Baltic Cruise Notes, Day 9: Riga, Latvia

Today, we landed at Riga, Latvia about 10 AM. Riga is a city of about 800,000 people, which is about 1/3 of the population of Latvia. They use the Lat for their currency, and it trades at 2 dollars per Lat. In many shopping places, especially stalls, you must have Lats or you can't buy anything. Quite a few take Euros, though, and some even take dollars. Our tour was a bus tour to Turraida and Sigulda, which are ancient cities, as is Riga. Riga was established in 1201 by a conquering group of Crusaders from Germany, I think. Leading them was a cleric who established the city, then proceeded to give large plots of land to the knights while he was building churches and converting the populace to Christianity. Sigulda was founded in 1207 (they are very definite about these dates and times), as a defensive castle city. In medieval times, these areas were powerful trading cities, similar to Talinn, Estonia. All were members of the Hansiatic League, a trading and military association of Baltic states. We did not learn the intricacies of Soviet and Nazi takeovers, but in my peregrinations, I came across a monument honoring the children who were deported to Siberia from 1941 to 1949, so I know there was a great deal of hardship during the Soviet times. At a talk last night, we learned about the 'Singing Revolution' that was the beginning of independence for Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. On a day in 1989, the people of these countries formed a human chain from Lithuania to Estonia, along the highways. Then they simply sang songs. It was the beginning of the end for the Soviets in these countries, because the time in which they could send everyone to Siberia was long over. Independence occurred in 1991. Many of the buildings in Riga are in the art nuveau style from the 1920s, during the brief period of independence from the early 1900s to 1940 when the WWII invasions and Soviet occupation started. There are not that many of the really ugly Soviet buildings that graced St. Petersburg and Talinn, partly because there was a thriving economy before the Soviets took over, so they could use existing buildings rather than build their own. We arrived in Sigulda and saw some very beautiful castles and walls dating from the 1200s. The castle in Sigulda is the "new" one, built in the 1600-1700s, but behind it are the ruins of the earlier one that was demolished in the 1600s. The castle at Turraida, close by, is largely intact, and the grounds reminded us of the Skanses museum in Stockholm, as several buildings had been moved there and restored. There was a tower that was about 5 stories high, and we trudged to the top on winding stone staircases with no rails. Meeting people coming the other was was interesting, at least. On our arrival back at the ship, I decided to go exploring in town while Denise napped. The old town reminded me of Talinn, but there were not as many booths and shops dedicated to tourism as in Talinn. Back on ship, we ordered dinner in our cabin: onion soup, a cheese tray, steak with steamed veggies and French fries, and iced tea. Nothing fancy, but really good stuff. After that, Denise went to get her hair cut in the spa, and I sat on deck as we left the port. Later, we went to a show with a lot of singing and dancing about something or other. It was good, but I'm tired. Tomorrow, Visby by bicycle. Good night.