On our way to Tallinn from Stockholm, we had a 2 hour lay over in Riga. I quickly looked at other flights and found that I could give us a 7 hour lay over which gave us 5 hours in the city.
From the moment we got off the plane, we noticed how clean the air was. Not the kind of clean you get right after a rain. The air was just clean. The sky was so blue.
We arrived old town and the first thing on my mind was a cappuccino. We had been up since 5:30am and due to several mishaps, I still had not had a cup of coffee.
We turned the corner into old town Riga and we were greeted with a beautifully colored street and a bakery. The bakery is called “Bake Berry” in case you are ever in Riga. Derek and I ended up eating here 3 times in the 5 hours we were in town.
After my coffee, we headed directly for St James church to go up in the tower.
There was an elevator to the top so no stairs to climb but we enjoyed the view anyway. The original church was built in 1209.
From the church tower, you could see the new bridge over the river. It only had one support. Lots of cables. Later when we were headed back to the airport, we got a great look at the bridge.
Riga definitely took me by surprise. I was not expecting a place so well kept. The buildings were beautiful. The churches were in wonderful shape. And the parks were full of flowers.
This public park had another Bridge of Love. The locks were stack on top of each other since the bridge was out of room. Many of the locks were professionally engraved.
My two favorite “you must be kidding” from any town so far are both from Riga.
One… the house with the black cat on the roof top
And two… the “”were closed” sign for a door.
