I took a 1:30 am flight from Amman to Riga, Latvia. It turns out that Air Baltic recently started flights twice a week between Riga and Amman, at a price substantially lower than any other flights to Europe. I was on my way to Warsaw, and having never been in the Baltic region before, I decided to spend three days in Riga, before my onward flight.
The flight was less than half full, so I was able to get some sleep stretched over three seats, before the flight arrived in Riga at 6:00 am.
I took a cheap minivan bus to the city center, a travel option that I have not seen mentioned on any Riga tourism website; curiously I was the only man among the several dozens of women passengers who got on and off the bus on their way to their early morning work.
I checked into a nice hotel in the center of the historic district and then walked around the city center. I went to an interesting Central Market for produce housed in a row of huge halls, originally built as hangers for zeppelins.
One of the market halls
Also in the city center there is an amusement park sacrilegiously close to the main Orthodox cathedral of the city.
The amusement park and cathedral
That evening I went to the Latvian National Opera for a performance of Lady of the Camellias, a new ballet by Tiit Harm, set to music by Franz Liszt.
The next day, April 14, I did further sight-seeing in Riga and went to the rather small National Museum of Art. The city center has a historic core with lovely buildings and there are a few blocks of Art Nouveau style buildings to the north.
Some Art Nouveau buildings
One building that served as the former US embassy has a plaque commemorating future president John Kennedy’s stay there on a student summer trip in 1939.
The former US embassy with the JFK plaque to the center right
But outside of the city center the architecture turns run-down pretty fast. One particularly grim neighborhood is the former Jewish part of town, whose population was killed off quickly at the start of the Second World War.
That second evening I attended a performance at the Latvian National Opera of the ballet A Mid Summer Nights Dream by Felix Mendelssohn.
One puzzle in the city was the obscure markers for the men’s and women’s public restrooms.
The markers for the men’s and women’s restrooms
That evening I attended a performance at the Latvian National Opera of the opera Turandot by Puccini. So I got my fill of high culture, with three consecutive evening performances of top notch quality.
The Latvian National Opera building
The flight was less than half full, so I was able to get some sleep stretched over three seats, before the flight arrived in Riga at 6:00 am.
I took a cheap minivan bus to the city center, a travel option that I have not seen mentioned on any Riga tourism website; curiously I was the only man among the several dozens of women passengers who got on and off the bus on their way to their early morning work.
I checked into a nice hotel in the center of the historic district and then walked around the city center. I went to an interesting Central Market for produce housed in a row of huge halls, originally built as hangers for zeppelins.
One of the market halls
Also in the city center there is an amusement park sacrilegiously close to the main Orthodox cathedral of the city.
The amusement park and cathedral
That evening I went to the Latvian National Opera for a performance of Lady of the Camellias, a new ballet by Tiit Harm, set to music by Franz Liszt.
The next day, April 14, I did further sight-seeing in Riga and went to the rather small National Museum of Art. The city center has a historic core with lovely buildings and there are a few blocks of Art Nouveau style buildings to the north.
Some Art Nouveau buildings
One building that served as the former US embassy has a plaque commemorating future president John Kennedy’s stay there on a student summer trip in 1939.
The former US embassy with the JFK plaque to the center right
But outside of the city center the architecture turns run-down pretty fast. One particularly grim neighborhood is the former Jewish part of town, whose population was killed off quickly at the start of the Second World War.
Riga’s holocaust memorial
That second evening I attended a performance at the Latvian National Opera of the ballet A Mid Summer Nights Dream by Felix Mendelssohn.
The next day April 15 I spent part of the day doing more sight-seeing in Riga, but while there were still plenty of other things to see, I was not in the mood for such museums as the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia (World War Two and the Soviet Period). I instead spent the bulk of the day doing some final revisions to Gustaf Dalman’s Palestinian Customs volume. It was mostly sunny during my stay, but spring was just starting, and overnight lows were still dropping to around freezing.
One puzzle in the city was the obscure markers for the men’s and women’s public restrooms.
The markers for the men’s and women’s restrooms
That evening I attended a performance at the Latvian National Opera of the opera Turandot by Puccini. So I got my fill of high culture, with three consecutive evening performances of top notch quality.
The Latvian National Opera building
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