Day 9

It was a short drive to Lithuania's fabled Hill of Crosses, a symbol of defiance as much as a pilgrimage site. More than 100,000 crosses have been planted on this low hill, many of them strung with rosary beads that rattle softly in the breeze. The tradition began during the 1831 Uprising and reached its height in the 1960s, in defiance of anti-religious Soviet rule.

We found a campsite on an island in Riga (€31 with hook up). It was raining heavily with thunder so we got a number for Bolt (a kind of Uber-type taxi popular in the east) instead of walking the 1.5 miles into the old town. It cost €1.60. He dropped us at Independence Square then we walked to Mentzendorff’s house which looked a good option given the weather. We got there at 4.15 but the relic from the Soviet era wouldn’t let us in as it closed at 5. We went to the St Paul Lutheran Evangelical church (€3) where we were lucky enough to hear a soprano rehearsing accompanied by 3 violins and a cello. She was magnificent, her voice soaring up into the high roof.

I’d promised Mr C an evening in the opera house for a ballet called Nijinsky and he was anxious to get the tickets. As we were close to The Three Brothers, old adjoining houses, I thought we should see them first. The houses together form the oldest complex of dwelling houses in Riga. Each house represents various periods of development of dwelling house construction, the oldest from 15th century.

Then we headed for the opera house, sheltering from the downpour in various doorways. It wasn’t open so we went back and found a nice place nearby to get something to eat. I thought a trio of different bruschetta would suffice but Mr C was hungry and ordered fish soup for himself as well. I made do with a glass of wine and we shared the bruschetta trio.

By the time we’d had that the opera house had opened. We got pensioner’s rates, €42.50 each instead of €50 for dress circle second row. The opera house is very grand with lots of gold plaster and chandeliers. The bars were also lovely so it was necessary to have a glass of Latvian Cava in order to get the ambience. I was seriously underdressed - I was wearing a pink linen dress but people were in such finery, almost evening gowns - flounces and sparkles. Our seats were actually very uncomfortable chairs and because the rows were not offset or highly stepped it was hard to get a good view of the stage. Unfortunately the ballet was not to Mr C’s taste. It was more modern dance with jerky, puppet-like fast but very repetitive movements to Chopin at his most frenetic. The dancers were excellent as was the orchestra but the choreography let it down. (In my unknowledgeable view). The woman in front kept taking out her phone and checking the time. We were disappointed but on the other hand it was our only opportunity to experience anything in the opera house.

Mr C contacted Bolt on his app and we were picked up in 2 minutes and whisked back to the site 15 minutes later at a cost of €1.60.

It’s been a such brilliantly diverse day I can’t decide on a blip - probably just as well as we can’t get anything more than 3G in Riga.

A mere 97 miles driven today and only 3.5 miles walked.