Mon 15 Sep, Vilnius
I'm starting this now, although in a little while we'll be going out for dinner. Currently my feet & knees are screaming at me - so I'm hoping that Voltaren & 45 mins feet up will make them forgive me.
Speaking of beds (well I wasn't, but that's how I have my feet up) last night was funny. It was our first queen sized bed on the holiday - as opposed to twin - however it wasn't until we got into bed that we discovered that the quilt on top was exactly the size of the surface of the bed, so when 2 bodies were underneath it, we had to stay very close to the side or else there was a passage of cold wind under the cover. Suffice it to say that it was a night for sleeping very close.
Speaking of cold winds (don't you love the attempted sequitur) - I am tending to be 24 hours "out" with my dressing. Yesterday I was in my "medium weight" jumper, and when we were in the sun, I was hot. So today I wore my light weight top (over a shirt but it would be an exaggeration to call it a jumper) - anyway, several times today, I froze.
We drove first to Trakai where there was yet another magnificent early 14th century castle - but this one is on an island so you have to walk over a couple of long bridges & an intermediate island to reach it. The temperature when we got into the car this morning was 7, by the time we reached Trakai it was 6, and windy. I did my best to hold my coat closed to my throat, despite the fact that the coat is designed to have a nice large V opening.
We reached the castle just as it was opening - with a couple of other tour groups. The sky was grey & it was occasionally drizzling, but this place was so pretty that you had to take photographs anyway, and just hope that Photoshop or Fireworks can buck up the colours afterwards.
Inside the castle were some amazing displays of medieval & later silverware, glassware, ornaments, clothing, coins, furniture ... There was a route which took you up some stairs here, in and out of some rooms there, and then down another set of stairs to repeat the process elsewhere. Very little English - mostly Russian was the 2nd language & if there was a 3rd it was German. Very occasionally near the end there was some English, so perhaps that section was more recently documented.
There was a sort of lower fortified castle courtyard, and then up the back we went up to the castle proper. There the stairs were open style wooden stairs, and we went up the outside of the building and then along wooden balconies at various levels of the castle. Mostly I was so afraid looking through the stairs that I couldn't do my usual fear-distractor - looking for photographs.
There were more tour groups by now & sometimes I ended up on the wrong side of a doorway - wanting to go in the opposite direction to 30 or so tourists moving in the opposite direction. Then the route went up another flight of wooden stairs to a 3rd floor wooden balcony. I considered not going, but that was the route & going back against the crowds wouldn't be easy. Still there were some fascinating exhibits up there, including some early Lithuanian history.
Coming down 2 storeys was done by a spiral internal staircase of narrow stairs & I found that scary too. Actually, thinking now about how many stairs we did, no wonder my knees are so sore tonight!
We had to rush a bit towards the end of the castle because we had planned to meet the guy from the Tallinn hire car place at our hotel here in Vilnius. He flew down, collected the car from us, and would be currently driving it back to Tallinn. (He said he's done it 8 times this summer.)
We had originally been out early, hoping to take sunny photographs at Kaunas, but when it was overcast we had got started early. Just as well.
After the castle at Trakai, we had originally planned to visit the ruins of an old castle nearby, but didn't have time. TomTom had been programmed to take us to the ruins so we decided to at least drive past, but for some reason, TomTom took us past once, and then around the block & was taking us around past it again for some reason, when David reset the destination & finally we were setting out for Vilnius.
Between 1918 to 1940, Vilnius was not part of independent Lithuania, but in fact was part of Poland until 1944. So Kaunas was the capital then. In 1940 the Soviets invaded here too for a year, and then 1941-44 it was the Germans, and after that it was the Soviets again, but at least somewhere along the line (probably 1940) Vilnius was restored to being part of (occupied) Lithuania, so became the capital again.
As we drove into Vilnius, we wondered whether this time TomTom would get the old town right. It was very wrong in Riga & had 1-way streets the wrong way elsewhere too. In this case the directions were right, however driving ... Old Town ...
The (cobbled) streets became narrower & narrower, even though some were 2-way. Eventually we reached "our street", although (according to TomTom) we were still 130 metres away. A taxi pulled to one side to let me squeeze through - and then further down the street there was an Italian truck parked, facing me! What was I to do? David said something about turning around & I said, no way, I'm parking here, you walk to the hotel & find Margus (the car rental guy) and let him worry about it.
So David walked off & a little later returned with Margus, who greeted us like old friends. Margus also gave us Lithuanian money to pay for the cigarette lighter fixing (we'd had to have done in Estonia).
