A reasonable start to the day - up at a decent hour and a leisurely breakfast. Then a shock to Fran. We caught a trolley bus to the station - just as quick and 1/10th of the price of a taxi. The bus journey to Riga was uneventful. The bus seemed full of Italians - I don't know why. We had our passports checked for the first time since St Pancras. When we got to Riga it must have previously been pouring with rain - flooding everywhere. We continued the trolley bus theme as the tourist office said it was the easiest way to the hotel. The hotel is a brand new - very minimalist (i.e. cheap) - but situated in an area full of old wooden buildings and cobbled streets - come back in 5 years and the area will be gentrified and expensive. Fran's been on 4 trolley buses in a day - must be a record!

Next day into town, by tram of course. We walked through the market - it had a large fish market - do not know why there are not lots of fish restaurants. We started walking round old town - bigger than Vilnius and a mixture of old and new but with lots of quaint cobbled streets. Not so many churches as Vilnius. There was a lot of emphasis on the independence struggle. Despite the weather it seemed the season for weddings - we saw 3 in the centre of town. It started to drizzle and then rain. We dived into a cafe for 'Kafe und Kuchen'. When we had finished the cake, it was still raining so it was off to the cinema to see 'Mamma Mia' - shown in English but with Russian and Latvian subtitles. We both thoroughly enjoyed it - although we were laughing in places the locals did not. We had dinner and its still raining.