Today, Tuesday, we transitioned by bus from Vilnius, Lithuania to Riga, Latvia. After departing the hotel at 8:30am we drove to the Gates of Dawn in the Old Town of Vilnius. The picture of the Madonna is there and a number of the group hadn't seen it yet.
We then motored on through the countryside with a planned lunch stop before visiting the hill of crosses. Unfortunately, the restaurant was full, so we visited the Hill of Crosses first and then found a truck stop with some pretty decent sandwiches. It was just hard for them to handle the mass influx of 40 plus bus passengers.
The Hill of Crosses started back in the 1800's when a few crosses were anonymously erected during a Soviet occupation. They were removed and the next day twice as many were erected. This cycle continued for many years until eventually the crosses were permitted to stay. Today the site is protected and there are literally 10's of thousands of crosses there and it is a major pilgrimage site in this predominantly Catholic country.
As we motored through the countryside, I was struck by how rundown many of the farmhouses were. In general, the condition of the homes was comparable to those found in Central America. Soon we crossed the border into Latvia, and about 1 1/2 hours later we arrived at our hotel Albert (themed after Albert Einstein). In fact our WIFI password is his famous equation E=MC2! Cute!
We were bussed to dinner in the old town and afterwards we walked back to the hotel and enjoyed seeing the various architectural highlights. Tomorrow the plan is to take a bus tour in the morning and do a self guided walking tour.
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