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Ilma
LOMANOVSKA
Guided
excursions in Riga, Latvia
and
surrounding
countries
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Il
you want to organise a trip,
call her on her mobile phone : +
371 29 11 40 75
You can also try her e-mail : ilma_lomanovska@yahoo.com
although
she does not spend much time in front of a computer.
So, if you want a quick answer, please phone.
Why
this free publicity?
Because I am very pleased with the 3 days I spent with her as
a guide, interpretor and driver in Latvia in September 2007.
Of course, she is a professional guide but I am still grateful
for her kindness, her cleverness, the depth of her knowledge,
the clarity of her explanations and her honesty. |
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Latvian
flag |
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Art nouveau
in
Riga |
Baltic German
coat of arms
in Riga's Cathedral
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St George
(Sword Brother's Chapel in Riga) |
My goal was to visit places related to a branch of my family and to
get precise answers to a full list of historical questions (I am working
on novel dealing with the medieval, romantic and contemporary times
in Baltic countries).
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Treyden - Toreida
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Road trips made in Latvia
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There is a lot to see in Riga. For instance...
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Albert von Buxhoeveden
( Cathedral's Cloister) |
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Saint John's Church |
The museums are full of touching, interesting or amusing pieces of
art...
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Our Lady of Riga
(History Museum of Riga) |
Automat of a City Drummer
(History Museum of Riga)
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The old town of Riga is extremely pleasant...
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Powder Tower
(Riga) |
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and rich in traces of the past...
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Riga's Coat of Arms |
Medieval fortifications (Riga)
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Cathedral Chapter's
Coat of Arms (Riga) |
with significant monuments, statues, symbols...
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Black Heads House
(Riga) |
Roland, symbol
of Riga's independance
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Sword Brothers'
symbol |
But Latvia is a country with a wealth of places full of memories that
very few people know in western Europe and America. For example...
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Model of Uëxküll
- Iskile in 1183. ( First stone building and starting point
of the Baltic Crusades) |
Country palaces like thoses
of the Princes Lieven...
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Front
view
of
Mesothen -
Mezotnes
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Back
view
of
Mesothen -
Mezotnes |
or this charming XVIII° century wooden manor in the Swedish style...
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| Ungurn (built by
the Campenhausen family) |
Of course, Latvians speak Latvian, maps and road signs are in Latvian
and, as the language is full of declensions, even Latvian dictionaries
are not easy do deal with! So, if you don’t speak Latvian,
don’t expect to find your way out of old Riga. Don’t
expect either to really decipher the written explanations in museums
and historical places around: translations in English and German don’t
cover more than one third of the places that I visited.
So,
my advice is: hire a local guide like Ilma and, as
far as I know, they are not so many; she is one of the most
experienced, her English is excellent (she speaks
German and Russian too, but not French) and she loves
her country.
But
of course, you may stick to Riga and bring flowers to the Soviet war
memorial which, indeed, is quite impressive...
I believe however that
you have better things to do!
[If you want to see other images of Latvia, here
is a trip
made by a young couple, the wife being of Latvian origin.]
Notionis
e-mail : pn@notionis.com
