Baltic Cruise, Part 3: Latvia and Lithuania!

 After Tallinn, the ship docked in Riga, Latvia.   My only other trip to Latvia was about twenty years ago solo when I was in medical school, but my Latvian godparents (John and Inara) make us feel like we know Latvia well! 

Riga  ("Paris of the North") is a lovely old city founded in 1201. 

We started by heading from the port to Alberta ilea (street), featuring some of the most famous Art Nouveau architecture.

We walked through some nice downtown parks to Old Town (Vecriga).

    Freedom Monument (1905)

Town Hall Square has the often photographed House of the Blackheads.

Armadillo near the Riga Cathedral

The Three Brothers are merchant houses from the 1600s.

The cutest cafe in Old Town Riga.

We wandered through the Central Market, held in WW2 zeppelin hangars, which is one of Europe's largest.  The boys tried out some Pho in Latvia, while I joined my parents in meeting up with a family friend Ray, who moved from Michigan back to his family's home in Riga about ten years ago.

The next day, we docked in Klaipeda, Lithuania, and were greeted with some more typical Baltic weather (it was cold and rainy). Previously knows as "Memel," the city has a long history of German influence and is also very close to Russia.  We organized a private tour which took us over to the Curonian Spit, a 98 km-long protected strip of land which is home to some impressive sand dunes and pine forests and which separates the Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea.

The Grey (Dead Dunes) aren't shifting as much as some of the others.

The Parnidis Dune (52 m) near Nida  is one of the highest dunes. 

Sartre sculpture

Sundial

View towards Russia (4 km away)-- we did not venture there!

Our guide then took us to Juodkrante Hill (Hill of Witches), which is home to dozens of large wooden sculptures dating from the 1970s which feature characters in Lithuanian legends like Neringa, a giant girl who is fabled to have created the Spit (also the name of a local town). My parents (cold and not as keen to walk) didn't join us for this walk.

goofy N

We warmed up with hot drinks and soups after a day in nature in Lithuania!