Riga, Latvia
The sun was shining brightly and a slight wind was blowing as we reached the mouth of the Daugava River. The spires of Riga, the capital of Latvia, rose in the distance. Riga is the largest capital of the newly independent Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with a population of 750 thousand. It gained its freedom from the USSR in August 1991. Riga, and indeed all of Latvia, has an interesting ethnic makeup, with the native speaking Lats a minority in most areas of the country. In Riga for example, the Latvians comprise 41% of the population while the Russian population is 44%, with the remaining 15% a mosaic of other national groups. Latvian is one of the only two of the Baltic-Slavic languages and with only approximately one million speakers remaining, it is something of an endangered language. The Russian presence, from the time they took control of Latvia from Sweden in 1721 until today, remains strong. Despite the repressions of the Soviet regimes, particularly their intolerance of religions, the Latvians today follow three main religions faiths: Lutheranism, Roman Catholicism and Russian Orthodoxy.
The old city of Riga, which we visited today, is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is remarkable for its architecture. Home after home of Art Nouveau buildings face boulevards lined with lime and linden trees. The city’s architectural beauty has earned it the title as the “Paris of the East.” The buildings exhibit the classic lines of this tradition and Riga arguably has the largest concentration of such buildings in the world. The sun shining on their facades of pastel colors made our visit particularly memorable. Riga recently celebrated its 800th anniversary and dates its founding to the establishment of an entrepot of German merchants from Bremen, known as the Hanseatic League.
It joined the Hanseatic League in 1282 and became one of the jewels in the crown of the league. The Guildhall has many beautiful stained glass windows celebrating the crafts and the German culture of the city. While the German population is almost non-existent in Riga, one can occasionally run into an old German resident of the city as I did on our walk, who was anxious to tell us about her experiences during the 2nd World War. The market in Riga is a large raucous and one of the most exciting and colorful markets in the eastern Baltic. Shops sell everything and the voices of the merchants enticing visitors to their stall are incessant. One of the specialties of the city is the herbal drink called Balsam, which a number of our guests sampled and from the looks of their faces are not likely to ask for seconds. We sailed from this beautiful capital at 11:30, just 30 minutes after the most magnificent sunset.
The sun was shining brightly and a slight wind was blowing as we reached the mouth of the Daugava River. The spires of Riga, the capital of Latvia, rose in the distance. Riga is the largest capital of the newly independent Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with a population of 750 thousand. It gained its freedom from the USSR in August 1991. Riga, and indeed all of Latvia, has an interesting ethnic makeup, with the native speaking Lats a minority in most areas of the country. In Riga for example, the Latvians comprise 41% of the population while the Russian population is 44%, with the remaining 15% a mosaic of other national groups. Latvian is one of the only two of the Baltic-Slavic languages and with only approximately one million speakers remaining, it is something of an endangered language. The Russian presence, from the time they took control of Latvia from Sweden in 1721 until today, remains strong. Despite the repressions of the Soviet regimes, particularly their intolerance of religions, the Latvians today follow three main religions faiths: Lutheranism, Roman Catholicism and Russian Orthodoxy.
The old city of Riga, which we visited today, is a UNESCO World Heritage site and is remarkable for its architecture. Home after home of Art Nouveau buildings face boulevards lined with lime and linden trees. The city’s architectural beauty has earned it the title as the “Paris of the East.” The buildings exhibit the classic lines of this tradition and Riga arguably has the largest concentration of such buildings in the world. The sun shining on their facades of pastel colors made our visit particularly memorable. Riga recently celebrated its 800th anniversary and dates its founding to the establishment of an entrepot of German merchants from Bremen, known as the Hanseatic League.
It joined the Hanseatic League in 1282 and became one of the jewels in the crown of the league. The Guildhall has many beautiful stained glass windows celebrating the crafts and the German culture of the city. While the German population is almost non-existent in Riga, one can occasionally run into an old German resident of the city as I did on our walk, who was anxious to tell us about her experiences during the 2nd World War. The market in Riga is a large raucous and one of the most exciting and colorful markets in the eastern Baltic. Shops sell everything and the voices of the merchants enticing visitors to their stall are incessant. One of the specialties of the city is the herbal drink called Balsam, which a number of our guests sampled and from the looks of their faces are not likely to ask for seconds. We sailed from this beautiful capital at 11:30, just 30 minutes after the most magnificent sunset.
