Winter Solstice at Ethnographic Museum

We went to the Ethnographic Museum (Latvijas Etnogrāfiskais brīvdabas muzejs) to celebrate the Winter Solstice and the longer daylight growing on the way to the Summer Solstice. These seasonal changes are felt much more distinctly further north. It was an overcast day but there's an almost glowing beauty with the unspoiled snow in the woods. The lake at this open-air museum park was a snow covered frozen which made it look like a huge empty field.

Burning Yule Logs in Old Riga

Winter Solstice is the longest night of the year. Riga's sunset was 3:43PM and it rises at 9:00AM. It was snowing and 22F (-5C) but we had a great time celebrating local ancient traditions. There was the dragging of the yule log to gather last year's problems. We walked around town and through two of the Christmas Markets. Then we burned the logs and all of our problems with them. I made some videos this time which are at the bottom of this post.

Riga Christmas Markets

Christmas Markets started in Riga yesterday. We wandered around to three of them in the afternoon. It was below freezing with sunrise around 8:30am and sunset a bit before 4pm as the days get shorter. The bottom pics are in the dark but it was around 5pm. It's good to have the Christmas lights up to help brighten the afternoon.

Museum for Communication Frankfurt

I'm a bit of a geek so I'm making a separate entry about the Museum for Communication (Museum für Kommunikation). My job is all about various types of communication including mail, landline phones, cell phones, radios, computers, and networking. It's a lot of fun seeing history in the things that have evolved during my lifetime. Like technology, this museum evolved from the Postal Museum so it starts in the lobby with a cool looking postal box.

Frankfurt Museums

There's an awesome 2-day Museum Ticket in Frankfurt for 18 euro or 28 euro for a family. It's much better value than the widely advertised Frankfurt Card. I saw info on the Museum Ticket online but didn't see brochures or advertising for it like the Frankfurt Card. Frankfurt Card provides free transit and only half off at the museums, but that really adds up if you enjoy museums like we do.

This post is about all of the museums we visited except for one, which will be a post by itself. Some of the good museums are in a row along the river and across the street from this wonderful walk under interesting trees. We walked to the furthest museum to work our way back to the pedestrian Iron Bridge (Eiserner Steg).

Frankfurt Germany

A 4 day weekend while assigned in Europe usually means visiting another country. For example, Frankfurt Germany is just a 2 hour direct flight away. There was also a Marillion concert there, which is one of my favorite bands. We arrived around sunset so the pictures start with some night shots. We stayed near Hauptwache S-bahn station for easy transit from the airport and to be near everything we wanted to see.

The Christmas markets started on Monday after we left, so we saw the setup throughout this area. It looks like it'd be a cool experience but it's also probably really crowded, so I have mixed feelings about missing it. There's Christmas markets in Riga so we can get our fill of them at home.

We discovered an awesome 2-day Museum Ticket for 18 euro or 28 euro for a family, which is much better value than the widely advertised Frankfurt Card. I saw info on the Museum Ticket online but didn't see brochures or advertising for it like the Frankfurt Card. Frankfurt Card provides free transit and half off at the museums but paying half really adds up if you enjoy museums. The museums will probably be another blog post so I'll start with the Frankfurt pics here and see how it goes.

Latvia 100 Celebration Fireworks

Latvia celebrated their centenary or 100 years since the Republic of Latvia was established. The day was filled with concerts and parades. It ended with a massive fireworks and light show on the river. It looked like all of Riga was on the riverfront.