Wrap-Up... Finally

Well, it took a while but I wanted to wrap up our quick little Latvia trip. Sunday morning worship was a blur for me, as I wasn't feeling well. Unfortunately, I had to step out of the Sanctuary to get some air and try to feel better... so I missed the sermon. I was, however, able to hear the beautiful sound of Latvians singing. They are so talented... seemingly every single one of them can sing beautifully. Must be in the genes.


While I was sitting by the open window in the fellowship room, I had the benefit of watching the behind-the-scenes scurrying of busy hands setting out a beautiful spread of food for the group to enjoy after worship. I can't believe I didn't get a photo when it was all ready.... it was stunning! Alas, my mind was preoccupied with my own self. Hmpf. I even missed them calling me up to thank me for coming, and their subsequent prayer for me that I would feel better. All were very concerned, and I appreciate everyone's thoughts and prayers.

After consuming quite a bit of water and breathing quite a bit of fresh air, I was feeling some better. I rested (i.e. slept) some on the car trip back to Riga and was feeling well enough after we checked into Sky High to go into Old Riga with Richard and Gita. Gita had heard from Erika that the city was preparing to remove and discard all of the locks on the bridge, where couples go to seal their love and throw away the key. Richard happened to have with him the key to his and Julie's lock, so we went down there so he could remove it and take it home with him, rather than have it discarded when the city cleans house.


Richard laughs at me for taking pictures of flowers all the time. Every time he looks around, there I am taking more pictures of flowers. Julie does the same thing. I said to him, "If we don't, who will?" He certainly isn't going to... so I made him wait while I did so. :)




Richard and I got to see the work they had been doing in the basement at Riga First, and the room where they hope to put a Teen Center. The renovated room looks amazing! And the one yet-to-be renovated looks daunting. To my eyes. The Latvians, however, have amazing foresight and vision of what a space can be.




We ended our evening with a great meal with Daina and Gita at a little Czech restaurant around the corner from Riga First. Apparently "everyone" has been there, but I hadn't... this was, after all, only the second time I'd spent any time in Old Riga.

My dinner of sausage, potatoes and kraut

Daina had these amazing potato pancakes with salmon and let me taste!

Gita and Richard laughing because I told him when he leans back to dodge my pictures, all I get is his gut, which is NOT better than being in a face-with-a-smile picture.

Our flight left at 6:30 AM the next morning, and we had an uneventful trip back. Still need a little rest to fully recover from my "not feeling well" - but I'll get that with the long Labor Day weekend. Good to be home, but wished I'd had more time in lovely Latvia!

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 1, 2017 at 1:31 PM

    Sound so like a great visit. I enjoyed the flower pictures, so there, Richard. Haha. I hope you are feeling good enough to enjoy the long weekend!!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

London, Too

Image
Thursday was our day of touring London with a guide on our bus. I've been to many of the key places in London, so I was glad to get a tour that told more about the different areas of the city and how they are changing. The area where our hotel is located is known as the "Silicon Valley" area of London... so you can imagine the people we've seen commuting by foot to work around here. All young(ish). I won't go over all of the places we drove through... if you've been to London you know and if you haven't you can imagine. We stopped at the Methodist Central Hall across from Westminster Abbey for a toilet break and hoping to see the inside. Unfortunately, the hall was booked for a conference and so all we did was have a coffee in the Wesley Cafe and use the toilet. This was one place I didn't get to go the last time I was in London, so I was happy to read a little more about it and go inside, even just for a minute. Central Hall was built ...
Read more

Epworth

Image
The first stop on our Wesleyan Tour was the small town of Epworth, where John Wesley was raised, baptized and became the man he was. I'm not sure how this town would be if it hadn't been for the Wesleys... it's almost as if they loved to hate Samuel Wesley and his family when they were living, but when they died or went away and became "famous" they became hometown heroes. I guess this would just be any-old little town if it weren't known for the Wesleys. We visited the rectory that was John Wesley's home (rebuit in 1709 after being destroyed by a fire that John himself barely survived). Among the displays there was a listing of what Susannah Wesley's day typically looked like... That's a lot more time for spiritual reflection than I would have thought. I wonder how many mothers of 10 children have a schedule that looks like this? A simpler time perhaps. So far, what I've learned of John Wesley makes me wonder whether I would ha...
Read more

Curiouser and Curiouser

Image
We slept in a little bit this morning and had brunch at the appropriately named Curiosity Coffee Bar, a highly-rated little place just a couple of blocks from the White Rabbit (our Alice-in-Wonderland-themed bnb). Curiouser and curiouser, we spent the rest of the day at the South Carolina State Library.  The library staff were quite accommodating of our multiple requests from the stacks (I don't have a pic of the big pile of books we left behind at the end of the day).  The things we're curious about make some people (Kef and Dad specifically) shake their heads. Today's finds included a listing of early settlers to South Carolina, among which was my 5 greats grandfather Samuel McGill, described among the "poor protestants lately arrived from Ireland on the encouragement of the Bounty given by this Province." His age was listed as 23, and he was granted that bounty of 100 acres. Although we knew he was born in Ireland, we didn't know what year. So this 1766 lis...
Read more