Go Travel and See the World

Like any other cities I visited in Europe, Riga is also beautiful. It is the capital of Latvia and also the largest city in the Baltic States.

It was quite a long trip for us that day because we started our journey from Klaipeda, one of the cities in Lithuania. Before that, we had a short sightseeing in one of the famous sights in Klaipeda, the Curonian Split. I will share about this sight in my next post.

Our journey from Klaipeda to Riga was around 300 kilometers. It was really a long trip with the bus but I love it because we can see the surroundings we passed by.

We also had a short stop-over in The Hill of Crosses, near Siauliai. This place was truly amazing. Imagine seeing hundreds of thousands of crosses here of all kinds. Truly unbelievable but so far it is the place where I see thousands of crosses.

We only had a short seeing in Riga but we did saw and experienced a lot including the Old Town with the Roland Statue, House of Black Heads, Town Hall, St. Peter’s Church, Museum of Occupation of Latvia and some other sights in this city.

The city will be the European Capital of Culture in 2014, along with Umeå in Sweden. The city hosted the 2006 NATO Summit, the Eurovision Song Contest 2003 and the 2006 IIHF Men’s World Ice Hockey Championships.

The House of Blackheads.  This is where the merchants-to-be had their guild. Part of this building is the tourist information office, the rest is a fascinating museum. The upper levels house grand ballrooms while the basement has a wine cellar and several exhibits relating to trading in Riga.

Riga was founded in 1201 by Albert of Bremen as a base for the Northern Crusades. It developed as the major trade hub of the Eastern Baltic during the high days of the Hanseatic League, ruled by the Archbishop of Riga. The Reformation reached Riga in 1522, which ended the Archbishops’ power.

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