We started the day with a run to another beach in Tallinn. We did a slight trail run to the beach – as you know I can barely run on a sidewalk so it was interesting but pretty.

After a good cinnamon bun and breakfast, we went to the Museum of Occupation and Freedom which chronicled the history of Estonia’s war of independence after the fall of Imperial Russia through the Soviet takeover of Estonia in 1940, then the German occupation during WWII, then the reoccupation of Estonia by the Soviet Union until the fall of the USSR in 1988. It was very interesting and very informative for me as I did not know that much about this period of Estonian history.

We then headed to the bus station for our trip to Riga, Latvia. The bus ride was fun as we went through rural Estonia and Latvia. There are a lot of pine trees along the way! It was an interesting trip but ride.

Riga is much larger than Tallinn and is of a much later period than Tallinn. It is very art nouveau rather than Middle Ages.

After finding our AirBNB, which is quite lovely and very modern—though in an old apartment building. It does have an old ceramic stove for warming in the winter which we definitely do not need.

We headed out for dinner at Osta which is on an island in the river Daugave river. As we arrived someone was moving a sailboat from a parking area the river. The boat was taller than the trees that it had to be pulled through and the road was very narrow so it was an interesting problem and very fun to watch.

Dinner at Osta was fantastic!

We started with a smoked fish platter (how can you not have smoked fish in the Baltics). We had butterfish, trout and devil fish. We thought the devil fish was the best and our server (Kristiana) was surprised that was our favorite and most people did not find it the best. We had two very good Spanish wines as the Baltic countries are not wine producers.

Tom had grilled Octopus and Liam and I had grilled Sturgeon. Both were fantastic.

After dinner Kristiana started bring out samples of various liqueurs that were made in house. The first was Rhubarb gin which was amazingly good. I always say that gin makes you sin but I would sin greatly impressed with the rhubarb gin and be happy sinning. The next option was strawberry Negroni. I love bitter and it was incredible.

The picture is Spanish white wine from Catalonia, rhubarb gin and strawberries Negroni.

Here is a picture of the three of us at dinner.

The whole evening was superb fun! Kristiana made it a great first introduction to Latvia. She gave us recommendations for future dinners and drinking in Riga to make the rest of our Riga explorations fun and easy.