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Today we explored Riga further, by taking an old tram to the furthest point of the old city, getting off there and walking back to the apartment along various sights.
The first part we walked through a beautifully landscaped park, until we arrived at Riga Castle (where the national museum is located and also the presidential residence). However, it turned out to be closed for renovations, and it would reopen at the end of this year. So we could not go in. We then walked further to a square where there is a large freedom monument. Here, two guards were symbolically walking guard, under the watchful eye of a soldier. Across the street, we had a drink at a coffee shop (with a view of the guards). Then we walked further to the cathedral, where the towers have golden domes. We also briefly saw the inside of the cathedral, where there is a lot of splendor and magnificence. After having seen this, we sat down on a bench opposite the cathedral to eat a sandwich. After this, we continued walking to a building with two statues of black cats on the roof. There is a whole story behind this. The next place we walked to was the central market hall, which actually consists of five halls that are internally connected to each other. These halls were once built as a factory to produce Zeppelins, so they are large halls with high ceilings! I bought a souvenir in this market hall. Then we walked to a district where old warehouses made of bricks are located. During the Second World War, this was the ghetto of Riga. Here we also went to the 'Ghetto and Latvian Holocaust' museum, this is a fairly small museum (partly outdoors), but impressive. Especially the wall with the names of 70,000 Latvian Jews who were murdered (and on the back of the wall the names of 25,000 Western European (mainly German and Austrian) Jews who were taken to Riga and murdered). The walk continued via a large square tower that Stalin gave to the Latvian people as a gift during the Soviet era. By the way, this tower does not look particularly communist, it looks more like it came from New York. Finally, we walked on to the Great Synagogue of Riga, or what is left of it... As we learned in the Holocaust museum described above, during the war, a few days after Riga was occupied by the Germans in 1941, Jews were locked in the synagogue and then set the synagogue on fire. Many were killed. This trick was then repeated at other synagogues in the city, killing a total of 400 Jews. The ruins of this synagogue can still be visited. From here we walked back to the apartment. Once we arrived at the apartment, we relaxed for a while and had a snack, after which we did some groceries. After doing the groceries, we cooked dinner and I took a nap. I woke up just in time, because dinner was ready, time to eat! After dinner, it was a quiet evening and we relaxed. Tomorrow we leave Latvia and drive to the farthest point of the trip: Tallinn in Estonia! We will also stay there for two nights.
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