Tag Archives: Latvia
Sunday Photo – House of Blackheads, Riga
The odd looking House of Blackheads building is named after an African missionary named Mauritius who refused to execute pagan locals who themselves refused to convert to Christianity. He paid the ultimate price for this disloyalty to the ruling Germans and was later canonised for his suffering and martyrdom.
Sunday Photo – Art Nouveau Decor, Riga
Riga has probably the best collection of Art Nouveau (or Jugendstil) buildings of any city in Europe. Unless you know better?
Baltic Greats – Riga to Tallinn, Part 2
Making Tracks Having seen much of Riga’s special charm, we decided on a little side trip to the Baltic Coast. The Jaumeri area has long been popular with the city’s inhabitants due to its proximity to the capital, the white sands of its blue flag beaches and the pine fresh air that invigorates visitors. Riga […]
Friday Photos – Art Nouveau Architecture, Riga
Riga is famous for its Art Nouveau (or Jugendstil) architecture, a form most popular from the 1890’s until around 1910. There are over 100 buildings of this style in Riga, with the best examples in Alberta Street. The excellent Art Nouveau Museum is also at the end of the same street.
Baltic Greats – Riga to Tallinn, Part 1
In 2019 we had a trip booked to two Baltic capitals but had to cancel at the last minute. We decided to rebook for 2020, following exactly the same itinerary that we had planned before flying Air Baltic, staying in central AirBNBs and taking a train between the two cities. All worked like clockwork, the […]
Monday Morning Blues – Orthodox Church, Majori, Latvia
Today’s blue coloured picture to help beat the Monday morning blues comes from this Saturday in the Latvian Baltic Coast town of Majori. Majori itself has lovely golden beaches and some ornate wooden villas which were built to accommodate the great and the good of the Soviet rulers, who favoured the resort as a bolt […]
Friday Photo – The House Of Blackheads, Riga
I am on my second visit to Latvia’s capital. This building is named after the African missionary (St Mauritius) who refused German orders to execute locals who refused to convert from paganism to Christianity. This saw him beheaded himself, hence the building name.
2016 Gone, 2017 Beckons
As is the norm as around this time of year, travel reflection and anticipation are the order of the day. So did 2016 live up to travel expectations? Well I did not get any further than Europe, but count myself satisfied in the wanderlust department even though I have a burning desire to go further […]
On The Beaten Track – Travels In Eastern Europe Free Sampler Download Link
Now available to download from Lulu Publishing (see Lulu button on the right hand side of this blog) or Amazon as a colour e-book or black & white paperback. Over 500 pages for just over £3 (ebook download) Read the Opening chapters for free by downloading ‘Now Boarding, The Eastern European Express’, from Smashwords. See My Book Extracts […]
Regal Riga
With a few days leave to use up, I decided that I would make whistle stop visits to two of the few European countries that I was yet to visit. First destination was Latvia’s capital for a two night, 36 hour jaunt with Wizz Air. Widely regarded as the best of the Baltic State capitals, I […]
