Riga, Latvia (two)

My next day in Riga, I had foolishly booked two back to back free walking tours.  The first one started at 10.  I am definitely getting into a morning routine on non-travel days.  I buy yogurt the day before, and some fruit.  All of the apartments so far have had coffee makers, the ones with the pods.  Pods included!  I buy a mini-carton of milk when I go to the store the night before.  So, yogurt with fruit and a milky coffee.  Excellent start to any day.  In fact, it is what I am enjoying as I write this from Helsinki (no coffee machine though, so that makes the jar of instant coffee I have been carrying since Poland worth it!).  But I digress, yet again. 

Riga, walking tour.  10 am.  Back on track... I ate breakfast and headed out.

We were to meet at the opera house.  I was a bit early, as I usually am.  Riga is surrounded by a canal. An old moat? Not sure. Lots of small personal crafts, kayaks, rowboats, SUPs. Lovely for strolling.  And the canal seems to be protected by parks on both sides.  

My butterfly collection

The Opera House

The first tour was Art Nouveau.  This was about architecture, not public art as I had anticipated.  In my Old Town Tour the day before, I had learned about how fast Riga grew in the late 19th century.  Germans had arrived with fists full of cash.  Riga was ripe for industrialization.  And industrialize they did.  Most of the old building were not lost to the either of the world wars, or the Soviet era, they were razed to make room for factories from 1880ish to 1910ish.  With economic boom comes population boom. And wealth for the industrialists.  Wealth needs to be shown off.  So those rich people built huge mansions (manors?), trying to outdo the other rich industrialists.  So, the buildings were not just huge, they were beautiful. 

But first we looked at this guy.  I remember nothing about who he was, or his wife.  But the dog is memorable.  That isn't his dog.  He was mayor or something and the city commissioned this statue when Queen Elizabeth II was planning a visit.  I have learned that a lot of statues get made just so important people have something to unveil while visiting.  Anyway, this old mayor and his wife were chosen to be the statue of honour for the Queen's visit.  The artist also had another commission from some dude with too much money who wanted a statue of his Chow Dog.  Artist got confused and sent both statues to the city who attached the dog to the mayor statue.  By the time anyone noticed, it was too late.  So, the Queen cut the ribbon on some random dog.

Buildings.  So many buildings.  I will try to restrain myself with the pictures but no promises. 

Pretty much every building from this era is five stories high.  If a building was six stories, it had to have an elevator, which you can imagine was not easy or cheap in the late 1800s.  Basements didn't count.

Apparently, there were three main architectural designs, none of which I remember the name of.  One was very industrial. Clean lines.

Another was ornate and elaborate with crazy windows and statues everywhere.  They liked the naked female form.  

The third style was more Latvian, if I remember correctly.  It was based on 'nature'.  Exteriors were asymmetrical.  They had a wood component and always rough surfaces were added. 

A few more photos of random buildings. 

Oh, I forgot about the wooden buildings.  They were older than the building boom and somehow managed to survive.  None of them are more than two stories high.

Ok,enough buildings.  Next tour, same guide, started one hour after the first one.  Did I use that time wisely to rest and eat. I did not.  We had walked past a thrift store about half way through tour one.  I took a picture of the address so I could find it again.  But I walked past a gorgeous Russian Orthodox Church first. So, I popped in.

I made it to the thrift shop to discover that it was super expensive!  No photos, no purchases.  

On the way to the next meeting spot:

The next tour, The Soviet Era, was much less photogenic.  The Soviets were not into the naked female form.  They  really weren't into any form other than square, cheap and easy.  

Our guide was born during the Soviets time.  He remembers living in a communal apartment with five families and one bathroom.  He would have to stand in line with his father for food because people with kids got priority for food.  But the kids had to be with the adult.  He did say the regime had some upsides.  Education improved significantly.  Social Services for the poor was way better.  Orphans were housed and educated, not left to fend for themselves, that kind of thing.  I guess it started out not too terrible, and after the end of WWII, people needed some stability.  But as time went on and the Soviet Union started to decline, it was less good until it was very bad. 

Our guide 

Statue to represent all of the lives lost during the Soviet occupation

I can't remember if this is a Soviet era building 
but I liked it so photo included

This is definitely Soviet era.  

A piece of the Berlin Wall

This is the Russian consulate.  You'll notice they don't reside in 
one of their ugly buildings.  The Latvians changed the name of 
their street to something like "Independence for Ukraine Street". 
Middle finger to Russia.

This ugly Soviet era building is across the street.

The Russian consulate's view. 
Double middle fingers to Russia

I have to head out in a few minutes so here are a few last photos unrelated to anything other than my fancy.

Apparently, I did take a photo of the expensive thrift store!