Dear All,
Kate, Mary, Graham and I arrived back from the Baltics on Friday
night having covered nearly 2000 Km and 3 countries. It was a very interesting
holiday and we were very fortunate with the weather enjoying wall to wall
sunshine for the first week with just a couple of wet periods near the end.
We met up with Malcolm and Ruth Firth in Riga – they have been
missionaries there for 17 years and they gave us a meal and “showed us the ropes”
on our first day which was very valuable orientation. We also met up with Ana
who I encountered as a teacher in Moldova. She had met Latvian Valera on line
and eventually married him having met “in the flesh” only twice but shared
countless hours on Skype. They seem very happy and now have a 12 month old baby
girl Daria.
Each of the capital cities has an “Old City” area with attractive
buildings that have either survived various wars or been repaired as the
original. All also seem to be extremely well endowed with churches for ex
communist states and Graham was keen to explore most of them!
Riga has a flourishing market with comprehensive displays of
vegetables, fish and meat. We took in a panoramic view from the top of a
ministry building known as “Stalin’s Birthday cake” and spent time in the
“Museum of the Occupation” which describes all the periods when Latvia has been
bullied by it’s larger neighbours particularly Russia and Germany.
Riga
After 2 days we drove up the Baltic coast to Estonia and stayed two
nights in a convent just outside Tallinn. The accommodation was clean and
peaceful and an excellent base. Tallinn is on the “Cruise Route” so was crawling
with tourists from the boats which was exacerbated by the Dutch being in town
for an Estonia v Holland international football match. It has a strong Finnish
influence and a long stretch of intact city wall. We also took in Peter the
Great’s Palace in a park between Tallinn and our convent.
Tallinn
Peter
the Great's Palace
Next day we drove along the north coast of Estonia to Palmse which
has a smart Manor which was home to rich barons for many years. On the way we
saw a large flock of cranes which was the wildlife highlight of the tour.
Cranes
Palmse
Next stop was Tartu a university town which was staging a student’s
art exhibition each in a portable ship container. We ended up back in Latvia
for the night near Cesis in a National Park and next morning explored a local
river gorge, before skirting Riga again and heading for Lithuania. On the way
we took in Rundale Palace, a huge spread designed by the man who built the
winter palace in St Petersburg. We stayed a few miles outside of Vilnius in a
region of lakes so had mosquito nets on the beds – but sustained no serious
damage.
Rundale
Palace
On Monday we drove into Vilnius and explored the city starting with
the Upper castle (it has 2). Vilnius has more catholic influence and so again,
a few churches to admire! There is a quaint custom of knitting protective
covers for tree trunks.
We moved on to Trakai to the best apartment of our holiday. We
borrowed bikes and rode to the castle which is on an island.
Next day we headed for the Lithuanian coast via Kaunas, a large more
industrial city and thence to Klaipeda on the Baltic where we encountered our
first rain. The main purpose of travelling there was to explore the “Curonian
Spit” a nearly 100 Km long sand dune which runs parallel to the shore. Half of
it is in Lithuania and the rest in Kaliningrad, a Russian Province so a no go
area. We spent a whole day explore the sand dunes, following a wooden sculpture
trail, visiting an aquarium (Mike) or searching for amber (the rest).
Vilnius Cathedral
Curonian
Sand Dune
We left Klaipeda in the rain next morning (but it soon cleared) and
headed back toward Riga taking in the amazing “Hill of Crosses”. It started as
a pagan site, which evolved to a catholic one where locals planted crosses to
commemorate the fallen. It became a patriotic symbol of resistance to the Czar,
then communism. The communists levelled the site 3 times in the 70s but each
time more crosses replaced the removed ones. There are now over 200,000 crosses
on the site.
Hill of Crosses
Our last night was spent at Ozolnicki again by a lake in a place we
had not booked in the UK. It was the worst of the trip being rather grubby and
smelly but gave us a glimpse of local colour!
Kate and I arrived in Over at 4.45 pm and the garden was rather full
of beans, tomatoes and sweet corn.
I judged Shelford Show yesterday and watched Over beat last years
champions (coincidentally Shelford) 3 v 1.
Love
Mike & Kate
PS Have loaded all the photos on Dropbox – should you be
interested!
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