Last year over Christmas, I was in Israel having the time of my life, worry-free. This year looks…
Times visited: 2 (3 days in 2015 and 1 day in 2019)
Cities visited: Riga and Sigulda
UNESCO sites visited: Historic Centre of Riga
Latvia was the first country I visited in the Baltics and it was also the first country that my mum and I went to on our (since then) annual mother/daughter trip.
We went to Riga, the nation’s charming capital, for a cold January weekend, a rather unusual season to visit Latvia, but beautiful nonetheless. One of the days were spent in central Latvia, in a region known as Latvian Switzerland. While Latvia doesn’t have mountains (the highest point is a mere 311,5 meters above sea level), this is a particularly hilly area which looked absolutely magical covered in a blanket of snow. Especially the view of a snow-covered Gauja National Park from the medieval Turaida Castle was insane.
Fast forward nearly five years and I was finally back in Latvia, although only for a brief visit. On my way home from Israel, I had a stopover in Riga, where I had 2,5 hours available to explore the city. But since my mum and I had done plenty of sightseeing back in 2015, I decided to focus on exploring the city’s three cozy Christmas markets. I hadn’t celebrated Christmas that year, so it was wonderful to get a bit of the Christmas spirit in Riga.
