Riga, Last Day

This morning we took a run to the Riga Radio Tower, which is on a small island in the Daugava River. It was a 6 mile run across the river and down the island. The radio tower looks impressive from around the city, but we found out that a lot of locas don't like it because it was created during the Soviet occupation. Understandable.

The bridge closest to the tower is the one we crossed. Since it was raining, I did not bring a camera and just stole this one from a Google Images.

 

After cleaning up we decided to have lunch at the McDonalds across from the train station. We don't usually ever eat out at home, especially fast food, but we like to try American restaurants, specifically McDonalds, while traveling abroad. There is usually something strange on the menu that caters to regional tastes. For instance, in Thailand there was fried chicken and rice bowls, and in Bulgaria there were shrimp burgers. To our surprise, there was nothing exotic at the Latvian McDonald's. We were expecting a salted fish on a bun or something. I would like to report though that the Big and Tasty burger is alive and well overseas. For some reason the USA restaurants took them off the menu. We have seen them at every non-US Micky D's.

Our evening was once again spent watching World Cup. It was a rough night for USA soccer fans. We were defeated by Belgium 2-1 in overtime after a brutal match. There was a large group of Dutch students in the hostel that night which made for a little USA bashing. Even weirder was the man that sat next to me. He was a little Latvian guy that kept staring me in the eyes asking odd USA questions, and putting in anti USA jabs. I didn't like him, but was pleasant. I think it annoyed him that we didn't take the bait.

Thank goodness our Austrian friend Rupert was there amongst the enemy. He is a quiet guy, very polite, and took a while to get conversation going. One we started talking though, he was a great companion to watch the soccer matches with.

All in all it was a good day, even with the rain. We said goodbye to Chris from Singapore and will be following him on his Facebook travel blog.

Now, we have to get the bags ready to go in the morning.

It's off to Estonia on the Lux Express bus line!

 

 

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Riga, Day 4, Aviation Museum

Yes, another rainy day here in Riga. We are sure lucky to have hit the beach on the one sunny day we have had since we arrived. Today, it's drizzling and there are no signs of it stopping in the forecast.

We had breakfast at the hostel and headed out. We needed to get bus tickets to the airport, since the museum is right next to the terminal. The local bus makes lots of stops and took about a half hour to get there, but the price was right at $1.60 round trip.

Once we got to the airport, we went inside the terminal and took shelter from the rain for a bit. We passed the museum while riding the bus, but were unsure about the entrance or if it would even be open. The directions Katherine found online said there would be a gate and to ring the bell. No problem.

Links to great info about the museum.

http://avia.ak22.net/EN/

http://englishrussia.com/2012/04/04/soviet-aircrafts-riga-got-after-the-ussr-collapse/

After we rang the bell some time went by. We thought the museum was closed, but Mr. Talpa himself slowly walked up and greeted us. If I would have known what I have researched after the visit, I should have asked him for a photo together. This guy is the real deal! The museum is here just because of him. No funding from the state or anything. As we walked around looking at the artifacts, he went back to his shed to do some work. It's a busy job taking care of all these guys!

Below is a collection of the photos we took.

Mi-4

Mi-8

SA-6 Gainfull

Mi-24a

Kamov-KA26

The aircraft below needs a little more info.... It is the biggest helicopter at the exhibit and you are allowed to enter it as well. Inside are Soviet uniforms, maps, electronics, and too much stuff to name. We made our way to the cockpit and even sat down at the flight controls. Rain was leaking in the helicopter and it even had a non identifiable odor. It just smelled like old helicopter. Oil, grease, sweat, blood, and even just dirt. I can only imagine how this thing sounded on the flight line readying for take off.

Mil Mi-6

A gem we found inside.

Mi-1 MU

Mig-29

Mig-27

Mig-25

Mig-23

Mig-21

Aero L-29

We thought about heading to the exit, but then Mr. Talma came out of his shed and motioned for us to follow him into the roped off area. He directed us to a grey railroad car. Inside he showed us his collection of cameras and even some optics from the reconnaissance airplanes on the lot. He also has a magnificent display of models as well.

Missile guidance radar.

Mr. Talpa's little guard cat.

Tu-22

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tupolev_Tu-22M

 

We made it back just fine to the hostel. Katherine whipped up a pasta dish with the local mushrooms in a cream sauce. We just chilled out at watched World Cup for the rest of the evening with about 10 of us in he he hostel TV room. Well, I was between watching the games and working on this blog entry! Tomorrow, we set off for a run to the Riga TV Tower and plan to watch the big USA versus Belgium game.

 

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