We finally made it! After 18+ months of planning, we made our move across the big blue ocean and are getting acquainted with life in Riga, Latvia. It was a bittersweet move, as we said good-bye to our two college-age sons, close family and friends, but we are looking forward to new adventures here in Europe! Now I am not a big fan of flying so I am happy to report that our flights went well, the dogs did great, and unlike when we moved to Ukraine back in 2000, all of our bags arrived at the same time. At the airport, we were met by our sponsors from the Embassy, where we loaded everything into two cars and we were off to our temporary apartment in Old Town Riga.
Although we are in these quarters for only two weeks, the apartment has some unique details to it. I wanted to share some photos of the apartment (along with photos of the city) here on my blog. Enjoy!
The apartment is HUGE! It is 2-stories, has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, kitchen, enormous laundry and pantry, and tons of storage. Below are photos of the two fireplaces. The top one is in the formal living and dining room and the bottom one is in the master bedroom. The master bedroom is very large. I was sitting on the bed, against the headboard to snap the photo.
You may think I am crazy but my favorite detail of the apartment are the original brick walls that are exposed. They are opposite of the entry way and cover both the first and second floors. We are guessing that the building itself is probably 300-400 years old. It makes me wondered what it was originally built for. Check out the walls below:
Above is the wall viewed straight on from the main hallway. Below is the wall viewed looking down from the second floor balcony. Isn't it cool? I love it!
Below is another view of the wall from the second story balcony. There is enough room on the balcony for chairs, small table and bookshelves (not shown).
To the right of this wall is another one very similar with the winding staircase to the second level located in front of it. The staircase is quite long and very open. The dogs are afraid to go up it. The bottom photo is the view from the second story balcony.
Right outside our building is the War Museum. We haven't toured it yet (after all, we have only been here for 3 days), but the turret is pretty cool! I love all of the ivy growing on it!
When we woke up on our first morning in Riga, Chris and I walked to the cafe up the street for a coffee and a pastry. YUM!
I just love the shops, cafes and cobblestone roads in Old Town!
A square with a beer garden, of course.
Another Beer Garden...
Riga is a very northern city. So much so, that there are only a few hours of darkness during the summer months. Below is a photo of St. Peter's Church take at about 930pm!!!
That's all for now! I hope you enjoyed a little taste of Riga! I am looking forward to posting many photos regularly and documenting our time in Europe using Becky Higgins' Project Life to do so! (I just need to get all of my scrabooking stuff here!).
