Thursday, Vilnius and then off to Riga (Latvia)
This morning we had a big breakfast and Asher filled his new thermos (bought from a Hyper Market - rather than just a Super Market) with coffee from the machine (cheeky!). Wendy did a bit of shopping and found some amber and a scarf. Spent the morning walking the old town again and popping into a couple of old churches. We’d seen one last night that was full of scaffolding, and I mean full. It’s rather rudimentary with complete saplings (rather than the clip-lock aluminum we use) that reached to the ceiling which were supporting a matrix of pine boards that completely surrounded the columns. It effectively filled the centre of the church and was boarded up so you couldn't get in amongst it.
Caught the bus to Riga (4.5 hour trip) at 1:30 and travelled down a dual-carriage way for an hour and a half. Stopped off for ten minutes in a town and then travelled on a two lane highway (one each way) and noticed that the driving here is a bit crazy. People overtaking wherever! At times cars on the verge and others overtaking so that it was nearly two lanes each way! Scary stuff. The bus kept up a good pace and did lots of overtaking too. Took a while to get across the border into latvia, a customs/passport checker bloke came on board and took all the passports, giving everyone the once-over, got off the bus and went somewhere and then 10 minutes later the bus driver handed them all back. New stamp, with a car on it this time (a little symbol to mark the mode of transport into, or out of, the country) - we got a boat on the Slovakian stamp (hydrofoil) and a train on the Austrian leg. Ash chatted to a Latvian girl who was on her way to London and I read a bit of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s. A Time of Gifts. It’s a travel story about a young guy who set’s out from England in 1933 to walk to Constantinople (Istanbul) and the book covers the first half of the journey to Hungary (there’s a second volume that covers the rest). It’s started well and the writing is good and looks like it will be a grand adventure.
Got into Riga just after 6:00 pm. and the Riga Old Town Hostel was only a 5 minute straightforward walk from the bus station and we checked before heading out for a wander to get our bearings. Did a walk through to the main thoroughfare and the Freedom Monument (where it’s traditional for newlyweds to lay some flowers) and the Laima clock. The parks all beautiful with a canal running down the middle (used to be the old moat protecting the city), paths, flower beds, benches, fountains and trees. Many of the churches are orthodox so laid out a bit differently from the usual Protestant or Catholic model. Inside there’s not many places to sit and always the separated place where the priests go (high altar?). All very nice to look at though, and nice paintings, chandeliers, domes in the ceiling and heaps of gold leaf. The language in Riga is different again and there seems to be a lots of Russain. It’s great to just walk around and sensible shoes are the go, the cobblestones are very uneven in places and the OHS rules are fairly lax. Often there’s a few stones missing or a broken step so you need to keep your eyes open. This becomes a real challenge because you should always be looking up, there re always surprises above your eye level, in the roof line of the buildings, a spire appearing at the end of a narrow street, an interesting gable, etc.
I have never seen so many expensive cars in one place. Lots of Porches, BMW (5,7 & 8 series), Audi, Lexus etc. and a lot of the taxis are Mercedes. Must be some money around, or it’s just that the rich people live in the old town - you actually have to pay to get into the old city, a bit like the tax you pay in London.
This morning we had a big breakfast and Asher filled his new thermos (bought from a Hyper Market - rather than just a Super Market) with coffee from the machine (cheeky!). Wendy did a bit of shopping and found some amber and a scarf. Spent the morning walking the old town again and popping into a couple of old churches. We’d seen one last night that was full of scaffolding, and I mean full. It’s rather rudimentary with complete saplings (rather than the clip-lock aluminum we use) that reached to the ceiling which were supporting a matrix of pine boards that completely surrounded the columns. It effectively filled the centre of the church and was boarded up so you couldn't get in amongst it.
Caught the bus to Riga (4.5 hour trip) at 1:30 and travelled down a dual-carriage way for an hour and a half. Stopped off for ten minutes in a town and then travelled on a two lane highway (one each way) and noticed that the driving here is a bit crazy. People overtaking wherever! At times cars on the verge and others overtaking so that it was nearly two lanes each way! Scary stuff. The bus kept up a good pace and did lots of overtaking too. Took a while to get across the border into latvia, a customs/passport checker bloke came on board and took all the passports, giving everyone the once-over, got off the bus and went somewhere and then 10 minutes later the bus driver handed them all back. New stamp, with a car on it this time (a little symbol to mark the mode of transport into, or out of, the country) - we got a boat on the Slovakian stamp (hydrofoil) and a train on the Austrian leg. Ash chatted to a Latvian girl who was on her way to London and I read a bit of Patrick Leigh Fermor’s. A Time of Gifts. It’s a travel story about a young guy who set’s out from England in 1933 to walk to Constantinople (Istanbul) and the book covers the first half of the journey to Hungary (there’s a second volume that covers the rest). It’s started well and the writing is good and looks like it will be a grand adventure.
Got into Riga just after 6:00 pm. and the Riga Old Town Hostel was only a 5 minute straightforward walk from the bus station and we checked before heading out for a wander to get our bearings. Did a walk through to the main thoroughfare and the Freedom Monument (where it’s traditional for newlyweds to lay some flowers) and the Laima clock. The parks all beautiful with a canal running down the middle (used to be the old moat protecting the city), paths, flower beds, benches, fountains and trees. Many of the churches are orthodox so laid out a bit differently from the usual Protestant or Catholic model. Inside there’s not many places to sit and always the separated place where the priests go (high altar?). All very nice to look at though, and nice paintings, chandeliers, domes in the ceiling and heaps of gold leaf. The language in Riga is different again and there seems to be a lots of Russain. It’s great to just walk around and sensible shoes are the go, the cobblestones are very uneven in places and the OHS rules are fairly lax. Often there’s a few stones missing or a broken step so you need to keep your eyes open. This becomes a real challenge because you should always be looking up, there re always surprises above your eye level, in the roof line of the buildings, a spire appearing at the end of a narrow street, an interesting gable, etc.
I have never seen so many expensive cars in one place. Lots of Porches, BMW (5,7 & 8 series), Audi, Lexus etc. and a lot of the taxis are Mercedes. Must be some money around, or it’s just that the rich people live in the old town - you actually have to pay to get into the old city, a bit like the tax you pay in London.
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