Riga Episode Four

 Hello, Easter greetings and welcome to this final edition of An English Fool Abroad Spring 2023. I was travelling home yesterday which is why I didn’t post.

To be honest I haven’t got a great deal to say. That’s never stopped me in the past, I know, but as trips go this has been a remarkably foolishness free zone. I mean, there was the standing about 10 yards away from the door of the guest rooms and then walking off in the opposite direction when I arrived in Riga on Tuesday, but even then I don’t think I was entirely to blame. In four days I never saw any sign bearing the name of the place as it was given on Booking.com. Never mind.

The flight yesterday was due to leave at 2:10 pm, so I didn’t plan on catching the bus to the airport until about half past eleven. I ended up checking out quite a bit earlier than I had planned, though. You might remember how I was woken up on Thursday night by some very noisy fellow guests at about 3 am. Well, on Friday night I was woken at 2:30 am by an entirely different set of fellow guests. I have to ask myself whether this is a particularly Latvian thing, to talk as loudly as you can until an irate fat git comes storming out of his room, pointing at his watch and asking you to have a little thought for people who are trying to sleep? This time I didn’t just confine myself to gestures, but favoured them with such choice phrases as ‘have some respect’. And if that’s not proof that I am rapidly heading towards senior citizenship then I don’t know what would be.

I didn’t get back to sleep, so after checking and rechecking that I’d packed everything I needed to pack I eventually checked out about 7am, and headed off for some breakfast and 2 cups of coffee. I felt better after that and even better after my last tram ride in Riga. It was another very bright and clear day – although chilly at that time in the morning. This isn’t really surprising when you consider that Riga is actually the 6th most northerly capital city of an independent sovereign nation on Earth. I’ve previously visited the number 1 and five on the list in Reykjavik and Stockholm. Not so chilly that sketching was out of the question though. So I made two sketches. Firstly, of some of the houses in Livu Laukum.

You may remember that I sketched the cat statue on the roof of the Cat House a couple of days ago. Well these houses are just a few yards away. Oh, and while I was sketching a family came up and looked at the sketch, and so I offered them the book to have a look through. They gave me a thumbs up and one even slapped me on the back, so Riga and Latvians have proven themselves to be appreciative of sketchers and sketches, which is another mark in the positives column. I’ll come back to that in a moment or two.

I walked through the old town – without getting lost. It’s typical. I’ve got my bearings and understand how the street layout works, just in time to leave the country. The old town backs onto the Daugava River and I walked to a spot where I got a good view of the Railway Bridge, and made the sketch.

What can I say – I have a thing about bridges. The first railway bridge built here was a box girder bridge built in the 1870s. This current bridge was built right alongside the original bridge and it opened in 1914. Not exactly brilliant timing, since it was shelled during world war I and had to be rebuilt. Then the same thing happened in World War 2. It was 11 years before it was rebuilt and then reopened in 1955, during the Soviet period.

I completed the sketch and even though it was earlier than I planned, my sketching hand was aching a bit, so this was the last sketch that I made in Riga. So I made my way to the bus stop. And that was pretty much it. The journey home really was uneventful. Even the passport control at the airport was nice this time round. Yes, it was still a case of death by question but at least the guy at the desk had a smile on his face. A big thank you to my son-in-law Dan for picking me up from the airport yesterday. If I’d had to get the bus again it wouldn’t have been the end of the world, but it was nice not to have to.

So that was Riga. I was asked yesterday where I would place it on the list of sketching trip cities I’ve visited. That’s a tricky one. It’s a lovely place and I thoroughly enjoyed my trip. I certainly enjoyed it much more than last year’s Warsaw trip – no disrespect intended towards Warsaw, just a case of speak as you find. I wouldn’t rate it as highly as Berlin, which is my Mary Poppins destination (practically perfect in every way), but I would certainly rate it highly. In particular, Riga has the best value public transport of any city I’ve visited. Most cities I’ve been to have some kind of travelcard system, but many don’t let you use it to and from the airport. On Tuesday evening I bought a five day travelcard for 10 Euros, and never spent another cent on transport for all the time I was there. I don’t know how they can do it for the price, but I’m very glad that they do. It all speaks of a very enlightened attitude to public transport which I guess they must heavily subsidize.

Thank you Riga, and thank you for tuning in. Next trip planned is Copenhagen in the Summer. Hope to see you then.