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BrainStorm – pop life!

25 top Latvian attractions

Exotic smuggling

Roaring twenties

What’s in this magazine?

APPETIZERSOrange vegetable tarts,

cottage cheese pancakes,

hemp seed butter and

liqueurs fit for a queen…

4

POP PLEASURELatvians’ love affair with

BrainStorm will never end.

But when will the rest of the

world get to know the band?

8

PAST TIMESA wealth of art and colour

shines through in Latvia’s

interwar posters. They reveal

a dazzling insight into

the roaring 1920s and 1930s.

22

EXOTIC SMUGGLINGYou’d be surprised what people

try to bring home in a suitcase.

28

25 REASONSThere are, of course, hundreds

of things to see in Latvia.

For reasons of space alone,

we unveil our Top 25.

30

A W

OR

D F

RO

M T

HE

CE

O

The last couple of years have been

a resounding success for us at Riga

International Airport. In 2004, for

the first time since Latvia regained

its independence in 1991, more

than one million passengers used

the airport and the rate of increase

in the number of passengers was in

excess of a staggering 49 percent, a record rate for us and one of the

biggest rises in Europe. Over several months the increase was topping 80

percent year-on-year.

Opportunities for travellers are becoming more varied. In the space of a

year, five airlines began flying to Riga and 13 new direct routes were

launched, which means that altogether 30 destinations connect Riga with

other cities around Europe, Asia and the United States of America.

It’s a more dynamic market now that Latvia is part of the European

Union. There’s the feeling that anything pleasurable can happen. Hence Czech

Airlines launched a new route between Riga and Rome. And the Tashkent-

Riga-New York flights now being operated by Uzbekistan Airways are an inter-

continental watershed for us.

KLM, Austrian Airlines, easyJet, Ryanair and Uzbekistan Airways have all

commenced flights to Riga in recent months.

This great expansion is an important precondition for the further develop-

ment of the airport. A new stage in the reconstruction and extension of the

terminal is underway as a new, EUR 8.5 million, three-storey building starts

to emerge at the north end of the terminal. Construction will be completed

by the end of 2005, enabling us to increase our airport capacity even further,

beyond two million passengers a year.

Dzintars Pomers

President and CEO of Riga International Airport

4 G A T E W A Y R I G A

If you’re interested in organic foods, the rich Latvian countryside has a lot to offer.

Traditional cuisine

2 / 2 0 0 5

Traditional Latvian food isn’t all

just meat and potatoes – though it

contains pretty sizeable portions of

both. It has been influenced by a

range of products that have been

available for hundreds of years, for

which the Latvian climate provides

the ideal conditions for growing.

Today they are raw and fresh, the

taste of the old-fashioned, ox-and-

plough Latvian countryside. And

each of the four regions of Latvia

has its own favourites.

A strong fishing tradition comes

from the long Latvian coastline,

influencing what people eat in the

western regions of Kurzeme and

Vidzeme. On one 10-kilometre

stretch of the Kurzeme coast near

Kolka, every second house sells

smoked fish. Another speciality is

mackerel, perch or pilchards cut into

pieces and cooked in milk with

chopped onion and grated carrot.

One of Kurzeme’s best non-

fishy dishes is the unique-looking

sklandu rausi vegetable tarts,

made by filling circular cases of

rye or wheat with mashed carrots

or potatoes.

An amazing range of yogurts,

cheeses and other dairy products

can be found all over Latvia. One

of Vidzeme’s most mouth-watering

dishes is biezpiens (similar to cot-

tage cheese) fried with onions and

pork. Pancakes are often filled with

cottage cheese, but the stuffing can

also be fruit or mincemeat.

You could say that potato

pancakes, which are widely con-

sumed in every region, reflect

Latvia’s changing landscape.

They’re flat and wide in Kurzeme

and fat and round in Latgale,

where pancakes are eaten with

jam and sour cream.

The prize for heaviest food

must surely go to Latgale in the

east, where the locals even eat

fried meat for breakfast. Three days

in Latgale and you’ll come back

frantically scouring the Internet for

a fast-action diet.

Farmyard attractionsPopular traditional meat dishes

in Latvia start with brown peas

cooked and served in a pot with

chopped-up fried pork sprinkled

on top. It’s a universal, year-round

favourite, best served with a cup

of ruguspiens, or curdled milk.

Another hearty darling is piragi,

crescent-shaped bread rolls filled

with pieces of bacon or pork fat.

Traditional Latvian bread mustn’t

be missed. Farming in Latvia began

two or three centuries BC, mostly

harvesting barley to start with, later

rye. Good old wholegrain or rye sour-

dough breads cannot be mass-pro-

duced. They’re neither modern nor

manufactured and you can only find

them down the market. The only tra-

ditional Latvian bread to survive on

the supermarket shelves has been the

popular staple of black rye bread.

Down south, Zemgale’s soil is

the best for farming and has always

been home to Latvia’s richest farm-

ers. It’s the Latvian breadbasket,

baking it for distribution right across

the country. The most expensive

bread is probably the exquisite

Lacu maize. The other regions make

bread too, of course. In Vidzeme,

Berzukrogs, an inn 90 kilometres

east of the capital, just past Cesis

on the road to St Petersburg, sells

its own delicious bread.

Rye bread has sweet and seduc-

tive uses. It can, for example, be

grated, mixed with cinnamon,

sugared and layered with whipped

Carawaybutter ismade forthe wildfeasting,drinkingand dancing of thesummersolstice

Good

old-fashioned

cooking

cream and jam to make a delicious

dessert. Speaking of the sweet life,

chocolate takes a special place in

the nation’s heart. Mentioning the

country’s oldest factory when talk-

ing about traditional Latvian food

may seem like an anomaly, but

the record for that goes to Laima,

which has been producing choco-

lates and other sweets for more

than 125 years.

Exotic spreadsEven the rye would be dry

without a slab of butter.

Traditionally, Latvian cooking has

used generous helpings of hemp

seeds. Hemp seed butter can be

made when the seeds are pressed

very hard to obtain their natural

waxes. The oil – nature’s richest

source of Essential Fatty Acids –

is very strong, so it is added to

normal butter made from

cows’ milk.

Caraway butter is made for

the wild feasting, drinking and

dancing of the summer solstice,

an event nobody celebrates like

the Latvians. Beer, whether light

or dark, bitter or sweet, is com-

monly made at home for special

occasions like this – the stronger

the better, many say. Kimelis

is a beer that is flavoured

with caraway.

Caraway is also the key ingredi-

ent of Allazu Kimelis, a liqueur

the Latvian government sends to

the Queen of England every year.

King of the Latvian liqueurs, how-

ever, is Black Balsam, a smooth

and velvety but potent concoction

of herbs that is said to cure any

ailment. But take care – it must

be drunk in small doses.

sklandu rausivegetable tarts

piragi

brown peas

and pork traditional bread

2 / 2 0 0 5 G A T E W A Y R I G A 9

The third album for international

release, "A Day before Tomorrow",

more guitar-driven and a touch dark-

er than the earlier products, is what

the band call "a slideshow of life in

12 chapters". The leap in tone comes

partly from a change in producers,

from Tony Mansfield, who produced

Scand-pop legends A-Ha, to the duo

of Alex Silva (Suede) and Steve Lyon

(Depeche Mode). The progression

seems to be a natural one. The band

have always cited A-Ha and Depeche

Mode, as well as Nirvana and Pearl

Jam, as major influences. Art direc-

tion, logo and pictures were created

by Anton Corbijn, who helped create

the Mode’s later gloomy image.

"Alex put more of a live guitar

sound to our songs," says Renars.

"But this ‘darker’ sound, as you call

it, we prefer instead to call maybe

a little bit more serious, a little bit

more grown up."

As for Corbijn, BrainStorm seem

ideal partners for the moody lense-

man. "We had a chance to meet and

talk to him and we became friends.

We made photos with him. He’s

a great artist, but first of all a won-

derful friend. And he dances great."

Asked what they’ve been listening

to recently, the band namecheck

The Doors, early-seventies Rolling

Stones, John Lennon and Johnny

Cash. But they didn’t grow up

listening to this stuff.

"It’s one of the differences we

have with most UK or other western

bands," says Magic. "They grew up

with their parents’ Beatles, Stones,

Doors and other legendary bands’

records. But we used to live behind

the old ‘iron curtain’ and didn’t

have access to this kind of music.

We grew up listening to things like

the music from Russian cartoons."

That’s radical. Is there anything

else radically different to the

BrainStorm sound lurking in their

record collections? "Tom Waits is

8 G A T E W A Y R I G A

T R A V E L P E O P L E

Adored in Riga, unknown in London. It’s been a long, strange drive for BrainStorm, but they hope it will be the strength of their music thatfinally brings them global success.

Magical mystery tour

2 / 2 0 0 5

About to release their seventh studio

album in more than a decade of

making music, BrainStorm are one of

hundreds of bands across continental

Europe that enjoy wild success and

adulation at home while struggling

to make a mark on the coveted,

highly competitive scenes in the UK

and the US. But BrainStorm know

they have something special. They

believe that this new album will be

the one to hit the big time.

Charismatic singer Renars Kaupers,

Kaspars Roga (percussion), Maris

Mihelsons (keyboards) and Magic

(guitar) make up the biggest band

in Latvia by a long shot and one

of the best-known in Eastern Europe.

Their last three records went plat-

inum and every single goes straight

to Number 1. They rake in the

prizes at the Latvian Music Awards

and play to adoring crowds of

25,000 people.

The first big international break-

through came in 2000 when the irre-

sistibly poppy single "My Star" did

well in that year’s Eurovision Song

Contest and was followed by an

album packed with strong tunes,

"Among the Suns". The band made

an English version to compliment

the Latvian one and it was released

in 18 countries including the UK,

Germany and Scandinavia.

The next album, "Online", released

in 2001, stormed through Central

and Eastern Europe, went gold

in Poland and won hearts in

Scandinavia with ethereally dreamy

melodies like the single "Maybe".

Since then the band have toured

Europe on their own and supported

the likes of rock’n’roll mammoths

the Rolling Stones in Prague,

the Cranberries in Western Europe,

Depeche Mode in the Baltics and

Supergrass in Denmark. Most recent-

ly, they supported REM this year on

a string of European dates.

We lovesmall,intimateconcertswhere you feeland seethe audience.

Left-right:

Maris Mihelsons,

Kaspars Roga,

Renars Kaupers,

Magic

10 G A T E W A Y R I G A

great," says Kaspars. "And Nick Cave.

Renars’ kids like Rammstein."

PositivityThe UK and the US are tough

music markets to break into. Both

are overwhelmed with bands trying

to get recognition and hype often

dominates over talent. But giving up

is not an option.

"Breaking into these markets is

a hard task not only for us but for

a lot of bands. How many German

bands are known there? Rammstein,

yes, but not many more. We come

from a country that hasn’t been

active on the music market. But

that doesn’t mean we won’t try

to get there."

It’s positive thinking like this

that helped the four band members

move on from the tragic death

of bass guitarist Mumins last year

in a car accident. Understandably,

this is not something they feel com-

fortable talking about. As Renars

says, "It has affected us deep inside,

and so it affected everything else

around us." He asks to move on

to the next question.

There are obviously negative

strings attached to being famous,

wherever you are. But does the good

outweigh the bad?

"We do appreciate that people in

our native Latvia have received our

music so well for so many years,"

Renars says. "This is definitely the

positive side, being appreciated and

loved by people. Sure, sometimes we

don’t want to be recognised. But

we’ve been public figures for several

years now and some negative things

we used to worry about just don’t

matter now."

BrainStorm are among just

a handful of bands that have taken

the risk of appearing in Eurovision

midway through their careers and

actually managed to build on it and

maintain credibility. Maris agrees.

"Eurovision was good as a platform

for us. To be honest, that was the

first time Latvia ever took part and

we didn’t have a clue what it was

all about. But it helped us – and

the fact that we were different was

good, we got noticed."

