Riga

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We arrived just in time for dinner but first we had to check into our hotel. We resisted the temptation to collapse into bed and left the hotel for late afternoon sustenance. We stopped to take pictures of awesome buildings, and I found a flag. We shopped in some other booths and a linen shop.



Riga is famous for “Art Nouveau” and has tons of buildings in that style, but my mom wanted us to look at the older stuff first. My favorite house was the “cat house”. It has 2 cat statues on the roof. The story is that the merchant who owned the house wanted to join a guild but was rejected. To get revenge he placed the 2 cat statues on his roof with their rear ends facing the guild’s house. The guild took him to court and agreed to let the merchant in if he turned the cats around.

Blackhead's House


We also saw the Blackheads’ House. It was sort of a clubhouse for unmarried merchants. One Christmas they decorated a tree and burned it. That’s how we started decorating Christmas Trees, but I guess the burning part never came over. I guess we aren’t authentic enough. The buildings are all really great, you know, if you like fabulousness.

Next we had dessert. There were blankets on the chairs outside if you wanted to sit out in the freezing. We chose to sit inside. I got a chocolate shake, and my mom tricked me. I can never finish an entire milkshake, so my mom said if I finished it I could eat 2 whole sugar packets. I really tried but my mom made me stop. We went back to the hotel and fell into bed.

This morning we got up and walked to the Art Nouveau district and admired the amazing buildings and their fantastic designs. There were so many incredible things… too many to describe, so I’ll post a couple of pictures and just mention a couple of my favorite elements. I LOVED all the screaming heads, some robotish looking things, a wonderful Medusa, lots of peacocks and several images of my favorite Greek deities (Hermes & Athena). There were also lots of dragons and flowers twining around everything.

Riga was really beautiful and everyone should come visit it!

Then we ate breakfast, in my case, pancakes! Mmmm… Next stop, Tallinn!





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Anonymous said…
WE LOVE YOUR BLOGS ZEEEGE TELL YOUR MOM SHE SHOULD HAVE TAKEN HER COSTUME FROM CHINA SHE WOULD HAVE FIT RIGHT IN IN MONGOLIA WELL DARLING GRAND DAUGHTER WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH GRANDPA AND AMMA
July 16, 2011 at 1:28 PM
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