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.