"Eurovision music is not our cup

of tea from musical perspective,"

Kaspars hastens to add, "but we

understand its power in terms

of reaching a wide audience. And

the production is professional."

Recent concerts have had

an influence on the way BrainStorm

play, for example the "great experi-

ence" of seeing the Rolling Stones

perform at close quarters, plus

watching Cardigans and Goran

Bregovic. But you can’t see artists

like this in Riga every day. Doesn’t

living in Latvia restrict access to

a broad range of influences?

"That’s true," Renars answers. "We

would like to see more bands, but we

don’t see this as a missed opportunity

for inspiration or that it badly influ-

enced our development. We’ve had

our own speed to develop."

As for their own concerts,

Renars mentions a couple that

stick in the mind.

"It’s always great to play in a sta-

dium, but at the same time we love

small, intimate concerts where you

feel and see the audience as close as

possible. We had great album show-

case at the Vilnius Planetarium –

very emotional, intimate and memo-

rable. Somehow the Faeroe Islands

have also stuck in our memory as

something unforgettable – no trees,

bad weather, Magic lost his hair.

We had a lot of fun and a really

nice concert there."

Personal greatsRenars on BrainStorm’s

best albums…

Vairak neka skali (More Than Loud) (1993)"The very first one! It really represents the idea

of brainstorming – feeling free to create nice

melodies and not being afraid to pour on a little

alternative sauce."

Personal standout tracks: Pats sakums,

Jo Tu nac, Ziema, Vairak neka skali

Veronika (1996, re-released 2005)"Here you can feel our small revolution, our Che

Guevara, the one where the songs came freely,

ignoring standards and any radio station for-

mats. This is surely the most creative one and

one of the favourites among our fans."

Personal standout tracks: Veronika,

Vina dzıvo zemak, Darznieks, Suburbija

Viss ir tiesi ta ka tu velies(Everything as you want it) (1997)"The most difficult to describe, as it could all be

taken any way you like it – a couple of hits,

some musical jokes, some joyful melodies…"

Personal standout tracks: Tavas majas mana

azote, Neatgriesanas, Kas talak

Starp divam saulem (Among the Suns) (1999)"So far, my all-time favourite album of ours,

with the original cover of Mohammed Ali (the

record company soon changed it to our faces

instead). The songwriting is really good and the

sound seems to be naturally ours, not after

developing it for hours. I call songs like "Among

the Suns" and "Try" our golden classics. This

was our breakthrough album on the interna-

tional field. In countries like Belgium, Sweden

and Finland it got regular airplay and we got

great album and gig reviews all over the place."

Personal standout tracks: Try, Among the Suns,

Billions of Stars, Under My Wing

Kakens, kurs atteicas no jurasskolas(Online) (2001)"Nice album, but I would call it ours only partly

as the technology and production tend to over-

whelm our creativity and vitality. It was

released internationally and this time worked

better in Eastern Europe – Poland, Ukraine,

Slovakia and the Czech Republic."

Personal standout tracks:

Maybe, She’s My Love and My Mission

Dienas kad lidlauks parak tals(Day before Tomorrow) (2003)"The one before the ‘big bang’ – a good album,

though from today’s point of view with too

much melancholy and not enough concentra-

tion. We tried to concentrate on the German

market with this album, while trying not to for-

get everyone else. We toured Germany, did a

lot of promo work and got positive reviews."

Personal standout tracks: Passion,

Day before Tomorrow, Spacemuminsh

Forthcoming album (2005)"The big one…" ?

2 / 2 0 0 5

tion. Latvia has managed to avoid

significant price augmentation for

quite a bit. However, last year the

average inflation rate in Latvia was

the highest in the EU. But it has

to be said that this was basically

due to short-term factors – various

new ES laws and regulations had

to be implemented. The unexpect-

ed global leap in the price of fuel

could not have been foreseen.

Almost all experts unanimously

agree that within the next few

years inflation should gradually

slide back down to its familiar

level of 2.5 to 3 percent.

Spending powerNevertheless, the purchasing

power of the population is increas-

ing, proven by the growth in retail

turnover. On average, this indicator

in Latvia has augmented by 12 per-

cent every year.

The population can benefit too

from money lent by commercial

banks – all 23 of them. Growing

competition amongst them encour-

age them to propose more and

more attractive offers to clients.

Many banks have supportive parent

banks abroad that make it possible

for them to demonstrate greater

flexibility when market demands

are to be met.

Consumer and mortgage loans are

becoming increasingly popular.

Notwithstanding the credit boom in

Latvia, the ratio of credited amounts

to GDP is two or three times less

than the average European Union

indicators. European Union structural

funds promise significant financial

assistance to Latvian economic oper-

ators. An increasing number of

enterprises present their development

projects for funding. Regional busi-

ness activities are particularly high-

lighted. A development project can

be given up to 65 percent of the

necessary financing if it falls within

12 G A T E W A Y R I G A

E C O N O M Y

After joining the European Union in May last year, the Latvian economy experienced fresh impetus for development. It has stimulated positive economic growth.

Top-notch economic growth in the EU

2 / 2 0 0 5

The Latvian economy has been

demonstrating how to achieve a

dynamic rate of growth compared to

the rest of Europe for some time.

But now it’s achieving record pro-

portions. According to Central

Statistics Board data, last year’s GDP

growth was 8.5 percent – the

biggest single increase among the 25

EU member states. A number of

independent experts and government

representatives have pointed out that

Latvia is witnessing rapid economic

growth in 2005 too, somewhere in

the region of 7 to 7.5 percent.

GDP is increasing mostly as a

result of speedy developments in

such sectors as trade, transport and

communications, manufacturing and

construction. Tourism is a particular

focus of attention. Last year, about

3 million tourists visited Latvia.

According to Eurostat data, the rise

On the stock exchangeSince 27 September 2004, the Riga and Tallinn Stock

Exchanges have been operating using the SAXESS trade

system, employed by all stock exchanges belonging to

the NOREX alliance. In addition to basic transactions,

this system offers:

• transactions that can be concluded

in several stock exchanges simultaneously

• investor orders that can be fed into the system and

linked automatically, without stockbroker participation

• different types of order, indicating

the particular price or market price

in the number of hotel guests was

one of the largest in Europe. Now

Latvia is busy preparing for several

significant events, one of which will

be the Ice Hockey World

Championship in 2006.

Joining the EU and pegging the

national currency to the euro has

bolstetered foreign trade, since EU

member states constitute Latvia’s

most significant trading partners.

Business operators admit that signifi-

cantly simplified border crossings

have had a great impact on transit

services via Latvia.

Pegging the lat to the euro has

eliminated one more sore and

unwanted problem – currency risk.

Latvian exports increased by 28.1

percent in 2004 year-on-year,

whereas imports to Latvia increased

by 25.2 percent. This means that

Latvia will be among those five

exclusive EU member states that

can boast the fastest increase in

export volumes.

That the margin of difference in

the total value of exports and

imports has diminished from 81.1

percent in 2003 to 77.1 percent in

2004 is a positive sign. Even though

imports in Latvia overrun exports,

this indicator is complimentary for a

new, developing country. Latvian

imports consist in particular of

machinery, mechanical equipment,

electrical devices and raw production

materials.

Quality investmentsBy joining the European Union,

Latvia has become even more accessi-

ble and attractive in the eyes of for-

eign investors. According to data sup-

plied by the Bank of Latvia, in 2004

the positive balance of direct invest-

ment (the difference between incom-

ing and outgoing capital) was LVL

299 million, covering 32.9 percent

of the current account’s negative

balance. When investigating the

structure of foreign direct invest-

ments, it can be seen that long-term

investments prevail. This gives rise to

the hope that, once production costs

between the ‘old’ member states and

Latvia are levelled, investments will

not peter out, because what attracts

investors most is Latvia’s geographical

position – the close proximity of

market borders is a particular attrac-

tion – and qualified labour.

It is to be expected that within

the next few years Latvia will spe-

cialise in such sectors in the world

market as manufacturing and con-

struction, transport, storage and

communications. The country’s

structural investment division con-

firms this assertion.

Rapid economic growth is

inevitably accompanied by infla-

On average,retailturnoverhas beengrowing by12 percentevery year.

the expenses covered by the pro-

gramme.

Companies quoting their shares at

stock exchanges can be sure of spe-

cial trust granted by investors and

other business operators. The Riga

Stock Exchange is the sole licenced

exchange in Latvia, striving to

ensure the trade of securities in free

circulation, as well as openness and

transparency, so that market infor-

mation is equally available to every

operator. Riga Stock Exchange’s

biggest shareholder is Sweden’s

OMX, holding 92.98 percent in the

company. Both the stock exchange

and the Latvian Central Depository

are part of OMX.

The official trading currency at

the Riga Stock Exchange is the lat,

but euros and dollars can be used

as currencies for quoting, with set-

tlements made in the respective

currencies. The exchange’s website,

rfb.lv, provides information about

quoted securities, trading sessions

and more.

14 G A T E W A Y R I G A

A I R P O R T S T O R I E S

Ever wonder what happens to your luggage when you saygoodbye to it at check-in? It goes on an incredible journey…

Travels of a suitcase

2 / 2 0 0 5

It’s easy to forget all about your

suitcase when it vanishes behind

the check-in counter. After all,

there are so many other things

to worry about… Are you in time

for your flight? Where’s the gate?

Will you be pulled aside at secu-

rity for something suspicious in

your pocket?

In fact, your suitcase embarks

on a journey that is every bit

as complicated as yours.

Handling the luggage involves

a lot of attention and many

hands are involved before you

pick it up with a sigh of relief

when you land.

So you’re checked in and off it

trundles on the conveyor belt –

or falls over embarrassingly with

a bang – into the sorting hall.

First stop is the scanner room,

where security personnel X-ray it

for explosives, gases and corrosive

materials. This may include quite

innocent everyday objects not

allowed onboard. Pocket lighters

are an obvious example. But so

is massage oil. And a jar of her-

ring is also dangerous – if it

breaks, the liquid corrodes alu-

minium.

This means that the X-raying is

a vital and multi-level screening

process. If not everything can be

approved on the first level, an

operator studies the X-ray and

the suitcase is X-rayed again by a

different machine. The suitcase

may be revolved and pho-

tographed from several angles.

If that doesn’t satisfy security,

the owner is called over, the

suitcase is opened and the suspi-

cious items are examined. But

fortunately that happens very

rarely, because virtually every-

thing in your suitcase can be

seen and identified. At the same

time, spot checks are made by

police and customs officers, who

have the right to open anything

they want to.

SortedNext, your suitcase drifts along

the conveyor belt into a large

hall called the sorting area. Its

baggage tag is constantly moni-

tored electronically to make sure

it goes to the designated plane.

The suitcase is given a push at

the right exit and sent all the

way to the final station.

There, your suitcase is loaded

up with all the others onto a

baggage carrier and driven out to

the waiting aircraft. The bags are

stacked up in the hold, in the

belly of the plane under the pas-

sengers’ feet. On some types of

A jar ofherring isdangerous– if itbreaks,the liquidcorrodesaluminium.

aircraft, the luggage is put into

containers before being loaded

onboard.

But what happens on those

rare but sad occasions when your

suitcase mysteriously goes miss-

ing? This doesn’t happen very

often, thankfully, but when it

does an Internet-based system

called World Tracing is put into

action. Any suitcase that fails to

arrive at its destination can be

traced through a precise profile

that is sent to airports around

the world. It will quickly be

located, sent back on the next

return flight and forwarded to

the anxious passenger.

This process will accelerate in

the coming years, as more ‘trade

matches’ are made.

Even trade with non-EU coun-

tries has been speeded up since

Schenker became the first company

to pilot simplified customs clear-

ance procedures, involving an easi-

ly updated form ensuring transit

is not interrupted.

