As can be ascertained from the title, today was fairly lethargic. With Riga being the fairly small city it is, we managed to accomplish most of the sight-seeing on Monday. This is of course with the exception of those attractions that fall under the Monday curse.

First thing’s first though, and after a pub crawl we needed a lie in – it was an interthink record of 1130 in the morning until we clambered out of bed. So late that we were in fact the last ones left in our hostel dorm. Breakfast was egg, bacon and hash brown at the local coffee shop to force out the last remaining dregs of Zelta beer in our system so we were ready for the off.

The first on the itinerary was St. Peter’s Cathedral Tower. This was easily accessible by a lift with an old lady in it and at 121m above the city provided a great panorama. The shutter on Nick’s camera clicked incessantly as we ingested the sights around us. Although only a brief stop, it was a worthwhile one none the less.

After this was a trip to the Museum of History of Riga and Navigation. A small but enlightening museum that gave a look back into the city’s past that went further than just the Soviet and Nazi occupations…and to the periods under German and Swedish rule. You can’t help but feel sorry for a country that has effectively been annexed more times that it’s declared its independence.

After this it was the customary pancake house stop for more 45p pancakes. This time we were smarter though, getting pancakes one at a time and separately so that we could maximise the time we could stay inside without appearing to be taking the proverbial.

By this point it was late afternoon so we returned to the hostel for some R&R. The Belgian bar that we had visited the previous night was the venue for dinner tonight, where we had the Latvian speciality of a beef burger and a steakwich (don’t complain, we ate local on the first night).

Admittedly it was not a busy day, but after the fast-paced, high-octane, rollercoaster ride that was Russia, I felt we deserved and very much needed our rest day.