My name is Marion Vermazen. I am a traveler, hiker, reader, Sun alumnus, computer geek, YouTuber, Spanish and French language student, knitter, weaver and genealogist.
There were only two buses available today to take us to Ełk today, one at 7am and one at 7pm. Our choice was to take the one at 7pm. So we spent the day in Kaunas. We went for a walk.
About four o’clock we had an early dinner, walked to the bus station and caught our bus to Ełk. We crossed into Poland, the time went back an hour, and now we are at our hotel. We will only be here about 10 hours because this is where we can catch the train to Gdańsk our next stop.
Today we explored Kaunas. We walked about a mile west towards Kaunas castle which is right at the confluence of the Niemen and Neris Rivers. Along the way we stopped to check out interesting stuff. Many of the main streets in Kaunas are pedestrian only. That makes walking so nice.
Most of Kaunas Castle has been destroyed and washed away by the river over the years. We were able to climb up to a lookout at the top of what’s left of the wall. The town festival was going on outside the castle. Inside on the grass were a series of signs celebrating NATO.
On our way back from the castle we stopped for coffee.
Later after we got back to the area around our hotel we had beers and spent an hour people watching.
For dinner we went to Uoksas, a Michelin restaurant quite near our hotel. We preordered the three course tasting menu and had the wine pairings to go with it.
I don’t know why traveling by bus is surprisingly tiring but it is. This morning we walked to the bus station and then took a five hour bus ride to Kaunas, Lithuania.
In Kaunas it felt good to walk so although we were tired we enjoyed our 30 minute walk to our hotel.
Later when we went out to explore a bit, the sky was threatening but the weather seemed pleasant. When we were almost back to our hotel the skies opened up and we were caught in a torrential downpour!
We had a lovely dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant, Piccola Italia.
After breakfast this morning we explored Riga.
We have a tourist brochure we picked up at the hotel. It has a map and description, in English, of all the sites.
We started our exploration at Riga Castle. It’s the residence of the president of Latvia.
Then we walked across the Daugava River to the National library
After we left the library we walked around a bit before stopping in Dome Square for a beer.
Below is the house of the Black Heads. According to the guide brochure the original house was built in 1334. It was destroyed during World War II and rebuilt in 1999. The Black Heads were an association of young unmarried merchants, goldsmiths, and ship captains.
The church in the background above is Dome Church. As we people watched from our table we noticed lots of people going by carrying their musical instruments. After we finished our beer we walked over to the church and discovered that tonight was the last concert of the 2024 Sacred Music Festival and tonight was a concert with the Latvian National Choir and the Latvian National Orchestra. so we bought tickets and went. We had a partially obstructed view but the concert ( a mass by Antons Brukners) was amazing!
Today was a travel day. We took a bus almost 5 hours to Riga, Latvia.
In Riga we walked to our hotel.
When we went out for dinner it was fun to see all the activity in the streets.
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