Three years before the Baltics

joined the EU, Schenker helped to

pioneer Baltic Transit, a scheme that

avoided border formalities between

the Baltic states for high-volume

goods. The result was that when the

borders fell, arrival times continued

to coincide with departure times.

Cross-docking and segregation of

goods for different points within

Latvia happen smoothly, ready

before the local lines depart.

Schenker is no stranger to the

Baltics. In the 1920s it had an office

in Riga over the road from the

Parliament. When it returned to

Latvia in 1995, tough work ensued

to establish new transport routes con-

necting the country to the business

regions and cities of Europe.

Now, Taurins works hard to get

the message across that businesses

don’t have to plan in terms of

the numbers of trucks needed, but

in terms of exactly the number

of goods they need transported.

Logistics is a high-precision service.

Taurins clearly enjoys his job.

"It’s great to work in such

a dynamic business, bringing all

the logistics threads together and

explaining them to the customer.

What we’re aiming for is a single

and transparent transport scheme,

to see very clearly that the freight

flow is organised. That’s when the

customer can say, ‘On these condi-

tions, I can do my business.’"

2 / 2 0 0 5 17

The free movement of goods across

the borders of the 25 countries of

the European Union, including the

three Baltic states, is having profound

implications for trade. But this in

itself is not the megatrend.

"It’s a different playground that

needs to be fully investigated," he

explains. "Just to jump in and offer

a whole new range of logistics solu-

tions could have cost us money.

Examining carefully the political and

macroeconomic processes beforehand

was vital – keeping things running,

eliminating the risks, adjusting the

schemes and adapting. Well, that’s

what we did in 2004."

Logistics can be understood better

when looked at vertically, from the

infrastructure and the trucks, trains,

ships and planes that move within

it, up to the freight operators respon-

sible for this movement, and finally

to the customer and commercial

solution level. It’s this top level that

studies the ‘why’ aspect – to whom

the goods are moving, the terms of

delivery, the payment, the benefit,

the production design, the packaging.

Enter TEN-T, the trans-European

transport network so important to

sustaining the EU’s economic com-

petitiveness while keeping Europe free

of congestion, pollution and noise.

Identifying the megatrend in logistics,

Taurins says, involves looking at

Latvia within the new context of

the international freight market.

Fast flow of freightAs the market expands and bor-

ders disappear, lead times – from the

moment an order is placed to the

moment of delivery – are getting

much shorter. In Latvia these days,

customs checks, paperwork and clear-

ance are only necessary for haulage

from the east.

That has one more implication:

businesses no longer need to have

stock based in Riga, because bring-

ing it from, say, Warsaw is so fast.

Speedy supply for points within

a radius of 1,000 kilometres is now

possible, cutting out the need for

a local middle-man. Just exchange

your VAT numbers and the busi-

ness is done – it’s that simple.

16 G A T E W A Y R I G A

B U S I N E S S

Schenker is a worldwide name synonymous with fast, easy-flowing cargo transport andlogistics. Its Latvian branch was established 10 years ago, long enough for its articulatedirector, Aivars Taurins, to be able to identify some clear new trends.

Transport made easy

2 / 2 0 0 5

Freight is a fast growing business

in Latvia, as it is right across

the continent. That has profound

implications for everyone, not least

ecologically. The European

Commission is planning to spend

EUR 740 million between 2007

and 2013 through its Marco Polo

Programme to get as much of the

spiralling annual increase of freight

traffic as possible off noisy trucks

and onto sea and rail transport.

It estimates that every EUR 1

invested in this project will pay

back EUR 6 to public benefit.

Aivars Taurins, Latvia bureau chief

of the international logistics company

Schenker, wants to develop his busi-

ness to tie in with this shift.

"Of course, road freight is still

usually the fastest, most flexible

way from A to B. We’re not

about to reject requests that need

this kind of precision timing.

But what we realise is that in the

long term roads will be limited.

The future needs an optimisation

of freight solutions. The earlier

we can encourage freight off

the roads the better."

If a few million tonnes of metal

scrap can reach Liepaja from Riga in

a day or two rather than a few

hours, Taurins will suggest cargo ship

over road traffic.

"If we offset now, that will give

the production people time to

develop their fleet so that when

there is a regular flow the capaci-

ty will be there. The Marco Polo

Programme is meant to anticipate

the breaking point, when roads

can no longer cope. The EU

could also use road taxes, which

will make road traffic less compet-

itive. This is the ‘megatrend’ for

the future of logistics."

Logistical shiftSchenker is making its presence

felt as the cargo kings around

the globe for businesses large and

small. So its Latvian office knows

how to get every conceivable type

of commodity in any quantity

from manufacturer’s warehouse

to city hypermarket or backwoods

village store, on time. But staying

in the position of your customers’

preferred choice also means antici-

pating their future routes.

"In logistics, you can draw paral-

lels with the IT business," Taurins

says. "Nobody requested mobile

phones before they existed. Like IT,

we have to be proactive and look

ahead to be fully prepared for how

and where our customers will want

to go in the future."

Taurins has identified several

"megatrends" that show how logistics

will develop in the Baltic region.

"Nobodyrequestedmobilephonesbefore they existed.Like IT, we have to lookahead."

Aivars Taurins

G A T E W A Y R I G A

2 / 2 0 0 5 G A T E W A Y R I G A 19

based more strongly on the actual

value of the ticket, guaranteeing

a greater degree of fairness.

Gourmet – and kids’ – menusWell-known star chefs from all

over the world are now taking care

of the culinary well-being of

Lufthansa’s guests in First and

Business Class. Within the framework

of the ‘Connoisseurs on Board’ serv-

ice concept, at six-month intervals

on continental routes, five European

regions are respectively presented

with their culinary specialties.

On European flights, the first and

most essential meal of the day, a ‘fit-

ness breakfast’ is offered, developed

in cooperation with nutrition experts.

According to the motto ‘Colour of

the day’, besides the ingredients, the

traffic-light colours red, yellow and

green play a key role in every fitness

breakfast. As an optical and psycho-

logical stimulus, they have an effect

on physical and mental well-being

and create an appetite for a balanced

diet. Fruit and vegetables in these

colours provide important nutrients.

With around 300,000 orders

a year, the children’s meals are

among the most popular of the spe-

cial meals. Before they are included

in the programme, children them-

selves test them out.

"If you want to give kids a culi-

nary treat, you quickly come up

against limits," says children’s chef

and author of a children’s cookbook

Johann Lafer. "You can forget salad

and lots of green vegetables as far as

children are concerned. They reject

it immediately. It makes most sense

to stick to familiar dishes that are

popular: Potatoes with sausages, pan-

cake with applesauce, rabbit-shaped

filled rolls, noodles in bon-bon

shapes and other things."

The chef prefers low-fat food,

and instead of sugar he likes to

use honey.

Surfing onboardLufthansa is on the front line in

the new era in mobile communica-

tions. FlyNet, which gives passen-

gers high-speed broadband Internet

access – connectivity on routine

flights at cruising altitude – has

already been installed in the new

A340-300s. Using a satellite connec-

tion provided by Connextion by

Boeing, Lufthansa passengers can

surf the web, send emails with

attachments or set up a secure

data connection to their company’s

Intranet or mail server. By spring

2006, Lufthansa’s entire long-haul

fleet of 80 aircraft will be equipped

with this technology.

Traffic to and from the aircraft is

18 G A T E W A Y R I G A

Lufthansa promises the best quality combined with excellent connections and online access.

First out, last in

2 / 2 0 0 5

Lufthansa has been busy improving

its service to Latvia. Now the

German airline connects Riga with

Frankfurt twice a day, as one of the

first flights out of Riga and one

of the last to return.

This means that businesspeople

from the Baltic region will be able

to connect in Frankfurt with virtu-

ally any of Europe’s cities for

a meeting – and be able to return

to Frankfurt to get on the last

plane to Riga at 21.50, arriving

one hour after midnight.

On the other side of the coin,

European businesspeople will be

able to complete a full day’s work

at the office and still be in bed in

Riga to get a good night’ s sleep,

getting ready for business negotia-

tions the next day with their Baltic

counterparts.

Robert Karl, general manager of

Lufthansa in the Baltic region, is

clearly pleased with the improve-

ment. "Lufthansa is delighted to be

able to serve its clients in the Baltic

region in this way," he said.

Moreover, for same-day meetings

in Europe from Vilnius, Tallinn and

Riga into the airline hub of

Frankfurt, passengers from the

Baltics via Frankfurt will have access

to 177 destinations in 73 countries

on the 2005 Lufthansa schedule –

a total of 12,700 flights a week.

And together with its codeshare

partners, almost 24,500 flights will

be on offer worldwide to 375 desti-

nations on 93 countries.

New business classAfter launching its new business

class on its long-haul routes,

Lufthansa is following up with an

improved business class on European

routes. The central seat will always

be kept free. This way, passengers

enjoy 50 percent more room as well

as better inflight cuisine and service,

plus more stowage space for luggage,

making their stay onboard an entire-

ly more pleasant experience.

Alongside the exclusive privilege of

priority check-in, Lufthansa is offering

frequent flyers the additional option

of fast check-in, wherever they hap-

pen to be, by allowing them to

reserve their seat by SMS or with

WAP mobile phones.

All Lufthansa passengers, regardless

of class, can check-in via the

Internet. The installation of more

security Fast Lanes at almost all

German airports saves queuing for

Business Class passengers by speeding

up and easing their passage through

to their departure gate.

Improved passenger comfort and

a high level of environmental

friendliness are the characteristics

of the latest Lufthansa plane, the

Airbus A330-300. By the end of this

year, Lufthansa will have 10 air-

crafts of this type. Continuous

investment in state-of-the-art tech-

nology and an environmentally

friendly fleet play a key role in

Lufthansa’s efforts to improve its

long-term environmental perform-

ance. On average the new A330-300

consumes a mere four litres of fuel

to carry one passenger over a dis-

tance of 100 kilometres – a figure

that can be compared to almost

every other mode of transport.

Lufthansa’s frequent flyer pro-

gramme, Miles & More, with more

than 9 million members, has also

improved. The aim is to combine

the programme’s well-established ben-

efits with new elements to make it

even more competitive. There are

now better-value awards for frequent

flyers and the mileage accrual is

"The newA330-300consumesa merefour litresof fuel tocarry onepassenger100 kilo-metres."

handled via geostationary communi-

cations satellites orbiting the earth at

an altitude of 36,000 kilometres.

The downstream channel will run at

a speed of five megabits per second,

while upstream traffic will run at

1 megabit per second.

The latest aircraft ordered by

Lufthansa is the A340-600 long-

haul jet. The purchase is part

of the airline’s plans to strengthen

its position as a leading, global

network carrier. The new aircraft

are scheduled for delivery in 2006

and 2007. The orders are fully in

line with capacity planning for the

Airbus 380, which will begin to

join the fleet from the end

of 2007. Besides replacing existing

aircraft, the new A340-600 will

equip the airline with the capacity

required to accommodate the fore-

cast demand in the next few years.

A I R L I N E I N F O C U S

2 / 2 0 0 5 G A T E W A Y R I G A 21

trees. The investment ploughed

into the project should pay back

after 10 years.

Over 60 percent of golfers who

come to play at Ozo now are for-

eigners. But Puce is realistic enough

to know it will be a while before

big-name pros start flying in to

Riga. If he wanted to get Tiger

Woods, he says, it would cost

a whopping $2 million participation

fee and a wait of five years for

a free slot in his schedule.

That’s why, by establishing the

Riga Golf School, the course has set

about training young people aged

anywhere from six to 16 to become

Latvia’s first-ever professional players.

"Our success lies in the develop-

ment of golf here in Latvia.

Thanks to some corporate sponsor-

ship we have received, the kids

can come and practice their golf

free of charge. Out of about 1,000

children who came to try it out,

100 stayed. They practice constant-

ly and in winter they swim and

keep fit. What we’re looking for is

the Latvian Tiger Woods."

