Walking Around in Old Town of Riga

Riga Old Town is very beautiful. Quieter than I thought. I didn’t see the stags as Amateur Traveler described.

This is when we went in the morning.

And the Dome Cathedral. My mom wanted to worship there but she was rejected at the door, and the lady told her to come back at 2p.m. Very funny. And I have no idea why I mainly saw old people (mature travelers?) in the Baltic. In most attractions I saw older tourists… 

Honestly I made plans.

I wanted to see the Town Square, The House of Blackheads, St. Peter’s Church, Livu Square & Cat’s  House, Dome Cathedral, The Powder Tower, The Swedish Gate, St. Jacobs Cathedral, Three Brothers, and Riga Castle….Like Tallinn, the Old Town of Riga was also a hub in Hanseatic League, and it’s also on the UNESCO list.

While having 4 days in Latvia, I actually hardly visited any of these sites! Surprise!

We found a really good restaurant (Charlie’s pizza) next to the Dome Cathedral, and we dined there. Then it started to rain and so after our lunch we immediately went to Latvian Ethnographic Open Air Museum while the weather hadn’t turned too bad yet. In the evening when we came back, we went to Charlie’s pizza again…..

So yeah, I didn’t see Central Market either, weird.

If you have time to walk around Riga, it’s very interesting. You can see the flags of the leagues of Latvia here.

And yay I saw the Powder Tower from the outside!

And well, what a cute frog outside a souvenir shop! We didn’t buy anything from this shop but we bought Laima chocolate in a shop nearby.

The Old Town has lots of cafes, it kind of reminds me of Tallinn’s old town, except it’s a bit toned down. Right, it’s more like Stockholm’s Gamla Stan but minus the sea.

And Riga has relatively stronger medieval feel than Stockholm’s Gamla Stan. It’s not quite as popular as Tallinn but I’d like to see how popular it can get in the future! I’d recommend Riga to you, although if I have to pick between the Old Town of Tallinn, Vilnius, Stockholm and Riga….

My order will be Tallinn> Riga > Stockholm > Vilnius

How about you?