Mayor Shchenders of Cesis (here with his wife, Brian, and a choir director from Riga who drove up for the concert) is a music lover. He told us all about a new concert hall which will open in Cesis in 2012, and be, he said, the best in Latvia. Thanks to the Herman Braun Foundation for our debut here - perhaps they'll invite us back - maybe in the summer!

A last photo with the Mayor, and we got on our bus to go back to Riga. When we got off the bus at the hotel, the bus which would take us to Vilnius the following morning was already parked outside the hotel. As Gabe said, that was a lot of reality.

February: Riga, the Latvian State Opera

As a number of people in our audience last night reminded us, this is Chanticleer's third time in Riga. In Latvia we have also performed in Jurmala, and today we will go by bus an hour and a half north to the 800 year old town of Cesis where the Mayor loves music and wants to have it happen there. The Herman Braun Foundation, our presenters in Latvia, asked us to go and of course we said yes.

What with the people who know us from before, very sweet total strangers, and the people we met on our day off on Sunday, last night at the Latvian State Opera House was very convivial!

It was fun to see the Latvian audience - which knows how to deal with the cold - in an enchanting array of winter hats - no two the same! A few of us are kind of hat freaks, and had gone out on an unsuccessful search for a hat shop. Purchases were made at a hat shop in Vienna, however, so all is not lost.