Day 55, (June 27) Vilnius

It was sort of a hot night and the dawn came early (actually at close to the same time as the day before).  We went down via the elevator to the main floor restaurant where there was a buffet as large as a cruise ship and it featured local delicacies such as herring and mackerel.  After breakfast we loaded onto our bus for a 3 hour tour of the city.  The first stop was at a pavilion constructed just for singing.  The choir massed and sang a few numbers and it sounded heavenly from out in the field.  We then headed on through the city to St. Peter and St. Paul's church.  We left the church and drove to cathedral square where the choir formed a line facing north and south and  symbolic of the line formed by the Baltic people following independence.  In that case the line stretched from Vilnius to Tallin. Inside the choir sang a quick impromptu song that was heavily. We then walked  to what Angela and I thought was the prettiest exterior of all the churches: St. Anne's and Bernadette's churches.  They are constructed of a gorgeous red brick exteriormmched them some more until the practice concluded.  It's really interesting to experience the acoustics of performing in the large cathedral type church.

Just after we left the church a police car stopped the bus and accused the driver of hitting a vehicle during a turn.  So while he sorted that out, we unloaded from the bus and continued our tour walking.  I looked at the damage and it appeared to all be old damage.  I also was seated above the right rear corner and did not feel any contact.  I learned later that it was in fact a way of extorting money as the officer probably spotted the damaged area and used it to his advantage.

We walked to the church the choir would be performing in and then we had about an hour and a half for a lunch break.  While the practice occurred I found a hair dresser for a haircut.  After the practice we bussed back to the hotel for a buffet dinner.  We were then bussed back to St. Casimir's and we arrived there a scant 10 minutes before the scheduled 7pm performance time.  

When we walked in the church, it was packed!  What a thrill!  The concert was well received to a standing ovation.  After the concert part of he group stayed downtown while most of us went back to the hotel where we went up to the Skyview bar for a bit.

After an attempt to purchase some snacks for the upcoming trip, we returned to the room to do some last minute packing and soon it was dreamland.

 

Day 54, (June 26) Vilnius

It was nice to not have to get up early and pack on this Sunday morning.  So we didn't.  We did have to make the 11am cutoff for the continental breakfast which we did.  We checked out just before noon and caught the 12:30 shuttle to the airport to wait for the other incoming choir tour members who were due at 1:30pm.  We found our guide (Rauel) and around 2:00pm we started seeing people come through  the frosted glass doors of the 1950's Soviet style airport.  Since there were several flights arriving around the same time from various airports, it took awhile to for the group to assemble.  Finally, however, it did and we loaded onto our bus for the 25 minute ride to the Radison Blue Lativja.  We quickly got checked in and I headed on foot to the Genocide Museum which was only open until 5pm and not on Monday or Tuesday.  

It was only a 12 minute walk from the hotel and I found it easily.  I just had an hour to see the museum so I started in the prison area in the basement of what was the KGB building.  It was very sobering to see and read about what went on down here for so many years.  People were imprisoned, tortured, and executed here. Their graves for the most part have never been discovered and the tally of those killed is in the 10's of thousands for this prison alone.  The upper two floors contain exhibits about the struggle for freedom and the Soviet and Nazi attempts to quench that.  Alas, the hour finished all too quickly and I was back out in the heat and humidity of the day for my walk back to the hotel.

Angela was off doing a choir event and I didn't know where.  So I read and waited until 6:30 before I headed to the mall across the street to find some dinner.  I found some sushii and it was good.  She returned around 8:00pm and we took a short walk before returning to the room to watch more of the European Cup soccer playoffs before retiring for the evening.

Day 53 (June 25) Heidelberg to Vilnius

About 3am I was awakened by the Flash and Crack of a full bore electrical storm.  It took a bit to fall back asleep, but the alarm at 6am came way too early.  We finalized our packing, said goodbye to Steven (another rider from Oregon) who was already up, and enjoyed the cool of a light rain. The TLS shuttle was 15 minutes early (and the same driver as we saw at the restaurant yesterday).  