20 G A T E W A Y R I G A

S P O R T S

Tee off on Latvia’s first professional golf course and play against the elements – plus dozens of ponds and bunkers, ancient forest and "mountain motifs."

Your best shot

2 / 2 0 0 5

"It is the sport of kings. An aristo-

crat’s sport. Now we have to prove

this is the case in Latvia too."

Armands Puce is the director of

the Ozo Golf Club, Latvia’s very first

18-hole course, landscaped either side

of two broad streatches of water and

bordered by towering trees. He has

plenty of reason to be the country’s

most enthusiastic golfer.

It was only a matter of time

before Latvia got its first links.

Nearby Sweden already has 500

professional golf courses. The owner

of Ozo, which opened in May 2002,

is hockey player Sandis Ozolins,

a hugely popular sports personality

who plays in the US National

Hockey League. Now golf is a bur-

geoning open-air sport in Latvia too,

for both locals and visitors.

Ozolins invested a year’s salary in

the project – about $4 million –

installing the latest equipment,

a good irrigation system, 800 sprin-

klers and a professional management

team. The club building has a pool,

sauna and spacious dressing rooms.

At only two years old, in July

2004, it started organising the Baltic

Open, an annual professional tourna-

ment. About 50 pros arrived in Riga,

all from Scandinavia, and every one

of them was pleasantly surprised.

"They were delighted with the

course," Puce recalls. "They said that

at the very least this matched the

average professional course in

Europe – not bad for a country that

had never seen a driving range."

Variety linksWith a total distance of 6,400

metres, Ozo Golf Club’s 18 holes are

surprising in their variety. Designer

Rob Swedberg of Denver, Colorado

managed to incorporate motifs from

his native Rocky Mountains in the

course, adapting the banks of nearby

Lake Kisezers as well as an awesome

swathe of ancient forest. There are 16

artificial ponds and 50 sand bunkers,

and Hole 4, which interlocks into the

natural forest’s lofty trees, is a real

challenge for any golfer.

In winter the golf course sleeps

under a blanket of snow. But it

thaws quickly in spring and is

carefully cleaned ready for opening

in April. The season lasts until

November.

Building Latvia’s first-ever profes-

sional golf course wasn’t easy, even

though Ozolins invested millions

of dollars earned in the US back

into his native land.

"There were a lot of sceptics," Puce

says. "It cost us $0.5 million to get

rid of an illegal city dump that

stood here. Riga, the nearby lake and

the forest all benefited from that.

After two years of construction work,

the black site became a green site.

Usually in a city the outlying areas

turn to asphalt."

This initial period saw three sep-

arate mayors of Riga from three

different parties, but each one was

supportive. The new owners shaped

the land and planted 3,000 new

"Whatwe’relooking foris theLatvianTigerWoods."

Ozo bunker with

a lakeside view

The Ozo course

from above

2 / 2 0 0 5 G A T E W A Y R I G A 23

was in the ascendance and here it

was given bigger billing than the

Russian and the German. This is

one of only two surviving posters

that use a design by Rozentals,

who died in 1917.

Life was rough for ordinary

people at this time, with acute

poverty, alcoholism and neglect rife.

A stark, black-and-white, pre-World

War One lithograph shows a mother

and children going without because

the father is about to enter a drink-

ing den(4). The words read "Should

I go in?" Little had changed by

1938, but the Latvian authorities

were determined to fight against

alcoholism, especially as threats

to national security grew over

the border. One poster(5) promoted

an "anti-alcohol day" by showing a

strong, brave national figure calling

on Latvians to strengthen their

resolve and beat drink.

The Latvian authorities used

posters to highlight social issues

right from the start. Though it had

battled for and won its independ-

ence in 1918, Latvia was still vul-

nerable. A placard from 1919(6)

asked people to give "freedom loans"

for the war effort. Factories and

industry had been emptied and ran-

sacked by the departing Russians so

that the new country had to start

from "year zero". "Show you love

your country!" the poster pleaded.

Lotteries were also used to raise

money for the state, just as they are

today. A 1923 ad for a German-

Baltic charity lottery(7) said that

donations would go to orphans and

poor mothers, while winnings prom-

ised trips to America and Italy, farm

equipment and a motorcycle.

New lifeCommercial life soon gained

a foothold in the new Latvia.

Advertising agencies produced multi-

lingual posters – including those that

promoted the agencies themselves,

like this advertising bill (8) by

the Indra agency for use on trams.

Entertainment enjoyed a boom

in the late twenties and thirties as

people earned more and made use

of restaurants, theatres, clubs and

an array of locally produced and

imported food, drink, cosmetics

and tobacco. The cinema was

a popular form of entertainment

and escapism, cheap enough for

ordinary people. One poster(9)

advertises the 1932 Hollywood film

version of "Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde"

starring Frederick March.

Bohemian festivals and carnivals

22 G A T E W A Y R I G A

A R T S

Latvia’s stunning collection of posters and graphics reveals a rich illustrative history of everyday life.

2 / 2 0 0 5

The Department of Small Prints and

Graphic Documents at the National

Library of Latvia is a hidden

labyrinth of art treasures. Reachable

only by elevator and cared for by

a flamboyant and eccentric couple

of art historians, Dmitrijs Zinovjevs

and Raits Lubinskis, the collection

includes 10,000 posters dating from

the end of the 19th century up to

2005. They vary in value. One

Latvian poster from 1920 discovered

in an old woman’s attic recently

fetched EUR 1,450 at an auction

in Germany. However, it’s not

the department’s job to sell, but

to accumulate and store.

In the Soviet period, the collec-

tion was in control of the secretive

"SpecFond" and kept away from

the public eye – partly because of

the rich assortment of Latvian

national posters from the interwar

independence period (1918-1940)

and partly because of the revealing

sub-collection of Nazi-era posters

dating from 1941-1944.

The oldest poster in the collection

is a lithograph in Russian designed

by German artist Fridrich Moritz in

1899(1). Riga’s many Baltic German

artists were keen to embrace

the new Jugendstil (Art Nouveau)

movement. It wasn’t long before all

three languages commonly spoken

in Riga – Latvian, Russian and

German – were being used in

posters to appeal to the widest pos-

sible audience.

A couple of examples are the

shadowy, mysterious ad for a 1907

art exhibition(2) and the far more

colourful poster designed for the

special occasion of the 1910 Song

Festival by one of Latvia’s most

famous artists Janis Rozentals(3).

By this point, the Latvian language1

2

3

4

5

6

7 9

10 11

12 13

14

15

16

17

8

Poster paradise

2 / 2 0 0 5 G A T E W A Y R I G A 25

was designed by Niklavs Strunke,

a well-known Cubist and avant-

garde artist who specialised in

posters.

Latvia’s vibrant, prosperous and

enjoyable period of freedom came

to an abrupt and tragic end with

the Soviet invasion in June 1940.

President Karlis Ulmanis had been

invited to the Latgale Song Festival

that year, the poster of which(28)

was created by Marija Induse-

Muceniece, a rare female artist

working in the field of graphics.

Ulmanis didn’t attend because of

the growing crisis. The festival

turned out to be the very last

chance to celebrate nationhood.

It was held on 15-16 June.

The invasion began on the 17th.

Sham elections legitimised the

occupation on 19 January 1941.

The poster(29) designed for the

event by Oskars Norits demanded

that everyone must go. "We will

elect the most clever and trustwor-

thy people who will be honest to

the Lenin-Stalin ideals!" it read.

Artists had to eat. Strunke,

for example, continued to make

posters for the new regime(30)

and then focussed on making

stamps and book illustrations in

the Nazi period. In 1944 he fled

Latvia just before the second

Soviet occupation and settled in

Stockholm. He died in Rome

in 1966, but made sure his son

Laris would not forget his roots.

Laris later established the Latvian

Cultural Foundation in Stockholm

during the Soviet period – as geo-

graphically close as possible to his

father’s homeland.

24 G A T E W A Y R I G A 2 / 2 0 0 5

were all the rage, giving artists like

Alfreds Svedrevics the excuse to

create eye-catching and provocative

posters for special events like

the Latvian Arts Academy Carnival,

which was popular because of its

free-and-easy atmosphere. This one

(10), dated 4 February 1933, was

held at a building that used to

stand roughly where the central bus

station is today. The poster for

the following year’s carnival(11) was

just as risqué.

"Please let me taste that delicious

Lohdinga beer!" pleads a wife to her

husband, who obviously wants every

drop of the Bauska-made beverage for

himself(12). It’s a poster with a

streak of realism, humorously show-

ing the smart and thoroughly mod-

ern target audience. But of course,

it wasn’t only alcoholic drinks that

were advertised. Soda water is the

desired object in this rather sumptu-

ous, elegant poster(13) in the French

style, probably printed in Paris.

If the local distributor wanted to pro-

mote a different product, he would

simply put a sticker on the bottle.

Tobacco too was in great

demand. An early tobacco ad(14),

made around the year 1900, was for

Trud Papirosi, which despite the

Russian product name used Latvian

to capture the market in non-filter

cigarettes. Posters helped to sell

other commodities, like books,

bikes(15), records, glass, kitchenware

and shoes(16). The dramatic but

amateurish attempt at Art Deco to

advertise electronic products made at

the VEF factory(17) was made at the

end of the 1930s. VEF was Latvia’s

biggest company, making everything

from radios to coffee grinders. The

huge factory eventually closed down

in 1991 and is today being moulded

into a shopping mall.

Travel was becoming a commodity

worthy of promotion in poster art,

as shown by the Baltic American

Line(18), which ran from Liepaja to

New York for a short period before

going bankrupt. It fed the hunger

for emigration to the US in the era

before commercial air travel by

advertising that people could buy

tickets in the depressed eastern towns

of Daugavpils and Rezekne as well as

Riga and Liepaja.

Resorts such as Jurmala and

Sigulda were blooming and posters

that mixed elements of Jugendstil

and Art Deco promoted travel there

using a whole range of languages –

English, French, German, Czech,

Polish, Swedish, Estonian and

Lithuanian(19-21). Catchphrases

included "Your next trip to the

Baltic Riviera", "You are invited to

Riga’s Jurmala" and "Winter is com-

ing!" A cycling tourism poster from

1938 encouraged feelings of patriot-

ism as dangers mounted in Europe,

urging Latvians to "Cycle around

your land!"

Sports and the outdoor life were

used to promote products like

Nivea(22), which was commonly

used by men and women alike, this

slogan reading, "Sport keeps your

body young – so does Nivea cream."

In fact, this lithograph was designed

in Austria, distributed all over

Europe and the wording added

locally by the representative offices –

a method also used by companies

like Shell and Ford. A more natura-

listic style was also needed to pro-

mote creams and cosmetics(23).

Exhibitions of modern art from

Finland, Denmark, France, Hungary

and the rest of Europe were anoth-

er way of keeping Latvians in tune

with the trends of the time(24).

Posters also advertised shows of

Latvian art abroad(25). Latvia’s own

folk imagery and national symbols

were used heavily in poster art.

One poster(26) designed by Rihards

Zarins, founder of the Graphics

Department at the Latvian Arts

Academy, simply reads, "Lacplesa’s

spirit will never die", referring to

the popular national myth of the

"bear slayer."

The poster for the 1933 Song

Festival(27) featured all kinds of

imagery, including the national

instrument, the lyre. It boasted of

263 choirs and 12,000 singers and

Bohemianfestivalsand carnivalswere allthe rage,givingLatvianartists the excuseto createeye-catch-ing andprovocativeposters.

18 19 20 21 22 23

24

25

26

27

28 29 30

26 G A T E W A Y R I G A

W H E R E T O S T A Y

So many people are flying in to see Latvia that hotel entrepreneurs have launched a hotel boom.

2 / 2 0 0 5

Riga’s 6,000 hotel beds are strain-

ing at the weight of this year’s

visitor numbers to the city.

