Baltic Capitals-Latvia episode 10 part d

Enjoy more scenes. We are here for 3 nights. More to come about Latvia.

Baltic Capitals- Latvia episode 10 part c

Hello Riga! Capital of Latvia. This is an impressive city right at first sight. Striking Art Nouveau architecture. Though out this journey, what is standing out is the architecture and history in the 5 cities we have visited. Riga is a gem. This area was spared much of the war's destruction since battled occurred elsewhere. Enjoy some views above.

Baltic Capitals- Latvia episode 10 part b

A new day, a new country. Our guide, Inese, completely faked us out as we approached and crossed the country boarder. Directing us to pull out our passports—no boarder patrol and buildings are all vacant. No need for a passport to cross EU boarder countries. Ha ha. We discovered pretty quickly, Latvian roads are not in as good of shape as our first 2 countries. Too much corruption. To celebrate entering our guide's home land, Inese broke out a Latvian liquor. Good golly, could swear it is nearly cough medicine. For some reason, the bunch of us in the back of the bus have been named the drinking team by our guide. Cannot imagine where that came from ....😉

Baltic Capitals- Lithuania episode 10 part a

Loaded up this morning and said goodbye Klaipeda. On our way, we stopped at a Lithuanian village cemetery and chatted up a very nice septuagenarian. He was tending a gravesite of a friend's family member. He joked, "I am retired, have lots of time". It was interesting to see the care and detail of beloved lost family members. On to the Hill of Crosses. Lithuanians love their hills, maybe since they have so few. 😊 The Hill of Crosses, a grassy double hillock, is teeming with somewhere between 200,000 and 2,000,000 wooden crosses. Quite impossible to get an accurate count. The tradition started here in the 14th century. In more recent history, a place that is a memorial to the fallen freedom fighters. The Soviets made numerous attempts to bulldoze the hill. The resilient Lithuanians would quickly rebuild. It is quite a site to visit. Words and pics just cannot capture it's impact.

Baltic Capitals-Lithuania episode 9 part d

Pagan ritual to give us our wish at the Amber Museum and shop. Then back to Klaipeda, a few parting shots. Of course we had to visit the local brewery established in 1784. Sampling beers just does not get old...
Tomorrow, new country, Latvia!

Baltic Capitals- Lithuania episode 9 part c

Feeding the seagulls on the ferry ride back to the mainland. Only after a few scenes of the town of Nida, a very popular resort town. Love the colorful weather vanes.

Baltic Capitals-Lithuania episode 9 part b

More Lithuanian folklore and pagan sculptures. A genuine Lithuanian duck and a cormorant.

Baltic Capitals- Lithuania episode 9 part a

Klaipeda, Lithuania's primary seaport is bustling with tankers, cruise ships, pleasure craft and ferries. It is interesting to explore this quaint town. Our hotel is located perfectly in the old town district and quite close to the sound where all this shipping activity happens. Today we loaded into our bus and onto a ferry crossing the Curonian Sound and onto the Curonian Spit. Spit, does not mean the same when applied to geography. This spit is 98 km long and 4 km at its widest point. A spit is a deposition bar or beach landform off a coast or lake shore. This is the biggest sand bar ever seen by us to date for sure. Centuries ago, trees were planted of the majority of this sand bar to prevent erosion. At least that is the case for the Lithuanian half. The southern half is Kalingrad Russia. Today, we all can say in total honesty, "we can see Russia from here". 😃 First stop on the spit was to climb over the huge dune to the west side and the shore of the Baltic Sea. This is where amber can be found. Amber was formed by tree resin over 50 million years ago. Old stuff! We did scrounge a few specs. A woman jogging on the beach towards me, stopped and dropped a hand full of small chards of amber in my hand. Not sure why so speechless, the most generous gift or the really loose fitting upper torso clothing.... Next stop, Hill of Witches. Here witches are intuitive intelligent women. This is an outdoor sculpture gallery on this forested sand dune filled with nearly 100 carved wooden figures by Samogitian folk artists. There is a folk tale to go with each figure. Our most excellent guide regaled us with many stories. Was very fun!

Baltic Capitals-Lithuania episode 8 part d

Enjoy some pics of this quiet coastal city. Tomorrow the hills of witches and amber hunting.

Baltic Capitals-Lithuania episode 8 part c

Due to the moisture falling from the air, we were lucky to have a talk from a 91 year old survivor of the 300.000 Lithuanian deportation ordered by the Soviets to the merciless inhumanity of Siberia from 1945-1953. Only about 60,000 managed to return to Lithuania. Similar deportations happened in Latvia and Estonia. Our speaker was the most vivacious 91 year old. If we could have even half of her spunkyness near that age. What an inspiration.
Lunch stop at Magde. Yum yum yum. Our host restaurant owner treated us to home grown vegetables, soup, and potato pancakes with chicken stuffing. Yummy
On to Klaipeda.

Baltic Capitals episode 8 part b

More scenes from the Rumsiskes Open Air Museum. Managed to poke into all the buildings before the impending rain found us. The bulk of the rain fell while we were encased in the bus.

Baltic Capitals-Lithuania episode 8 part a

Goodbye Vilnius hello Klaipeda. We left the capital city and headed into the country. On the way stopped to visit the Rumsiskes Open Air Museum. Our museum guide led us through 18th & 19th century rural dwellings and farmsteads. Was really interesting to getting a little peak into daily life centuries ago. Beautiful flower gardens.

Baltic Capitals- Lithuania episode 7 part e

On our own is always an adventure. Mark, Lisa and I had to climb probably the only hill we had not scaled in the old town of Vilnius in our quest to find the Gate of Dawn. This is one of the original gates into the city of Vilnius from Poland. Dating back to about the 11th century. Success! Complete with a compliment of blue habited nuns. Not only we found it, we found a really fun pub that called our names...
Tomorrow we say goodbye to Vilnius and on to Klaipeda on the Baltic Sea coast.

Baltic Capitals-Lithuania episode 7 part d

Museum of Genocide Victims aka KGB Museum. Located in the former KGB headquarters. The Nazis converted this former city hall into the gestapo headquarters for 3 years. The war ended then the communists Soviets moved in and ran their operations of oppression, torture and executions until 1991. Lithuania was a state of USSR until 1990 when the anti-soviet resistance declared their independence. Innumerable atrocities occurred here.

Baltic Capitals-Lithuania episode 7 part c

Trakai. First destination for the whole group was the de facto medieval Lithuanian capital. Duke Vytautas the Great preferred this beautiful area dotted with lakes. Trakai Castle is a red brick, fairy tale fortress built by Vyautas in the 15th century to ward off German knights. It was fun to explore the castle and learn about its rich history.
Time for lunch! In Trakai is a settlement of Karim people. They are the oldest Turkish tribe brought from Crimea in the 14th century to be bodyguards for the castle. We learned about this tribe's culture and language. We also had a cooking lesson making Kibinai aka a small Cornish pastie or a bit larger than an Argentine empanada. We each made one and after cooked, ate it. Yum.