Latvia and St. Petersburg travel blog

We saw many of these yellow bikes chained to signs around town....

It says: "Don't eat everything that you meet."

But we felt pretty safe at the hotel buffet. They'd be in...

Another great door for Erica.

I don't think this was Albert Street, maybe Antonjas?

Interesting that these column-holders were only half-men.

I love the beautiful detail in these buildings.

Now we're on Albert Street, a short street known for its Art...

Look at the lions on top, with their tails sticking straight out.

This oned seemed out of place...it looks much more Gothic to me!

The Belgian Embassy. We wondered why they got such a great building,...

Detail on the Belgian Embassy.

Latvian Museum of Occupation- it sounded very interesting, but we'll have to...

Back to the House of Blackheads. This clock gives the date, days...

This is called the "Cat House," and it's not a house of...

The Cat House. Long ago, its owner got mad at the city...

The Powder Tower, where the wind was blowing on the leaves.

The cannon in front of the Museum of War.

Yay Baltic bikes!

Part of the Old City Wall, which was reconstructed.

The Swedish Gate, part of the original city wall that was built...

In front of the Swedish Gate was this art gallery with pretty...

A very narrow street in Old Town.

The Shroud Bridge over the Daugava River.

Part of the Riga Castle, home of the President of Latvia.

A neat door on Riga Castle.

A Mix FM....in Riga.

The Latvian Art Academy


Mēness – (Moon) was the god of the moon and war. According to beliefs and national songs, he was one of the suitors of Saules meitas ("The Daughters of Sun"). Mēness counted the stars and determined that Auseklis was missing, and stole Auseklis' bride. He was usually a rival of Saule, the Sun, his wife who sheared him in pieces after discovering his adultery. -- Wikipedia, "Latvian Mythology"

After our shopping trip, we drop our train snacks off at our hotel, and then ride our bikes (have I said enough times what a great idea it was to rent them??) back to the convention hotel, where we do the buffet lunch again. They change it up every day and it's been great each time. Then we have some time to kill before I have to do the poster presentation, so we studied our maps and decided to hit up as many places in Old Town as we could that we hadn't yet visited. On our bikes, this was pretty easy and we covered a lot, as you'll see in the pictures. We also visited Albert Street, which was famous for its concentration of Art Nouveau architecture. It's a pretty short street, and it was cool, but there are PLENTY of amazing examples of this architecture all over town if you just look!

So today's encounter with Latvian spirits happened while we were visiting the Powder Tower. This tower is in front of the Museum of War, and while we were taking pictures of it, the wind was blowing in such a way as to create a rippling effect in the leaves of the ivy that grew on the tower. It was REALLY weird looking, and I'm sorry there was no way to capture it on film. So you decide: was it just the wind, or was it Mēness the war god saying hello?


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