The summer months are a tough

time to find a room for the

night, unless you’ve booked in

advance. Thankfully, though, new

hotels are being built and rebuilt

all the time, so the chances are

you won’t have to spend the

night on a bench in one of

Riga’s many parks. Even when

the World Hockey Championship

comes to Latvia in 2006, the city

is confident there will be a place

to rest for everyone.

In Riga’s development plan for

2006-2018, land to build new

hotels has been booked in every

district of the capital, from the

leafy suburb of Mezaparks in the

north-east to sprawling Pardaugava

on the west side of the river.

No less than 26 different projects

to build, renovate and reconstruct

hotels have been approved in

the last three years and 16 more

are under review.

Among the more high-profile

accommodation projects going on,

the Norwegian-owned Reval Hotel

Group is extending the Reval Hotel

Latvija at the back incorporating

a new 1,000-place conference cen-

tre and 200 more guest rooms to

be opened next March. And as if

that isn’t enough, Reval will also

be the operator of a hotel further

along the street, where construction

has just got underway. Both of

these projects will cost an estimat-

ed EUR 30 million.

Another classy hotel opening in

late 2005 is the Europa Royale Riga,

housed in a 19th century building

where the city’s pre-war cultural

elite used to gather for elegant

soirees. The Europa City Riga, also

opening by the end of the year,

is a hotel with a more efficient,

modern style (see photo).

Just opened this April is one of

Riga’s most enticing new hotels,

the Domina Plaza, located in the

heart of the city’s famous Art

Nouveau district, close to the Old

Town. This business hotel has 110

rooms and suites, a meeting room

for up to 60 people, sauna with

Jacuzzi, rooms for handicapped

guests and such services as 24-hour

reception and porter, overnight

laundry and dry cleaning and –

crucially for Riga – parking. It is

being run by Domina Hotels &

Resorts, a chain based in Italy but

with a prominent profile in the

three Baltic countries.

"Despite all the new hotel proj-

ects in Riga, there is definitely not

going to be a problem with over-

capacity," says Aare Jaanus,

Domina’s general manager for the

Baltics, Poland and Russia. "Interest

in Riga, the business and entertain-

ment centre of the Baltic states,

is growing fast. Hansapank, the

Baltics’ biggest bank, is moving its

HQ from Tallinn to Riga. This is

the place to be right now."

He cites the towering new ice

hockey arena and ambitious

reconstruction work at the passen-

ger port as other developments

that will give Riga a high interna-

tional profile.

Monika Kaska, Domina’s area

manager for the Baltics, adds:

"The demand for hotel rooms has

been intense and a lot of people –

travel agencies especially – have

been waiting for us to open.

So there are a lot of expectations.

We want to give everybody the

best service possible."

"Interestin Riga, thebusinessand enter-tainmentcentre ofthe Balticstates, is growingfast. This is theplace to beright now."

A place to rest

28 G A T E W A Y R I G A

A I R P O R T S T O R I E S

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From coral to crocs, it’s amazing what those ever-watchful customs officers discover hidden in people’s luggage.

Tales from the customs zone

Once so full of life, now so full of

embalming fluid… You might be for-

given for assuming that the wonders

of taxidermy hold profound interest

in this part of Europe. The Museum

of Nature in central Riga is so

stuffed full of creepy critters that you

never lose that irritating feeling of

being watched. And if you’re lucky

enough to be escorted behind the

scenes at the museum you’ll discover

many more mounted monstrosities.

But this is in fact the final desti-

nation on a long journey for some

of these former beasts. The four-

storey museum is an animals’ grave-

yard for hundreds of "nature objects"

that people try to smuggle into

Latvia every week.

Latvia strives to follow the rules

of the IATA convention to the let-

ter. This hefty framework of interna-

tional travel law spells out, among

other things, what objects can be

brought home as trophies from an

exotic vacation – and what most

definitely cannot.

So when "Janis" tried to smuggle

a metre-long stuffed crocodile back

home in his suitcase, customs officers

took him aside to explain that the

scaly creature was persona non grata

in the Baltics. The amphibian was

sent to the lab to get a hygiene

check while Janis was slapped with

a fine. The pair never set eyes on

each other again.

"It happens from time to time,"

shrugs Maris Purins, head of the legal

section at Riga’s customs branch.

"People lack information about what

they can’t carry in their bags."

Scaly souvenirsAbout 15 to 20 dead crocodiles

cross the Latvian border every year.

But of course it’s not just crocs that

About 15 to 20dead crocodilescross theLatvianborderevery year.

end up with a one-way ticket to the

attic at the Museum of Nature.

Snakes, turtles, fish and fragments of

coral from distant lands in Asia,

Africa, South America and Australasia

are also piled up there. There’s just

nowhere else to put them.

The fine for such souvenir smug-

gling doesn’t depend on the size or

length of the trophy. It’s generally a

uniform LVL 250 (EUR 370), but it

can be lower depending on the

expert evaluation of the incident and

the smugglers’ own explanations.

"Latvians don’t bring them home

to sell," Purins assures. "They’re just

to put on the mantelpiece to impress

friends and family."

Four sizeable lumps of sea coral

were spotted in people’s suitcases in

2004. Coral comes from protected

reefs all over the world, sometimes

purchased, sometimes lopped off by

the holidaymakers themselves. The

IATA Convention prohibits carrying

coral pieces of any size.

Seashells too, the big ones, can be

confiscated by customs, but there are

no precise details on just how large

they have to be for an international

travel ban. So whether you get that

gorgeous shell you found on the

beach home depends largely on the

demeanour of the customs officer you

come face-to-face with at the airport.

"Exceptions on what people bring

to Latvia can be made," concedes

Purins. "But there has to be a special

certificate proving the object’s origins."

30 G A T E W A Y R I G A

Now you know where Latvia is, the time has come to discover exactly what it is. Intended as a very rough guide on a complicated journey, these humble pages provide a few ideas on where to go first.

25 things not to miss in Latvia

2 / 2 0 0 5

5.The king of castles

A bustling commercial centre on the River Gauja since the 13th century, Cesis is one of theoldest towns in Latvia – and certainly one of the prettiest. The central castle and park dominatethis little town. It won’t take long to wander round, but the cafes and paths can help to drawout a relaxing day.

The solid castle has been put to the test on many occasions, one of which was when theresidents of the town tried desperately to defend themselves against the vicious troops of Ivanthe Terrible, who wanted Russia to gain access to the Baltic Sea. Eventually, knowing they weredoomed, the survivors of the siege barricaded themselves in a room full of gunpowder and blewthemselves up.

1.

The hot resort Rigans are lucky enough to have the "Baltic Riviera" only 20 kilometres down

the highway. A summer playground for the wealthy and the not-so-wealthy,Jurmala is a frankfurter-shaped resort taking up no less than 30 kilometres of fine,sandy beach, scented pine and lazy, lapping waves. Colourful wooden houses,eccentrically and ornately designed, live side-by-side with the evergreens on leafy avenues.

A stay in Riga isn’t complete without a visit to Jurmala. In summer, crowdssunbathe, swim and play volleyball, but there’s still plenty of space for newarrivals. In winter, a permanent crest of ice runs along the shore and a sheet of ice stretches out into the bay.

The resort welcomed over a million visitors last summer. Russians, who used tocome here in droves, are starting to flood back, attracted by music festivals boast-ing big names. Health and wellness is also alluring the holidaymakers as the huge,white, Soviet-era sanatoriums that break through the tree-line, many of them nowfully renovated, smell of perfumed oils rather than medical equipment.2.The Italian palace

Magnificent Rundale, built in the 18th century as a summer palace by Anna, Empress of Russia,for her adviser and lover Ernst Johann von Buhren, a Baltic German baron, was badly damagedduring the Napoleonic Wars and World War II. But steady reconstruction since 1972 has restoredthe exterior design to how it originally appeared and about 40 of the 138 rooms. The stucco inthe ballroom, known as the White Hall, and the Golden Hall are particularly impressive.

The increasing flow of sightseers isn’t the only reason to keep up the reconstruction. This is alsoa popular romantic venue for weddings. Quaint French gardens and hunting grounds lie aroundthe palace. So keep your head down.

4.

The art of construction Stunning facades or icing on a cake? The idea behind the artistic and architectural style of

Art nouveau, or Jugendstil as it is known in German, was that everything functional should alsobe beautiful.

Whatever your concept of beauty, there’s little doubt that Riga has one of the most amazingcollections of Art nouveau in the world. Look up when you’re on streets like Alberta, Tirgonu,Skunu, Amatu, Smilsu and the first part of Elizabetes and you’ll see angelic and demonic faces,lions, cats, torches, flowers, birds and elaborate patterns and curves.

Outside the Old Town many of the buildings on Gertrudes, Blaumana, Caka, Lacplesa,Valdemara and Terbatas streets – with or without Art nouveau – compel you to stare at theirbalconies, corner towers and steep roofs and sigh, "I want to live there."3.The golden stones

Most people think of a beach as some-where you can find pretty shells and takethem home. The Latvian shores, however,are the place to find amber, especiallywhen it has been churned up from theseabed after a storm.

Millions of years ago, the huge trees insome of the world’s great forests began toseep globs of aromatic, sticky resin. It oozeddownwards, filling holes and trapping debrislike leaves and insects. As time progressed theforests were buried and the resin hardened.Amber is the fossilized resin of ancient treesand much of it is in the range of 30-90 mil-lion years old.

Bits and pieces of amber can be picked upin parts of North America, New Zealand,Denmark and England. But the eastern Baltichas the greatest concentration by far. Amberfor the Baltic Sea has been found in Egyptiantombs that date back to 3200 BC.

Later, the Vikings dominated the traderoutes for "the gold of the north". Today,"Baltic gold" in fact comes in many colours,from white to green to dark brown. Wearingit in rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants,bracelets and pins is said to bring purificationof mind, body and spirit.

The School of Applied Arts in Liepaja isone of the few places in the world where youcan study the art of making amber jewelleryfrom the stuff you find on the beach.

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10.

12.

The tram rideIt’s easy. Take a bunch of 20-santim pieces – that’s the price for any

single journey – and jump aboard one of Riga’s rocking, whining trams.Pay the conductor, take a seat and watch the city roll by. Get the num-ber 11 to the lakeside residences, park and zoo, the number 2 or 8 overthe river to Pardaugava (see below), the number 3 or 7 to see the dodgybut fascinating old suburb of Maskavas from the safety of the movingcarriage – or just take any tram and go anywhere. If you stay on longenough, you’ll always come back again.

7.The sauna Feeling brave? Strip naked and embrace a deep-rooted rural tradition. A

way of life right across the Nordic region, the steam sauna is an essentialsocial ritual when in the Latvian countryside with friends.

Ideally, a lake should be in the vicinity, so that when you can take nomore steam you can belt out of the door, run through the grass trying notto slip over and plunge headlong into the cold water. The contrast isshocking but sensational. In winter, no problem – simply rub yourself withsnow to cool down.

Head back in again to warm up. Repeat this process three or four timesand you’ll feel like new.

Another highlight is the rush of heat from a good birch-whipping. Thebirch branches open up the pores and get the circulation going.

6.The buzz

Cool streets, gorgeous people. Riga, the Baltic countries’ entertainment capital, becomes an uber-chicparadise for late-night revellers well before summer comes on. The "city that never sleeps" and "hottestcity in the north" are among the slogans that have been used for the Latvian capital.

A never-ending river of fit, pouting youths flows up and down streets like Kalku, Skarnu andAudeju, their assets proudly on display. Some are on their way to clubs, others taking a break from theheaving dancefloors. But most just promenade.

The summer is short, but powerfully intense. Rigans know their time is limited and the cold weath-er will be back. So after nine months of working hard, they do all they can to play hard.

8.Oils and mud

If the rigours of the sauna seem like too much hard work, find yourself a good masseuse. Ormasseur, depending on your preferences. Disrobe, lie down and enjoy the pleasures of an expert pair ofhands.

