Known as Riga Free Tour, or the Yellow Suitcase Tour, we took a 2 hour guided walking tour through the 'real Riga', as our guide called it.
Yellow suitcase because you meet your guide outside of St. Peter's Cathedral and you find him or her when you find the yellow suitcase. Since she knows that those of us not from Latvia will not be dressed appropriately for the weather, she has in her yellow suitcase gloves, hats. etc. to keep her guests warm!
The tour was fabulous! We toured our neighborhood here in Old Riga, but ventured far beyond these borders to a variety of sights and heard some amazing stories dating back over 800 years.
Just a few highlights here ....
doesn't this look like a facade in Disney Land or a movie set? it's just a regular street here ...
This art-nouveau apartment house and shop is renowned for the blossoming foliage-shaped corner with sun above. Designed in 1903 by architect P. Mandelstam.
Switching gears completely ... this was called the "black market". Appropriately named, you could find anything and everything here. Rumor was that if you lost something yesterday, you'd find it today, here and you could buy it back 'for a small price."
yes, even a German helmet from WW2 and Soviet era uniforms.
shifting gears again ... this was the place where in 1941, the Nazi's swept through Riga and burned all but one of the synagogues. The remains of this synagogue were turned into a memorial. The area around this synagogue was turned into a large Jewish ghetto during Nazi occupation. In all, over 42,000 Jewish people lost their lives in Latvia during this horrible time. It was sobering to stand in this very spot.
This flower market is open 24 /7 and is run by several private flower vendors.
A beautiful array of color against the gray and rainy sky.
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