About Out of the Way Places

Here are two engaging, very different city profiles:

Riga, from More Intelligent Life

- "Did you know ... the Duchy of Courland, now part of Latvia, once held Tobago as a colony?"

- "Wander through (the old town) on a winter night and you're lost in a fairy tale ... Wander through it on a Friday evening in summer, on the other hand, and you may find yourself lost in a British stag party. Ryanair has much to answer for."

and Nizhny Novgorod, from The Daily Beast

- "One of Russia's...