Welcome to Riga

During the night we sailed through a very smooth Gulf of Riga. Early in the morning we reached the city Riga, lying at the mouth of the river Dougava. Riga is the capital of Latvia and with approx. 650.000 inhabitants the largest city of the Baltic States.

Directly after breakfast we started our excursion through Riga´s historical centre, which is an UNESCO World Heritage Site, famous for its Art Nouveau architecture.

It was a little bit difficult to reach the centre as there was the well-known Riga Marathon with more than 12.000 numbers of participants going on. But the city of Riga was very impressive for everybody, especially with the sunshine we had again.

As we spent the whole day in Riga many passengers went out again in the afternoon. It was a good idea to have a nice cup of coffee in one of the cafés and watching people.

Other passengers went on a bus tour to the seaside resort Jurmala. It lies directly at the Gulf of Riga, 25 km west of Riga. In the Soviet time it was a main resort for important politicians, but today everybody is welcome. The 33 km stretch of the white sandy beach was especially nice to see in the sunshine.

The evening ended with the famous fashion show. All the wonderful models – presented by Corinna – belonged to the officers and the expedition team.