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Day 10, Tuesday 1 July, Riga

This morning when we woke up there was no land to be seen as we were not due in until midday.   In fact we were already in the bay leading to Riga but it is very big.   It is pretty miserable weather today, they describe it as overcast but it is in fact persistent drizzle.   We are glad we are not doing an excursion today.   Although if the weather had been better we would have got off and wandered around for some photography as there is some pretty stunning architecture (Steve - "hasbeen" was right) around where we are docked.   You can see where we are on our Sat Nav.   It is about a fifteen minute walk to the town centre, but they are running a shuttle.

After breakfast while I was catching up with my blog, I noticed half a dozen trucks pulling up along side.   I thought at first they were delivering supplies to the ship, but out on the balcony I could see they were on the road and held up by the traffic lights.   However when the lights changed they slowly crept across to the other side and then continued, side by side so no one could get past, at a walking pace.   After a while they started up on their horns, all different notes and honking at different rates it was like a modern symphony.   The whole thing lasted about an hour and then suddenly they were off and it was all over, although it took another 45 minutes or so for the traffic jams, that had built up, to clear.   Some sort of protest but I wonder what.   Perhaps we will find out tonight from someone who went an excursion today.   The cruise director called it a transport strike, but it was only the long distance lorry drivers, the coach drivers were still working (fortunately for the excursions) and in a strike they stop work altogether.   These were driving slow, to cause traffic chaos; it was a protest (Traffic jams in downtown Riga caused by protesting truck drivers).

The canapes today included port and stilton, although again we had to pay for the port.   At least we got a nice full glass of port.   The stilton had been prepared in balls and was nice and creamy and full of flavour.

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