Riga Art Nouveau-licious

We arrived in Riga and walked over to our hotel. It’s in a restored convent and is right plunk in the middle of “vecriga”, the old town. We dropped our things and ran out into the street to do our essential magnet (K&B)/ flag (Z) shopping before the stores closed since there would not be time in the morning. We acquired some Lats and got our shopping done in no time. Then, after a quick (ha ha – a profoundly leisurely pace is de rigueur here for dining we have discovered) dinner we went walking through the city.

Riga is known for its Art Nouveau architecture. There’s a whole district where all the most decadent and wonderful buildings are all together which we will talk about later. Even in the old town, though, where there is a fair bit of baroque and a smattering of older bits and pieces from every period before, there are a handful of flowing, ornately floral stunners.

The Blackheads’ House here was amazing. It’s red brick with marvelous decorative statuary of soldiers, Greek gods and goddesses, and saints (George slaying the dragon by feeding him a fish). It’s most extraordinary feature however is the clock. It tells not only the time, but the day of the week, the number of the day, and the month. It’s dark blue and gold and glowed in the late day sun.

At some point we saw a clock on one of the numerous towers in town and noticed that it was after 9pm. Another thing about being this far north is that the sun comes up early (like 4:30am) and goes down late (like 11:00pm). As we have moved north this has become more pronounced. During our night bus to Vilnius the sky never got totally dark. The sun went down and we watched as the orange glow on the horizon slid around from northwest to north to northeast and then climbed back into the sky. Since it was so late we decided to stop in a café for another dessert. We noticed on our walk through town that many of the restaurants and cafes with outdoor seating provide blankets for their patrons so that they can bask in the cold light of their arctic summer without freezing to death.

The next morning we went out to walk the Art Nouveau district proper – Riga is actually a UNESCO World Heritage site due to the amount and caliber of its Art Nouveau architecture. It is indeed a feast for the eyes. The elements on view here made the old town look a little understated. There were wild animals in the friezes and human faces frozen in eternal screams. Again, like our previous stops, it was so incredible that it literally hurt – Tiger Balm and Tylenol all around at bedtime for screaming neck and shoulder muscles. We began to wish we were frogs – if our eyes were on top of our heads, it would have been so much easier.

Fortunately, no one was run over; this is more impressive than it seems. We seriously spent at least ½ the time crouching mid-street photographing the architectural fine points of every building in town. We oohed and ahhed our way around before grabbing a quick (1hour 10 minutes) breakfast and racing to the bus station. Next stop: Tallinn, Estonia.