Here’s a summary of our Riga trip last June.
Cruise: Helsinki to Riga, Tallink Silja Line, VICTORIA I. It’s an old cruise ship, so I was not so impressed. I think the cruise ship to Stockholm is much better. Luckily I had a good view of sunset!
One thing I found interesting on this cruise ship was the hot water machine. However, I did not see any Chinese tourists.
The cruise arrived at Riga harbor around 10:30. Since there were not many passengers, we could get out pretty quickly. Riga is like Tallinn, a medieval city with cobblestone streets. Due to the limited time onshore, we basically just walked the old town, and admired the facade of the architectures. The only place that we spent a bit time on was St. Peter’s Church. With a small fee, we could get to the high tower.
Comparing to Tallinn, there are much less tourists in Riga. So I felt less touristy. I think I liked it.
Food is important to us! Actually the first thing we did was to try out a typical type of restaurants in Riga called LIDO. We had a good lunch in LIDO Vērmanītis. Basically you get food and drinks from various counters like in a buffet, and then pay at the cashier. Same as IKEA I suppose. You get draft beer by yourself as well. If you are skilled, you can get more beer in the glass. Otherwise you get a lot of foam.
We also had an early light dinner in a Mediterranean restaurant (forgot the name).
At last, before arriving to Helsinki, we had a brunch on the cruise.
In general, this cruise was expensive. But the experience was worth it!
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