Art Nouveau District, Riga

In the morning I took some photos of the city from St Peter's church tower. I love being able to look down upon a city as the buildings seem quite different from above, with brightly coloured roofs jammed in between a maze of architecture. The traces of snow left from the day before glistened in the sun light.



I had never taken much notice of Art Nouveau architecture before, but after feeling that I had seen most of they city, I thought that the Art Nouveau district could show a different side to Riga. The buildings were stunning, probably the most elaborate collection of architecture that I have ever seen. I couldn't believe how much detail had gone into carving the facades of these buildings, embellished with sculptures of women and machines.

Riga in the snow

While the Riga Old Town Hostel is a great place to stay, they don't do breakfast, so after a short walk, Double Coffee was discovered. I was so impressed with this like-Starbucks but better chain, offering a menu of breakfasts, lunches, cakes, sushi and cocktails at cafe prices, that it became a bit of an institution. They all had a large newspaper style menu printed in English and a selection of grumpy waitresses, but the food was amazing.


I tried to photograph the architecture in the Old Town but it rained so much that a trendy shopping mall seemed like a much better idea. The twenty-something Latvians really do like there clothes, shoes and handbags and the women looked so much more stylish than in London.



While I was in the shopping mall, the rain had changed to snow and there was now quite a covering. The previously dull looking parks had been transformed into something magical and the trees looked like they had been coated in icing sugar. The Russian Orthodox Cathedral was beautiful too. The intricate pattern on the outside looked like the whole building had been covered in stripy wallpaper with elaborate plaster decorations. I loved the shape of it too, with it's multiple domes and arched doorways. Riga suddenly seemed a lot more exciting now that there was snow. I just hoped that it would be there in the morning.