Saturday we will get on a bus from Riga to Vilnius, Lithuania. We’re excited to be off to a new destination, but sad to leave one of our favorite places.

Only two weeks in Riga was not enough.  Ironically, this week we met a fellow American traveler on our day trip to Cesis.  We told him we were going back to Riga, and he said that he and is wife had just come from there.  He told us that we would need only 3-4 days to see everything in Riga.  Boy, was he wrong, but we didn’t say a word.  Some people like to travel at breakneck speeds, and that is not our style at all.  We have seen several museums, but allowed ourselves the luxury of sleeping late, seeing a few movies, walks in the park,  or just hanging out at our local coffee shop. We have time to talk to people, to learn a little bit about what it’s really like to live there. We get the benefit of an education, and hope to provide a counterpoint to the impression that Americans don’t care about the rest of the world.

We stopped by our local coffee shop this morning to let our favorite barista know we would be leaving.  Oddly enough, we both felt a sudden sadness knowing we will probably never be back here.

Favorite things in Riga will give you an idea of the things we did here, and what we liked (and disliked) about being here.  We ranked Riga as in the top cities that we have visited. We highly recommend a visit there, whether you like history, art, good food, outdoor activities of all kinds, or just hanging out. Hope you take us up on it – but for us, it’s time to fly the coop!