Riga, Latvia during a COVID surge

The European Union countries, which we have been traveling in since our arrival 4 weeks ago, have instituted the “Green Pass.” It’s an electronic passport with QR code that proves you are vaccinated. It is carried on your phone and you must show it when entering a bar or restaurant. Our problem is that you must be a EU citizen to get one. Instead, we must show our vaccine card and passport, generally no problem. You are welcome to sit outside at bars and restaurants if you are not vaccinated or forgot your phone. Weather permitting, this was a good option for Italy and Spain, not so much here in the Baltic States. In Riga, you must be vaccinated to be served even outside. It’s a good system and we’ve seen few problems or complaints. One restaurant refused us as the rules keep changing for foreigners but that was our only issue so far.

I had purchased bus tickets from Vilnius to Riga a few days prior. All of our transportation is booked on my phone with boarding passes saved there as well. We arrived 15 minutes early to board the bus but our ticket QR code didn’t register and the driver could not find us on the manifest. Lacking good English skills he pointed us back into the terminal. On closer inspection, I had booked the tickets for two weeks later! Crap! We hurried to the International ticket counter but the clerk said that we had to book the tickets on the bus! Hurry, back to the bus! We were able to get seats and we were able to cancel the wrongly purchased tickets. Terri is now in charge of verifying my ticket purchases for accuracy.

We arrived in Riga, Latvia by bus from Vilnius. We spent the extra $17 to upgrade to first class seats (more leg room and the seats are spread out-$61 total for both is us). All seats are comfortable, recline and have free screens with movies and TV. There is free WIFI throughout the bus, a free coffee machine and bathroom. It was an easy 4 hour bus ride and far far superior to our Greyhound system.

We immediately found that Latvia had increased their COVID restrictions requiring bars and restaurants to increase space between tables and to add partitions. This effectively closed many bars and some restaurants. With the additional requirements, tourism in general is down thus causing some museums to close as well.

We toured St Peter’s Church and old town Riga the first afternoon after arriving. We had researched a couple of restaurants to try but both were closed with the new COVID requirements.

The Blackheads were a guild of unmarried merchants and shipowners focused on protecting free commerce and improving Riga while enjoying the camaraderie. One of there mottos: “no one can leave the party until all the wine is drunk.” They could be the forerunners of Kiwanis!?!

After spending a day and a half exploring Riga downtown and old town, we decided to get out of town. We hopped a public bus to Majori, a seaside resort town about 25 miles away. It had a long pedestrian walkway filled with shops, bars and restaurants. The area was recommended by one of the many helpful waiters we encountered. Besides, it looked like a nice beach day.