This is Latvia  

The country of contrasts…The place where old traditions merge with new technologies and modern lifestyle.

 

Since regaining independence in the early 1990’s Latvia has been developing rapidly.

The capital, Riga, is a modern city with up-dated and fashionable buildings, hotels and shopping arcades. In the streets you see the latest car models and hear a buzzing of the different languages spoken by the blend of nationalities inhabiting Riga.

 

A visit to Old Riga is a historical journey to medieval times, where small boutiques and unique cafes tempt each visitor of this ancient part of the town. Latvia is a country to discover. Everywhere the visitors are reminded of different periods of history. Small things, which Latvians themselves see as ordinary, give foreign visitors an idea of how life was just 20 years ago.

 

The Latvian countryside is an almost untouched paradise of rivers, lakes and forests. The Latvian farming practice is the greatest contrast to the high tech life of Riga.

Visitors will not find many industrialised establishments, instead small family run farms of a few hectares and with few or no modern machinery.

Definitely worth seeing…

 

 

Facts about Latvia  

Latvia has an area 64,589 km2 divided into the four regions Vidzeme, Latgale, Kurzeme and Zemgale.

 

In this beautiful country runs no less then 750 rivers with a length of more than 10 km, and the largest of these are Daugava, which ends in the capital Riga. Furthermore, you can visit about 3,000 lakes, which are larger than 1 ha, or one of the many national parks of Latvia.

 

Latvia has a population of approx. 2,3 million inhabitants and around 764,000 of them live in Riga. The ethnic composition of the inhabitants are 57.7% Latvians, 29.6% Russians, 4.1% Belarussians, 2.7% Ukranians, 2.5% Poles, 1.4% Lithuanians and 2% other nationalities.

 

Since the Reformation movement in the 16th century, the leading religion in Latvia has been Evangelic Lutheran with 24% of the population. Other religions are Roman Catholic and Russian Orthodox.

 

Latvia has six large cities apart from Riga: Daugavpils, Jelgava, Jurmala, Rezekne, Liepaja and Ventspils, from which the two latter also are important naval ports.

 

The currency in Latvia is Lats and 1 lats is equal to approximately 1.43 EUR