Riga is known as the "Metropolis of Art Nouveau," and it certainly lives up to its name. There is one district of the city that is almost entirely Art Nouveau buildings (and quite a tourist attraction), some of them beyond belief, but the whole city is full of marvelous examples of this turn of the century architectural style.

I was sitting on the floor in the lobby of the Art Nouveau Museum (housed in an old apartment building) to take this, with my husband propping me up from behind as it was quite hard to stay still in that position. It must have been an interesting sight to the people entering the museum ;-).