Riga Review

  Cathedral Square in the snow On the day after Christmas, Riga had its first snow of the winter. Since we haven't seen the city covered in snow yet, we went for a walk around Old Town. I wanted to share the beautiful night with you.  The picture below was taken out of our family room window.  Cathedral tower  Riga Castle from the park The scenery was amazing as we walked in the falling snow. It looked like a movie set.  Picturesque shops We were surprised how many people were out and about. Earlier in the day, the streets had been bare. I think people just wanted fresh air after being in lock down for so long.  Typical street scene It will be a night to be remembered for many years to come.   Icy tree branches Later in the evening, the snow turned more to freezing rain coating the trees. The icy trees sparkled in the street lights. It was magical to say the least - and rather wet to walk in. :)  A coffee shop in a small park Looking across the Daugava River

  House of the Black Heads  After our month-long visit to the States, we returned to Riga last week. I'd like to share some seasonal decorations with you. This is our first Christmas in Latvia, so I can't really compare the beauty of the Christmas lights to last year. I'm sure that Christmas in Riga is very toned down from the usual celebration.  We've seen several large decorated trees around Old Town as we've walked the small area. The trees are beautiful, but in between there aren't a lot of lights.  Dom Square  I know that there is usually a large Christmas market in Dom Square which is about two blocks from our house. The square is usually bursting with small huts where vendors are selling lots of goodies and mulled wine, plus the Christmas decorations that tourists like.  We did witness that last year when we were in Riga on January 8 to search for an apartment. This year it's completely bare except for the large tree in front of the Cathedral.  Downto

  Cathedral of St. Mary and St. Severi Church When we visited the Luther sites in our trip to Germany in 1983, we went to Erfurt to see where Martin Luther was ordained in the Erfurt Cathedral in 1507. This imposing structure sits at the crest of a hill in the city.  Sheer size of the cathedral While we were in Germany this summer, we again visited Erfurt. The size is just as impressive today as it was back then.  The size of the building can't really be described. The altar is so far away when you're in the middle of the church that you don't realize that the candle sticks are as tall as a person.  View of the altar I remember on our first visit that a woman was working on the main altar in the cathedral. She stood on top of the altar, changing the candle in the candlestick, which was her height!  Looking toward the organ The organ is massive also. I can't imagine worshipping in this cathedral every Sunday. I wish we could have heard music soaring to the rafters in the

  Anglican Church  Last week we had some excitement on our quiet street. Someone rang our doorbell at 7 PM, something which never happens. My husband went downstairs to see who was there. He came back and announced that a movie crew was going to shoot a movie scene from 9:00 to 3:00 in the morning.  We've never had anything exciting like that in our corner of Old Riga. I knew I wanted to share the experience with you. They were going to work by the Anglican Church which is across the street from us. I took all the pictures out of our window, so you can see how close we were.  Spotlight in the embassy garden They pulled up around 9:00 and plugged all the spot lights in. Our neighborhood was illuminated that night. They unloaded all sorts of equipment for their use. Good thing our bedroom is on the back of the apartment. We shut our bedroom door to block out the bright lights when we went to bed later on.  Standing around  It started raining shortly after their arrival. That seemed t

  Danish flag The picture on the left was taken out of the fourth floor window of our apartment. It's looking at the Danish flag in the tiny courtyard of the Danish Embassy, which is across the street from us. The yellow building you also see is the pre-school that was remodeled over the summer.  Notice the sharp corner The courtyard in the foreground belongs to the Danish Embassy. The plants and flowers surrounding the tiny space shield the staff from onlookers when they are outside eating their lunches during the summer.  The embassy is a small oddly-shaped building. Since it was built in 1901, it has a bit of the Art Nouveau style with flourishes in the architecture. It fits on this small bit of land near the Anglican Church which accounts for the very narrow structure.  Front door with embassy symbol Danish symbol There is a symbol of Denmark next to the door that faces our street-Anglikanu. That was the clue that tipped us off to being an embassy when we first moved into our f

  Balconies in art nouveau style Last week I wrote about buildings in Old Town Riga with different histories. This week I'll take you on a tour of a newer section of the city and explain Riga's Art Nouveau architecture. Art Nouveau, or Jugendstil in the German language, was a style of architecture that was very prominent for only 20 years from about 1895 to 1914. Since Riga was expanding at that time, it has gained a reputation for Art Nouveau style. Over one third of Riga's buildings were built during this short period of time.  Art Nouveau is most easily spotted by the extra flourishes added to the outside of the buildings. Often they include figures, animals, plants or faces from Greek mythology. Ornamentation on building   Nature was very important to the era of Art Nouveau. All buildings have some aspect of nature in their edifices. An owl can be seen perched on top of the door in the picture below.  Owl decoration From Albert Street This form of architecture can be se

Oldest type of building Buildings in Old Town Riga tell the story of this great city. Just the shape of the building can tell a person how old it is. The building on the right is very old, probably late 15th Century, with several hints to that fact.  First, the protruding wood at the top tells us that originally there was a pulley system installed there to lift heavy objects to the different floors of the building. The items raised by pulleys would be pulled into the building through doors on each floor. Those doors are now just wooden boards.  Another hint of it's age is the size of the windows. Tiny windows kept in the heat during winter. Imagine how dark the rooms would be, however.  The ancient door is hard to see in the shadow, but it is crude wood planks fastened by an iron bar. The door was large to allow the horses and wagons to be brought into the basement.   The late 16th Century saw this next type of house. Notice the windows are larger. The old door can still be seen on