Family fun!

We had a packed day yesterday!   In the morning Nancy and I shot off to the Southwold Library where there was a plant sale...only to find we were a day late!   Instead we inspected the plants on the market and Nancy purchased an Angelica plant and I bought a tray of sweet corn seedlings to go in the veg plot.    Then we caught up with the boys on the beach and walked along over the dunes to the ferry.  We crossed to Walberswick and had lunch in a courtyard cafe before inspecting the goods at the RNLI fete in the village hall.    Saul purchased an action figure, I bought a plant encyclopaedia for Nancy and we took the ferry back to Southwold.   Nancy and Eliot went in search of fish for a BBQ starter and the boys walked back to the house with us.   Nancy set about preparing marinades for the fish, scallops and the grilled vegetables and I made the lamb (it had been cooking all day!) and the rice.  While these preparations were going on, Eliot took Saul swimming and Peter took Abe crabbing.  After dinner we watched a James Bond film and everyone fell asleep in turn!  It was a good day!

On the ferry

Ready for afternoon activities

Sunday in Southwold

The garden is showing off its summer clothes!

The table has been extended (with the aid of a wooden mallet!) and the umbrella is going up.  We are expecting visitors for lunch...and we were so busy talking, we forgot to take a photograph!  Konni and David from Luton arrived at 1.30.   We met them via their blog when they purchased a piece of Liss Bros furniture.  Eliot, Nancy and Abe and Saul arrived just as we had finished lunch and after a cup of tea Peter and I took Konni and David and Abe and Saul along the high road and out to the pier where we enjoyed the amusements!   There was a thunderstorm on the way and we got a little wet, but soon laughed it off at the crazy contraptions invited by Tim Hunkin. On the way back to the house Konni treated us all to ice-creams!  

Last Day in Riga

Just time for brunch in our 'favourite' cafe Riits and a stroll in the park before the taxi to the airport and home.

It was a very good break and an interesting place to explore.   We learnt a great deal about Latvia's history which we didn't know. 

On the Air Baltic flight from Riga the inflight magazine featured Riits! 

Summer colours in Southwold

The garden looks lovely and fresh at this time of year.

Riga: Day 4

Another bright sunny day!   The weather has been good for walking and sightseeing.   We set off down our street southwards, crossed the railway lines and came to the old Russian section and 'Moscow Street'.   At a park we came to the Holocaust Memorial which celebrates the righteous who saved, or tried to save, Latvian Jews and is next to the site of the synagogue burnt to the ground by the Nazis together with the people inside it.   We wandered a little further but the area is very run down and showed little evidence of the gentrification that the guide book talks about.   We headed northwards towards the old zeppelin sheds that now house the central market, taking in an outdoor flea market on the way and a very soviet building and stopped for coffee.

Flea market

Soviet architecture

Smoked fish

At the central market we explored the three sheds housing stalls selling fish, meat, smoked meats and vegetables and lots of pickled vegetables.  We had some trouble identifying the types of fish.

We bought some herbal tea (cowslip for relaxing!) and some smoked fish and pickled herring and just hope we can get the latter back without spills in the luggage.  We had lunch at a market stall selling vereniki stuffed with potato and onion in broth and on the way back to the flat I had a spinach samosa - just to keep me going!

Smoked meats and sausages

After an extremely disturbed night last night we treated ourselves to a nap before going out for dinner to a restaurant serving Latvian food.   Ah!  If only!   We arrived to find the restaurant in darkness and the door locked.   We peered into the windows and identified someone in a kitchen and a couple of staff.  We waited outside until the time of our online booking and then Peter rapped on the window and made gestures that implied 'do you know what the time is?' and 'open the door'.   A girl came to the door.  She disputed that we had a booking as the restaurant was closed and there was no food.  They were expecting a private party.   We gave up and wandered back and came across a restaurant which looked reasonably well patronised.  We sat outside, with blankets, and had a reasonable meal.  Back at the flat Peter checked his emails and found that the message had said, "Sorry, closed".  Oh well.  

Riga: Day 3

Nearby St. Gertrude's was another
arresting Art Nouveau face

St Gertrude's! 

Today started with a walk up to St. Gertrude's church.  As Peter's grandmother, Emma, was born in Riga and named her first child Gertrude, Peter went into flights of fancy about the chances of them living on that street...

The church was turn of the century, brick built with a lot of warm brown woodwork inside and some decorative friezes.   Opposite was another elaborately decorated Art Nouveau building.

Coffee stop

Russian Orthodox Church

From the church it was a short walk to the National Art Museum and the elegant cafe was our first port of call for coffee.
After we had left our coats in the cloakroom (compulsory, but they don't charge) we went up first to the top floor roof terrance and got another view of the Russian Orthodox Church.  The art gallery is housed in an elegant building and was interesting but not stunning.  The troubled history of Latvia has made a significant impact on the art which has followed the prevailing politics, some of it hard on the eye.  However, there were some wonderful sculptures.

This I liked! 

Central hallway

Restoration of Independence
Day ceremony

Onion soup - nice bowl! 