Massage oils and mineral muds are the curative tools of choice in Latvia, where the old-style sanato-riums and convalescent homes with their unmistakable medical aromas are rapidly being transformedinto 21st-century wellness centres.

Jurmala, with its beaches, pines, mild climate and spa water, is the perfect setting for a restorativeunwind. It secured a reputation as a health resort in the late 19th and early 20th century and duringthe Soviet period it rivalled the Crimea as a revivifying location.

Don’t forget to try the pressure hose – great for the muscles and the nervous system.

9.The imposing Dome

One of the things not to miss? You can’t miss it, really. Riga DomeChurch, tall, heavy and imposing, its small windows exaggerating itssize, dominates the surrounding streets. The biggest church in theBaltic countries is sometimes referred to as a cathedral, since theLatvian word Dome comes from the German word for cathedral, Dom.

The foundations were consecrated in the early 13th century and youcan see by the space around the bottom of the building just how farthe surrounding city has risen since then. The original cruciformchurch burned down shortly after the Reformation in 1547 and thelater tower, at the time the tallest in Europe, was replaced by a shorterone in 1775.

The huge organ, with 6,718 pipes, none of which is less than 10metres long, was the biggest instrument in the world when it wasbuilt in 1884.

The occupation showBehind the 1970 memorial to the Latvian "Red Riflemen"

who made up Lenin’s bodyguard during the 1917 revolutionstands another remnant of the Soviet-era, a spectacularlyugly black, windowless cube on concrete stilts. It blocks theview from the riverside to the pretty, recently restored Houseof the Blackheads and many voices have called for itsdestruction.

But it has been kept in place as a suitably emotionlesssymbol of the Soviet regime, partly for the monstrous archi-tecture, partly for what’s inside. This used to be a museumdedicated to the derring-do of the riflemen. Now it’s hometo the excellent Occupation Museum, a role reversal thatuses photographs, artefacts and notes in English, German,Russian and Latvian to paint a grim picture of the Nazi andSoviet invasions and occupations of Latvia.

One room houses a reconstructed Siberian gulag barracks.Another reveals the late-80s struggle for independence ending inSeptember 1991. Buy a comprehensive guidebook to the muse-um in English or German for 6 lats.

13.The busy market

Opinions differ widely on whether this is aplace to embrace or one to miss. This hasbeen a site for trading for centuries, longbefore the obscure Zeppelin hangars were con-structed in 1930. Ships loaded and unloadedtheir cargo on the banks of the River Daugavaup until the 20th century.

Today, rub shoulders with Latvians andRussians eager for fresh produce – fruit andvegetables, meat and fish, clothes and shoes,CDs and tapes. Don’t bother to barter,though, for what you see is what you get.Keep an eye on your wallet.

Make your way to the greasy-spoon café fora quick snack. Or, if you’re feeling bold, grabsome food from a belasi stand. We won’t revealwhat belasi are – the pleasure is in the tasting…

11.The untouched beaches

Latvia has 550 kilometres of coastline. So since virtually the entire population and their friendsdescend on just one or two resorts every warm weekend, that leaves another 500-plus kilometresleft for you and me. From Riga, head north beyond the provincial mini-resort of Saulkrasti andyou’ll drive past a long, pine-shrouded escarpment above shingle sand. Alternatively, shoot west-wards for the tiny port of Pavilosta. Both north and south of here, easily accessible, sparsely popu-lated beach awaits your hot, aching feet.

14.The snow

The first snow of the winter season isalways a breathtaking event. Seeing thosebig flakes is like greeting an old friend.Then it hardens and turns into ice as thetemperature drops, so that by the end ofDecember the trees have a solid layer ofwhite on every branch, the evergreens areheavy with powder snow and the lakeshave frozen over. Latvia becomes, in popu-lar parlee, a winter wonderland.

Skiing, ice fishing, driving on ice likeJames Bond – it can all be arranged. Thetravel agency that succeeds in promotingLatvia in winter as well as Finland willmake a fortune.

15.Wild, wild horsesPolski Konik horses have been living on the flat, marshy meadows

around Lake Pape since they were introduced here in 1999. The horseshave adapted to life in the wild and they are helping to renew theserene natural landscape in this isolated corner of Latvia, close to the Lithuanian border by the Baltic Sea.

Excursions to see the wild horses take place other season and onlywith a World Wildlife Fund guide. Be ready to spend at least an hourclocking up a few kilometres on foot. The hike is worth it.

2 / 2 0 0 5 G A T E W A Y R I G A 3534 G A T E W A Y R I G A 2 / 2 0 0 5

18.

20.

The beer gardensYou know the summer is coming when, in every available outside

space in central Riga, out come piles of boards, umbrellas, chairs andtables. All are hammered into place, sound systems are wired up and stu-dents are employed behind makeshift bars.

Long, warm evenings, garlic bread, karaoke and Latvia’s prize-winning beer– or, rather, the ubiquitous, gassy Zelta – are all part of the beer gardenscene. Sit back, drink and admire the stunning parade of golden youth.

The shanty townIf you get a chance, grab a map and venture over the Daugava to

Pardaugava. Stroll across either the impressive Vansu Bridge or the morecentral and functional Akmens Bridge to the "left bank". What at firstsight might appear to be a slightly sinister area of rundown residentialbuildings and noisy roads can actually be an exciting place to explore.

Uzvaras Parks (Victory Park) is one of Riga’s few open spaces. On hotdays, people go there to bask in the sun by the canal and the pondswith the frogs and ducks. Virtually everybody ignores the imposing Sovietmemorial. In the mid-1990s, a couple of young nationalists tried to blowit up, but only managed to blow themselves up instead.

The district behind the park, Agenskalns, is a collection of ramshacklewooden houses and dirt tracks, a great place to get lost in with camera.

21.23.

22.24.

25.

17.The song festival

Welcome to "The Land that Sings", as the Latvian Tourist Boardcolourfully puts it. Music and dance in national costumes has alwaysplayed an important role in the survival of the nation. Since the All-Latvian Song Festival was organised back in 1873, it has becoming amotivating force in the drive to maintain independence from foreigninfluence. Latvians got inspiration from their folk songs and dances tofight for freedom.

Today, just about every school in Latvia has its own folk dancegroup or choir, or both. The 23rd Song and Dance Festival took placein 2004, but if you missed that book up your accommodation for thenext one, due in 2008. Visiting the deafening display of life andnational spirit at the festival’s climax may leave you wishing yournative country had its own version. The festival was included inUNESCO’s World Heritage List in 2003.

19.The dark liquidThis being Latvia, retail alcohol had to make an appearance some-

where. Don’t shrug off Riga Black Balsam, a 45-proof local favourite, as abrand of motor oil, however, for the thick dark stuff is becoming a cultdrink on the international market.

Take some home and impress your friends that you can take a sipwithout grimacing.

Riga Black Balsam is a historical liqueur that goes back 250 years, pre-pared from 24 ingredients including herbs, flowers, juices and roots.Legend has it that Catherine the Great of Russia, having fallen ill duringa visit to Latvia, was cured after knocking some back.

The balsam of balsams is prepared in oak barrels, which allow itsstrength and bitter-sweet taste to develop. Give the elixir a few shots andyou will feel its fruity aroma and unique taste with every sip. Take itstraight, on the rocks or mixed in a cocktail. Careful though – it’s saidto be bad for you in high doses, so don’t get drunk on it. As if.

The artThough by no means a spectacular collection, the National Art Museum at 10a Valdemara Street is probably the best art

museum in the Baltics. It gives a comprehensive picture of the development of art in Latvia, with classic paintings, drawingsand sculptures by the outstanding impressionist Rozentals, the landscape painter Purvitis, the grotesque expressionist Padegs andother local heroes. There are also the stunning ethereal mountains of Nicholas Roerich to explore.

Shot through with inspiration, it’s then up to you to wander out in search of homegrown art you can own. Try the stylishgalleries on the narrow cobblestone streets Kaleju and Laipu or in Konventa Seta. More refined tastes can be satisfied at antiqueshops on Dome Square and Kalku and Skunu streets. Before parting company with your cash, however, check with the propri-etor about the regulations for taking original art out of the country.

An ice hockey matchWatch in stunned and intimidated silence as the Latvia team pops a puck

into the net, for ice hockey is a flaming national passion. For maximumeffect, go to one of the bars in Riga with a big screen, paint a couple ofcrimson stripes on your cheek (for disguise, lest someone suspect you’re sup-porting the opposing team) and sit back. Try to avoid those annoying one-note trumpets some of the fans use to blow in their pals’ ears. If you don’tunderstand the rules, no problem – you’ll know who’s winning.

The little SwitzerlandOutside Jurmala, the most popular place for a

day-trip from the capital is Sigulda. The spectacularviews across the swathes of ancient forest of theprotected Gauja river valley have earned the townthe slightly misplaced nickname of "Latvia’sSwitzerland" among the locals.

With an intimidating height above the river andDevil’s Cave is another popular reason for a visit toSigulda – the bobsleigh track, which twists andturns down to river level.

But the real reason for a visit to Sigulda is thecastle at Turaida on the opposite bank of the river.Teetering above an escarpment and casting a greatshadow over the trees is the central stone tower,surrounded by high castle walls. You can climb tothe top of the tower for some amazing views.

If you’re spending a while in Latvia, go canoe-ing down the River Gauja for a day or three. Alocal travel agency can arrange for a hire companyto take the canoes to the faster stretches upriver, soyou can journey down through isolated countrysidepast red cliffs and caves to eventually reach themore sluggish and harder-going flow near Sigulda.

If you have time, drop into Ligatne Nature andEducational Park, which features fenced-off enclo-sures for moose, bears, boars, racoon dogs, deer andbison. Yes, bison.

The operaDiscover the LNO at the impressively classical

"white house" on the edge of Old Riga. The spectac-ular Riga Opera Festival winds up the season inearly summer, an innovative event that has beenwinning increasing critical acclaim with every year.The LNO also has a fine repertoire of timeless clas-sics performed throughout the year except duringthe summer months.

The time capsuleLatgale is the least visited of Latvia’s four regions, but that’s what helps to makes up its rustic charm. Bordering

Belarus and Northern Lithuania, Latgale actually has some of the prettiest scenery in the Baltics – big, inviting lakes,long walks and the sluggish River Daugava.

There are manmade attractions too. In Rezekne the statue of the defiant female figure of Mara was erected as a sym-bol of freedom against foreign rulers in 1939, just months before the multiple invasions of World War II. It was torndown twice over the coming decades, but resurrected to cheering crowds in 1992. The tiny town of Aglona, meanwhile,is one of the most visited places in Latvia, since its huge white basilica is a popular place of pilgrimage for Catholics.

But it is the Slavic influence that is strongest in these parts. The rest of Latvia bitterly criticises Latgale for draggingits feet in terms of economic and social development. Daugavpils, the country’s second biggest city, comes across as anindustrialised village, russified and drab, but also bewitchingly lethargic.

16.Pure, unspoilt natureHead to the non-profit rural holiday association Lauku Celotajs for a

consultation on what you can get up to in the countryside. They mightsuggest something active, like trecking, canoeing, cycling, fishing andhorse-riding. Adrenalin-pumping madness like bungee-jumping from a sus-pension car above the River Gauja, a glider-flying course or parachutejumping onto the broad, sandy Latvian beaches are also available, if that’swhat turns you on.

No need to be confined to a day-trip. There are hundreds of places ofaccommodation out in the Latvian wilds, many with excellent standardsand facilities. Or be at one with Nature and sleep under the stars.

