Saturday 19 July

Goodbye Latvia & hello Lithuania. Today was long with over 450 kms covered & several sights visited. We left our hotel at 8.30 & drove 1 1/2 hours to the Latvian countryside to visit Rundale Palace which in many ways was a smaller version of the Catherine Palace in St Petersburg. We had a guided tour through the palace which was built by a German Grand Duke who also had 6 other similar palaces.

The palace is still being painstakingly restored after suffering considerable damage during the war & during the Soviet era. The Russian communists never had any appreciation for beautiful interior or exterior design. We continually see grey plain buildings especially blocks of flats throughout these formerly Soviet countries.

Another 1 1/2 hours driving & into Lithuania. Next stop was the Hill of Crosses which was started as a memorial with 3 crosses over 200 years ago & over the intervening years thousands of crosses have been added by people visiting the area. Pope John Paul visited this spot in 1993 & held a mass there.

We had lunch & then drove a couple more hours to an old town of Kaunas & had a walk around. By 7.15 we arrived at our hotel which is set in a lovely spot in the middle of the old city. After a lovely dinner all together, we (Jan & Bob) did a short walk from the hotel enjoying the warm light summer evening.