Riga Old Town & National Library

 I started the day with Riga Old Town walking tour, to learn the history behind St Peter's Church, The Town Hall square, The House of Blackheads, House of the Black Cat, The Dome Square, Riga Synagogue, etc. The old town of Riga is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. 

The original House of Blackheads was built for the Brotherhood of Blackheads, a guild for unmarried merchants, shipowners, and foreigners in Riga, then burned down and rebuilt by college students. Tallinn has similar one. Both cities claim their blackheads started the first Christmas tree. 

House of the Black Cat is most famous for the two statues of black cats on the roofs. The fabricated legend has it that a disgruntled tradesman who was not accepted into the Big Guild, built this house and put the cats on it with their tails pointing towards the Big Guild, thus expressing his scorn. 

I then toured by myself Latvian War Museum, National Library of Latvia, Andrejsala, and Galerija Centrs.

Latvian War Museum is a great Free museum located in the Powder Tower in Old Town to discover the history of Latvian warfare, including the War of independence and First world war period. The Powder Tower itself is worth a visit, dating back to the 13th century defensive features of medieval Riga.

National Library of Latvia has impressive external and interior designs, many exhibitions, as well as panorama views of the bank of Riga (especially from 11-12th floors that you need to ask front desk which elevator to get to). The collection of the National Library (4, 5 million units) embraces all branches of science, its basic profile being Social Sciences and the Humanities.

When walking around Andrejsala (an old harbour district located just outside of Old Town has fancy restaurants along the waterfront or venture a bit further to the end of the pier), I saw a liquor store and bought a bottle of Estonian Liviko Wild Strawberry-Metsmaasikas Liqueur (21%, 500 ml) for 5.6 euros. The staff told the Finnish tourists used to buy liquor in Tallinn now turn to Riga for even better prices. However, my bottle tasted a bit like cough syrup 😞

Ever since its opening in 1938 Galerija Centrs has been the most exquisite shopping site in Riga. The mall has over 100 shops, as well as cafes, restaurants, and other services. I ran into a spectral festival with DJ music and got a free pink hat and a raincoat in a white boll container. One the way back to my hotel, I stopped by a park, and bumped into Chanel promotion girls on red bikes who gave me samples. I had packaged herring bought from supermarket for dinner, which was only 1/4 of the price of the smoke fish from Riga central market and tasted better (not as fishy).