Republic

It has been a relaxing day. 

It did not quite turn out according to plan, but life is like that. The activity I planned for the afternoon was fully booked for today, so it has been slotted in for tomorrow. My morning activity was supposed to be an exhibition at the National Museum of Art, but that side of the building was closed to allow some changes to take place. 

I only discovered this after I had paid my €6 entrance fee, so I used the time well by seeing everything which is open. As it turned out, I enjoyed it. 

The big current exhibition is of work by local artist Vilhelms Purvītis. In a sense his life reflects much of the country’s recent history. He was born in 1872 as a subject of the Russian Empire and died in Nazi Germany in 1945 as a refugee during World War II. Much went on in between. 

A lot of his work was destroyed when his wife’s house (in Latvia) was bombed in 1944. A lot went missing when the Nazi German occupiers shipped it off to Germany. The Blip is part of what remains. 

Extra 1 is part of the lovely museum building. 

Culture

What else?

You know when you go out to buy breakfast, the bakery staff don’t speak English (and I don’t speak much Latvian), so it is a case of pointing/hoping for the best, and you end up with something utterly delicious…

See Extra 2 for details. 

Did I mention that Latvia is a republic? 

“It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere.” Voltaire (French, not Latvian.)