Travelling East

I set out from my home in Yeovil last Monday at 6.30am to arrive at Bristol airport parking facilities for 8am.  In fact I arrived about 10 minutes early so was relaxed knowing I had plenty of time before check-in.

Map of Bristol airpot.  The Silver Link car park for long stay (5 days or more) is at the top right of the map.



I checked the car in at the Silver Link car park and got the shuttle bus to the airport – about 3 minutes journey.  Then came the usual check-in, baggage drop and security checks to go through into the Duty Free and Departure Gates.  I had plenty of time for a coffee and snack.  My destination was Riga, the capital of Latvia, the middle country of the Baltic trio, Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south.



Just under 3 hours after take off I was walking out to the arrivals lounge of Riga airport.  There they were, waiting.  I don’t know if the thoughts going through their minds was on a similar line to my own but I was wondering if these people that I had got to ‘know’ through internet websites matched up to the image that I had built in my mind.  I was immediately put at ease when the expression of ‘will we recognise her?’ changed to big smiles and hugs.  They were as welcoming and friendly as I had imagined them to be.  I was looking forward to the time we would spend together.

My first impression after leaving the airport building was that the car park seemed half empty compared to the one I had left in England.  Maybe it was just the time of day or the fact that it was the short-term car park.  I don’t know but I did wonder if there existed a similar situation in an English airport car park – probably not.  Anyway, it wasn’t important but from my experience, unusual.

We then had another two and a half hour journey (without counting stopping time for something to eat – very important!) eastwards to the town of Ergli.  There seemed to be so much countryside, a lot of fields dotted with forests. 

The main road out of Riga was a regular road but after some distance it became more of a ‘country’ road – that means impacted earth.  It reminded me of some of the roads I had experienced in the north of Argentina where I had lived for some years.  So for me there was a sort of pleasant familiarity about it.

By the time we arrived at the home of my hosts, Jo and Ian, I was already feeling very much at home and looking forward to the next few days.  … … …

to be continued in future blogs.