Riga

It was freezing, literally when we set off for Leeds Bradford airport at 4.00 am. All the parked cars were frozen up when we got there.

We arrived here in Riga at 11.30am as they are two hours ahead in Latvia and after a quick check in at our hotel we set off for a wander. It was warmer than we expected but dull. We walked along Gertrudes ilea to the Old St Gertrude's Church that we could see from our hotel. Lots of interesting shops and eating places along the way and we stopped for a coffee and cake which turned out to be a caramel baked cheesecake with nuts in. A local speciality.
The church was decorated for harvest and looked most attractive but very quiet. (According to the map this was also the location of the KGB headquarters!)
We saw a couple of attractive Art Nouveau buildings for which the city is famous but more of those later we hope.
We headed down towards a couple park with attractive autumnal leaves. The first one was dominated by the gold domes of the Orthodox Cathedral. There were queues and queues of people waiting to get in and some coming out. They seemed to be mainly women and some were having a group photograph with their priest outside the cathedral before getting into buses and disappearing. We had no idea what was going on. We asked in a lovely craft and gift shop at the bottom of the road. The girl shrugged and said she didn't know but the country had just had an election yesterday and maybe thier prayers were needed!
(On arrival at the airport there were posters saying 'On November 18 wear a pair of Latvian mittens and celebrate with us' No idea what that is about either but the shop was full of lovely examples of hand knitted ones.)

Into the second park we saw pleasure boats which will take you along the canal and out to the river which we may investigate later and then through the trees I spotted the bright yellow of this building. It displays the emblems of the towns and cities of Latvia.
As we got there it came on to rain so we headed for the welcoming lights of the cafe bar underneath. The food smelled amazing so after a welcome drink we asked for the menu and decided to eat there rather than return to the hotel and go out again.
They had a list of Latvian Cuisine, predominantly pork and potatoes. I had the pork fillet with mash and Chris had black pudding with spinach and mash. Both were garnished with dill which tasted and smelled wonderful. I would never have thought of putting dill with pork or mash but it worked. My meat was lovely but a little over salted for my liking so Chris got a good bit of it. The mash was amazing - one of life's great comfort foods I think.
We were right on the edge of the city square and true old town which we will see much more of tomorrow. (The waitress assured us the weather is to improve)
It's not eight o'clock yet at home but I'm off to bed!