Flowers

Riga seems to be full of public parks and flowers - all in bloom and the flower market was still goign strong at 11pm when I was walking about

In the gardens opposite the hotel was an interesting arrangement to mark the expansion of the EU in 2007 to include Romania and Bulgaria - in flowers - quite impressive really

The old city walls

Not much remains of the old city as Riga has been destroyed on numerous occasions by Crusaders, Swedes, Germans and the Soviets to name a few but there are a couple of really old bits that still exist

The Swedish Gate located in the one remaining peice of the old city wall - legend has it that it was called the Swedish Gate as it was were the Swedish troops were garrisoned - also, it was the home of the City executioner and apparently, he would place a red rose in the window when he was being asked to cut someone's head off that day - charming!

The Old City walls - unfortunately, these were rebuilt in the Soviet era and so do not look that old but it gives you an idea of the formidable defences that the city once boasted

The Powder Tower - this is one of the oldest remaining parts of the city and now hosts the Latvian Museum of War

Riga - Virtual tour

Link to a nice little virtual tour of the city with some more information as well - http://www.vecriga.info/excursion/new/?lang=en

Monument of Freedom - Riga City Centre

In the city centre is this rather stunning obelisk memorial, called the Monument of Freedom and it was built, by public subscription, between 1931 and 1935 - surprisingly it was not taken down by either the NAZIs or the Soviets during their occupation of the city - although being caught laying flowers at the memorial led to immediate deportation to the Gulag so it was a risking business The woman on the top, Milna, represents Freedom, and she is holding 3 stars which represent the 3 regions of the country - Vidzeme, Kurzeme and Latgale There are armed guards round the memorial during the day and they change on an hourly basis in a small ceremony - it is not the changing of the guard at Buckingham Palace as it involves 5 people but...

Latvia - the land of the midnight sun

Heading to Riga for the 2 days that surround the summer solstice was possibly not the best of timing due to the fact that given how far north the country is, there is almost 24 hrs of daylight - the sun didn't set until close to 11.30 and it didn't really get dark until 1am and then at about 1.05am, it started to lighten up again - all in all a very weird experience. The photos were taken between about 10.30pm and 11.30pm so it gives you an idea of what the light was like

What made it all the more strange was the fact that the city was like a ghost town - so many people had taken the week off to celebrate the fact that it was the summer solstice that the government had awarded an extra day off and so people were all in their summer houses at the beach or near the lakes - but not one stoned hippie insight (unlike Stonehenge) although the sight of Hell's Angels in garlands of spring flowers and Oak leaves which is the tradition is slightly odd to say the least, as was the bus covered in leaves

Apparently, in Latvian, it is called the festival of Jani - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J%C4%81%C5%86i

special cheese, special beer and indigestion seem to be the main benefits of the festival