Another fine hot day greeted us as we met for our driving tour of the city. Our Latvian guide for the morning was excellent. He had studied archeology and theology and was passionate about his country's history. As we passed the various embassies he hummed an appropriate song and later during the tour he sang local folk songs - boy could he sing. After driving for half an hour we got out for our walking tour of the old town seeing a mixture of Gothic, Renaissance and Baroque buildings.

Prior to becoming a recognised city the area of Riga had been used by traders, merchants and missionaries. In 1201 the crusaders arrived in the area on a mission to convert the people to Christianity. When it became an official city in 1201 everyone was converted to Christianity, often against their will. After he reformation Riga converted to Protestantism and in particular the
Lutheran variety. Lutheran was introduced just 7 years after its birth and the vast majority of the country have since continue with this faith. The churches thus tend to be of a northern German gothic design.

We will let the pictures of the old town speak for themselves.

After the walk we were then picked up by the bus to visit an open air museum about 15 minutes out of the city. This museum is a collection of rural buildings dating back up to the 18th century on an 84 hectare site. Often multiple generations of families would live in a single room farm house with the number sometime being as many as 15 people. There were 3 buildings which caught our interest. One was a windmill based on Dutch wind mills but instead of just the top of the wind vane turning on an axis to catch the wind they had built one where the whole building rotated. This did not happen automatically – it required a horse to rotate it.

The second was a wooden church with frescoes painted on the ceiling. These were in really good condition. The final one was the sauna which, in addition to being used for the weekly Saturday bathing in preparation for Sunday, was also the birthing building and the building where the dead were washed in preparation for burial. It was probably used for conceiving as well as it seemed to the only building on the farm where there was the possibility any privacy.

After a very pleasant walk through the forest to view these buildings which also included food storage buildings, barns etc we headed for a barn that had been turned into a restaurant and souvenir shop. We had a great lunch with probably one of the best soups we have ever had.

Back on the bus and off to Estonia. After the big lunch it was difficult not to have a nap however our guide used the time to play some more music (Norah Jones this time) and give us statistics about Estonia as well as an overview of the history. Will save those for tomorrows update.

Upon arrival in the capital Tallinn at 1830 we picked up a city map and went for a walk through some of the old Feudal town. This city looks to be just as interesting as both Vilnius and Riga.