Latvia might be an hour ahead, but that’s no excuse for not even waking up until 9.45am this morning! Nige was in a tizz to start with (something about ‘wasting the day’) until he realised that he’s on holiday, and it’s Saturday.

I chatted to a Canadian lady at breakfast, who was travelling the world on her own. She is 64. How fab is that?!

When we approached the main square, it had been transformed into a huge Harvest Festival with a market, food stalls, and two stages with traditional dancing taking place. All of a sudden the quiet square was bustling with activity. This was for the locals and not the tourists – tourist season being over. No Russian Dolls for sale, just pig heads and vodka (actually not just that, but it sounds better!).

Everywhere we walked around the city, the roads all lead to the main square, so we enjoyed the festival again and again throughout the morning.

In the afternoon, we took a bus out into the wilds of suburban Riga to try and find a place where you can shoot an AK47 (The Book says…). Neither of us particularly wanted to fire an AK47, but as well as it being the thing to do in Riga (presumably only by the hosteling crowd and not Russian oppressors) we were interested in the location of the shooting – being in a real Soviet bunker. We went all that way… and we never even found it. We trekked up and down the road, but could not see a scooby of the place. A wasted hour or so.

Best way to get over the frustration of a wasted journey? Cocktails at the Skybar. A cheeky Margarita consumed before dinner while admiring the view over Riga. I can handle that.

We went back to yesterday’s place for dinner this evening, only for it to have been transformed from being packed to the rafters with locals to having just one other couple (and Brits at that) dining. As they left before we even received our main course, it was like eating Latvian cuisine in our own dining room, just without the TV on in the background. Delicious food, but the atmosphere did not make us want to linger over coffee.

So, we went back to the main square for coffee, where Nige was thoroughly thrashed at a game of Squares played on the paper place mat. That’ll teach him for thinking he can challenge the master!