Riga, Latvia

This morning we caught a flight to our first new country in quite a few years - Latvia, and more precisely, the capital Riga.

The aeroplane was lovely, lots of legroom, and a with a good white and lime green paint job.

We arrived at our hotel which is just around the corner from the old KGB headquarters, dropped off our bags and set off to explore.

The old town is full of beautiful buildings, and in particular lots of great church spires.

One of the most famous is called the House of the Blackheads.

This building dates from 1334 and was the meeting place of the Brotherhood of Blackheads, a group of unmarried merchants, shipowners and foreigners in Riga.

In 1941 it was burnt to the ground in a fight between the Nazis and the Soviet army. It was rebuilt in the 1990s with donations from local people and reopened in 1999.

Just around the corner from it is a memorial to the victims of the Soviet Occupation.

We also found a rather unflattering portrait of Putin on a wall.

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