About an hour later we were at the terminal where we checked our motorcycle gear into storage so we wouldn't need to pack it to the Baltic.  We checked our other luggage and made our way to the Gate A26.  At security, I must have triggered something as I received the pat down, full inspection of my backpack, and test of all bags and clothing for explosive material.  I think it must have been all of the electronics that triggered the inspections.  But I passed!

At the gate we purchased some food to eat and waited for our flight.  There was a lady from Las Vegas sitting next to us who was going to Lithuania on a museum tour and she was intrigued by our adventure.  I also posted a picture on Facebook and shortly received a reply from a church friend that her husband was  in the same airport waiting for his flight back to Seattle.  It's a small world!

I went up to the gate agent and inquired about seat availability, and the agent said the flight was oversold, but she put us on the list for jump seats (available only at the pilot's discretion).  Fortunately a couple seats became available and we were able to make the flight.  We already had a room reserved at the IBIS in Vilnius, so it was really good to make this flight which arrived around 2pm. We collected our luggage and made our way out of the terminal but didn't find any telephone kiosk with which to contact the hotel.  So I asked at the information desk, "How do we get the IBIS shuttle?"  She phoned the hotel for us and soon the van picked us up and whisked us to the IBIS Styles hotel.  We learned there that the shuttle would also drop us off and pick us up downtown.  So we signed up, quickly freshened up, and took the shuttle downtown to the main gate in the old city wall where we began our walk down the winding cobblestone street.  It took a bit to get our bearings using the tourist maps we were provided. But once we got that down, navigating the old city became easy.

We found a street side cafe to enjoy a light  Lithuanian appetizer and a cold drink (it was in the 80's and high humidity) before continuing our stroll down the promenade.  

The literal high point was to take a fernicular ride up to the tower remains of the ancient castle.  We then hiked up the circular stairway of the tower to take some pictures of the scenery and admire the views.  While we had a ticket to ride down the fernicular, we decided to walk it back down the rocky driveway.  We then wound our way back to the meeting point to relax for an hour before the shuttle picked us up.  I used that time to update my blog.

Our first impressions were that this is an easily walkable city with a lot of history.  It seems to be a cross roads of the Catholic, Greek and Russian Orthodox churches. It, of course, suffered under the Soviet occupation. I hope to learn more about that on Monday when I tour the KGB museum while Angela practices.  It's also clean and neat in the old town without a lot of little convenience stores. There is, however, a lot of ice cream for sale!

Day 52 (June 24) Heidelberg

After a very warm overnight sleep, we ate a relaxing continental breakfast at Knopf Tours.  This would be a laid back sort of day as the principal tasks were to wash the bike, repack our travelling luggage and put away the items that we leave behind in Heidelberg.  We also had the chance to chat with several other couples who are just starting their European adventures on their motorcycles.  One of the couples we met last year.  It's truly fun and enriching to compare travelling notes.  Also we saw off a couple of solo riders who were starting their adventure (Michael was heading to Zermatt and the rider from Texas was heading for Spain to escape the rain that was on his originally planned Northern route).

It was also time to purchase our flight tickets for tomorrow's flight to Vilnius.  I had a bit of a challenge getting that done as the WIFI router kept losing its signal.  But eventually, I succeeded.  Lunch was the leftover pizza from the night before.  We settled our lodging bill, arranged for a 7am shuttle pick up, and I  put fuel stabilizer in the gas tank, rode the bike to the local gas station to fill it up.  I came back and disconnected the battery.  The bike was now ready for storage.  I didn't change the oil as it only had 2,500 miles on it.

I took inventory of what we were leaving behind, packed the panniers, locked them, and we transported them downstairs to the long term storage area.  Next it was time to pack our motorcycle gear in its travelling duffel and pack the remainder of our clothes.

