Wonderful Riga (Almost 24 Miles of Walking)

Riga was phenomenal! Its Old Town was much larger than I expected, and that combined with about a 20-minute walk from our hotel had us walking about 24 miles over the three days. (Elowen, of course, rode in her baby chariot.)

After our first drizzly day, the next two were sunny and perfect--crisp but not cold--and ideal for exploring. Our walk down the Esplanade to Old Town took us down past the Riga Nativity of Christ Orthodox Cathedral, which during the Soviet era was turned into a planetarium and a church but is now once again a church. Elowen loved the ringing bells and was dancing down the street when we walked by.

We also, of course, had to take our pictures in the Latvia sign. 

Our first stop of the day was Central Market, where each hall had its own specialty--fish, meat, dairy, sweets, and bread. It's also a Unesco World Heritage Site and the largest market in Europe! We bought Elowen a bag of blueberries, her true love, and also took away a cherry she was gifted (they have pits, lady!). We bought a round of garlic dill cheese for breakfast, but the fish hall was too much for Elowen--I think the smell maybe?--so we left to have lunch. 

We ate at a restaurant with upscale but traditional Latvian food (called Milda), and it was another delicious meal. Elowen had meat dumplings, Taylor had blood sausage, and I had potato dumplings (Elowen gamely tried the blood sausage but refused more than one bite). The highlight of the meal, though, was the porcini soup in a bread bowl--the bread had dried cranberries baked into, and the little pops of sweet against the earthy mushroom flavor was amazing. 

We also wandered around Old Town to the Musicians of Bremen statue, with the animals from the fairy tale peering through the Iron Curtain. Local legend has it that if you rub each nose, you'll have good luck! Unfortunately for me and Elowen, that chicken was too hard to reach...no luck for us.

Our next stop was the House of the Black Heads, a guildhall first built in the 1300s for unmarried merchants and ship owners. It was bombed into rubble during World War II, and wasn't restored until 1999. It's now a museum with a beautiful ballroom, and in the cellar you can see a medieval display and even some of the walls dating back to the 14th century. The Black Heads were Riga's elites, with their lifestyles influencing the social and cultural life of the city. (They were called the Black Heads because they chose St. Maurice, usually depicted as a black man, as their patron saint.)

Outside of the House of the Black Heads is the site of Europe's first Christmas tree, dating back to 1510, and also the Occupation Museum (unfortunately closed for renovation--I had really wanted to visit that).

I also dragged Taylor to the Stone Head of Salaspils, a pagan idol of indeterminate age and origin. A farmer found it while plowing in 1851 and gave it to the church; years later it was found buried on the church grounds, presumably because they didn't tolerate any pagan idolatry. 

For dinner, we shared a roasted pork knuckle at Province, while Elowen had more meat dumplings and then some blueberry dumplings. (She's basically turning into Violet Beauregard.) I also had a whole grain mustard dressing salad, because health.

Tiny fingers don't wait

Oh, and we saw a little piece of Texas wandering through Riga as well!

One more post of Riga and then on to Tallinn...for some reason Google isn't letting me respond to comments, but I'm reading them!