Walking. Gossip. Travel.

Tag: Riga

  • Riga – Museum of Jews in Latvia

    Housed in a building owned by the Jewish community of Riga, the second floor museum consists of three large rooms. There’s no entrance fee, although hopefully everyone who can leaves a donation, and there’s a free audio guide available in English. The staff member at the reception desk was keen to explain about the museum and what was in each of the three rooms.

    The stained glass windows were donated by Hilde Shneider, who was imprisoned in the Riga ghetto and then in a concentration camp.

    This prayer book was found near the site of mass graves near Rezekne.

    A fragment of a tombstone which was in the Jewish cemetery at Aizpute. Around 100 tombstones still exist at the cemetery, but much was damaged or destroyed by the Nazis.

    There were many villains in the Second World War, so it’s important to remember the heroes. This is Jānis Lipke, a dock worker in Riga who saved over 40 Jews by smuggling them out of the city’s ghetto. His efforts were responsible for saving 20% of all of the Jews from the city who survived the Second World War, and he was awarded with the status of the Righteous Among the Nations.

    The numbers worn on the clothing of the prisoners in concentration camps, these were worn by Jozefa Perlmana (8533) and Jankela Sermana (6201).

    A section of a prisoner’s clothing and their number, 98071, belonging to Aleksandr Usman from when he was at a concentration camp in Riga.

    A purse which was made from the Holy Scrolls stolen from the Karsava synagogue. Karsava is a Latvian town where nearly half the population before the Second World War were Jews, but they were nearly all killed by the Nazis. The synagogue was destroyed and the community shattered.

    A map of where mass graves of Jews were found across Latvia.

    “Everything is over”.

    A plan of the Riga ghetto.

    The museum made an effort to show life in the Jewish community over the centuries, and not just during the Second World War. It was all well put together and the audio guide was certainly comprehensive, there was over an hour’s worth of recording provided. The whole environment felt very welcoming and it’s clear that this museum is very much a labour of love.

  • Riga – Uzvaras Piemineklis (Victory Memorial to Soviets)

    Monuments don’t come much more controversial than this in Latvia and I spent as little time here as possible. This was mainly because I had been told that very many Latvians strongly dislike the monument and that visitors aren’t encouraged to hang around it for long.

    There weren’t any other visitors to the site when I visited, but there were a group of three people sitting on a bench nearby who appeared drunk. They also appeared to be Russian from what I could gather, but a guide earlier in the week told me that this is where pro-Russians often go, so that isn’t perhaps entirely surprising. It’s not really a location I felt comfortable in though, even though it’s only around a mile away from the city centre.

    There have been efforts to have this monument removed, but the Government has said that, as it is, that it should stay. This didn’t stop a Latvian nationalist group trying to blow it up in June 1997, although the attack went wrong and two of them died.

    The main tower is 79 metres high and the whole complex is designed to be a victory memorial to the Soviet soldiers who died during the Second World War. The monument was completed in 1985 and is known by some locally as ‘Moscow’s finger’.

    The sculptors of the project were Lev Bukovsky and Aivars Gulbis, and this section represents the Motherland.

    A group of three Soviet soldiers. The site itself is starting to fall apart because of a lack of investment and there is no signage at the site giving information about the monument. It was an attempt by the Soviets to strengthen their support by portraying the Germans as the enemy, who were ‘bravely’ fought off during the Second World War. But much has changed since the 1980s when this was built, and its future will likely be highly controversial for some considerable time to come.

  • Riga – Konditoreja Sala

    Located next to the city’s main railway station is this under-stated outlet from a small local chain.

    Those eclairs looked rather delicious…

    So one of the eclairs found itself moved from the counter onto my tray. The staff member rather over-poured the latte and got a bit enthusiastic with the steamed milk, hence the slight spillage. But all tasted fine and she was particularly friendly and helpful.

    It’s only a basic cafe in a railway station mall, but it was spotlessly clean and reasonably priced. They also had a range of salads and other items, but they didn’t look quite as appealing at the time as the banana eclair.

  • Riga – Rienzi

    This cafe is in the heart of the city and appears to be connected to the department store located next to it. It felt just a little more formal and impersonal to the other cafes I’d visited, although the atmosphere remained welcoming.

    Some of the individual sweets on offer.

    The staff member came around the counter to the customer side to explain what each of the cakes were. And they were very tempting….

    So I ordered one. Salted caramel cake, which was moist and tasty.

    This cafe was a little more expensive than the countless others that I’ve been to this week, but the quality of the food and drink was high. It didn’t have quite the unique charm that some of the other cafes had, but it was still rather pleasant, reminding me of cafes in Russia.

  • Riga – Kuuka

    Back to coffee after a couple of pub visits, this is Kuuka Cafe….

    There were several people using the cafe to do work, and it was a quiet and comfortable atmosphere. There were also numerous plug sockets and I can imagine it’s quite a productive environment. Although there were clearly some tourists in the cafe, it also felt like a place that locals went to and not just somewhere set out to cater to visitors to Riga.

    The display of cakes, with everything in the cafe being clean and organised.

    A blurry coffee….. The service was efficient and, as I’m becoming used to in Riga, polite and welcoming.

    And the cheesecake I went for, rather lovely. The cafe is relatively small, so I can imagine that it’s often hard to find a seat (when I went in the mid-afternoon I managed to get the last table). The cafe is keen on being independent and not part of a chain, and it did have a unique sort of charm to it.

  • Riga – Bird Photo

    Whilst waiting for my tram back to the hotel, this bird appeared on the wall. How lovely.

  • Riga – St. John’s Church

    There has been a religious building on this site since the thirteenth century, with the Catholic church functioning until 1522. That was the year of the Reformation in Riga and the building was taken out of religious use and for a time was used as a stable for animals.

