At the breakfast table we pondered what to do for the morning, should we visit the KGB cell museum or the Tartu University Museum. We decided that neither options offered a great deal of excitement so we headed back to Riga.
We stopped again in the town of Valka or Valga depending on which side of the border you’re sitting. We had a little walk round and the popped into the same cafe we had visited the day before. Last time we thought we had been in Latvia, but it turned out that we hadn’t crossed the border and this was still Estonia. The cafe owner said she spoke Estonian. The border actually ran down the middle of the main road.
From our stop we had to drive another 150 Km. The journey passed by uneventfully until we arrived in Riga when bad navigating by Nick sent Garry all over the place. Once Garry spotted the place to return the car all passed off smoothly.
A walk back to the hotel to check-in again. In the later afternoon we walked the old town heading first to the central market. Different sections of this covered area specialised in meat, fish and fruit and vegetables with lots of other products mixed in. Outside more stalls catered for cheap clothing, shoes and household items. We walked slowly passed the stalls but didn’t buy.
Just near the market stands a very imposing building, the Scientific Institue completed in 1961. We decided to pay the fair and take the lift to the 15 floor to view the panorama on a clear day. Up to the 15th and a further climb up to the 17th where a parapet surrounds the tower.
In the evening we returned to the pub, Two More Beers for drinks and a meal. I didn’t enjoy our meal as much as our previous visit. I left the others to have another set of drinks while I toddled back to the hotel.