We walked into the village to get some more euros and check out the LIDL and ALDI grocery stores for the last time this trip.  We enjoy seeing what they offer in the way of general merchandise.  On the way back to Knopf Tours, we stopped at the same little Döner shop for a salad dinner which was quite good.  Our evening was spent hanging out with the other couples and sharing more stories and tips.  It was a fun time.  Clouds started rolling in and the temperature dropped, but it was still in excess of 80f.  Darkness led to trying to sleep, but it was so warm.  Fatigue eventually trumped the heat until . . .

Day 51 (June 23) Back to Heidelberg

We packed up our campsite, purchased some bread from the bakery truck, ate a light bread and cheese breakfast, and headed on off to Heidelberg via many terrific secondary roads.  Near the end of our ride there was a major detour that cost us 45 minutes for the detour.  And it was well in excess of 90 degrees for most of the day, so we made stops to cool off and wet ourselves down so the evaporation would do its magic.

We rolled into Knopf Tours around 6pm to a ready room.  I stripped off my riding clothes to get more comfortable and proceeded to install the replacement combination switch that I had picked up an hour earlier from a dealer (I pre-ordered the part 10 days earlier) along our route.

We then walked to a local restaurant and had a salad and pizza for dinner before retiring with no covers as the heat was oppressive.

Day 50 (June 22) Fichtelberg

Once again we packed up and said our goodbyes to Gaila and made our way southwest on backroads (and more detours) towards Bayreuth where we hoped we would be able to camp for the first time this trip.  Finally it was getting warm!  We were pretty close to the Czech border at Hof where we stopped for a McRib lunch and WIFI.  

Motoring on, we reached the end of our GPS route outside Bayreuth where I put in a search for a campground and we found one I had previously researched.  So off we headed for another 20 miles or so to Fichtelberg to check it out.  We found the site up in the forest near done ski areas and it had electrical hookups, a lake, and nearby restaurants, yet it's really in the middle of nowhere.  

So we pitched our tent, did a load of laundry, and walked into the village for a very nice dinner.  We also got an order of cheese to go so we could have  some for breakfast when the bread truck comes by in the morning.  After dinner, we walked down to the very pretty lake before retiring for the night.

Day 49 (June 21) Grimma & Dresden

Today we were off the motorcycle for the day the first time in 2.5 weeks.  Gaila, our friend from Seattle who is helping start a castle motorcycle destination in Mutzchen took us on a tour of Grimma and a magnificant nearby castle at Wermsdorf before showing us the Motostay castle in Mutzchen.  The castle is really cool, but there is a lot of work needed to get it ready for guests.  

We then decided to drive to Dresden to tour the old city.  Most of Dresden was bombed extensively during WWII as it was a major defensive position against the Soviets.  One characteristic of the aged sandstone buildings is that they turn black.  So one can readily see the newer construction and reconstruction by the building colors.  The main Lutheran cathedral was totally flattened, but was recently in the past 20 years completely rebuilt and is quite pretty inside.  There's a mixture of the old and new stones in its rebuilding.  There were lots of tourists walking around the old city, but it wasn't crowded.

After our return to Grimma, we decided to walk downtown for dinner.  We were told that it was just a 15-20 minute walk.  No problem.  So off we headed.  50 minutes and 2.2 miles later we were in town ready to eat!  It was a lovely paved path through the fields, by a former textile factory dating to the turn of the 20th century, and over a very cool pedestrian bridge. Nothing much was open except for the restaurants.  We ended up eating in a Döner shop (our second favorite restaurant after McRibs at the golden arches, and it was very good. I paid for the meal with a 100€ note, but only received 30€ in change instead of 80€. I walked out of the restaurant and then realized what had happened.  So I went back and the clerk immediately realized what was wrong and the correct change was given.  A 100€ note isn't that common, but the 50€ is.  

So we then walked back the 2.2 miles to our lodging and spent time with Gaila.  Angela showed her tips on playing her ukulele and we chatted about traveling.  And all too soon, bedtime called, and another day was done.