Riga, Latvia

We arrived at Riga Airport and for the second time that day I was asked, "Why are you bringing a baby to Riga?", my response was the same each time.  " I am showing my daughter the world"

After the successful little trip to a familiar city, Krakow, we had now entered unknown territory, The Baltics.  Riga had cropped up on the cheap flights suggestions and we are always up for venturing to new shores.  One thing we had learnt though, was hotel rooms are difficult with a tiny, little monster so this time round we had opted for an apartment.  This is the future!

As we arrived at Riga Apartment Sonada, we quickly realised the benefits of booking a larger space. With a vast dining/living area, Baby I was able to scoot around and have a much freedom as we deemed safe.  With us having this living space instead of a hotel room, it gave us an area for Baby I to play in, but also cooking facilities, a place to eat, and a kitchen to prepare food for baby.  There was a separate bunk bed bedroom and 2 pull out sofa beds in the living room.

We decided to venture out towards Old Town as this is where Trip Advisor had recommended.  All wrapped up we started our long walk down Gertudes, but it seemed longer than planned.  Once we arrived at Hero's Monument, we headed into the cobbled streets and narrow alleyways of the Old Town.  Within minutes, we felt lost, confused and underwhelmed.  This city centre hosted a warren of streets, squares, passages, buildings that looked like they had been randomly placed and square upon square.  We both decided that after a long day we should head back, grab some food along the way and then settle in for the night, gain our bearings and then head off fresh in the morning.

Riga city is true to it's origins with the buildings and feel, but it seems to have been a little over run with the "standard" food eateries.  When abroad, I like to eat as the locals do, drink as the locals do and experience true experiences.  Most of the restaurants were American steak houses, TFI Fridays, Italian, Greek, nothing from Latvia.  This is obviously prevalent of  a Capital City and I knew we would have to search for the true Latvian cuisine.

One group of restaurants that had been recommended were the Lido's.  A buffet style, grab a tray, choose your food and take it to your table establishment, but more traditional food could be sampled. I opted for some stuffed chicken, which was a little too heavy for me, but Clare's "meat wrapped in cabbage" was lovely.  Baby I had a few nibbles of veg, but was ready for home.




In the morning, after a hearty breakfast for all, we decided to head over to Central Market.  Quoted as
the largest Market in Europe, I cannot argue with this statement.  Housed in multiple old Zeppelin Hangers, each one hosting a different produce, this was vast.  Outside each hanger are more stalls, fruit vendors, clothes, cakes, and Latvian mittens.  We first entered the "Meat" hanger.  Every single cut of meat, offal, and mystery meat was on display, there was not a single ounce animal wasted, every morsel was available to purchase.  As we wondered round, I started to play a game of "Name the meat!", I failed miserably.

Once we had found the beer hanger and I had purchased some local ale, it was time to head towards the Old Town again.  Maybe this time, in the light, we would find ourselves easier.  Entering from a different direction did not help, within minutes we were ambling round with little purpose.  I am always up for an exploration, but the twists and turns were hard to manage.  We headed back to our apartment for a quick play break and then out to a local Lido for our evening meal.  Maybe tomorrow we would have better bearings.

I always enjoy a holiday run, and Latvia was no exception.  I had done my research and around the old town were a few scattered parks.  As it was Saturday morning I was happy to take part in a solo ParkRun.  On my return I found myself closer to the Apartment than I had thought, I had found a little shortcut home, Riga was starting to make sense.

Clare and I, the night before, had decided to conquer the Old Town and had downloaded a city walking tour guide (https://www.inyourpocket.com/riga/Old-Riga-walking-tour_71284f), and we had a plan.  It all began to make much more sense.  We navigated the streets, alleyways and cobbled pathways like professionals following our step by step, highlight by highlight guide.  Bastion Hill, The Powder House, Swedish Gate, Castle, Palace, House of the Blackheads, all ticked off in style without ever feeling lost.  We had claimed the city.  Once we had our bearings, Riga seemed to take on a whole new perspective, it is a stunning city, colourful, vibrant and still very random with it's building choices.  With only the lack of real Latvian cuisine still missing, we opted to eat at the Harley Davidson Riga Chapter house, I did have Latvian Black Pudding, but it lacked that authenticity.

Based on the success of the Walking Tour of Old Town, we obtained a Art Nouveau tour (https://www.inyourpocket.com/riga/Art-Nouveau-in-Riga_71844f) to see the wonderful, misplaced, random, gothic, buildings scattered on the outskirts of the city.  With buildings that looked like they would fit perfectly in a Grimm Fairytale, others that were so colourful on a plain coloured street, even buildings with Egyptian Sphinx on the exterior.  No street was the same, this was fascinating.  Again, Riga had taken on more in our minds, instead of looking down we were now looking up at all the buildings around.  Whilst on our little tour, we found a little authentic cuisine restaurant that looked appealing.  Right at the bottom of our street, although the street was a good mile long, it was still somewhere for our evening meal.

Clare opted for a chicken dish, covered in chicken broth and a large carrot cake to finish, whilst I had some pork delight after a delicious beetroot soup.  I was feeling satisfied with my meal so instead of dessert, I opted for the local Black Balsam liqueur as an aperitif, there was a little swaying on the way home.  An excellent meal, a little too nouvelle cuisine for our standards, but very tasty, we were both happy to have eaten here.

As we awoke on our final day in Riga, we started to wonder if someone had decided to turn the heating off during the night.  Somehow the last few days it had been -1 to -4 degrees celcius, but this morning it had dropped to -14. MINUS 14? Where did that come from?

We decided to head towards the local shopping galleries to stay in the warmth, but with both Clare and I having little interest in shopping, we were soon back outside and walking through the parks back to the familiar Old Town.  Today, it was too cold to be out and about mooching around the squares and streets so it was in and out of souvenir shops, liqueur shops (I had to get some Balsam to bring home) and chocolate shops, a quick bite to eat and then head back to the warmth of our apartment.

As the temperature failed to rise throughout the rest of the day, we decided to finalise our holiday with an all out meal at our local Lido.  3 course meal, chips for Baby I, drinks for both Clare and I and still change out of 20 euro, not bad at all.

What started as a little too daunting and seemingly void of personality became a stunning location full of character and charm.  Riga is a delight and a very interesting place to visit, one I am glad to have ticked off the list.

As we waited in the departure lounge, Baby I and Daddy had a little walk to burn some energy, one gentleman asked, "Why did you bring a baby to Riga at this time of year?", my reply was exactly the same....

"I want to show her the world!"