The Mill: Jurmala, Latvia

As we traveled through the Jurmala (seaside) region of northern Latvia, we happened upon this restored 18th-century flour mill. It was probably much like the mill that our great-great grandfather BenZion ran in the Ukraine in the 1870s.

This farm was across the road from the mill. Notice in front of the barn an antique sleigh...

Jaunmokupils, Latvia

For completeness, I include some touristy shots from the grounds of the Jaunmokupils hunting lodge, converted with the Soviet takeover to a school and hospital, now a hotel. We stayed here two nights on the outskirts of Tukums, which was our main destination.

Kuldiga, Latvia

A very quiet town in the Latvian countryside. In the farms and fields (corn, wheat, cattle) we saw many large, tall storks, white with black, and red legs ands beaks, perching atop telephone poles and such like the ospreys near Eugene. Drove through Talsi and stopped for lunch at Kuldiga, borth Hertz ancestral homes.

We got there during siesta I guess, as it was virtually deserted, old-fashioned wood and stone buildings along a quiet winding street above a millstream, and a central pedestrian area flanked by a few shops. Had an unintentionally leisurely lunch at a sort of pub (the only open place in town – therefore very slow service because they were fairly busy) of hard cider and Pork Warsaw (essentially a porchop smothered in cheese and creamy tomato sauce). Visited the few Jewish graves remaining in the cemetery, and the old synagogue, now a library (it was going to be a disco but the populus complained).

Not a prison but a storage shed

The old synagogue, now a library

The old Jewish cemetery

What cemetery would be complete without its play area?

Jaungelgava, Latvia

This small burg has certainly seen better days. Still, the architecture is appealing.

Daugavpils, Latvia

As we made our way through Daugavpils, we spotted this and slammed on the brakes to take a walk around an abandoned Soviet complex that is slowly being rejuvenated into housing. It's a bit like Pompeii crossed with a post-apocalyptic vision.

Local Color Riga-style

Man without a horn

Riga boogiewoogie

Empty storeys

Walls of Riga

Passage of Time, Riga Cathedral

Yesterday (Fri) we took a cab across the wide Daugava River to the Latvian National Archives, in a very Russian (read tawdry, low-budget) office building in a rather run-down but EffStoppish neighborhood of old-fashioned wooden houses. There we talked for a hour with a researcher. An even more informative session later was with the young and disheveled but brilliant and articulate assistant to the head of the Jewish Museum, who not only cleared up many "technical" questions of F&D's about language, Jewish provenance, emigration/population stats, etc., but produced a lot of related documents, including a huge contemporary book listing the history of every house in Tukums!! This office was much grander and located in the art nouveau district just beyond Oldtown, where we walked around and lunched in a terrific restaurant, called The Riviera. I had am amazing salad with fruit (strawberies, raspberies, blueberries and more...in a bed of spinach with gorgonzla and nuts) and a bouillabase with calimari, octopus, prawn, mussels, and fish, while "the beautiful people" swished around us. Riga has a high quotient, surprisingly, of very fashionable young people, balanced out by a large number of scruffy bluecollar types and babushkas. As noted, the nightlife is astounding even on weeknights. Reminiscent of Florence or Venice.

Stone

After all these revelations, I took a whirlwind tour of the National Art Museum, which had two fllkors of a wide variety of paintings, including some interesting contemporary stuff and some Russian dada collages. There are many parks, including a strip along the canal, filled wth sculpture from deco to cubist. And finished off the night by going to the opera, in the gilded and maroon-velvet decorated opera house. My feet are killin' me, but I know the layout pretty well by now...lots of squares, each with its clubs, cafés, and bars, winding narrrow streets with enormous cobbles...the architecture is all over the map - some reconstructed after the war, but some very old churches, some 17th C., and of course a lot of colorful and histrionic terra cotta and art nouveau, even outside of the designated district.

Bracing the column

Time past

Riga Old Town walls

Saturday started out with a slow bang as we all went to shabbos at the local synagogue. Very interesting from an anthropological standpoint. Deborah had to sit upstairs away from the men. The long-bearded rabbi (who spoke Russian in a brief sermon) stood with his back to us and chanted for an interminable 45 minutes, the congregation also chanting but not in unision – a semi-audible chatoic mumble with an occasional outburst of Amens (?).

City wall abstract

Meanwhile Ran and I thumbed back and forth in the prayer books, which although having English translations, didn’t help us, because we didn’t know where they were reading from in Hebrew. Fascinating...did you know that if you put the (myriad, arcane) ingredients for the holy incense together incorrectly, the Torah advocates being put to death? All made me nervous as a cat, as uncomfortable as I do in any church service but moreso since I was totally lost linguistically.

Fred was invited to join in reading part of the Torah once it was unrolled and brought to the back of the synagogue...the men followed the rabbi and gathered around. Most ranged from 50-80 years old, with a smattering of younger ones and a couple of small boys. Of course no cameras were allowed...the interior was a very light blue, with an almost Egytian gold/maroon decorative motif on pillars and wainscoting.

Rooms where they used to live

Cat house

Old wall, new walls

Cathedral Museum: War and religion

Scrimmage in Riga

Faux door / doot

Negligee for negligence

A fault in the scrim

Restoring the Riga cathedral tower