Day 15 Riga, Latvia - A Day to Replan places to stay and routes to go

Tony's View

Spent a good amount of time planning last night and when I got up this morning, I started planning again. This was the section of the Baltics that I had a rough time finding places to stay the first time, 6 months ago. Now we are trying to get last minute bookings. We got 9 bookings cancelled, 6 new bookings set and waiting on one to respond. One of the 6 doesn't have a hot water heater. Joan was nice enough to say she would heat water up in the microwave and pour it on me😡. 

Tomorrow I will try to map out routes to keep us off interstate like traffic. This is another adventure, probably tougher than a freezing cold shower with a wonderful wife pouring warm water on you. 😂😏.

After all that planning and waiting on the rain to pass, we decided to go to the old town which is 3 miles away. We ended up getting around 20,000 steps.

The first stop in old town Riga was the St. Jacob Cathedral. I took a picture of the painting of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. It is beautiful in person. 

In the back of the Cathedral behind a curtain was a lot of bones including femurs, vertebrate and skulls. Not sure what they were from. We did go across the street to Eucharistic Adoration. It was a beautiful monstrance.

We then stopped for a beer and when we went inside, Joan found a delicious apple strudel. Success for both of us.😀

Joan showed me this sign. Yes, she read a sign to me. I was happy about it because it is a great sign. Beer is a noun, meaning magic water for fun people😂😂😂

We then went to the central market. It was a huge farmers market that happens everyday. One of the biggest I can remember.

As part of the farmers market was a huge indoor meat market that goes on and on. Obviously this is where locals get their fruit and meat.

After the farmers market, we went out to eat. Joan said, "Look they have different size mugs." I said, "I already see the one for me." The biggest one, of course 👍😀 and they let me pour my own beer. By the way Ex-Friend Dan, it didn't allow me to push it forwards to get foam. But the mug was 2 liters. You call that a large beer. It did take me a while to drink it, but I enjoyed it.

While walking back to our Airbnb we saw this church and decided to look in. Mass was going on so we decided to stay for a while.

Had to stop one more time so Joan could get breakfast of raison bread. We then made it back to the Airbnb at 8:00pm so I could work on the blog, yippee.😁😏

Joan's Extras

Dinner was an adventure by itself. This place was cafeteria style with pour your own beer. Tony mentioned at least 4 times, "That's a big beer!" Seems like he may need some training before he goes on the Tour de Octoberfest. 

We sat at the tables outside the restaurant and got entertained by the pigeons going for food wherever they could get it. We shooed several off of our table, but we also saw one lady let the pigeons eat her leftovers while they sat there at the table. After they left, the next people to sit at that table were two older ladies. They had quite a time keeping the pigeons off of their table.

We walked back to the Airbnb via a different route through the old town and saw someone rub this cute little fellow's ears so it must be another good luck thing. Probably means no more rain on this trip?