HOTEL CENTRAAudeju iela 1, Riga, LV-1050, Latvia

tel +371 7226441, fax +371 503280

hotel@centra.lv | www.centra.lv

MARITIM PARK HOTEL RIGASlokas iela 1, LV-1048, Riga, Latvija

tel +371 7069000, fax +371 7069001

info.rig@maritim.lv | www.maritim.lv

AINAVAS BOUTIQUE HOTELPeldu iela 23, Riga, LV 1050, Latvia

tel + 371 7814316, fax + 371 7814317

reservations@ainavas.lv | www.ainavas.lv

HOTEL LAINESkolas iela 11, Riga, LV 1010, Latvija

tel +371 7289823, fax + 371 7287658

info@laine.lv | www.laine.lv

HOTEL BERGSElizabetes iela 83/85, Riga LV-1050, Latvia

tel +371 7770900, fax +371 7770940

reservation@hotelbergs.lv | www.hotelbergs.lv

37

AprilEMIR KUSTURICA & THE NO SMOKING ORCHESTRAKipsala Exhibition Hall, Kipsalas 8, Rigatel 7067501, www.ticketservice.lvTue 12, 20:00 – Wild rock’n’roll, jazz, gypsyand folk music.

RICHARD CLAYDERMANRiga Congress Hall, Kr. Valdemara 5, Riga tel 7043641, www.ticketservice.lvMon 18, 20:00 – Perfomance by the world’smost popular instrumental recording artist.

AUTO 2005Kipsala Exhibition Hall, Kipsalas 8, Riga tel 7067501, www.bt1.lvTue 19 – Sun 24 – The eighth internationalautomobile exhibition in Riga.

BALTIC BALLET FESTIVAL Various locationstel. 7220513, www.ballet-festival.lvMon 25 – Wed 11 May – The 10thInternational Baltic Ballet Festival featuresthe Ballet de Lorraine from France, NewYork’s Battleworks Dance Company and theInbal Pinto Dance Company from Israel. Thehighlight is a festival gala on May 1.

BALTIC AUTO TUNING SHOW 2005Kipsala Exhibition Hall, Kipsalas 8, Riga tel 7067501, www.bt1.lvSat 30 – Show for auto tuners (take yourearplugs), with participants from Latvia,Lithuania and Estonia.

MayFANTASY FILM FESTIVALK.Suns cinema, Elizabetes 83/85, Rigatel 7221620, 6563299Mon 2 – Thu 5 – Second international fanta-sy movie festival. This time the centre ofattention will be science fiction from Europeand Asia. The full-length films will vie for thecoveted Golden Tooth award.

VLADIMIR ASHKENAZY & KREMERATA BALTICALatvian National Opera, Aspazijas 3, Rigatel 7073777, www.hbf.lvTue 3 – 19:00 – Viva Mozart, a concert byfamous maestro Vladimir Ashkenazy, with achamber orchestra of talented musiciansfrom the Baltic countries.

DIRE STRAITS & MARK KNOPFLERKipsala Exhibition Hall, Kipsalas 8, Rigatel 7067501, www.ticketservice.lvSun 8 – 20:00 – Concert by rock musicianMark Knopfler and band.

VIEW 2005Various locationstel. 7287895, 9406954, www.ltds.lvMon 9 – Sun 15 – Cutting-edge drama incontemporary Baltic theatre festival.

RIGA DANCE FESTIVALMezaparks open-air stagetel. 7043648, www.rdkp.lvSat 28 – 17:00 – Dance competition, enter-taining performers and concerts.

JuneSPRIDITIS 2005Various locationstel. 9238333, www.rdkp.lvWed 1 – Sun 5 – Sixth international childrenand youth song and dance festival.

RIGA OPERA FESTIVALLatvian National Opera, Aspazijas 3tel 7073777, www.opera.lvWed 8 – Sun 19 – Classic opera by Latvianartists, including a spectacular performanceof The Magic Flute.

FAMILY DAYLatvian Ethnographic Open Air Museum,Brivibas 440, Rigatel 7994510, www.ltg.lvSun 12 - Folk music and dances, folk-tingedgames for the big and small, horse-and-cartrides, watching old-style craftsmen at work.

LIGOAll possible locationstel. 7043648, www.rdkp.lvThu 23 – The nation goes wild in Latviansummer solstice celebrations, in every cityand every village.

CONCERT BY JANE BIRKINLatvian National Opera, Aspazijas 3tel 7073777, www.bilesuparadize.lvJune 30 – 19:30 – Concert by sensuousBritish singer Jane Birkin.

JulyRIGA RHYTHMS 2005Various locationstel 7105216, 6532856, www.rigasritmi.lvMon 4 – Sun 10 – International festival ofjazz, Latino, soul and funk with specialguests from the US, Australia, Norway andthe UK.

BALTIC SEA OPEN RIGA 2005Mezaparks open-air stagetel 7043648, www.rdkp.lvFri 15 – Sun 17 – Interested in strong men?Then head for Mezaparks forest to watchthem grunt as they compete in lifting,pulling and pushing.

RAVI SHANKAR & ANOUSHKA SHANKAROlympic Hall Skonto, Melngaila 1atel 7020921, www.ticketservice.lvSat 16 – 19:00 – Unique concert for theBaltics by the legendary Indian sitar players.

INESE GALANTERiga Dome Cathedraltel 7356699, www.hbf.lvThu 28 – 19:00 – Latvia’s most famoussoprano singer.

AugustRIGA DAYSVarious locationstel. 7043648, www.rdkp.lvThu 18 – Sun 21 – Concerts, exhibitions,workshops and general merrymaking,indoors and out.

BALTIC PEARL 2005Various locationstel 7289019, www.balticpearl.lvMon 22 – Wed 31 – Annual international fes-tival of films and film actors in Riga.

SeptemberRE: LOUD 2005Fro more info: 7333311, www.fbi.lvFri 2 – The biggest music festival in Latvia,with a sizzling line-up of popular local andforeign bands. It’s loud.

JULIA FISCHERLatvian National Opera, Aspazijas 3, Rigatel 7073777, www.hbf.lvThu 22 & Fri 23 – 19:00 – German violinistplays with the Czech Symphony Orchestra.

MUSEUM TIMEState Museum of Art, Kr. Valdemara 10a, Rigatel 7324461, www.vmm.lvTue 13 – Nov 30 – Jubilee exhibition ofpaintings by Latvian and foreign artists.

36 G A T E W A Y R I G A 2 / 2 0 0 5

Never have so many festivals taken

place on these shores. People young

and old merrymaking in the summer

sunshine, dressing up in medieval

garb, selling everything from beeswax

to wooden clogs to potent traditional

beer… But the real reason to come is

just to join in the fun.

Valmiera in northeast Latvia will

host the traditional Baltic Medieval

Festival this year on 11 and 12 June.

The organisers promise a glimpse into

everyday life in 9th-14th century

Northern Europe, giving an insight

into the way of life, crafts, arts and

"cuisine" of that period – plus a

medieval knights’ tournament and

some jousting.

Also in Valmiera, the Baltic con-

temporary drama festival View 2005

will on 9-15 May bring together bold

and moving performances from

Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia (in the

photo: Mara Kimele’s version of

"A little raven" by Latvian playwright

Rainis). English translation is available.

The impressive castle town of Cesis

hosts plenty of fun festivals this year.

It hosts its own Middle Ages Festival

on 23-24 July, as well as the ‘Flowers

and Dance’ festival on 1-2 July, the

6th International Folk-Dance Festival

on 16 July and the 10th Cesis Music

Festival on 20 August.

Cesis is home to the Latvians’

oldest brewery. To ably propagate

this fact, the town hosts the Latvian

Beer Festival every July. For those

who like to savour the flavour of

hops two more beer festivals are

due this summer, in Ludza (July)

and Ventspils (August).

The town of Sabile is home to the

most northern vineyards in Europe.

So why not celebrate the fruit of

Bacchus there this July at the Latvian

Wine Festival. In fact, a weird and

wonderful array of festivals dedicated

to various food and drink are taking

place, with colourful events singing

the praises of milk, bread, cheese,

apples and honey.

Into the musical arena now, and

Riga launches a 12-day opera festival

– one of the best in Northern Europe

– on 8 June. This is a great chance

to see Riga’s adaptations of classics

like Mozart’s The Magic Flute.

Renowned violinist Gidon Kremer

and Kremerata Baltica – a chamber

orchestra composed only of talented

young musicians from the Baltics –

have their very own festival in

Sigulda on 27 June to 4 July. Nine

concerts will be held in the town, in

a concert hall and two churches.

Meanwhile, the main attractions at

a week of concerts, exhibitions and

fairs in Riga celebrating the spirit of

youth – the Latvian Youth Song and

Dance Festival from 29 June to 3

July – will be the opening and gala

concerts, the ‘Ritums’ dance concert

and the festival procession.

Folk dance fans should not miss a

nationwide festival dedicated to stage

folk dance on 13 to 17 July. Known

as ‘Sudmalinas’, this event has been

held every three years since 1992.

On an even brighter note, Bright

Note 2005 is a jazz and sax fest tak-

ing place in Staicele on 4-6 August,

while a brass band festival occurs in

the eastern town of Rezekne on 3-4

June, bringing together 30 amateur

and two professional bands.

Finally, for laughter enthusiasts with

good interpreters, Jurmalina 2005 is

an international humour festival in

Jurmala with a riot of famous Russian

comedians and singers. Return to the

resort on 27-31 July for the ever-pop-

ular ‘New Wave’ pop music festival

to watch beautiful poseurs perform

to thousands of screaming fans.

Celebratethe fruit of Bacchusin Sabilethis summer.

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What’s your bag? Whether you dig opera, brass, drama, bread, booze or anything else you can think of, chances arethere’s a festival dedicated to it.

Summer festivals

C U L T U R A L E V E N T S

KONVENTA SETA HOTELKaleju iela 9/11, Riga, LV 1050, Latvia

tel +371 7087501, fax +371 7087515

reservation@konventa.lv | www.konventa.lv

HOTEL DE ROMEKalku iela 28, Riga, LV 1050, Latvia

tel +371 7087600, fax +371 7087606

reservation@derome.lv | www.derome.lv

REVAL HOTEL RIDZENEReimersa iela 1, Riga, LV 1050, Latvia

tel +371 7324433, fax +371 7322600

ridzene@revalhotels.com | www.revalhotels.com

REVAL HOTEL LATVIJAElizabetes iela 55, Riga, LV 1010, Latvia

tel +371 7772345, fax +371 7772332

latvija.sales@revalhotels.com | www.revalhotels.com

RADISSON SAS DAUGAVA HOTELKugu iela 24, Riga, LV 1048, Latvia

tel + 371 7061111, fax +371 7061100

info.riga@radissonsas.com | www.radissonsas.com

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39

Klondaika RestaurantKlondaika is a chain of entertain-

ment venues for anyone who wants

to relax and have some fun. Two

Klondaika Tex-Mex restaurants and

nine entertainment venues, plus a

casino, are dotted all over the city

of Riga, offering the broadest range

of things to do. In an atmosphere

that resembles the Wild West, enjoy

the latest and most modern slots,

billiards, mega touch and also tradi-

tional Mexican and national cuisine.

Have a great time on your own or

together with friends or family – in

Klondaika there’s always something

going on! Nobody can refuse the

extra-special Klondaika steak pre-

pared by Tex-Mex chef Havier

Manzur Garcia. Try it with a glass

of tequila.

Dzirnavu 59, tel 7240366

Maskavas 256a, tel 7189553

www.klondaika.lv

Tower Voodoo CasinoThey say the origins of voodoo

can be found in a West African

word meaning "spirit". That’s certain-

ly true of Tower Voodoo Casino,

which provides

excellent enter-

tainment in

a 24-hour casino

with professional

staff and a fasci-

nating African-

style interior.

Try your luck

at American

Roulette, Black Jack, Poker, Six-Card

Poker and the latest novelty – the

first Touch-Bet Roulette in the Baltic

states – as well as the most up-to-

date slot machines.

Elizabetes iela 55 (Reval Hotel Latvija)tel 7772285, www.tower.lv

Klondaika CasinoIn a Wild West-style atmosphere,

enjoy the latest and most modern

slots, billiards or mega touch. Have a

great time on your own or together

with friends or family – in Klondaika

there’s always something going on!

