Alan and I decided to make this day our dedicated sight-seeing day. We’ve made several strolls through Old Town Riga, the Warehouse Markets, and through the area parks. Many of the parks are filled with statues of national heroes, tributes to those who led them to freedom in 1991.
And then there are more sobering statues as well, like this one of a small child. The statue is dedicated to the thousands of children who were sent to Siberia for “re-education” as Stalin rolled though the streets of Latvia. There is an erie evil connection between Stalin and Pol Pot (the dictator of the Khmer Rouge until 1979 – check out the blog about the Killing Fields, Cambodia).
We caught the train this afternoon for the nearby town of Jurmala, a beach town on the Baltic Sea. It has been so hot these last few days. We were up early, on the train, and at the beach by 1pm. It was overcast, cloudy, and it rained on and off. Still, we hung out for a few hours and made sure we splashed into the Baltic Sea. I’m sure I don’t have many friends who can say they’ve been swimming in the Baltic Sea!
After a day at the beach, we returned to the hotel and spent the afternoon in the SPA – pool, bubble pool, and three different heat rooms (dry heat, wet heat, and steam heat). We hung out there for 2 hours, making the rounds through each of the treatment. When we were done, we were hungry, thirsty, and tired. It was a great way to help relax us so we could get to bed earlier.
And, on that note….I am off to Bed!