A day devoted to History

Right, where do I start? regarding the statue I posted earlier, it is the freedom statue to celebrate the fact that Latvia is now free from rule of the Soviets, it was erected shortly after the country gained its Independence (again, similar to Estonia) in 1991. This park is a green area right next to the old town, it was nice and quiet this morning and, yes, the sun was out.....for a bit.

Flowing through the park is a canal with nice green slopes dropping to the water, not a canal as we know it, but very pretty all the same. Crossing the canal are a number of bridges and on this one people fix padlocks. Most of the locks are engraved with couples names and a date, I can only assume that they are love tokens, the keys being thrown into the canal once the padlock is on. It looks like a smaller version of the prom after TT when there are always a few chains and padlocks stuck to the railings along the front. I've even seen them painted over by workmen painting the railings.

This cat appears on symbols all over Riga and is actually high up on a tower in the old town. Please note the blue sky....it did not last soon as within about 5 mins of this picture I was caught in a sharp shower, luckily it was as I was about to enter the Museum of War. This museum is in a tower caller the Powder Tower and is over 6 floors, showing the history of Latvia and war through the ages. It was a free museum and was very good, only lacking more information in English, but saying that, would an English have information in Latvian. I think not.

From there I went to the House of the Blackheads, this was a society set up in medieval times for bachelor tradesmen of the Baltic regions....think the Masons and you will not be far out. The house was very ornate and was full of treasures bought to Latvia by travelling traders. The original property was built in the 1300's, however, it has been destroyed more than once and re-built. Like Triggers grandads hammer, its had several new heads and a number of new handles but its still his grandads.

The next port of call on my day of history was the museum of Occupation, like the one in Tallinn this one tells the story of the occupation of Latvia by both the Russians and the Germans. The story was told better in this museum and they had tons of information in English. Again the museum was free to enter and is a work in progress as more and more material is unearthed.

This view is from the top of St Peters church (I only went up because this time there was a lift) The view from the top was superb, but the reason I have put it in is because of the 4 rounded buildings (In fact there are 5 but one is almost side on) This is the Central Market and is claimed to be one of the largest and oldest markets in Europe with 5 food pavilions. The buildings themselves are old converted Zeppellin buildings which must make the unique.

This statue is again in the old town and I think it is from a childs fairy tale of years ago. It shows a donkey with a dog on its back, a cat on the dogs back and a cock on the cats back. As you can probably see, the nose of the donkey has been polished by people touching it, the nose of the dog to a lesser degree, and the cat far less. It appears that very few people manage to get their hands on the cock!!

This one is for Rob, don't know if Banksy has ever been to Riga but looks the same as his work. This was in a few places on walls as well as the pavement. Very clever.

Off again tomorrow, the Hill of Crosses and a night or two in Kaunas in Lithuania, I will be leaving Latvia with a 5 Lati note, worth £4.00 unless I stop for a hot chocolate before I leave the country. I had almost got it so that I left with no money but then saw something to buy and had to get a little money out of the bank, still, almost got it down.