Riga, Latvia Day 2

This post is originally for Dec 10th 2011.  I've been busy with travelling here there and everywhere so I haven't had time but now I've finally got some time to so here I go!

I woke up quite early as I had to go pick up a friend at the bus terminal. This was around 7am or so. But the bus was late so I ended up hanging around the hotel until 8. I had a huge apple which I bought the night before from a fruit and vegetable shop along Aleksandra Čaka iela. I've never had an apple this big.

Around 11am or so, we walked around Riga's old town (Vecriga in Latvian). Very old, picturesque buildings and architecture.  I even found Santa's clothes.  He lives in Latvia too!!

Preparing for Christmas deliveries around the globe

St Peter's Tower

House of the Blackheads, reconstructed in 1995 after being bombed by the Germans in 1941.

The weather wasn't very good that morning and it began to rain shortly after.  So we sought refuge in Riga Cathedral, this was close to noon.  There was an organ concert so we stayed and watched that and then walked around the church courtyard which housed some old artifacts along its perimeter.

Church altar

Really old clockface

Courtyard

The weather was a bit better after that.  We walked around some more and had some hot wine in a little cafe that had a red tent.

We just walked around after that and went back to the hotel to rest a bit before heading out for dinner.  Caught a tram to the Lido Recreation Centre which was a tram ride that took half an hour or so.  There were a lot of people and we had to wait a while before getting our food.  It's like the Marche restaurant.  You pick what you want and then pay at the counter.

Potatoe pancake, chicken, salmon, some salad, yoghurt and the drink kvass. :)

The outside of the restaurant.  Or part of it.

They have little houses like these around the place that were stalls selling trinkets or housed some form of entertainment.  There was also a stage somewhere and it had some people in costumes dancing as entertainment for kids.

There was an ice skating rink too but we didn't ice skate then, even though I would've liked to but anyway, we caught the tram back to the hotel around 7ish, watched a movie "Soul Kitchen" and that summed up the night.