Riga Episode 3

 Good evening and welcome to An English Fool Abroad with his Sketchbook, Easter 2023 Edition, Episode 3. And it’s been an absolutely beautiful day in wonderful downtown Riga today. We had snow on Tuesday and Wednesday, rain and mist yesterday, but today there’s been non-stop sunshine. Mind you, the day didn’t start quite so beautifully. It was about 3 o’clock in the morning when I was woken by the sound of voices – male voices – loud male voices. Very loud male voices. And they were going at it for a very long time. So much so that I even got up, went into the sitting area, and then pointed at my watch. Then, for good measure, I made the yakitty yak sign with my left hand as well- you know, the one where you make your hand go like a crab pincer. One of them gave me a cheery wave, and they did – eventually – give it a rest. I, on the other hand, got no more rest for another hour or so before I fell back to sleep again.

So I was a little late getting out and about this morning. But was I downhearted? Yeah, actually, I was a bit. But there was nothing wrong with me that two coffees couldn’t put right. I was interested to see just how seriously Riga takes Good Friday, and I was delighted to find that it takes it about as seriously as we do in the UK. So while a lot of places were closed, the Supermarket , the market, and Costa Coffee were all open for business.

So I made my way first to the Blackheads House, and was a little disappointed to see that there was no Clearasil House (other skin care products are available) opposite it. The name is all to do with Merchants, apparently, who used to wear black caps. Riga was an important Hanseatic League trading port back in the day. I didn’t sketch the building itself, but I did make a sketch of the statue of Roland (or for readers who grew up with Grange Hill, Row-Land).

Roland is the hero of probably the most famous of the French Chansons de Geste, the Chanson de Roland, originally written in Anglo Norman French and probably within a decade or two of the Norman Conquest. Basically, he was the hotheaded nephew of Charlemagne who was ambushed with his men by Moors in Roncesvalles in the Pyrenees, where he had his bottom handed to him on a plate, to use the vernacular. Why this is celebrated with a statue in Riga, that I don’t know.

Now, I did tell you all about the Swedish Gate, didn’t I? Incidentally, am I the only one who thinks of the words ‘hurdy gurdy’ when I see references to the Swedish anything? Oh, I am. Okay. Well, this time I went back to it to make the sketch that you can see with this post.

Being out in the open air sketching when there were far more people about than in the last two days, I was able to assess the locals’ reaction to an open air sketcher. It’s funny the different etiquette that seems to apply in different cities. Here nobody, not one person, passed a comment on any of the sketches I was making. In fact most of them went out of their way to pretend that they weren’t even looking. Maybe it’s a Baltic thing – my recollection is that it was a similar thing in Kaunas in Lithuania. Or maybe they just thought they were all crap and didn’t want to hurt my feelings.

The trams were running, albeit rather less frequently so it wasn’t difficult to get to the market. It was lunchtime you see. I took the opportunity to sample Latvian curry sauce with my baked potato. All I can say is that it wasn’t very hot, and was distinctly more pale than I like to see in a curry sauce. Well, there you go. I can’t see me giving the Michelin guide a run for the money any time soon with reviews like that.

Back out again, and I took a quiet walk by the canal. Now, you have to hand it to the Rigans. When you say the word canal to me I can’t help thinking of the Grand Union which has cleaned up its act a bit recently, but when I was growing up frankly wasn’t the most salubrious of places. Well, the Riga Canal may not exactly be the Grand Canal in Venice, but it’s rather lovely, passing through a rather lovely park area as it flows past the National Opera House. I took the opportunity to sit for a while, and as I did my sketching hand became itchy so I made a sketch of a nearby fountain, which you should be able to see with this post.

And it was while I was making this sketch that I had a rather lovely experience. Stop that – you’re making up your own stories. No, I saw my first butterfly of 2023, and what’s more it was a small tortoiseshell which is one of my favourite spring butterflies too. On the negative column of the ledger I believe that I did catch a bit of sun while making the fountain sketch, since my face is feeling it a bit now.

I mentioned earlier that I had wondered how seriously Latvians take Good Friday. When I walked back into the Old Town there was actually a procession of sorts going on which stopped at the Dom Square. The Dom is the Cathedral in the Old Town. Is that name because of the German influence on Riga’s past? I only ask because I recall it’s what the huge Cathedral on Museum Insel in Berlin was called , or rather the Domkirche.

Those of you who know me well will probably know that I am easily worried and when I get a bee in my bonnet about something I can’t rest until I get it sorted out. This is why I hastened back to the room. Honestly, in terms of location close to where I want to be in Riga, you couldn’t have done much better. However. . . there is the little matter of the 70 odd steps on the winding staircase to get up to it. Oh well, good exercise I suppose. Mind you, I’ve always thought that good exercise is an oxymoron. Anyway, back to the story, and what was bugging me. Tomorrow I’m flying home at 14:10. Unless you’re paying extra to choose a seat, you cannot check in online until 24 hours before the flight is due to take of. And it really is true. I tried at 14:09 today and got nowhere. A minute later – Bob’s your Uncle.

So, after awarding myself a large pat on the back, it was back out again. There was one particular landmark that I wanted to sketch. I like clocks, you see. I like bridges too, and have seen a couple of rather nice ones since I’ve been here, but hey, the clock was nearer.

If you look on the sketch you should see that the letters down the side spell Laima. Laima is the largest producer of chocolate in Latvia. And Laima are very, very proud of the fact that unlike similar firms in the Baltic and Scandinavia they have never been taken over by a giant conglomerate like Kraft foods and are still a private company. As you should be able to see from the sketch it stands close to the Freedom Monument. It was erected in 1924, but during the Soviet Period all reference to chocolate was removed and instead it was used as a political propaganda stand. Tells you all you need to know about the Soviet period really. Why feed the people with chocolate when you can feed them lies instead? It was put back to its original design in 1999, although it didn’t actually ring again until 2012. And I can vouch for the fact that it has a very nice, mellow ring as it chimes the hour. – If you look at the time on the hands of the clock in the sketch, which were amongst the first part of it I drew, then think that I was still there when the hour chimed it should give you an idea how long it took to make. Well, good people, that’s just about it for this episode. Last night’s disturbed sleep has just about done for me, and I have a long day of travelling tomorrow. So I’ll wish you good evening.