Visit to Latvia, instalment 1.

Last week I went to visit my friend in Latvia again. Took the Aer Lingus bus to Riga, at 0630 (and Dublin Airport was milling with people!) and arrived about 11, just in time for a rest. I spent Thursday afternoon wandering about Riga, stopping for lunch and coffee here and there. Bought myself a book to read whilst sitting - the War of the Worlds. As the church with a view was closed last year (beware of Monday in Riga), I visited it this year. As you can see below, it was a little, well atmospheric!

Also, it's worth noting that this church was almost totally destroyed (inasmuch as I could make out from the display inside - my latvian isn't great...!) during the World Wars, and has been recosntructed a little untidily since. Hence these fantastic cantilevered stairs....

Quite elegant I'm sure you'll agree. Anyway, it cost 1 lat (€1.30) to go to the top of the church spire, in a rickety old lift operated by an attendant. The lift made a journey up and down every 10 minutes. 5 would have been enough, it was quite cold and exposed up there.

After quite a long day, I retired early. Not before seeing some nice Art Nouveau buildings again though.

Friday morning we went to collect our steed for the weekend, which turned out to be a Ford Focus. With, importantly, heated seats. We found 2 or 3 to be the most comfortable setting, on the whole.

We took off to Jurmala for the afternoon. Jurmala is a seaside resort to the East of Riga, and while it was a little gray and bleak thanks to the time of year, there's a nice expanse of beach there and I'm sure it's lovely in the summer. That said, we were walking on the frozen Baltic Sea, which was cool.

More tomorrow!