February half term 2023 Russian trip to Riga, Latvia

Over February half term, students from Years 9 to 13 spent a week learning Russian at Liden and Denz Language School in Riga, Latvia. 

The group arrived in Riga on Sunday evening and accompanied pupils to their Russian-speaking host families. Having had a language test before travelling to Riga, pupils were placed in groups according to their ability and attended Russian lessons from 9am to 12.40pm from Monday to Friday, they were presented with graded certificates at the end of the week.

In the afternoons and evenings, students were able to take part in a wide variety of activities, including a matryoshka painting workshop and cookery lesson in Russian, visits to Riga Ghetto and Holocaust Museum, Riga Motor Museum, Laima Chocolate Museum and Riga Central market, which has been in operation since 1570 and is housed in a series of WWI Zeppelin hangers.

On Saturday, the group ventured out of Riga to rural Līgatne, to a once top-secret Soviet Bunker code-named The Pension. Hidden underneath a rehabilitation centre nine meters underground, the bunker was built during the Cold War to serve as a shelter for the Communist Party elite in case of nuclear war. The bunker’s secrecy grading was removed in 2003 and it is now a museum. Everything in the bunker looks the same as it did when the bunker was in operation, making it a very authentic USSR time capsule.

Thank you to everyone involved in organising the trip and accompanying the students.