Riga, Latvia

Tried to do a bit more structured touristing today, going to the sites listed in the Like A Local guide that we hadn’t seen in our random walking about.

Saw the Swedish gate, Three Wall Street, and a church near the Citadel. None of these was particularly interesting to us, with the added downside of tour groups and loud guides, so we abandoned the structured plan and went back to random.

Finally got into the Riga Cathedral. They have pipe organ performance three times a day during which you can’t visit, and the first couple times we stopped by it was during a performance.

The cathedral itself was okay, the main attraction for us was the museum in the cloisters with cannons and other armoury from the 14th and 15th centuries. Actually the pipe organ was pretty cool too, maybe we should have attended a performance!

We had lunch outside the old town, at Big Bad Bagel, based on a blog recommendation. The bagels were quite tasty, as well as the fresh fruit drinks.

The Alkīmidis craft brewery was just a block away (my favourite / only-craft-brewery-I-know) so we made tracks. Along the way was MiiT Coffee, mentioned in the same blog, so stopped in there first. I found the coffee a bit bitter to my taste.

We had the tasting at Alkīmidis, I liked most of them, including their rhubarb wheat beer, which wasn’t too rhubarby. I also bought a tshirt as a souvenir.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped in at a gift shop (Elkor) just near the Freedom Monument. It was the best place for souvenirs that we’d seen. Bought a piece of amber, cause that’s what you do in Latvia. (About 90% of the world’s amber comes from the Baltics).

Took a random street back to the hotel and came across the House of the Black Heads, one of the last sites on our list for Riga. Took some pics, but planned to come by later for the dusk lighting. (At this latitude, the golden hour lasts twice as long so there’s plenty of time to take pics) (Riga is about 57*N, slightly further north than Fort McMurray in Canada).

We had dinner at Restaurant 3. We were hoping to do their 5-course but they only have a 7-course tasting menu now. So another evening of overeating... The courses at Restaurant 3 were hit-or-miss — there were three that were exceptional, a couple that we didn’t care for, and a couple that were average. They had a wine pairing and also a mixed drink pairing (haven’t seen that before). I had one and Heather the other; we both preferred the wine pairing (the mixed drinks were too sweet).

After dinner walked over to the House of the Black Heads for some pics, and then back to the hotel.