David took photos to prove that the car was unscratched (only very dirty from several unsealed Estonian roads), while Margus checked that it was only dirt not scratches, and in the end Margus backed the car all the way back down the street, before setting out to drive back to Estonia.
We checked into our hotel & came upstairs to find that we have a very grand & luxurious "deluxe room". David can't remember why we have a luxury room, but the location in the Old Town is wonderful, so maybe it is all that is left.
Oh, while I think of it, I must tell you about Lithuanian toilets! We've met this in the past, and I saw it occasionally in Latvia too - but it's consistent in Lithuania. After using toilet paper, one is supposed to throw it in the bin next to the toilet, and not put it INTO the toilet. Depends what you've "done" I suppose, but I'm not really keen on the idea. Tonight even though we are in quite a luxury hotel, there is a sign beside the toilet showing you what to do.
We're back from dinner now, but I have to tell you about this afternoon. The weather has gone from sunny to overcast to raining to sunny ...
I looked at a souvenir stall & bought a couple of necklaces in amber. I am thinking of potentially pulling them apart & inserting gold spacers or beads in between. I think that would help.
We have looked outside & in at LOTS of churches - Russian Orthodox, Roman Catholic - Jesuit, Franciscan, old & new.
We also visited the large & the small Jewish ghetto. In 1941 when the Nazis invaded, they locked the Jews into 2 ghettos. The smaller ghetto had 11,000 and they were rounded up & killed in October 1941. The larger ghetto had 29,000 & they lasted until 1943 or 44 & then were shipped off to other places.
We saw the Jewish Information Centre that is being built in the area that was once the large ghetto.
Then we visited the "Tolerance Centre" - a Jewish initiative which contains, amongst other things, a museum. We went in & asked the man (who had no English) was there a museum. Next thing we were downstairs buying tickets & then he put us in a lift & pressed 3 - and then left us to it. We went up in the lift & obviously we were expected. A lady came & unlocked sort of a roller door, opening the museum.
We tried to ask could we see the documentary film we'd seen mentioned downstairs. Took a few attempts - she spoke no English, French or German and we spoke no Lithuanian or Russian, but eventually the message was conveyed. We were taken off to the side to a little room & a TV with a video player. She went off & got a video marked "Vilnius - English".
In fact the video was made in German but there were English subtitles. It was an original film made in the 1930s about life in the Jewish Ghetto of Vilnius. A ghetto then didn't necessarily mean it was bad, it was just all about life. Different jobs, people going about their business. The film quality wasn't wonderful but there was commentary & music as well as the film.
Whether you were specifically interested in the Jews or not, it was a fascinating look at life as it was before the Nazis & Soviet occupations. But I couldn't help thinking about all these people & what lay ahead for them in only a few years ...
The museum itself was a mix of the very few Jewish items that have survived from the original historic Great Synagogue. There were photos & stories and even paintings done in different eras. You couldn't help noticing how many of the death dates of the painters was around 1942 or 43.
Then we came down a floor & quickly looked at the few items that were there, but on that floor there were detailed boards, in Lithuanian & in English about various topics - when the Jews first came to Lithuania, what it meant to be a Litvik, historical changes in Vilnius, and of course life under German & Soviet occupations. Anti semitism of the past, some historic Jewish movements (like Hasidism), and right up to current life for a Jew in Lithuania & the new anti semitism that has started again recently.
More than 200,000 Jews in Lithuania pre WW2, then around 12,000 came back or came to live there post Nazis, then another flood of emigrations before & during the Soviet era. In recent years apparently most of the young people have gone & it is the old people only who still live there.
Anyway it was informative & often moving, and again, it built on the things we've learned elsewhere.
But after more than an hour of standing reading information boards, again our feet (& my knees) were very sore. It felt better to walk outside afterwards, rather than just standing in a museum, but I was definitely hobbling.
While we'd been in the museum the sun had come out, so I wanted to take some more photos of Vilnius, in case this is "as good as it gets". We went into more churches & walked around more streets, before eventually going down into the Rimi supermarket & buying some water, apple juice & cheese & crackers. Then we came back to the hotel for some time out before dinner.
For dinner we went to Markus ir Ko - supposedly Lithuanian style food. I had roast veal with chanterelles (orange coloured mushrooms we've seen since Finland). David had an English pepper steak. The meal was good but expensive. We'll have to find a cheaper option tomorrow.
After that we took a couple of night photos on the way back to our hotel. David is going to add photos to our last 2 blogs while I have a bath! A few times when my legs have been sore I've wished there was a bath instead of just showers, and as we have one tonight, I intend to use it.
From Kerry & David in Vilnius, Lithuania
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