Sunday 20th May 2018 No 7 Richard 01:55:33 Jackie 02:13:11 Our first time in Riga and our first time in Latvia , and what a brilliant place it is.The weather was lovely the flowers were out , plenty of bars , restaurants and shops . It is small compared to other cities we have visited but plenty too see and easy to get around . The high light for me was Riga Central Market, one of the biggest in Europe . The main structures of the market are five pavilions constructed by reusing old German Zeppelin hangars . The market is 72,300 square meters wide with more than 3,000 trade stands. Everything was on sale from 400 euro tins of Caviar to home made 3 euro slippers . The Riga Marathon is a relatively new tradition , but it now attracts top professional athletes and is the only race in Northern Europe with a Bronze IAAF label and is hoping to achieve Gold label by welcoming 35.000 participants from 70 countries . The economic impact for 2017 was calculated at