuesday. It didn't, but at least that gave me a day to recover and get ready for the journey (which had to go via London on the outward trip, but at least I could fly straight home on Thursday).
Anyway, the wedding was very nice, and occupied about nine hours of the trip; after the official ceremony (in a greenhouse at the registry office!) we went round the Ethnographic Open Air Museum re-enacting traditional Latvian wedding customs, and then had a splendid dinner, with folk songs. Apparently there are two million folksongs in Latvia, one for each of the population, and we must have had at least one per Latvian wedding guest, if not one per every wedding guest. And there was a nice cat which was so friendly it turned up to say goodbye to me in the carpark when we left. But looking at the wedding photos of people you don't know probably isn't particularly interesting, so I'm just going to post pictures of buildings.
As Ryanair got me to Riga early and the taxi to my guesthouse was just as swift, I found myself with more than an hour before I needed to put on my wedding clothes, so I walked into the Old Town and back (and had a peach ice cream outside the cathedral). And the next morning I had another hour and a bit before I needed to catch the bus to the airport, so I spent a bit more time walking through the Old Town. I didn't have time to go into any of the landmark buildings, but my friend who was getting married was quite impressed when he saw how many photos I'd taken, because he couldn't work out how I'd had time to cover the ground.
So the first half of these are from the Old Town of Riga (I've mixed up the Wednesday and Thursday pics as they overlapped a bit) and the second half are of the traditional wooden houses we saw in the Ethnographic Open Air Museum.
My guesthouse, which was basic but cheap, in one of the plainer bits of the Art Nouveau quarter. Art Nouveau seems to be a thing in Riga.
My huge bedroom. What with a double bed, a single bed and a very long sofa it could easily have slept four.
There were a few wooden houses left in this quarter. This was just round the corner from my guest house.
Walking down Strēlnieku iela ("iela" means street). I think this building houses the local Alcholics Anonymous.
Another building on Strēlnieku iela.
The gorgeous Hotel Monika. Suspect this is a bit more expensive than my guesthouse.
I think this is called something like Congress Centre square. I liked the Louvresque pyramids, which seemed to be the entrances to subways.
Bastejkalns Park (that's Bastion Hill Park, apparently).
They have modern architecture, too! This is Vanšu Bridge.
The Latvian National Theatre.
I was charmed by this drain cover.
This seems to be a tourist favourite - a narrow street called Trokšņu iela.
St James's Cathedral, which I think is the Catholic one.
This is now an Art Museum, but I understand it was previously the Bourse/Stock Exchange.
Another side of the Art Museum Riga Bourse.
Pils iela, which is, um, another street.
Riga Dom - the Lutheran cathedral at the heart of the Old Town.
This is the House of the Blackheads, which was apparently for a guild of bachelor merchants. The original building was destroyed in the war, but it was reconstructed in the 1990s.
St Peter's, another Lutheran church.
And the rest of the photos are at the Ethnographic Open Air Museum. This is the Tavern, to which we returned for the wedding dinner in the evening.
I don't think I found out what sort of house this was. They've been brought to the museum from all the provinces of Latvia.
But this one was labelled "Fisherman's House". It's very pretty, so we stopped there for a long time to take lots of wedding photos.
This was the beautiful door of the Fisherman's House.
This seemed to be the dining room.
I loved the decorations hanging from the ceilings.
And the furniture.
Somehow this looked more like a fisherman's house to me - the shed looks like the hull of a boat - but it was described as a Labourer's House.
And there were lots and lots of trees!
Waiting for my bus to the airport on Thursday morning, after my second walk through the Old Town, I was thrilled to see a poster for my current favourite movie!
(The icon is not Riga but Stockholm, but I haven't really room to make a Riga icon for a one-off post. And they're on opposite shores of the Baltic.)
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.
