Belarus, Latvia and Lithuania

May 16 UA1284 IAH-LGA, May 17 UA6052 LHA-IAD, UA989 IAD-FRA, May 18 LH1486 FRA-MSQ, May 19 B21841 MSQ-RIX, May 22 LH889 VNO-FRA, UA961 FRA-EWR, UA598 EWR-IAH

Although Tom’s mother’s death put a pause on our travel plans, thankfully we were able to fit in time to get Tom back to Iowa to be with her and for me to join him. Although we had to delay our planned visit to Belize, we were able to keep our Eastern European trip on. As we are filling in the European map, there were still a number of countries left to visit, and we started with some of the lesser traveled. Our plan was to fly to Belarus and then take the train to Lithuania and the drive into Latvia. Unfortunately the Belarusian authorities didn’t like our plan.

May 18

Tom and I met in Frankfurt at the Air Canada Lounge having each started in our respective home cities, but managed to connect with enough time for breakfast before our morning flight onto Minsk. We felt we were prepared for the bureaucracy of Minsk arrival, including proving that we had health insurance and also understood from the Canadian embassy that a visa was not required when you fly into MInsk airport. However, what was not stated was that you must also be flying out of Minsk airport, which didn’t work for our train travel plans. Luckily after some back and forth they let us in with instructions to find a flight out. On our taxi into town we started researching options and within an hour of landing, we had purchased a plane ticket to Latvia and arranged a one way car rental to Lithuania. Although it was a little more money, the itinerary was a little better than what we’d originally planned as there was less backtracking and the flight allowed us to optimize the time each place. With our new plans set, we had the afternoon to explore Minsk.

Imposing Lenin Square

Statue of Independence Square, continuing in the theme of large structures

The Labour Union Palace of Culture

The equally grand Belarus State Circus building

Some of statues adorning the square outside the circus

More circus statues

With the afternoon show over, we managed to go inside and check out the interior of the circus

Apparently Lee Harvey Oswald lived in this apartment in his earlier life

Although it didn’t get dark until quite late, we’d had a long enough day of travel and the stresses of reorganizing our trip, so headed back to our hotel for some drinks and dinner. Although our journey likely does not match the Rochelle, Rochelle erotic journey from Milan to Minsk, our journey and arrival was memorable.

May 19

With our revised plans, we had the first half of the day in Belarus with a late afternoon flight to Riga. Although Minsk is a big city, that gave us enough time to see the highlights, but require us to take advantage of the reliable and relatively easy bus service. We also don’t normally take bus tours, but to maximize time and see more of the far out sights we hopped on a bus tour.

Early morning view of the fountains in front of the National Opera

Part of the memorial on the Island of Courage & Sorrow dedicated to the losses of the Russian Afghan War

Another of the standalone memorial statues on the Island of Courage & Sorrow

A reminder of where we were along the Svislach River

The 1642 Holy Spirit Cathedral

Statue outside of the Museum of the Great Patriotic War (what we refer to as WWII)

Tanks from the Great Patriotic War

Memorial to the war at the centre of the large museum

After a quick flight to Riga, Latvia, we take a taxi to the hotel, and go exploring, finding the National Opera House.

Blackheads House, originally from 1344, destroyed in WWII and rebuilt in 2001

Bremen Town Musicians statue depicting the Brothers Grimm Fairytale

It was beautiful evening in Riga to explore the old city before a late dinner at an Indian restaurant in the shadow of St. Peter’s church. We headed back to our hotel as the sun was setting.

May 20

After breakfast, we had the morning to explore Riga and pick up our car to explore the countryside and head towards Lithuania. Although our time in Latvia was short, I did quite enjoy it; Riga has beautiful old town and it was very easy to get around.

Massive Riga Cathedral found in 1211 as Catholic church, is now Evangelical Lutheran

A perspective on the cathedral tower (the large medieval church in the Baltics) from the interior courtyard

Stained glass from within the Cathedral

Tulips still in full bloom in one of a number of Riga’s city parks

Sculpture of the head of Egons Livs outside the Arsenals exhibition hall of the Latvian National Museum of Art

Medieval tower, built as part of the city fortifications, now a war Museum

Memorial to author Rudolfs Blaumanis in Bastion Hill Park

20km outside of Riga, we stopped at the memorial to the victims of the Salspils Nazi labour camp

Built in 1967, the statues in the memorial evoke the Soviet era in which they were built

Although it is difficult to understand the scale of the memorial, there were many statues to commemorate the ~3000 who died

Interior of the main Salaspils memorial building

Our next stop was the Rundale Palace, 80km South of Riga, designed by Italian baroque Bartolomeo Rastrelli, famous for the Winter Palace in St. Petersberg

Impressive interior decorations in the palace

Rundale Throne Room one of the 138 rooms open to visitors

Like the palace, the exterior gardens were very similar to Versailles

The immaculate gardens were equally as impressive as the interior

View of the palace (built between 1736 and 1768) and manicured gardens.

Main Palace fountain

Main front entrance, showing the layers of buildings around the main palace

Continuing our driving tour, we move on to northern Lithuania. Our first stop was the incredible Hill of Crosses.

A sample of the 600,000 crosses from tiny to giant, occupying this pilgrimage site

Close to peak of the hill of crosses, this is one of the strangest places we’ve visited.

After a long day of driving, we arrived at our hotel in Kaunas, Lithuania in the early evening. After a late dinner we had a well earned rest.

May 21

After staying overnight in Kaunas, we were most of the way to Vilnius, the capital and our final stop in our Baltic tour. We continued to enjoy wonderful sunny spring weather and really enjoyed the architecture and scenery of Lithuania.

Large Russian Orthodox St. Michael the Archangel Church in the centre of Kaunas’s old town square

Statue of Jonas Vileisis (mayor of Kaunas from 1921-1391) outside the Kaunas Town Hall

Trakai Island Castle just outside of Vilnius, on our way into town 

After having dropped off the car and checked in to our hotel, we’re looking across the Neris River towards Gediminas Castle

Cathedral Square with the Cathedral Bell Tower and Vilnius Cathedral 

Very different style of St Anne’s Church in Vilnius

Church of St. Casimir in the old town

Modern National Opera and Ballet Theatre

Riding the funicular to Gediminas Castle

Looking down at the Palace of the Grand Dukes of Lithuania from the fort

Modern Vilnius across the Neris River separating the high rises from the old town.

The old town from Gediminas’ Tower

More of the modern town, including a stadium

After an enjoyable day exploring Latvia, we had a nice dinner before grabbing some rest to prepare for our early morning flight home.

May 22

Having completed our whirlwind tour of the Baltics and our visits to countries #94, #95 and #96, we started our way home through Frankfurt. I left Tom in Frankfurt for his connection to Toronto, and returned to Houston via New York.