Let’s see…how do I feel today about traveling? Maybe a little tired of it. Which is not possible since I am not quite half way through in time and not even close in distance. Maybe I like ‘visiting’ better than traveling? Two weeks in Minnesota and two weeks in Norway mostly with family, some small time on my own. It was perfect. Now after only a few days of just me just me just me and my sweet hotel rooms and the sights of old Europe I am having a cranky evening. I guess the ship started it but that was just annoying. This evening actually feels lonely. So sometimes I like to be by myself out in the world…sometimes not so much.

Me tourist. Day touristy. Nice morning with quite a lot of time in the Riga Cathedral, an Evangelical Lutheran Cathedral originally built in 1517. Whatever acts of inhumanity religion has perpetrated, it has been responsible for some grand buildings. I went on to the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia which has none of religion’s grand beauty connected to it but is a most informative, very well organized story of the years of Latvia’s occupation by the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and then the Soviets again for a grand total of 51 years. It’s a story oft told in this part of the world, mass murder of the Jews, general murder of anyone else in the wrong place at the wrong time. It never gets easier to hear the words, see the acts of genocide or to witness the dislocation of whole peoples and life in the gulags. But that doesn’t stop us does it….

Went on a City Tour bus which was basically a waste of time and money, have to be in a pretty interesting place to make one of those worthwhile and Riga may not be that interesting.

Had traditional food for lunch…meat dumpling, gray peas with bacon, beer and buttermilk—which I’m liking in all its tartness more and more.

Nap. Awoke in a bad mood. Won’t last. One hopes. Truth be told, I am getting a little nervous about the train ride. With just me for company. I’m really not that good company. What will I talk to myself about—I’ve already said everything to me there is to be said.

Here’s the first part of the album of the day. All photos in or around the Cathedral. Mostly they are of ‘backstage’ — the places and objects to be restored.