Riga has it’s own special liqueur called Black Balsam. Supposedly in the 1760’s when Catherine the Great got sick she was cured by this bitter tonic made with 20 ingredients including herbs, roots and flowers. At 40% proof she probably felt no pain. To drink it you need to mix it with something sweet like Coke or a fruit juice.
From the 1400’s to 1795, Poland and Lithuania were one country. They still share similar food like cartachky (Polish) or cepelinai (Lithuanian zeppelins) – large dumplings with skins made of grated potato and egg stuffed with meat.
The Radisson Blu in Riga www.radissonblu.com/latvijahotel-Riga, built in 1983 is the largest hotel in the Baltics with 572 rooms on 26 floors offering spectacular views of the city.
The nightclub can seat 800 and the casino has room for 1,000 losers, oops, winners. There’s a spa, hair salon, convenience store, money exchange, ATM, an ironing room, and an attached shopping arcade with a gourmet food store. The abundant buffet breakfast is a beehive of activity, with guests digging in to platters of herring, smoked salmon, dried fruits, seeds and nuts, and even a station for eggs and custom omelettes.
The Skyline Bar on the 26th floor gives a whole new meaning to getting high.
Ernst Johann von Biren was born into a poor family in Latvia and rose to rule Russia (okay just for a moment).
He managed to become the lover of Anna, an Empress of Russia who gave him all sorts of gifts and power. She made him the Duke of Courland, and he built Pilsrundale, a palace near Riga modeled after Versailles, and designed by Rastrelli, the same architect as the Hermitage in St. Petersburg.
We are quite impressed with the quality and amount of information you get on this tour. Down to the minute details like where the free bathrooms are, where they hide the coffee pot in your room and where you get the best exchange rate, and even suggestions of about how much to exchange based on typical meal prices. There is no way you could know this on your own or find out searching the net before you go.
Our guide speaks about 7 languages and knows so much history about each country including the social mores.
Everyone is enjoying his interspersing of the typical jokes of each nationality. He always has a smile on his face and is willing – and able – to answer everyone’s questions on all kinds of topics. This makes everyone feel so comfortable.
Breakfasts have been copious. Today’s meal at the Novotel Hotel included Polish sausages, mustard and – pickles! They were delicious.
The Novotel hotel was glam and even had a casino in it.
We had a guide in training along – Esther – and she gave us a little extra tour to the impressive main square in Poznan. It is so spiffy that it looks like a Hollywood set, but is actually 700 years old.
Poles say “nostrovia” as a toast for drinking, and they do like to imbibe.
They will always drink to the health of:
The host
The guest
The beautiful ladies
The handsome gents
Their bachelor days
And anything else that will keep them drinking
In Warsaw on Oct 15, 1940, 400,000 Jews were rounded up and trapped into the Jewish Ghetto (30% of the population of Warsaw in 2.4% of the city) which rose to 1.5 million by 1941. However by 1942, it was unfortunately being emptied as the extermination camps had been built and they were being sent there to be gassed.
In January 1943, in response to another Nazi round-up to clean them all out and send them to the extermination camps, there was a Warsaw Ghetto uprising (7,000 were shot immediately) and then another one on April 19 where the Jews fought a fight to the death. When it was all over, the whole area was leveled to the ground.At least 56,065 men women and children were killed on the spot or deported to Treblinka.
Wladyslaw Szpilman was one of the survivors. He was the Polish pianist, composer and writer and subject of the film The Pianist by Roman Polanski (who was in the Krakow ghetto). He died in 2000.
You can still see one piece of the Ghetto wall. There is an interactive Warsaw Rising Museum in Old Town. www.warsaw-life.com/poland/warsaw-rising-museum
After Sept 1, 1939 when Germany invaded Poland, 450,000 of the 3,000,000 Jews were rounded up into a ghetto. By 1941, 1,500,000 Jews were stuffed in there. But by 1942, it was unfortunately being emptied, since the extermination camps had been built and the inmates were being sent there to be gassed.
In April 1943, with about 60,000 left, and Germans coming in to clean them all out, the Jews fought a fight to the death. 7,000 were shot immediately and the rest sent to the Treblinka death camp. One of the leaders, Mordechai Anielewicza, committed suicide. Vladislav Szpiman was part of this action; the main character of Roman Polanski’s movie “The Pianist” was based on him. Another leader escaped, became a doctor and is still alive today.
Stop at the MDM Hotel in Warsaw – it has large comfy rooms and is a quick 10 minute bus ride to Old Town. Breakfast had scrumptious kielbasa, lots of cut fresh fruit – including bananas with drizzled chocolate syrup, deviled eggs, cherry danish, cold cuts, cheese and good bread.
There are 2 good inexpensive Polish restaurants nearby. One is right on street level of the hotel, with generous portions (meal for 2 with beers under $20).
The other, Pierogeria, has traditional and modern pierogi (mozzarella, salami and cheddar is awesome). Enjoyed the duck with cranberries, but still loved the authentic ground veal best. You can order an assortment (you choose varieties) plate and taste many of them.
There were 2 Treblinka camps in Poland ruled by Ivan the Terrible. In 1943 there was an uprising in the camp where 200 prisoners managed to escape. 60 survived the war.
Hitler wanted no traces of the camps and had them destroyed. However there were 800,000 bodies buried in mass graves, and that was evidence, so prisoners were forced to dig them all up and burn them so there would be no trace of them.
3,000,000 Jews and 3,000,000 Poles, about 1/4 of the population of the country, were killed in the war. Exterminations included not only Jews but gypsies, homosexuals, people who helped Jews, Communists and any enemies of the Reich.
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