Riga is the biggest city in the Baltic states, and its old centre reads like a history of northern trade. The city was founded in 1201 by a German bishop, soon became a leading member of the Hanseatic League, and grew rich on timber, flax, furs and grain moving between Russia and western Europe. The medieval core, packed with merchants' houses, guild halls and church spires, still has the layout of those days, with narrow cobbled lanes and squares, and the House of the Blackheads, a brotherhood of unmarried merchants, with its ornate gabled facade, stands in the Town Hall Square.
Just beyond the old town, the city has another claim to fame. Riga has one of the largest collections of Art Nouveau buildings in Europe, built in the early twentieth century when the city was booming, and streets such as Alberta iela are lined with fantastical facades, covered in masks, sphinxes, peacocks and swirling vegetation, many designed by Mikhail Eisenstein, father of the film director Sergei. The combination led to the UNESCO listing of the historic centre in 1997.
For motorcyclists, Riga is a pleasant place to arrive but a hard place to ride in the old centre, where cobbles, tram lines and pedestrian zones dominate. It is better to park on the edge, perhaps near the Daugava embankment, and explore on foot. The Central Market, housed in five huge former Zeppelin hangars, is a great place to try smoked fish, rye bread, pickles, cheeses and honey. For a dark and herbal drink, Riga Black Balsam, a local liqueur, is a rite of passage. Local dishes include grey peas with bacon, and cold beetroot soup in summer.
The ride out to Jūrmala, on the Gulf of Riga, takes about half an hour, and the road passes through pinewoods onto a long white sand beach, lined with wooden villas from the nineteenth century, a spa resort that was beloved of the Russian and Soviet elite. The coast is flat, so there are no mountains, but the long straight roads through pine forest are relaxing, and the sea air smells of resin.
Riga has everything for travellers: fuel on the outskirts, supermarkets, hotels and plenty of cafés. Summer evenings are very long, with light until nearly midnight in June, while winter is cold, dark and snowy.