Back in the U.S.

Lisa and I arrived back in the United States on July 20th. Our trip with our niece was a success and she had a blast! Lisa is now in California and I am in Virginia for until early August. Most of August I will be in Vermont then late August we move out to Napa.

This blog might have a little break for a while. Hope you enjoyed it. Thanks for reading.

The adventure isn't over; it is just changing.

Ted and Lisa

Germany

We crossed Poland by train with a stop in Warsaw. We spent one night in Berlin, one night in Erfurt and then one night in Frankfurt before we picked up our niece for the last two weeks in Europe before we head back to the U.S. on July 20. I am having problems uploading any photos. Sorry. We did spend two days in Wurzburg then on to Nuremburg for two days where we visited the Documentation Center and the Nazi Party's Grounds for their parades and speeches. As seemed appropriate we then went to the Nuremburg Trials Museum and visited the actualy Court room (room 600) where the trials were held. Very interesting as this museum has only been open since November. We then took a bus to Prague on the Autobahn and have been in Prague three nights. Tomorrow we take a 8 hour train to Innsbruck, Austria.

Lithuania

Lithuania was great as well. The highlight of our 5 days there was biking the 30 miles in one day on the Curonian Spit. This is the strip of land that runs along the Baltic Sea. It runs along Lithuania and Kaliningrad (Russia). We only biked the Lithuania part as our transit visa for Russia was only for a single entry. (And we really didn't want to go back to Russia) The ride was beautiful and fun through pine forests, along the coast and through a couple small towns.

After returning to Klaipeda on the mainland, we took a 5.5 hour train ride to Vilnius, the capital. This allowed us to see the country from one side to another. It is a small but pretty country. Lots of farmland and farms.

After wandering around Vilnius for a day and a half we took a train to Warsaw, Poland then to Berlin then to Erfurt, Germany and now we are in Frankfurt. We spent one night in each place.

Tomorrow we pick up our niece who is flying over to have a visit of parts of Europe with us as her travel companions.

Estonia and Latvia

Up the stairs in the tower in a castle near Sigulda, Latvia.

Our hotel room was in the upstairs of this place in Sigulda

The Castle outside Sigulda.

In Riga

What appears to be a movie set in Hollywood is actually a street in Riga.

Wonderful architecture in Riga, Latvia

Close up of one part of a building in Riga

A park in Riga

A pigeon in Riga

The entrance to a wine cellar/restaurant we spent our anniversary.

Tallin.

Tallinn

Tallinn

ESTONIA--

After arriving in Tallinn, Estonia by ferry from Finland we enjoyed 3 days wandering around the medieval city. Again, it seemed as if we had the city to ourselves, there were people sure but there just seemed to be so much unused space on the sidewalks and parks. We have had several meals in restaurants where we were the only people in the room if not the entire restaurant.

Tallinn is a beautiful city full of cobbled streets and really old buildings from the 13th and 14th century. While reading about them it was funny to read signs that told us the last "renovation was completed in 1802..." And we thought our house was old in Hinesburg.

Due to the width of the streets and the height of the buildings it seemed that nearly every picture I took was with the camera positioned vertically instead of horizontally.

There were several beautiful parks, some modern buildings too that looked like an architect had some fun. Lots of people feeding the ducks or pigeons in the parks and wonderful public transportation on narrow electrified trams that run on rails in the cobble stoned streets.

LATVIA--

The most common form of intercountry transportation between the Baltics is bus we have discovered. The bus stations are easy to use, buses are frequent and comfortable and relatively cheap. We boarded a bus from Tallinn to Riga, the capital of Latvia, a trip of only a couple of hours. Riga has several beautiful Art Nouveau areas full of striking architecture. More empty parks, with green grass, hardly any people and no litter.

There is a small town of only 10,000 people called Sigulda an hour outside of Riga, we spent two nights there in a small hotel/bed and breakfast place at the edge of the woods. We had our own room in a separate building with a think reed roof. It was wonderfully quiet and we spent one day hiking in the woods and another walking to a castle and climbing its tall tower in narrow brick passages that spiral around the perimeter inside the walls.

We have been walking a lot! Many of the places we go, like Sigulda, are usually visited by people visiting by car. Since we don't have a car we just walk.

Returning to Riga, we boarded a bus for Lithuania and made it to a college town where we spent the night in a college dorm that fuctions as a hostel during the summer. The following day we bused out to the Curonian Spit along the Baltic Sea. The scenery on the way was similar to parts of Vermont, with people cutting hay and tractors on the road.