Riga, Latvia

 Riga, Latvia                                                                                                   Wednesday, May 25, 2022

               Today’s tour was labeled as “Go Local” which is a designation of tours offered fairly rarely to allow any of us who wish to spend time with a local person doing what normal people do in that area.  Today, we walked with a small, retired woman born and raised in Riga who loved her hometown and the opportunity to show it off.

               Ludmilla (“just all me Lucy since it’s easier to say”) was fast-walking, knowledgeable, and poised to give us the absolute best taste of her city.  Our ship docked late (very unusual) and that started our walking tour late which made us miss our first city bus while setting our entire tour back by an hour.  So the first decision for the 10 of us was whether to abort for the day or simply march on and get back an hour later than planned.  Normally I would have no problems with the schedule change, but for the FIRST time, I had arranged to meet with Helen and the Lutheran chaplain, Eliza, at St. Saviour’s Anglican Church at about 2:30.  Oh well.  I was able to send an email and a text to Helen as an attempt to contact her, but had no validation of her receiving the messages.  More later on this.

Street in Riga (yes the yellow flowers in lower right are what you think they are{dandelions})

               The tour was titled “The Districts of Riga.”  At a brisk pace, we walked to the city bus stop, received the credit-card-sized touch pass, and piled on when it stopped.  We learned early to scramble on quickly and try to stay in a general area of the bus to get the info for getting off.  Ludmilla talked as she walked, often stopping to gather those who had stopped to take photos or who had needed to sit for a spell, pointing out the many 19^th century houses and buildings. Talking about the climate with increased humidity this close to the ocean, etc.  “We Latvians are introverts,” she said, “We like to keep to ourselves.   Walking to the Parliament was next, then to the local hero’s cultural center where his hand-made artifacts decorated rooms, where some artwork hung on display in others, and where a concert hall was.  Augustus Dubrovski was a self-made millionaire making his money through lumbering and other interests in the 1800s. His “palace” is called the Northern Lights and many locals come to see it, to enjoy some theater or such there, or to wander in the vast gardens surrounding it. After WW1 and occupation of the Soviets, it was abandoned.  The original palace built in 1909 burned to the ground.  In 1991, after Latvia gained independence, it was reconstructed without using wood.

Cultural Center

Dubrovsky

          We boarded the bus again for about 20 minutes to go to the north corner of the city then walked through streets and large alleyways past large summer homes to get to the sea,  We followed the sea for a bit then headed inland a couple blocks to a tea shop.  The mosquitoes were driving us nutso—most weren’t biting—but some of us stayed inside to drink our coffee and escape the insects.  Because there was WIFI there, I texted and emailed Helen trying to tell her to go to the arranged church visit without me. 

Another massive beach.  If you don't mind colder water these beaches are great.

Jerry is out of focus because of tea (cup which had different sayings on rims)

              The train was a part of our tour and there is only a train back into town once each hour.  This is why we couldn't do the tour any faster once we got behind. We caught the train back into town  

Train Station

In order to complete our local tour, we boarded a tram for the last leg on the way back to the ship.  Jerry and I got off a stop earlier than the others so that we could walk to St. Saviour’s Anglican Church to catch the Lutheran chaplain who was expecting us.  We hoped.  Took us about 12 minutes to get there, found two churches at the place on our map but figured the dome-like thing wasn’t it.  Saw a door open in the brick church, so climbed the steps and looked in as a construction worker stepped aside.  The church name was right there, so we stepped in to begin taking photos of the interior whose entire circumference was stacked with scaffolding all the way to its tall ceilings.  Looking over our shoulders, we saw a young looking, shorthaired woman grinning at us.  Yup  Eliza.  We encouraged her to talk and talk and show and show, knowing we had only about 20 minutes before we had to hoof it back to the ship.  We met Grace, the oversize calico church cat who had her own bed next to the heater and a window above for quick escape.  Eliza provided a lively and optimistic view of post-Covid ministry.  Some highlights include: Latvia Lutherans are going backwards regarding women clergy, this congregation is steeped in ministry—soup kitchens on Saturdays, lots of open talks about all the difficult issues, most of the staff is half-time due to finances which has caused some to leave for better jobs, and many other items that Jen will add in her stories column.

              As we approached the gangway, a bit winded, they welcomed us back and began disassembling the gangway right behind us.  Whew!  And we were still almost 7 minutes before final boarding!! We were the last passengers on shore.   Our first time with this distinction.  We plan to wear it as a badge of honor.