Day 18 - Jelgava, Latvia - Let it Rain in Mass

Joan's View

We went to mass this morning at 9:00. The other option was 11:00, but guess what? The rain was starting around 11:30. I had to get a picture of the priest dousing holy water on us after mass. It was a mini broom that he dipped and used to bless us. I guess they are used to getting wet here.

This beautiful Orthodox Church was on the way to the Catholic church. ➤

After mass we got some pastries at a grocery store and headed back to the Airbnb.

While it rained, Tony decided to take the bike to a local car wash but was unable to get the hoses to work even using translator. He managed to apply the chain cleaner that Robert from the Riga bike store gave him. Tony came back and cleaned the bike more outside of our Airbnb. 

We are staying in a building behind the host's house. Their dog camped right outside our door. She must know that Luna is vacationing at Wade & Linda's with Roxy & AJ, and somebody needs to protect us.

After the rain passed around 3:30, we explored Jelgava some more. We walked around the grounds of the Jelgava palace. It was a former Duke's palace that was destroyed during World War II and rebuilt. It is the largest baroque style building in the Baltics. 

Massively impressive

We walked to the sand sculptures on the Island. Here are a few of my favorites:

Zeus

I like the way that Jelgava displays their locks of love. Instead of locking them on bridge railing like most we have seem in other cities, they provided these metal trees. Tony is hiding in one of the trees.

Check out the beautiful fountains that you can walk under along the riverbank. Tony is not hiding under those.

Dinner was at a restaurant on the island. We opted to eat inside because the mosquitos are still in attack mode. I got served gloves last night with my sandwich and we see lots of people use them here. Tony ordered a burger tonight and decided to use the gloves with his messy burger. 

Tony's Extras

While we were at Mass, I was looking at all these old people. To think, just a little over 30 years ago, they were being persecuted by the Soviets for being Catholic. We are so blessed in the United States to never having to experience that. You can just sense how much they love Jesus.

After dinner, I finally found an ice cream cone my size.😂😂. Tomorrow we say goodbye to Latvia. We will be leaving Latvia tomorrow with clean and well oiled chains😀