Carol's Travels

This morning we started the drive to Latvia. On the way we stopped to visit the Hill of Crosses. The site has long been a site for peaceful resistance. Even though the Soviets would tear the crosses down, more crosses would suddenly appear the next night. At last count on February 24, 2012 there were 105,000 crosses on the hill.  

We stopped along our route to have lunch at a charming house where a couple had remodeled it to have an old world restaurant downstairs and their home upstairs. The house had been abandoned when the former owners were sent to Siberia. The current owners acquired the building for a very cheap price when the first owners refused to come back. The food was like a home cooked meal. We had soup, chicken topped with thin-slices carrots, cole slaw with cabbage and tiny apple chunks, rye bread with caraway seeds, smashed potatoes mixed with chives, and a thin slice of Lazy Chef Cake, ice cream, and tea.
We continued on the bus, stopping at the Lithuania/Latvia border to takes pictures of the border sign. Our next stop was Rundales Palace Museum. For two hours we were escorted by a palace guide through the ornate rooms. I was very impressed at the amount of paintings on the walls. These included paintings of Peter the Great, Catherine the Great, and many family members and friends. I took 100 pictures of our activities today!

My room in PK Riga Hotel in Riga, Latvia is a business class room. We had lasagna, salad, mushroom soup, wine, and dessert for dinner.

Our city guide, Sigita, met us on the bus this morning, and took us along the beach to look for little pieces of Amber or Baltic gold. Many of us found very small pieces of yellow amber. Amber is fossil remnants, not rock. Now it is valued at the same price as gold. Half of this narrow stretch of sandy coast belongs to Lithuania and the other half belongs to Russia.

Next, we were guided through a group of wood carvings as big as totem poles called the Hill of Witches. Sigita told us the tales about each carving. I found the carvings and their stories very interesting. Afterward I bought a couple of small books which included the stories.

After that, we went to lunch. We walked in the Parnidis Landscape Reserve where we could see Russia. There was an interesting sundial there too.  

Next, we walked around a German author’s house. He had loved the ocean view. We then attended an amber workshop where we sanded down a small piece of amber to wear on a cord afterward. Then we shopped. Linda found the pendant that “spoke” to her. I found a pendant plus gifts for Margretta and Divi.  

The bus took us back to our hotel, then we went to dinner with the group. We went into a couple of shops to browse. We then made sure we will be ready to check out of our hotel tomorrow morning.

Our first bus stop was the Rumsiskes Open-Air Museum. The wooden buildings were brought here from other locations in Lithuania. The windmills are moveable when the wind direction changes. We passed some Lowland Horses which were strong war horses. We entered a house that would have belonged to a family just above middle class. We then drove to the next group of houses which were upper class. The richer people could afford carved dining chairs and a separate building for baking bread. Next we got to spend a little time in an example of a village. Linda and I walked through the school house then the church. When we were trying to see the harmonia (which looks like a small organ) from the main floor, a woman who works there invited us upstairs to the roped off balcony.) That was very nice of her to do that.

 

We then drive to a wooded area where we met 86-year-old Irena Spakaliskiene who was the inspiration for the book, BETWEEN SHADES OF GREY. When she was a child, her family was sent to Siberia. She survived all the hardship there. In 1947 she was sent to Lithuania to study fishing techniques. When she arrived, they had lost her registration, so she couldn’t study. Anyone who had been a prisoner in Siberia was looked down upon, so she burned her papers. She worked 12-hour days and still she could not afford bread, so she ate dog food.

She was accepted into medical school, but she couldn’t work and go to school. She faked her life story and said she was a child of two alcoholic parents who both died. She said she was an orphan, which she actually was. She has been honored by her country, received an expensive watch, and has met the president of Lithuania. She showed us a cabin with examples of some of the things she had in Siberia. We also saw a box car with maps and pictures. She is quite the agile and fit lady. She is a widow, and she even has great-grandchildren.

We stopped for lunch during our 4-5 hour drive and had dinner at a local restaurant after we arrived at out hotel in Kaunus, Lithuania’s oldest and second largest city.