Riga; Tuesday, 01 February, 2005

The morning was spent wandering around the city taking in the sights.

One of the must see sights of the city, according to the guide book, is St Peters Church where you can get the lift up to the top of the tower for stunning views. Unfortunately the lift is currently out of order (and at the time of visiting had been for nearly a year!)

The church itself is quite interesting with displays of artwork also dotted around the aisles.

The next stop, after a lot of wandering around looking at the outsides of lots of interesting buildings, was the Cathedral.

This is an impressive building with a massive space inside, which given the lack of light in February in Northern Europe and the dark stone used is still very light and airy.

After the Cathedral we finished off our walking tour with a spot of lunch before moving onto the Russian Orthodox Cathedral.

The building is spectacular both on the outside and the inside with almost every wall covered with icons and decorations and massive candle stands dotted liberally around the place.

The final stop for the afternoon was the TV tower. Located on an island in the middle of the river it dominated the landscape (in it's full red and yellow colouring!) You can get the express lift that goes up the curved legs to the viewing platforms at the top of the tower for stunning views over the whole of the city and off towards the Baltic. Made even more spectacular by the fact that a river, wider than the Thames, Main, Danube, Rhine or any other that I have see on my trips to Europe was totally frozen solid, just a few miles from the sea!

From the TV tower we walked back into town and to a well deserved big meal and drink.