Vilnius (Day 5)

A day trip to Riga. Another place I know well, but not as well as Vilnius.

A huge amount of renovation has taken place in the city centre since I was there last - '98 probably.

It looks great. I enjoyed my wanderings, had a lovely lunch and dinner, plus all the travel went according to plan.

The Blip is the guards at Brīvības  piemineklis - Freedom Monument. It was built in 1935 (Latvia was independent between WW1 & WW2) using money raised by public subscription ("crowdfunding" we call it now).

The Soviets would have loved to dynamite it, but were fearful of the reaction.

I've put a photo of the monument in "extras". The other is the Russian Orthodox Cathedral. Over 40% of the poulation of the city is Russian speaking.