Riga has just celebrated its 810th birthday with concerts, markets, a knights' tournament, a retro car parade, a salsa marathon, a regatta, aerobatic displays, and many other engaging and crowd-pleasing events. It seems the highlight of this year's celebrations was not the customary fireworks - also impressive enough - but the casting of a key to Riga from 52,763 keys previously donated to a chest.
Initially we had hoped to get onto the legendary "Darling", built in 1907 and purchased from ABBA, but no less lovely was a light wooden boat called "Maria" (four in total operate the route). A ticket, or boarding card, cost Ls 6 per person. The boats operate on the canal every day from 9:00 to 23:00, from the beginning of May to the end of October, stopping at the boarding point every 20 minutes.
I have always been fascinated, if not by time travel exactly, then at least by imagining how a particular place looked a century or two ago and how it might look in the future. One day I simply picked up a camera and walked around the city centre to capture several Riga streets, buildings, and squares, and later compare them with past photographs found in the Letonika database. I must say, I discovered many interesting details.
Who knows how it is in France - the cradle of Museum Night - but in Latvia this event always falls during the blossoming of bird cherry and chestnut trees. The breath of spring drifts through the air and crowds move through Riga's streets, especially through Old Riga, seeking new impressions, new acquaintances, new information.
Very soon - this coming Saturday, May 14th - museums across Riga and all of Latvia will open for a special night exhibition. Museum Night is taking place here for the seventh time and I am tremendously happy about this tradition. This year's main theme, or motto, is Neighbours. As I understand it, the theme will be explored both in the narrower sense of neighbours who live just beyond the wall, and in the broader global sense - neighbouring countries. To help decide which direction to explore the neighbourhood, the event programmes are below.
A traditional walk with a camera in hand through the streets of Old Riga and Riga's city centre on the evening of 31 December. This year I captured the New Year's Eve feeling from white mulled wine and a caramelised apple at Dome Square. I must say, this year Riga was bathed in lights of various colours, with an avenue of 25 fir trees and a huge panoramic wheel at Līvu Square.
Although yesterday the rather unfriendly fine drizzle prevented us from fully enjoying all the festival events, we did attend several of them, and it was interesting - aerobatic display flights, a puppet procession, a retro car parade, an artisans' market, a show at the Small Guild, an open house day at the Russian Drama Theatre, and of course the fireworks.
No, no, there's no mistake in the title. It turns out that such a border zone (if you believe the several bright signs on the seashore) exists right here in Riga, at Daugavgrīva beach. A walk to the Northern Breakwater yesterday brought yet another surprise. It turns out that on Saturday afternoon the beach was visited by a beaver that had wandered in from goodness knows where.
This year winter has been a proper one. Although I must say, winter is not my favourite season - the cold doesn't inspire any kind of active activity. And yet, a walk on a sunny winter day among snow-covered trees is true beauty. See the photo gallery, created on a couple of such walks right here in Riga with a Nikon D200 in hand.
Yesterday - that is, last year - we wandered around central Riga literally a few hours before the New Year, to enjoy the decorative lighting worth 480 thousand lats, so praised in the media. Beautiful!
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