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Day 10
Today was spent sightseeing in Riga with Phil and Sandy.
We did all the tourist sights along with a couple beer stops! It started raining briefly around lunchtime so we went into a shoe shop which was arranged in rooms around a house which was brilliant to see how the house would have been furnished around the 1940's -1950's.
A few of the monuments we visited were informative telling the story about the soviet and German occupation and the extermination of Jews and Romany people. It was horrific to read about just how many, men, women and children were killed simply because of their backgrounds and beliefs. Being removed from the atrocities as we are in England to be in a country were nearly 75% of their population was killed or imprisoned is very sobering. The country then continued under soviet dictation until 1991 and is only now a decade later re-establishing itself by reclaiming its buildings and restructuring itself.
One place we visited was the city cathedral which on the outside was a magnificent display of architecture; however when we tried to look inside Colin and I were stopped because we were wearing cropped trousers both of which covered our knees but showed Colin's ankles, however a woman wearing the shortest mini skirt which barely covered her knickers was allowed in! We couldn't understand the reasoning behind the thinking! Although the boys did offer suggestions as to why her thighs were more pleasing to god than Colin's ankles!
At our lunch stop a man came into the cafe and after a heated discussion turned around and rolled up the floor mat and took it away with him!
We meandered up and down alleyways all afternoon and took our afternoon break at a cafe showing the Olympics; we had watched the men's synchronised diving at a bar in Tallinn and this was our second glimpse. Phil was telling us about some of the poor coverage by other countries but the cycling and then rowing we watched were good. When the GB rowing team crept up into 2nd place we all got very excited and loud! At the end of the race when Germany had won an elderly gentleman came over and asked Colin if he was British; it was obvious that he was German so we wondered what he was going to say! He was just enquiring whether that was the final, when we said it was he congratulated us on getting the silver and said that the German team had not lost a major completion for the last 13 races!
When we returned to the hotel at 6.30 we found a note from the aussie motorcyclists asking us if we wanted to meet up for dinner at 7! So we all had a quick shower but after much searching we located the restaurant but not the Aussies! Sandy was out in her high heels which were awkward on the cobble streets so we sat down at a cafe whilst Colin and Phil did a final sweep.
We stayed at the cafe listening to a band and watching a tiny tot dancing.
Colin was enjoying the band immensely and half turned away from us; when we'd finished our drinks Phil, Sandy and I snook away from him and sat on a table behind him. Eventually he turned round and realised we'd moved which made other people laugh. He turned back to finish his drink and the waitress came to leave us the bill and we told her to give it Colin which made her laugh, then when she returned with the change I got it and put it on front of us. Colin turned round saw what we'd done and then playing to the crowd watching him said "I don't care you can keep her" and moved to sit with a single man who immediately replied "but I don't want him" and moved his chair away much to the delight of the people around us. I felt sorry for the band as people were more interested in our byplay than them!
We went for our evening meal in a medieval restaurant. The restaurant was in the basement of an old house, we entered the building and descended the stairs. As we went lower we could hear musicians playing and the whole place was lit only by candles. The furniture was solid oak tables, chairs and benches. The bread was served in Muslin wraps and was unleavened. We all chose a different beer and Phil and I chose the same main course which was enormous, I'm sure one portion would have fed the pair of us! As we were eating our meal a large group of Italians came and sat down, Colin and Sandy were placing bets as to how many photo's would be taken during the meal as they were very snap happy!
- comments
sam You 4 are trouble no matter which country you are in. It all sounds good fun though XxX
Marie I always said rowing was exciting! You can cause trouble wherever you go, obviously Latvians have the measure of our father as well! Xx