Another beautifully in Riga and we were off to explore the Moscow district with Joan. The Moscow district is behind the central market area and was as an area of Russian, Belarusian and Jewish migration for hundreds of years. Housing in the area is predominately made of wood. Up until the mid 19th century wooden houses were mandated by the rulers of Riga. In times of invasion the occupants had to burn down their houses and seek shelter behind the city walls. Thi...

I had booked another tour before arriving in Riga, the "Best of Riga Food and Culture Walking Tour". After our tour the previous day I had trepidations about this one, but I'd already paid, so off we went. The tour promised an exploration of three of Riga's most essential districts, combined with food tasting and cultural walking tour. We met our guide, Liga, in the Old Town on Vecpilsetas Street, from there we walked to one of the many 17th century store hou...

I've already shared with you how knowledgeable our friend Joan is about Riga and what to see and do. When we were planning this trip Joan suggested that we should visit Rundale Palace, which is about 70 kilometres outside of Riga. I found a tour company that would pick us up and take us to the palace, so the tour was booked. Our driver arrived at 10:00 for the day's tour. And now to the name of this entry "Everything is Illuminated". You might not have read th...

Joan picked us up from the airport and we piled into a taxi for a short drive to her flat in the Art Nouveau district in Riga. Joan's apartment is in one of the many beautiful apartments in the district. Greg and I stayed in the Joan's London apartment in 2015 and were impressed with the elegance of her renovations to a small flat that made it open and light. Her apartment in Riga has blown us away, it's absolutely beautiful, making the most of the soaring ce...

Today is the last day of our tour. In the morning our fellow travellers headed to different cities for different adventures. Rob and Tess travelled to Budapest for a four day stay and departed in the morning. We are heading to Riga in the afternoon so we decided to spend our last day walking around the central part of Warsaw. Yesterday we had hoped to find a nice bottle champagne to celebrate Rob Vines 60th birthday, I thought this would be an easy task as cha...