Thursday 17 July

Another day & another country! Latvia. But first we drove through the Estonian countryside for a couple of hours then reached the seaside resort town of Paernu which I had been looking forward to seeing. It was in Paernu County that my grandfather grew up & where his parents were peasant farmers. We stopped there for awhile & walked down to the beach. It was quite popular with beach volleyball games going on & people swimming & sunbathing. There was also children's play equipment on the beach as well. It had nice wide sand but a cool breeze but the locals didn't mind. It was nice to be in grandad's town about 100 years after he left! 

Next we travelled on to Latvia with a no hassle border crossing &went to a restaurant situated in a national park for lunch. This was in the most pleasant setting & the 7 of us had an interesting discussion comparing the different electoral & legal systems of Brazil, USA & Australia. Our Brazillian friend (a legal prosecutor & his wife a lawyer) made it clear their elections were rigged which he didn't like at all. He had & his family - 5 people- had voted for a particular candidate & after the elections, this candidate was said to have had zero votes! 

After lunch we visited 2 medieval castles either side of a river & also walked through an interesting sculpture garden. This was a quite hilly setting which is unusual in the flat Baltics. 

Sometime after 6pm we arrived at our hotel in Riga. Riga is currently the location of the Choir Olympics held every 4 years bringing choirs from all over the world. The city is abuzz with singing in all kinds of open air arenas. Our hotel is full of visiting choirs. For dinner the 2 of us walked through the old city & found a lovely place to eat in the main city square.