(Fair warning… We’ll probably inundate you with pictures, as there was a lot seen on this day.)
Klaipeda was a cool town, and we would spend more time here given the chance! We stayed at the Old Mill Hotel, on the water and across a swing bridge. Here are some shots of the Inn along with adjacent buildings.
As we were packing up the van to head out, one of the two men who operates the swing bridge arrived as the bridge swings at 9 am, closing to foot traffic and opening to boats. Jay walked over to the man, asking if he spoke English, and he pointed at the gear handle. Yep, he was telling her she could man the swing bridge. She nearly lost her nerdy mind!!!! He pointed to the rest of the travelers as it takes two to operate the bridge and Marla stepped up to the plate. (We can’t at the moment find the photos of them doing it, but will add them later when we do… until then, here are photos of the bridge / bridge area.)
Moving the bridge isn’t hard, it’s just running in circles while pushing the gear handle until the bridge is parallel to the shore. They were nearing the end of their swing, Marla said she was getting dizzy (running in circles is not an exaggeration….this is a very quick process and you have to hustle!) and one of the operators stepped in. The second operator quickly stepped in on Jay’s side as well. Not sure if the ladies were doing a bad job, or if they were concerned about properly stopping it, but that was irrelevant. Jay got to operate a swing bridge!!!!!
We drove through the fourth largest city, Siauliai, which locals suggest you drive through at night. Not because it’s a pretty town and one should experience the evening ambiance, but because it’s a very Soviet town and is bland and not attractive. We didn’t find it unsightly but can see how locals might feel that way!
Our next stop was the Hill of Crosses. This was fascinating and overwhelming and amazing!! It dates back to the 1830’s when Lithuania had their second rebellion against Russia. Burying someone during that time might implicate you as a rebel so crosses were placed on the hill to commemorate the lives that had passed.
That then morphed into the Hill becoming a sign of peace and the fight for independence. People started bringing crosses to the Hill for many reasons, as well as rosary beads, and the occasional Star of David or Pagan symbol. While this isn’t a religious monument, it has turned that direction as people worldwide trek to the Hill of Crosses to add their piece to the collection.
The locals tried to count all the crosses about 15 years ago, and they determined 200,000 crosses were in the Hill. They do remove items that have aged or are crumbling, but items are added at a much faster pace than those removed so there is no way to determine how many crosses are currently in the Hill of Crosses.
At first sight, it looks a row of crosses… quite a few, but just a long row that might be a little thicker on the hill.
But as you get closer, you realize just how far back, and back, and back the crosses go. There are little trails, that weave in and through the various areas, so that you can get to the different locations a cross might be planted. We saw many unique and interesting crosses, way too many to show pictures of, so here is just a large grouping of pictures to give you a feel for the types and varieties seen.
And not every placed item was an actual cross, picture, or effigy… items as simple as rocks were also utilized.
Our next stop was at Rundale Palace. This was designed by the same architect who designed the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, Russia (aka The Hermitage), which was quite obvious if you knew what the Hermitage looked like. It was a summer palace for a Grand Duke when it was built, and the Duke & Duchess who are currently affiliated with the palace visit at least once a year and financially support the palace.
Again… there were many amazing rooms and things to see, so here is a good number of photos to give you a feel for the palace.
Three large fireplace/oven/cooking locations to prepare the various meals.
A room heater.
And this is the main bed chamber for the palace.
After the palace tour we were allowed to also tour the gardens, which have been nicknamed the “Versailles of Lithuania”. After seeing them from the palace, walking through them at ground level did no justice so we headed out for lunch.
Shortly after leaving the palace properties, we crossed the border into Latvia – country number two on our itinerary. We checked into our hotel, and had only a few minutes before heading for the next excursion. First let us describe the hotel. It’s in Riga Old Town and is comprised of 7 historical buildings. We are not in the same building as the others, but are across from each other. We could open the windows and talk across the way, and we did just that a few times.
So, back to our excursion of the evening – curling!!
Yes, we said CURLING!!!! That cool sport where people slide a stone across ice while others sweep the ice. Looks pretty easy at the olympics?!?! Yes but…..it isn’t that easy. But it was SO MUCH FUN!!! Adding to the fun was the fact that Tomas agreed to join us on the ice.
The young employee who helped us was patient. Pretty certain he had to fight a few smirks as he was definitely entertained by us! To begin with, the “slider” has to wear a slick shoe cover in order to slide. Words don’t describe what it’s like to walk with that on! Just as slick off the ice as on. We each took a try at sliding. Blake, Sondra, and Tomas felt comfortable sliding (like snot on glass) with varying degrees of success, all while launching a curling stone down the ice.
For those not comfortable with proper “sliding”, we were shown how to use our broom to push the stone towards the release line, without wearing sliders. This was much, much easier. We were then taught sweeping. Once we absorbed all of the general concepts, it was game time!! It was decided we’d have a classic game of girls versus boys.
Tomas, Blake, and Sondra were good sports and each used the slider approach whereas the others used their brooms.
The girls took an early lead, and looked to be the likely winners, as they were getting at least one stone in for points, while the guys were over-muscling the stones right past the point line. However, the boys figured out what they were doing and won the first round, 1 – Nil.
The second and final round was fierce, but a great push by Blake ricocheted a stone onto the ‘button’ (think bullseye), a perfect stone, and the girls couldn’t knock that stone off the center with 3 stones left. (The guys also miraculously were careful and didn’t knock their own stone off either.) Thus the second round again fell to the guys, 1 – Nil, for a 2-Nil win.
While we would like to say who won doesn’t matter, there’s enough competitiveness in the family that we know it matters!!! (Yea… it was TIM, BLAKE, and TOMAS.) But in a sense, we were all winners because we tried something new and challenging. Oh, and in case you missed it, it was SO MUCH FUN!!!
It was late when we headed back to old town, and we didn’t want another lengthy late dinner, so we walked to McDonald’s. Marla was delighted by this as trying international McDonald’s is a thing for her. The food was comparable to that at US McDonald’s, but we can all now say we’ve eaten at a McDonald’s outside the US!
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