Have spent the last 3 days travelling by car around the western side of Latvia countryside, known as the Kurzeme district. Visited a military museum with many old bombs, guns and tanks (mainly Russian) from World War 2. Also the ruins of an old fortress at the harbour of Liepaja. These were unhappy times for the Latvian people with many years of repression and deprivation from both the Soviet and German armies. Abandoned and derelict buildings from the collec...

Have enjoyed walking around the art nouveau district of Riga with beautiful architecture, prevalent in the early 20th century. Also went up the tower of St Peters Cathedral for magnificent views over the city of Riga, showing the contrast in medieval, art nouveau style buildings, alongside the very plain, dark buildings that were dominant during the Soviet occupation of Latvia. Latvia has a sad history of repression during periods of Soviet and German occupatio...

Arrived in Riga, the capital city of Latvia, a small eastern european country, located between Lithuania and Estonia. A very different city to Stockholm, that is struggling with poor economic times, high unemployment and long standing political and social conflict between the Latvian and Russian nationals. Received a warm welcome from Martin (Rod's son) and Anita (his girlfriend) and her family with a traditional sunday BBQ, Latvian style, and a game of petanqu...