About Riga

Skylines and views
-seen from the TV Tower

Old Town - North part

Cathedral Square, Riga Dom
Riga Castle, Riverfront
St James Barracks & Cathedral

Freedom Square
Bastejkalns Park

Central Station area (modern part):

Freedom Monument, Opera, embassies, Bastejkalns Park
Esplanade, Vermanes Garden
Russian-Orthodox Cathedral

Central station, Merkela iela, Bergs Bazar, Shopping centers

Latv.Academy of Sciences Bldg.
Central Market

OUTSIDE CITY CENTER:

Kipsala and Pardaugava

Northeast of city center

AIRPORT:

Riga Int'l Airport

ABOUT Riga:

Country: Latvia - capital and largest city
Population: 699 000 (metro 1 018 000)
Tallest building: Saules Akmens/Swedbank (123m) and St Peter's Church (123m)
Tallest structure: TV Tower (369m)
Founded year: 1201
Area: 304 km² (metro 10 133 km²)
Year visited: 2013

ABOUT RIGA

Riga is the capital and largest city of Latvia and the largest city in the Baltics. It is situated near the Gulf of Riga, close to the Baltic Sea, near the moth of the river Daugava, that flows through the city. The Old Town is listed in the UNESCO World Heritage Site list, and the city is famous for its jugend architecture. It is the European Capital of Culture in 2014 (together with Umeå, Sweden). The city was a member of the Hanseatic League in the past.

MY EXPERIENCE

I visited Riga in August 2013 for 2 half days, as part of a trip to the Baltic countries (I visited the Latvian capital Tallinn after (but missed Vilnius unfortunately). The weather was ok, it was sunny and rained the same time the first day, and the second day it was mostly sunny, but in the afternoon a short rain storm swept over the city. The city is very beautiful, especially the Old Town, where you can find tall church towers and squares with open air restaurants and historic buildings. Close to the Old Town is Freedom Square with its high sculpture, the Bastejkalns park with surrounding beautiful buildlings and the beautiful jugend/art nouveau district that I unfortunately didn't have time to visit.

On the other side of River Daugava, that are connected with the old town by cool designed bridges, you can find a few skyscrapers, most of them recently built. On the abandoned Paudagava island the tallest structure in the Baltics, the exceptionally designed Riga TV Tower, is situated.

Riga is similar to Tallinn in many way, but it differs since it doesn't have an intact city wall, and the highrises are more spread out allover the city. It also have more parks in the city center. But just like Tallinn it has wooden houses in the outskirts, and many rundown blocks, large commie block districts and shopping malls.

My hostel, Riga Hostel, was situated opposite the railway station in a nice urban neighbourhood in Central Riga, one of the busiest, not very far from the Old Town.

I also visited Tallinn after Riga.

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