The Munich to Moscow Meander - Part IV:

Face to Face in Rīga

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

After leaving my friends in Lithuania, I boarded a small shuttle bus and rode through the rainy Lithuanian countryside into Latvia and on to the capital city of Riga...

View Munich-Riga in a larger map

I checked into my hostel first thing. It was a decent place but pretty empty other than a Canadian guy sharing a room of six beds with me...




 I set out immediately into the city to explore. It was already starting to get rather dark with looming rain clouds...




The tradition of the Christmas tree was first started in Riga and there's a modern-looking monument to it here on this square....




As the sunlight faded my goal was to get some good photos of the city from the other side of the Daugava River.  I crossed the old bridge with a view to the more modern bridge and the Swedbank building on the other side of the river...




As I got to the other side, however, it started to really pour. I hid under a small pedestrian underpass next to the bridge hoping the rain would pass. It wasn't letting up and I tried unsuccessfully to get some photos holding my umbrella over the camera and tripod. Just when hope was all but lost and I was ready to return to drier ground, the rain just stopped!

It was time to get down to bid'niz!

A beautiful reflection of the railway bridge and one of those Stalinist skyscrapers...




The clouds were ideally dramatic over the city skyline...



As I ran under the tunnel beneath the bridge to the other sides of the embankment I failed to notice a massive puddle in the street caused by the rain. A van drove through the puddle just as I was passing soaking me like I was on Splash Mountain. I covered my camera just in time. I was so happy with the beautiful evening that I didn't mind being drenched.

St. Peter's Church and Stone Bridge...




The old main square....




I was starving, cold, and wet when I walked into a cheap cafeteria-style restaurant for dinner. The hot soup with dumplings was good. I was too tired and hungry to take a picture. Just imagine the dumplings in your mind.

The next day I woke up to beautiful weather. I had a lot more city to explore.

One of the most interesting things about Riga is the abundance of architectural styles scattered throughout the old town...





Situated at the crossroads of the Baltic, Riga has had a rich influence of cultures from the Germans to the Swedes to the Russians all with a distinctive Latvian flavor.

There are structures from the Middle-Ages like the castle (now the residence of the Latvian president)...




The Three Brothers are actually the oldest stone structures in Latvia, over half a millennium old...




Old Medieval streets...





The iconic St. Peter's Church from the 1600's...

Inside...





There has been a church here since the Middle-Ages and so some of the artifacts inside are older than the church itself...




There's a nice view from the top...




Then there's the Schwarzkopf Haus (Blackhead House). This building is also from the late Middle-Ages. It housed the fraternity of a guild of unmarried German merchants. It was completely destroyed in WWII and more recently rebuilt...




At night...





You can even see the "black head" in the lower right-hand corner. This was a Moor who was their patron saint...




Across from the Schwarzkopf Haus is the neo-classical Town Hall...




The 19th-century Russian Orthodox Cathedral...




The architectural style for which Riga is most famous, however, is Jugendstil (aka Art Nouveau)...




This style became popular throughout Europe (and elsewhere) from about 1890-1910. It was all about the organic, the modern, and the bizarre.

Two merfolk supporting a balcony overgrown with stone vines and masonic symbols in between...





Faces are a big deal in Latvian Jugendstil. I love that her eyes are closed...




Peacock...




It's really everywhere in Riga...





I love the robot-looking thing here...




More faces and wings...




Some of it is very elegant...








Some of it creepy...








Some of it mysterious...




Some of it fantastical. This looks like it could be an hommage to Narnia. The fun part is spotting all the little details. Do you see the vultures? The pharaohs?




Some of it is comical...




Some of it sleek...




And some of it is downright grotesque...




And some of it is crumbling...




Straight lines are used sparingly...




About face...

This is probably my favorite bit...




Luckily, much of the Art Nouveau survived WWII and the subsequent Soviet takeover. The Russians left their own mark on the city's architecture, including one of those Stalinist skyscrapers...




And of course in the last few decades there have been many modern structures popping up all around the city (including the ultra-modern Swedbank tower pictured earlier)...




Sometimes you wish a wad of money would just walk up to you and shake your hand. In Latvia, in can happen...



It was a randoms exchange.

One of my favorite places to eat in Riga is a restaurant chain called Lido. It's cafeteria-style where you just get what looks good from the buffet and then they charge you for what you take. The atmosphere is fun and the prices are reasonable. Here are some tasty Latvian eats, including a mug of kvass and some very yummy rye pudding...




One of Riga's most important monuments is the Freedom Tower. It was built in 1935 and surprisingly not destroyed during the Soviet era.




There are active guards standing watch during the day...

As I walked by I saw several soldiers lined up around it, some standing at attention, some marching...




There was a solemn changing of the guard...




A bit later, when walking by, I noticed a press corps setting up cameras....





There were cops everywhere and snipers on the roof. I knew something was up...




A military band took up position next to the monument...




And the color guard emerged with the flags of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Germany...




Soldiers bearing flowers...

I could hear sirens coming closer and soon several sedans pulled up and out came security guards and then Guido Westerwelle, the German Foreign Minister (equivalent of Secretary of State, so this is Germany's Hillary Clinton)...




The foreign ministers of Estonia, Lithuania, and Latvia also emerged from their respective BMW's.  They laid flowers at the foot of the monument and had a photo op...




The soldiers marched and the band played...




And the ministers got back in their cars and drove away...

There was a meeting of Baltic states with Germany as a guest. All three Baltic states, though once a part of the Soviet Union, are now much more closely aligned with Germany and Scandinavia than their former occupier.

I went back to the hostel for a quick refreshment. It was just in time too because the rain started to really pour in a sudden burst of precipitation.

It was fun to watch out the hostel window...




The Art Nouveau house across the street...




It didn't last long, and then a double rainbow appeared...




I enjoyed a last leisurely evening in Latvia (even running into Guido Westerwelle and his entourage a few times in the old town).

Final verdict: Riga is a beautiful and fascinating city...




I highly recommend it.

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