Two weeks ago I went to Riga for a wedding. I was on Latvian ground for almost 25 hours, of which an hour or so were in the airport, so it was a flying visit in all senses. I could have gone a day earlier, and had a much simpler journey, because there are direct flights from Manchester on Tuesdays and Thursdays, except that I couldn't be sure the Old Trafford Test wouldn't last into Tuesday. It didn't, but at least that gave me a day to recover and get ready for the journey (which had to go via London on the outward trip, but at least I could fly straight home on Thursday).
Anyway, the wedding was very nice, and occupied about nine hours of the trip; after the official ceremony (in a greenhouse at the registry office!) we went round the Ethnographic Open Air Museum re-enacting traditional Latvian wedding customs, and then had a splendid dinner, with folk songs. Apparently there are two million folksongs in Latvia, one for each of the population, and we must have had at least one per Latvian wedding guest, if not one per every wedding guest. And there was a nice cat which was so friendly it turned up to say goodbye to me in the carpark when we left. But looking at the wedding photos of people you don't know probably isn't particularly interesting, so I'm just going to post pictures of buildings.
As Ryanair got me to Riga early and the taxi to my guesthouse was just as swift, I found myself with more than an hour before I needed to put on my wedding clothes, so I walked into the Old Town and back (and had a peach ice cream outside the cathedral). And the next morning I had another hour and a bit before I needed to catch the bus to the airport, so I spent a bit more time walking through the Old Town. I didn't have time to go into any of the landmark buildings, but my friend who was getting married was quite impressed when he saw how many photos I'd taken, because he couldn't work out how I'd had time to cover the ground.
So the first half of these are from the Old Town of Riga (I've mixed up the Wednesday and Thursday pics as they overlapped a bit) and the second half are of the traditional wooden houses we saw in the Ethnographic Open Air Museum.
My guesthouse, which was basic but cheap, in one of the plainer bits of the Art Nouveau quarter. Art Nouveau seems to be a thing in Riga.
My huge bedroom. What with a double bed, a single bed and a very long sofa it could easily have slept four.
There were a few wooden houses left in this quarter. This was just round the corner from my guest house.
Walking down Strēlnieku iela ("iela" means street). I think this building houses the local Alcholics Anonymous.
Another building on Strēlnieku iela.
The gorgeous Hotel Monika. Suspect this is a bit more expensive than my guesthouse.
I think this is called something like Congress Centre square. I liked the Louvresque pyramids, which seemed to be the entrances to subways.
Bastejkalns Park (that's Bastion Hill Park, apparently).
They have modern architecture, too! This is Vanšu Bridge.
The Latvian National Theatre.
I was charmed by this drain cover.
This seems to be a tourist favourite - a narrow street called Trokšņu iela.
St James's Cathedral, which I think is the Catholic one.
This is now an Art Museum, but I understand it was previously the Bourse/Stock Exchange.
Another side of the Art Museum Riga Bourse.
Pils iela, which is, um, another street.
Riga Dom - the Lutheran cathedral at the heart of the Old Town.
This is the House of the Blackheads, which was apparently for a guild of bachelor merchants. The original building was destroyed in the war, but it was reconstructed in the 1990s.
St Peter's, another Lutheran church.
And the rest of the photos are at the Ethnographic Open Air Museum. This is the Tavern, to which we returned for the wedding dinner in the evening.
I don't think I found out what sort of house this was. They've been brought to the museum from all the provinces of Latvia.
But this one was labelled "Fisherman's House". It's very pretty, so we stopped there for a long time to take lots of wedding photos.
This was the beautiful door of the Fisherman's House.
This seemed to be the dining room.
I loved the decorations hanging from the ceilings.
And the furniture.
Somehow this looked more like a fisherman's house to me - the shed looks like the hull of a boat - but it was described as a Labourer's House.
And there were lots and lots of trees!
Waiting for my bus to the airport on Thursday morning, after my second walk through the Old Town, I was thrilled to see a poster for my current favourite movie!
(The icon is not Riga but Stockholm, but I haven't really room to make a Riga icon for a one-off post. And they're on opposite shores of the Baltic.)
Also posted on Dreamwidth, with
comments.