The walking tour of Riga

Yesterday all the senior missionaries, along with President and Sister Dance, took a walking tour of Riga with a travel agent who is a member of the Church and a native Latvian. She was so informative and interesting. Some of us had already seen everything, but she explained some of the background and traditions of Latvia. We learned that the Art Nouveau architecture for which Riga is famous, has 3 types: the romantic, the functional and the ostentious or for show. Some of the buildings were built just for show on the outside and the inside was not nearly so nice.

We even saw one house built by a tradesman (this was not art nouveau architecture) who built the front to be about 4 stories high but the back (and the living portion) was only 1 1/2 stories high. He even put windows all the way to the top, just for show. They had to pay for each window and so it looked like he was prosperous because he had so many windows.