Read ahead to hear about the second day of our weekend break in Riga, featuring stunning buildings and lots of cocktails!
This morning we arose, dropped our bags into the luggage room at the hotel and headed out to Bakeberry, an absolutely delicious bakery.
Bakeberry was a funky little place that served the most delicious food. I ordered a 'Latvian pie' which was like a bacon turnover and the amazing raspberry macaroon cake above. It was certainly a good way to start the day.
We headed out of the old town centre and towards the Art Nouveau area. By walking down streets such as Albert Iela and Jugenda Stila Nami we found a whole host of stunning buildings. I can't claim to know anything at all about architecture but I absolutely adored being transported back to the late 19th century. A third of all buildings in Riga follow this style and that's why its such a delight to walk around town.
It was bitterly cold so we took some shelter in the Art Nouveau museum. For 5 euros you can enter an art nouveau apartment, complete with a gorgeous spiral staircase. It was a lot of fun walking around and throughout we talked about the warming smell of cinnamon that resonated through the place. When we got to the kitchen it turns out there was a woman there cooking lovely freshly baked cookies for us to try.
We walked from the museum to the Nativity of Christ Cathedral, by this time it had started to snow. The cathedral was built in 1876, when Latvia was part of the Russian Empire and I have to say it's one of the most stunning cathedrals i have ever seen. I loved the design, its curved arches and gold roof.
We headed on past the cathedral to the Raddison Blu, which sat just behind it. We went on up to their skyline bar and enjoyed a mouth wateringly good cocktail. It was lovely to sit for an hour in the warmth, watching the snow fall outside, listening to the live musicians they had strumming in the background. I found the real view was from the ladies toilet so I certainly recommend a visit!
By this time we were feeling pretty hungry and headed to Domini Canes, right back in the old town. It was a lovely modern restaurant and our meal was absolutely delicious. We both started with the garlic scallops and continued with a chicken and bacon creamy pasta. The service was perfect up until after we'd finished our mains. We were hoping to have dessert too but after the waitress collected our plates she pretty much disappeared into the kitchen and stayed there for the next hour. In the end we gave up on trying to get anymore food or drinks, which was really disappointing, and walked over to get the bill.
We could have got a bus from the old town to the airport, it would have been about a 30 minute journey and cost 2 euros each but Rachel didn't want to wait for the bus when it was so cold outside so treated us to a taxi back to the airport, which cost 15 euros.
At the airport I finally got to try the Latvian honey cake which I had seen so much of (it was yum as suspected) and bought some milk candy, which was like super sweet fudge (again, major yum!!). My weekend in Riga was so fun. Riga is such a great city break, it's small; compact; affordable and beautiful. What more could you want?!
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