Riga Attractions

To market, to market

Advantages: Hustle, bustle, colour, bargains
Disadvantages: Variable quality, not so good for souvenirs

...and teeming with life. Riga Central Market is one of the best. * A good place for a market * The history books will tell you that Riga was founded in 1201AD by the Knights of the Sword, one of the Teutonic orders that crusaded and bullied their way up the Baltic coast in those benighted times, but it is clear that a settlement stood on the site long before then. With a safe harbour nearby, and a navigable river giving access to the interior, it ...
...the Daugava River that connects Riga to the Baltic Sea. In 1922 someone on Riga City Council had the zany idea of buying and transporting a set of wartime zeppelin hangars that had been carelessly abandoned by the Imperial German forces in western Latvia. Inspired though the notion was, transplanting and reassembling the hangars required much ingenuity in practice and it was not until 1930 that they eventually opened for business, at which point ...

torr 08.08.2007 · Read full review
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Review of Riga Central Market

Food LIDO way!

Advantages: Loads of food!
Disadvantages: Always full of people

The Recreation Center Lido is a Business Card of Riga. It offers such features as the beer cellar with its own mini-brewery, restaurant and bistro, live music, open air ice-rink and attractions in the amusement park, shops full of souvenirs, as it is a tourist destination. This place combines good traditional Latvian food, some international dishes, good home-made Latvian beer, good atmosphere and lots of fun! Recreation Center LIDO was opened in ...
...would recommend you to try Lido Medalus (Mead). It is very popular and tasty. And guess what, Lido beer is one of the famous in Latvia! On the first floor, there is a bistro with buffet of about 500 dishes, juice bar, pastry shop, ATM and TV screen. For a drink, my choice lies at kvass, which is made from fermented rye bread and yeast. And for dessert - Maizes zupa - rye bread with fruits and topped with wiped cream - scrumptious! On the second floor, ...

yankin 06.11.2009 · Read full review
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Review of Lido Recreation Centre, Riga

Don't get here too early...

Advantages: Modern and convenient
Disadvantages: Boring

Whilst Riga airport is modern, convenient, well-signposted, and all the rest of it, it is a boring place. We were bored, and some friends were forced to spend 4 hours there with small children last week, and it nearly drove them up the wall. The best thing to do would be to arrive as late as possible so you don't have to spend too much time here. The few shops are pricey - the tourist things for example cost a lot more than in the city. There was ...
...souvenirs - caps, badges, cigarette cases etc. But really, once you've had a quick look round everything you need to have a good book to pass the time. There was a cafe, but it was pricey by local standards. And as the airport has few flights, there weren't many people there to watch. The airport is about 8km out of the city centre. We had a lot of luggage and so got a taxi. We must have got some sort of pricey one as it cost GBP11. If we'd have ...

kittenkong 01.11.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Riga Airport (RIX), Latvia

Still a proud symbol

Advantages: Well known feature in Riga
Disadvantages: None

Riga's Freedom Monument. just outside the city's Old Town, has had a multi purpose history. It was put up in 1935 during an interwar period of independence, with an inscription - To Fatherland and Freedom. Basically, the Monument consists of a tall stone pillar, atop it a large bronze statue of a woman holding aloft three gold stars which symbolise three regions of Latvia. Around the bottom of it are sculptures depicting various aspects of the nation ...
...historical heritage. The statue became a symbol and focus of the anti-Soviet resistance movement in the late 1980's and early 90's in the struggle for independence. Here in 1987 thousands of people held a rally to remember people deported by Stalin. The fact that the Soviets did not pull it down reflects, I suppose, that they were already feeling a bit weak, and feared inciting too much opposition from the locals. Whatever, they let it stand and ...

kittenkong 01.11.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Freedom Monument (Brivibas Piemineklis), Riga

Revenge of the felines

Advantages: historic kitty statues
Disadvantages: difficult to spot them

The Cat House, a large building in Riga, capital of Latvia, is named after two metal cat statues on the top of its towers. You need to locate the building on a map, and look up. Don't bother if you aren't a cat lover. There's not much too this attraction - you can't go inside the building. You just stand on the pavement, and remember the story. That's it. The Cat House has romantic stories behind it. For one thing, the cats are said to have put ...
...fell and died whilst putting them in place. But why would anyone want to put two cats atop a building anyway? The story goes that in the first years of the last century, the building was owned by a rich Latvian businessman. The members of a Guild, housed in the Big Guild building opposite, would not let him attend their all-German meetings. So in an eccentric gesture he had the cats put in place, with their backs arched, tails up, and backsides pointing ...

kittenkong 01.11.2005 · Read full review
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Review of Cat House, Riga