    During the Napoleonic Wars the Russians used the building as a warehouse, but it was again later brought back into use as a church. Indeed the church has gone through numerous fires, restorations, rebuilds and improvements. One of these restorations took place after the end of the Second World War, when the roof and floor were badly damaged.

    Slightly irritatingly, there were information boards around the church, but some of them were in the roped off areas. This isn’t an ideal situation for a visitor, but the two information boards that were readable were interesting and informative (as an information board should be….).

    This is a donation billboard from 1761, thanking those who had contributed to paying for a new church organ. The church refers to it as “the oldest known social marketing in the city”, although there are some boards like this in the UK as well, but they were sometimes more to prove that the donor’s money hadn’t been pinched by the church staff….

    The nave stands 26 metres high and this is a fine example of Gothic rib vaulting.

    The pulpit.

    The organ.

    The nave, albeit slightly lop-sided (the photo, not the church). It’s a fine church right in the heart of Riga, today used by the Lutherans, although more information boards would have perhaps improved this visit.

  • Riga – Peter’s Brewhouse

    I had noticed this brewery restaurant a few days ago, but it is right in the centre of the tourist area, so I did have some doubts about it because of that. However, the reviews seemed reasonable and they brew their own beer, so what could possibly go wrong…

    They had an offer on during my visit where a sample of the brewery’s three beers was €5.50 instead of €7.50, which is competitive.

    Details of the three beers, all of which were at the appropriate slightly chilled temperature and had a depth of flavours. I thought that the red beer was particularly strong and was my preferred option of the three.

    A quick snack, these are the wild boar sausages with a beer sauce. They were excellent, although a few fries would have been handy.

    A brewery tank in the pub.

    The interior looks a little grand here, but there were a range of seating areas, including a substantial external beer garden. The service was attentive, friendly and polite, although it was rather quiet during my visit with only a few other customers.

    My initial concerns about the restaurant being too touristy were unfounded and the prices were reasonable given the central location. The restaurant was also clean and comfortable, with the food being better than I had expected.

  • Riga – KwakInn

    KwakInn is a small Russian chain of Belgian beer restaurants, with the first one having opened in St. Petersburg in 2009.

    An Asterix style menu, colourful and fun.

    “Life’s too short to drink bad beer”.

    The interior design is colourful and vibrant, it all seemed well thought through. There’s table service offered for those not sitting at the bar, and the staff were efficient and pro-active. It’s a friendly environment, and there seemed to be both tourists and locals in the bar when I visited.

    One page from the beer menu, which had around ninety options to choose from. That’s also a decent selection of dark beers.

    This beer was a special, allegedly made by monks using holy water. Whether or not that’s entirely true, it had a rich and pleasant taste.

    Gulden Draak, a popular drink in Belgium, which had a caramel and coffee taste to it. There are meant to be tones of chocolate, but my palate clearly isn’t sophisticated enough to detect them.

    The warm chicken salad, which was well above average. The salad was reasonably well presented, with the dried orange slice being an interesting addition. The chicken was excellent, tender and having a depth of flavour, with the onion and croutons adding texture. The bacon was succulent and the hot elements had been separated from the lettuce to avoid it becoming limp.

    The chain looks like they’re interested in franchising out the brand, and I can imagine this going down well across many eastern European cities. The branding is clean and bright, and there’s a fun feel to the whole operation.

  • Riga – Riga Zoo

    I haven’t brought my proper camera on this trip, so the quality of the images isn’t quite what I’d like. By that, I mean I haven’t been able to zoom in on the animals to try and get their expressions, so my phone images will just have to suffice.

    Nicely lined up, these are Denny’s tree frogs.

    A rhinoceros snake.

    Weaver ants, the photograph shows the magnifying glass the zoo had provided to help see them more clearly.

    Crocodiles.

    Two pythons.

    This cat followed me for around ten minutes, and I just had to hope that it was a cute domesticated pet cat and not some wild lynx that had escaped.

    A marbled crayfish.

    This exhibit showed how animals, often endangered, are treated as commodities. In this case, these are alcoholic drinks with a snake in them. I can’t say that I’d be tempted to drink them.

    I liked that this zoo had made a real effort to showcase its history, with old plans of the zoo and images from over the last 100 years. They also had photos of the buildings around the site and explained their previous use. I can’t recall visiting any zoo with such an interest in its own heritage.

    A red swamp crayfish.

    A zebra.

    Urgh. A green python.

    A bird-eating spider.

    A fennec fox.

    A marsh frog.

    A common crane.

    A very sweet owl who was very careful to watch me.

    Palla’s cat.

    A Southern tamandua.

    A sunset grasshopper.

    Flower beetles.

    An emerald-green tree frog.

    An owl.

    This was very cute, I was rather tempted to get myself one, but it’s probably not the best idea. It’s a brush-tailed bettong.

    The view from the rear of the zoo over the lake.

    A walking stick insect.

    A European pond turtle.

    A leopard tortoise.

    The entrance fee to the zoo was €7 and it was pretty quiet, although a Monday morning in October is never likely to be too busy. The staff member at the entrance seemed particularly buoyant and everything was well laid out. Visitors are given a free map of the site and the signage is reasonably clear.

    The only slight negative was that some animals were clearly asleep inside and there was no real chance of every seeing them, as some enclosures didn’t have the facility to go inside. So the polar bear, tigers and lions were nowhere to be seen, which is perhaps though rather beneficial to their well-being in any event.

    Overall, a rather lovely zoo, and there are some improvements being made at the moment to improve the enclosures. One of the original ideas for the zoo a century ago was for islands in the lake to be turned into reserves for the animals, an intriguing idea that didn’t happen at the time due to a lack of finances. Perhaps over the next couple of decades the idea could come back onto the agenda.