Blaumana 9, tel 7242139

www.klondaika.lv

38 G A T E W A Y R I G A 2 / 2 0 0 5

La SalsaStepping from Castle Square into

the hot and spicy Latin American

atmosphere of La Salsa is like entering

downtown Havana. The exotic cuisine

includes authentic Cuban and

Mexican dishes – burritos, fajitas, pael-

la – combined with traditional

European dishes and a mean T-bone

steak. Professional dancers often drop

in to give on-the-spot lessons in salsa,

merenque and bachata, giving the

place the feel of a Cuba carnival.

Pils iela 7, tel 7224007

lasalsa@inbox.lv

SarkansThey say that this is the place to

fall in love – and to fall in love

with! You can’t miss this popular

bar, restaurant and place to hang

out, because it’s sarkans (Latvian for

"red") from top to bottom. It’s Red-

Hot addictive, from the long bar

downstairs to the chill-out lounges

upstairs. There’s room here to meet

everyone who’s anyone. Oh, and

don’t forget to try the Sarkans sand-

wich and its delicious filling… Book

ahead to reserve a table for dinner.

Stabu iela 10, tel 7272286

sarkans@sarkans.lv

I Love YouDiscover this little gem tucked

away in one of the cobbled streets so

admired on a recent visit by Prince

Charles. Strange name for a café, you

may say – not really. Step inside and

pretty soon you realise that I Love

You loves its customers and its cus-

tomers love I Love You. Whether it’s

breakfast, an evening beer with your

friends or Sunday brunch with your

sweetheart, you’ll feel right at home.

Order a cocktail, sink into one of the

sofas downstairs and forget your wor-

ries. And if you care about music,

then I Love You is spot on – no pop

here but quality, intelligent alternative

sounds!

Aldaru iela 9, tel 7225304

i_love_you@apollo.lv

Steak House DomeProbably the best steak house in

Latvia, Steak House Dome is set in

a cozy, yet elegant style right next

to Dome Square. Select from

a wide range of wines and other

beverages to accompany your

choice of dining. Live music adds

to the atmosphere on Tuesdays to

Saturdays – as does the open-air

terrace in summer. Air-conditioned

interior and friendly staff.

Smilsu iela 2, tel 7320037

www.steakhousedome.lv

CiizbarThe first cheese restaurant in

the Baltic states has a pleasant,

well-lit interior and the excellent

music always encourages a good

appetite. You can tell the food is

made by experts – the favourite

dishes here are the Chester

creamy cheese soup and the

cheese-glazed chicken wings with

mouth-watering sweet&sour malt

sauce. Great summer terrace with

live music.

Pumpura iela 6, tel 7331276

www.ciizbar.lv

DollsThis amazing club combines

a restaurant of the highest quali-

ty, a nightclub and a stylish

striptease dance show. The interi-

or is arranged in a hi-tech style

combining steel and glass. The

strip show is artistically refined

and staged by professional chore-

ographers, without even the

slightest trace of vulgarity.

Aspazijas bulv. 22, tel +371 7509265

info@dolls.lv | www.dolls.lv

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Vairak saulesThe sunniest place in Riga! That’s

how it feels when you’re sitting at

the table enjoying a fantastically

delicious Italian or German meal

and cocktails from all over the

world. It’s a place where the sun

smiles down on you as soon as you

step through the door.

Audeju iela 8, tel 7814960

Dzirnavu iela 60, tel 7282878

www.vairaksaules.lv

extend the current runway to 3.2

kilometres by 2005. But this is a

necessary project that will go

ahead regardless of whether the EU

funding comes or not.

Riga International Airport has

consistently been fulfilling its

development concept since Latvia

broke free of the Soviet Union in

1991. The first project in the

1990s was also the biggest –

a comprehensive renovation of

the runway and taxiways and also

the replacement of the airport’s

lighting system in 1994. It was

financed by the European Bank of

Reconstruction and Development

with a $10.5 million loan.

After that, the arrivals section

was completely overhauled and

modern passenger check-in coun-

ters, luggage conveyors, 100 per-

cent baggage screening and flight

information display systems were

installed. New shops were opened

in the terminal and the Solo Club

business lounge became the place

for business class passengers to

relax or work before their depar-

tures. The original design of the

lounge and the VIP centre creates

a pleasant atmosphere.

Changes are constantly taking

place at Riga airport and passen-

gers no longer feel like they are

in a strange place. The aim is to

keep pace with rising numbers so

that the airport never gets too

crowded and impersonal.

www.riga-airport.com

Riga airport’s website has just

been updated for the fourth time –

why not pay it a visit?

Live flight arrivals, flash technolo-

gy, travel information, company

data – it can all be found on the

latest version of Riga International

Airport’s website. As RIX becomes

an important centre for international

air traffic, its website is taking on

more and more features.

The website, riga-airport.com, now

includes everything from traffic condi-

tions to real-time flight and boarding

information. The website contains

what is essentially a live version of

what you can see on the departure

and arrival screens at the airport.

There is also a comprehensive list

of over 30 facilities for arrivals and

departures and general facilities for

airport visitors. Click on the item

you want and up pops a 3D map

of the terminal with the facility

flashing at you.

"The website has a vital role in

maintaining contact with all our

potential passengers, wherever they

are," explains Andorijs Darzins, the air-

port’s chief of PR and advertising. "It

gives information to people about the

services we provide, whenever they

might need it. You might say it’s a

flexible, universal booklet that can be

picked up absolutely anywhere."

This being one of the fastest grow-

ing airports in Europe, it is actually

easier now – not to say cheaper – to

find what you want online than to

place a call. Statistics and fresh press

releases updating the airport’s dynam-

ic performance are also available on

the website for analysts, journalists

and research students.

Back in the early days, the air-

port’s management personnel

designed the first version of the web-

site on their own. Later, in a second

version, they installed more interac-

tive elements such as schedules, can-

cellation information and the status

of flights. A third introduced a char-

acteristic graphic of a plane flying in

to land. It also brought in all you

need to know about Riga airport’s

unique customer loyalty scheme,

NOVA, which now has 1,000 mem-

bers and is free to join.

That third version of the website

was launched two years ago. What

you see today is the version number

four, which has improvements in the

layout overview and even more cate-

gories to choose from, together with

flash technology and moving pictures.

40 G A T E W A Y R I G A

A I R P O R T

Riga airport’s development experts have to constantly alter their plans due to ever-spiralling passenger numbers.

Visions of the future

2 / 2 0 0 5

The development vision stretches

into the future. By 2010, Riga

International Airport will have

enough capacity for five to seven

million passengers a year – up to

seven times its current level. But

the original plan was to do this

by 2020.

Given that the current monthly

rises in passenger flow are top-

ping 80 percent year-on-year, ways

have to be found to cope with

forecasts of a dramatic increase in

the number of people using the

airport in the coming years.

The decision was made to build

a new terminal from scratch.

The 10,000-metre-squared North

Terminal, essentially an extension

of the current building, will be an

airy, three-storey, glass-fronted con-

struction with ambitious ecological

touches – for example a roof gar-

den with a tree growing out of the

middle from the third floor.

The first floor will be reserved

for arrivals, the second for check-

in and departures as well as con-

ference and meeting facilities. The

third floor will be used as offices

by the Latvian national airline

airBaltic.

At the back of the new termi-

nal, a new pier for aircraft will

be constructed, mainly for non-

Schengen departures. At the front,

road traffic will be redirected

either side of a new, two-storey

parking area.

"In the course of working on

our project, life shows what we

have to do next," Arhis Kalniskans,

director of the airport’s facilitation

and development department,

explained. "We are always ready for

new changes – which is just as

well, since it recently became clear

that because of Riga’s amazing

growth we would have to double

the size of the project. We were

not counting on such a radical

explosion of development. The

original deadline of 2020 has now

become 2010."

Extend and expandThe extension project could be

stretched further in future to cope

with even more passengers if fore-

casts are revised once again.

A two-story aircraft pier, for exam-

ple, would allow the airport to

take on an additional million pas-

sengers a year. The traffic control

tower could be moved southwards

to give more space for another

extension of the North Terminal.

For 10 million passengers plus,

the airport would need a second

runway. An application has already

been made for EU funds to help

"Wewere notcountingon such a radicalexplosionof develop-ment. The originaldeadline of 2020hasbecome2010."

2 / 2 0 0 5 G A T E W A Y R I G A 41

GLITTERING PRIZE

Airlines have grouped together

to give Riga International Airport

a prestigious award.

Riga International Airport has

won the prestigious Airport

Marketing Award in the "up to 5

million passengers" category. The

accolade was presented at Routes,

the annual World Route

Development Forum, in Madrid

where representatives gather from

international airports and major air-

lines around the world. It came as a

complete, but very pleasant, surprise.

"We learned about it the day

before we were nominated,"

exclaimed Ieva Veinberga, the driv-

ing force behind the airport’s mar-

keting activities.

Airports are nominated for the

award by the world’s airlines.

Comprehensive questionnaires are

sent out to the airlines on how

they see the airports’ marketing

skills. Airports’ names are put for-

ward if enough airlines vote for

them. Clearly Riga is in favour.

"We’re especially happy because it

was the airlines – our direct corpo-

rate customers – voting for us. And

considering that most of the voting

airlines do not yet operate to Riga, it

must have been a fairly objective

assessment of us," Ieva reasoned.

"Riga was announced first and sud-

denly we were surrounded by con-

gratulations. Everybody bought us

drinks in the lobby bar – but the

recognition also brought us a lot of

appointments for the following day."

Good workIt was really only a matter of time

before the award appeared on Riga’s

mantelpiece. Riga was nominated in

the same category the previous year,

but didn’t win. Ieva puts the airport’s

success down to the hard, committed

and effective marketing activities of

Production

Check-In Media

J. Alunana 3

Riga, LV 1010

Latvia

tel +371 7227232fax +371 7820294

Publisher Riga International AirportEditor Howard JarvisArt director Inese LaizaneMarketing Agnese NicmaneThanks to the Latvian Institute, Senas

vides darbnica, Ieva Pigozne-Brinkmane,

Mélanie Beuf, Aleksandrs Sokolovs,

Dennie Clipart, Kadri Alasi

Gateway Riga is the official airport magazine for Riga International Airport. It is distributed

twice a year. Opinions expressed in this publication are those of the authors or persons inter-

viewed and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editor, Check-In Media or Riga

International Airport. All rights reserved. Material in this publication may not be reproduced in

any form without written permission. Unsolicited manuscripts, photographs and illustrations

are not accepted. Gateway Riga accepts no responsibility for such materials sent to its office,

nor is it liable for loss of, or damage to, such material. All prices are subject to change without

notice. Gateway Riga accepts no responsibility for printing errors. Printed by Veiters, Latvia.

Riga International Airport over

a number of years.

Routes is an annual event for avi-

ation professionals to discuss topical

issues facing the industry and is the

ideal chance to meet up for some

bilateral negotiations. The conference

is crucial to the planning of new

routes, hence the name.

Representatives from Riga

International Airport typically meet

about 15 airlines to discuss the

routes of the future.

The Airport Marketing Awards

have been given out at the confer-

ence since 1997. They are presented

by OAG Worldwide, a global con-

tent management company specialis-

ing in travel and transport. The lat-

est awards were presented during

a gala dinner with more than 1,500

participants from the world aviation

industry, including 250 airlines and

450 airports.

And the awards keep pouring in.

Riga International Airport has just

received award Lufthansa’s Station of

the Month award for its consistent

quality assurance. Riga’s first-class per-

formance, Lufthansa revealed,

achieved especially good marks in

the areas of boarding, service quality

and departure punctuality.

RIX accepts its

prize in Madrid.

Eddie Bell,

chairman of OAG

Worldwide Ltd.

(centre), presents

the award to

Andis Damlics,

member of

the board of Riga

International

Airport and

Ieva Veinberga,

the airport’s

airline marketing

manager.