Lithuania and Latvia

Monday, August 25, 2014, Klaipeda, Lithuania

This city on the Baltic Sea is the third largest city in Lithuania. We were so, so, lucky to have decent weather while in Berlin a couple of days ago, we are now experiencing the typical weather. It’s grey, raining, and 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit. This is not a pretty down, but the ship needs somewhere to dock for the day.

Dianne was able to find a store that sells amber that’s been made into jewelry and purchased a lovely bracelet and earrings. I was able to sit on a couch for an hour, visit with some others from the ship, and read a book I had on my iPhone.

Today is Tuesday, August 26, 2014 and we are in Riga, which is the capital and largest city in Latvia. It’s the third largest city in the Baltic region, behind St. Petersburg and Stockholm. It’s a UNESCO World Heritage Site based on its extensive German Art Nouveau architecture.

At this point it feels like the movie, “If it’s Tuesday we must be in Belgium.” Dianne wanted to say thank you so someone in a shop and said, “Achoo,” which is Lithuanian, but we’re in Latvia now, and it’s not the same language.

Along Alberta iela there are the most wonder Art Nouveau buildings. I took some photos, see attached and purchased some postcards. The postcards look better than my photos because they can take them at better positions than I can from the street. Dianne did comment on how beautiful the city was, the parks, the flowers, and how clean the streets were. As will all European cities they have beautiful churches, which we saw on our walk back to the ship. Unfortunately, after a while it’s like, “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.”

By around 2 PM I’ve had enough touring and I’m ready to head back to the ship. Lunch sounds like a great idea and sitting down and reading a book is what I look forward to, not another museum or church.

I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again; my wife likes to tour and I like to vacation. I define a vacation by the number of books I can read. So far, I’m almost finished with my first one.