Day 51 Riga, Latvia

I learned an interesting fact today. On August 23,1989, the Baltic freedom movement or Baltic Chain, was a non-violent protest where approximately two million people formed a 675km human chain across the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania to demand independence from the Soviet Union.  This event ultimately lead to the restoration of Baltic Independence in 1991. I can't remember ever hearing about this.

Today was a tour to Turaida & Sigulda that is around an hours drive from Riga.  Somebody on tour said "Oh. Another ABC tour (Another Bloody Castle/Church)". We had a bit of a chuckle because either a church or castle seems to be included in most of our tours!  Anyway, back to the tour.  When we arrived at Turaida we were taken through a lovely parkland to Turaida Castle, that started construction in 1214. After a fire in 1776 it was abandoned and by the 20th century only fragments of the building were still standing. It is now under restoration with the labour intensive job of replacing the stonework with bricks.

Philip climbed the 100 odd steps to the top of the round tower.  Here are his photos.

We spent around an hour and a half at Turaida Castle before boarding the bus to head to Gutman's cave near Sigulda. The cave is the widest and highest cave in the Baltic countries.  It started forming more than 10,000 years ago when meltwater eroded the sandstone rock after the Ice Age.  On the walls of the caves are inscriptions from the 17th century.  It is an interesting place that many people have now graffitied by carving their name in the soft sandstone. 

Now it is on to Old Sigulda Castle that was built in 1207 and the new Sigulda Castle built in 1878.  We didn't spend a lot of time in the castles as it was around 2pm by this time and we needed to find something to eat, stat. However, the gardens surrounding the old and new castles are looking lovely on this showery summers day.  

Ok, so we found a place to eat and we ordered Chicken Gyros.  This is a chicken gyro….

This is what we got.  I think they forgot something 😀

It is another hour before we return to Riga.  There are forest both sides of the road and our guide tells us that timber is their biggest export product with 60% of Latvia covered in trees.  There are also fields of crops and when asked about them the guide admitted that she didn't know, but I did spot a crop of corn.  There are also lots of churches tucked into places along the road back to Riga.  Lutheran is the main religion.

Riga is an interesting town with old architecture sitting comfortable alongside modern.  We see a lot of timber buildings as we enter the city but once in the centre most buildings are constructed from brick. We were taken to the Town Hall Square that is different, in a good way, to most other squares we have visited.  It is also another scrupulously clean town.  

Last night we invited some friends, who are all doing the 83 day cruise, to our suite for a "sail-away" cocktail party that our butler organised.  It was a perfect evening as the rain cleared away and left us with a lovely rainbow over the old city of Riga.