retiredmartin

May 2023.

Central Riga looked a little quiet on our first night, as had Tallinn, but around 6 o’clock the streets started to get a bit lively.

In the stunning Molberts saldējums ice cream shop, the young lady asked if we were here for the World Ice Hockey championships starting in Riga that week.

“What’s ice hockey ?” I said.

Actually, we had seen the Coventry Crunchers play the Nottingham Naughties or whatever in 2005. Quite good fun, though my memory of Coventry’s stadium was being served bottles of Pils and hot dogs by staff walking round all game. Once was enough. I’m not sure I know anyone who follows the game in the UK,

The streets were filling up with largely young lads in full Czechia and Slovakia kit (top), heading for Riga’s many open air bars and leaving the back streets largely untroubled,

a relief for the native armadillos.

We had a last beer of the night in Nekādu Problēmu, one of the gardens visited on our 2010 cruise, when Riga seemed a wonder of unpronounceable but rather great beers.

Mrs RM was largely drawn in by the cutting edge Latvian folk,

and that live music put an extra euro on the price of the local Kiriek (6 euros for 0.4l),

but goodness it was good, the Plum Porter of the Baltics.

We could still the ice hockey songs back at our apartment gone midnight, but at least they weren’t the Wankdorf supporters that terrorised the town back in 2014.