Riga

Hanseatic town and a very charming one indeed. I only got to see the old city centre though which is a shame, because afterwards I was told there is a big and very interesting Art Nouveau district.
I still liked the old town centre though. There was barely any car and it didn't feel touristy at all. Some restaurants were stretching onto the streets where people sat and ate while listening to a band playing live music. After strolling around for a bit I had my dinner in a traditional latvian restaurant with an almost meadieval feeling. A girl was playing string instrument which was kind of a lute but being played a lap guitar. The cups were made out of stone and I had a traditional black pudding with some jam and bread... Tasty
What was odd, was a statue of a cock on top of a cat, on top of a dog, on top of a donkey. Germans will of course recognise them as being "Die Bremer Stadtmusikanten" (The town musicians of Bremen; famous German children's tale), but what the hell are they doing in Riga???
Reading the plaque, I found out that this was a gift from the city of Bremen made by a German artist. I figured this would be the scene where the four animals scare the heck out of a gang of thieves. However, I think choosing this scene was not very wise. Scince any non-German (i.e. Latvian) will not recognise this as a specific scene from a children's tale, I figure he or she will most likely see a statue of four animals looking really ugly. If you're a non-German who's not familiar with this tale, please comment on what you think of this statue: