Memories of the Batlics and Helsinki.

At the Hill of Witches, Curonian Spit, Lithuania.

This is the diary of my trip to the Baltics in 2013 and as with a few trips now, my brother was my travel partner.  We're now in a pattern of doing a big trip together every year and I'm thrilled to pieces about that.  There's no other way that I would rather spend a few weeks than to be traveling with him.  Besides, no one else knows how to put up with me better than him! :-)

Last Moments.

His face says it all for me, sad.

We woke up in Room 105 this morning, the same room that we were in when we first arrived three weeks ago. The receptionist had us moved from the not-so-nice ground floor room back to this one yesterday. I was happy when I got the news; it was nice to come full circle - we started and ended our wonderful Baltics trip here!

Hill of Crosses.

At the Hill of Crosses.   Photo taken by a very familiar face. :-)

Today, we got to go to a very special place, the Hill of Crosses in Šiauliai, in northern Lithuania, Lithuania. The Hill of Crosses was not on the itinerary that Ieva had worked out for us.  I had originally thought that perhaps we could do a visit as a sided trip from Vilnius.  Then, I looked on the map and realized that Šiauliai is actually closer to Riga than it was to any of the other places we had been to in Lithuania so I set it aside for a side trip from Riga.

Riga. Familiar and New.

Inside one of the pavilions at Riga Central Market.  Just about the prettiest display I've ever seen in a central market!

Today, we had a short road trip back to Lithuania - you'll have to read the next blog posting to find out what it was. But before and after the road trip, we spent time in Riga - we went back to visit some place familiar and we explored some place new.