| Page Views: 797 Last Visit to Riga: August, 2004 | Rīga the great! by Carletto76 - last update: Dec 25, 2004 |
I spent 2 days in Rīga last summer during my trip from Poland to Finland, across the 3 Baltic Republics.
I had great expectations about Latvian capital city and I wasn't disappointed at all, Rīga is really a wonderful city! It remembered me of Paris and the big Western European capital cities: wonderful buildings from medieval to modern times, a lot of green, incredible cars (I saw more Ferraris there than here in Italy!) and of course wonderful girls! ;-)
Really a beautiful, cosmopolitan town a "real big capital", quite different from Vilnius and Tallinn, which look smaller, which doesn't mean less beautiful at all! |
|  | Medieval Rīga Vecrīga is the oldest part of the town, and the most picturesque one. It's a labirinth of small streets, not so different from Vilnius, maybe with less churches and of different styles (more Gothic than Baroque), and many nice old coloured houses.
It's a very big historic centre, and in great part it's perfectly restored, or sometimes even rebuilt to its old fashion style.
I liked walking around with no map, trying to loose myself among the tiny roads; as usual it's my favourite way to enjoy old towns! ;-) |
| | Green Rīga When you go out of the labyrinth of streets of the old town, with few grees places, you finally see a lot of green, and water as well.
Rīga has got very nice parks too, not only beautiful buildings!
It's nice to relax on a bench, or just go around the grass and the water being exactly at the middle of a huge capital city! Calm, quiet, you forget about the big streets and traffic; a beautiful oasis inside the big Rīga! |
| | Art Nouveau in Rīga Only in Rīga you will find the most beautiful examples of Art Nouveau buildings, and some of them are really incredibile!
The "new town" is very different from the older one: large streets, trees, and those huge palaces all decorated in this very characteristic style. Again most of the houses are in perfect conditions, due to a great work of Latvian people to give their wonderful capital city the original beauty. You have to walk a lot along the long roads of the new town, but it's worth the time and the pain at your feet! ;-) |
| | Modern Rīga And Rīga is still developing day by day! There are not only wonderful old buildings, many of them already restored, but a lot of work is done also outside the main town centre, and new modern building, even skyscrapers are growing up.
Rīga is becoming more important day by day, so a lot of companies, banks and foreign funds are coming into the capital of Latvia, which means new richness and new, modern, architecture. |
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| Pros: | "Wonderful buildings both in the old and the new town" | | Cons: | "None that I can remember!" | | In A Nutshell: | "A "real" big European capital city in all its splendour!" |
Carletto76's Riga Travel Tips
 Comments for Carletto76 about Riga | | | | |
Maurizioago Sun May 20, 2007 09:06 UTC
"Ordinary people"; not "normal people". Ciao! | Propermark Sat Jan 7, 2006 14:07 UTC
Bello rivedere nelle tue foto le strade di Riga ed i monumenti principali! Anche la vita notturna non era affatto male! Ma devo dire che Tallinn è + caratteristica.. | HORSCHECK Tue Feb 1, 2005 22:06 UTC
Fabulous start about this East European gem. So you seem to be a stadium spotter ...I also always try to visit the stadiums of teh cities I visit. Unfortunately, I missed the Skonto stadium ... |
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