Friday 18 July

Riga is the capital of Latvia & is a bigger city than Tallinn. We started the day with a drive around the city followed by 21/2 hours walking through the old city led by a local guide. We have learnt a lot about the Soviet times & it is amazing how much development has happened in the last 23 years since freedom came to the Baltic States. Riga is a UNESCO World Heritage city because of it's many Art Nouveau buildings - from late 19 to early 20th century. We saw many of these buildings as well as some dating back centuries before. 

After this we were driven 30 minutes to the seaside resort town of Jurmala where we had lunch in a very nice restaurant - a standard meal of beef a few veggies & lots of boiled potatoes, followed by ice cream. There were about 5 tables with young Russian men at them, then during the course of our meal they started singing - still sitting - and in fact sang about 4 songs. I hope they got to eat their lunch. Apparently this happens quite a bit during the Choir festival. We have seen lots of young people from all over the world here, mostly in choir groups. 

We walked along Jurmala beach which was full of people swimming & sunbathing & not an umbrella or shade in sight! This resort area is very popular with wealthy people including those from Russia & we passed some lovely homes.

Back to Riga, we had a free evening so we had a light dinner in a outdoor restaurant then went to an organ recital in a cathedral in the old city & walked back to our hotel in the warm sun at 8.30.