2 hours in Riga

All I knew about Riga before was from the thriller by Henning Mankell: "Die Hunde von Riga", but my 2 hours at the airport of the Latvian capital were not as frightening as described in the book.
First of all, the main reason for my journey back to Germany was a kind of "holiday course" about supersymmetry in Köln (in Germany they still have their semester break), but I combined it with many other trips and meetings.
And then why Riga if I was travelling to Germany? Well, on Friday 25.9. I flew with Air Baltic and had to change flight in Riga. During the 1 hour from Helsinki I could see the Gulf of Finland and Estonia. Although Latvia has the currency Lats, I could pay a coffee at the airport in Euros and got the change in Lats. I read in a magazine in the plane that they want to introduce the Euro in 2 years.

The sight on the second flight from Riga to Hannover was so good that I could see the sparsely inhabited countryside of the Balticum and even the narrow headland near Kaliningrad (Königsberg). Yes, Helsinki is not only far in the north, but also in the east.

Finally I arrived at lunchtime at home.