Folded clay form

Simple bowl from rolled clay

Back to the museum restaurant for lunch (onion soup followed by chicken Caesar salad) and then a walk through the city to our next destination, which took us past the freedom monument.  At this point we realised why it was so quiet and so many shops were closed.  Today was a Latvian holiday - Restoration of Independence Day - and there was a flower laying ceremony complete with band, dignitaries, police and security men.   We stopped for a while and then went on to find the Decorative Arts Museum - another interesting building with a good display of ceramics, fabrics, weaving and furniture and downstairs some displays of inventions to solve everyday problems.   I got a few ideas for my pottery class.   The sun was warm by the time we got out of the museum so we stopped for a lemon tea before heading to the station in a fruitless search for a newspaper, then back to the flat for a restoring glass of wine.

We had intended to try an Armenian restaurant in our street but when we approached there was a crowd of men outside and as the door opened we heard deafening music and saw flashing lights.  We turned on our heels and opted for the gastropub round the corner where we found a quiet table and had pizza!   Not quite what we had planned but at least we could hear each other!

Riga: day 2

Coffee and croissant

Up and out by 10.00 and off to the Jewish Cultural Centre to see the museum.  The Centre is a large and dusty and mainly empty building and the museum on the second floor is housed in three rooms and is full of photographs of Latvian Jews going back to 1600.  The captions are in Latvian, Hebrew and English but nothing is really explained.  You come away knowing that there was a flourishing intellectual and artistic contribution by Jews to life in Latvia and the Nazis and the Russians largely wiped it out.  It's depressing but not a revelation.  We have decided not to visit anymore sites of Jewish history in Latvia.  The story won't get any better.   But there is always food and drink.  First coffee stop of the day.

Next stop was the Art Nouveau museum which consisted of a beautiful apartment that had belonged to a Latvian architect full of authentic furniture and artefacts, though not original to the house.   There were women in period costumes in some of the rooms and someone playing the piano and it was beautiful and restful. 

Staircase outside the
 entrance to the museum

Art Nouveau interior

Art Nouveau interior

Lovely carpet

Elegance! 

Albert Street

Albert Street

Peter spotted an interesting looking cafe which turned out to be Russian.  We sat inside and looked at the menu and were ignored by a stony faced young woman behind the counter.  Eventually she came over and when we asked her advice about the menu she loosened up and was charming.   We have decided that Latvians don't smile very readily or seem welcoming.  (That goes for buildings and museums...they are forbidding from the outside and the heavy doors are always shut.)

The lunch was delicious.   I had herring, beetroot, carrot and potato layers with quails eggs and Peter had buckwheat risotto with wild mushrooms and salad. 

Lunch

His 

Mine

 After lunch we wandered across to the old town and walked and walked.   We took in a number of interesting buildings including a lavishly decorated Russian Orthodox Church.

Cobbled streets

Church

We were impressed by this statue of an author and the flower bed in front of him.

After our long walk we sat down for a glass of lemon tea before hoofing it back to the apartment for a rest before the next meal.

Fantastic Mr Liss 

Riga, Latvia: day 1

We arrived at our apartment by taxi and were met by Anastasia.  The apartment block is pretty grim seen from the outside with a rutted courtyard, but the stairways are well lit and clean and the apartment is also clean, spacious and reasonably equipped...apart from the minute towels!  People must think they are very lucky when they stay with us and are given huge bath sheets.

The apartment block

The entrance.  We are in the block behind. 

First lunch!  They get through
 a lot of eggs

We are on the second floor

We set off for a late lunch (Riga is two hours ahead of Norwich) and, ignoring Anastasia's recommendation to eat at Lido (the Latvian equivalent of Lyon's Corner House), we found a nice little restaurant a few doors away with a charming and helpful waiter.  We had excellent salads and draft beer and will probably go back there for dinner one night.   The food is described as modern Latvian. Turns out to be well reviewed on Trip Advisor.  http://restoransriits.lv/lv

We walked up the road further and bought a few essentials at a supermarket and then went into a wine shop for further essentials!  We returned to find a moustachioed man in the courtyard waving his phone and trying to tell us something.  He was assisted by a woman and a young man who translated for us.  The water is off!  Shock horror!  There goes our cup of tea!

The Opera House

We also discovered when we rifled through our paperwork at the flat that our tickets to the opera were for that evening.  Thank goodness Peter remembered and checked.  A trickle of water came through and we made tea and researched restaurants for the evening.  As we were leaving the man with the moustache was carefully walking in a straight line with blue bags on his feet and something bleeping in his hand.  We reckoned it was some form of water divining...he was looking for the leak.  Reassured that something was being done to restore the water, we set off for the Latvian National Opera, a fine building with an incomprehensible layout inside.   I never did find the ladies!   But a wonderful atmosphere.   We were in the stalls about 5 rows from the front and it was a great experience.   We saw La Traviata and Peter shed a little tear!

We realised pretty quickly after the opera (we got out at nearly 10.00) that eating options were limited and we had to settle for 'Argentinian Goucho' but the food was fine and the staff very good.   The water was on when we got back but I filled the kettle for the morning as a precaution!  And so to bed.