Also I apologise for all the spelling and grammar mistakes, I am typing this quick and work!

Just come back from Riga yesterday and thought I shall share my experience:

Friday 10/11/2006

Up at 2.30am had a shower left for Liverpool airport at 3.00am from Manchester got there about 4.00ish, parked car at long stay 1 (Booked via Purple parking and Tesco clubcard vouchers!) , went to RyanAir check in, the desk was not open when we got there but luckily we got there before the stag do's arrived. Checked in went straight through passport control

Had a drink and queued up ready to board, wife was a little bit worried as the plane was full of stag do's, she counted about 5 women for the entire plane. Boarded fine headed to the front of the plane as the noisiest do went to the back (just like on the school bus!). Flight landed in Riga 20 minutes early.

There was quite a large queue to get through passport control which took about 25minutes, but our cases were ready to collect. We had ordered a taxi transfer via our hotel, Hotel Kolonna, so we were met by our taxi driver with my name on it.

The journey to our hotel took about 30minutes due to a traffic jam, we were started to feel a little bit tired by now. We checked in fine, our room was small but modern and clean, no bath but a large shower, absolutely no complaints about the room at all, the best bit about the Hotel Kolonna is the location is brilliant.

Had a walk to the tourist information centre which is about a 3 minute walk from the hotel, had a quick walk round, and went to a bar called Stella Bar, tried by first Latvian beer Lucsas, it was lovely, as it was lunch time the bar was full of business people having lunch, went for another walk we were starving by then so went to TFI Fridays for lunch, tried another Latvian beer Zelta, again very nice.

We were full up by then so we went back to the hotel and had a snooze, got ready and went out again. Had another walk round the old town to get our bearings, went to Stella bar again for tea had a lovely meat platter between us, as it was our 1st day we did the tourist bars, 2 irish bars if I remember correctly.

Saturday 11/11/2006

Got up and had coffee at a wonderful chain of coffee bars, Double Coffee, this would be first on many visits to them. Wandered over to the museum of Lativan Occupation Museum bit it did not open till 11 so had a walk over to the river and went back when it opened, spent around an hour there and went for another coffee. We then walked around the old town seeing the usual sites of the Freedom monument, Dome square, it was really nice. Had a walk upto central market and then to the Shockmann department store and had dinner there, (Cheese and Ham pancakes). Had a walk round the massive shopping mall and went back to the hotel for a shower.
Went for tea at a B-Bar Basalam restraunt and went for a couple of drinks,cannot remeber all the places, Cuba Cafe was one of them, tried another Latvian beer (Cesus).

Sunday 12/11/2006

Got up and had coffee and as my wife wanted to go ice skating decided to goto the Lido recreation centre, to get there we were told to catch the number 7 tram from outside the opera house, sadly we caught the tram going the wrong way (heading away from the train station), but luckily it is only a few stops before it turns round. Managed to figure out that when the tram stops it tells you went station you are at and also what the next one is called, luckily the station we went was called Lido which makes it easy. Went ice skating, we were not very good at it, left the ice ring with a few bruises.

The Lido restaurant has 3 floors with a different restraint on each one, we decided to eat in the middle one, we filled our plates up and scoffed away.
Caught the tram back, I had previously booked the Albert Hotel but had been put off by the location, but I wanted to see what it was like so we went to find it. Had a drink in the star lounge. The hotel was nicer then the Kolonna but I am glad I stayed there as the location is so good.

I then wanted to go a bar in the big Riga clock at the train station, so I dragged my wife there who was knackered after Ice Skating.

Went back and had a shower.

Went for tea and a Double Coffee bar and tried a place called Opium Cafe which was great, my wife loved the margarita cocktails there so we stayed there all night,

Monday 13/11/2006

Got up had our usual coffee and headed to tourist information, as I wanted to catch the train and goto the Livu waterpark. The information I have got from this board and from the tourist information really helped us get there:

Buy a ticket from windows 7-12 going to Leuiple
The train usually goes from platform 3, our train was going to Soloka.

One thing which did worry us was that the train going did not make any announcements and the station names were not visible and some places!
The only way we knew how to got off was we saw the waterpark!
Got off the train at Leuiple had a 10 minute walk through a residential area and went to the water park.
The waterpark is great, loads of slides, a poolbar, there is even a little bit of the pool which is outside, it was weird not feeling the cold.
Got the train back, had a shower.
Went for tea at Jack Daniels bar, fine. Went to the skyline bar at the Reval Hotel.

Tuesday 14/11/2006
Flew home"¦boo!

Overall we both loved Riga and would love to go back again.