But enough ranting. We relocated to the comfortable couches in
the Coffee Inn next door and had coffees with coffee flavored cheesecake. Georgia had a chocolate chocolate-chip cookie. We convinced her to try the cheesecake and she liked it. So she continued by holding a cookie in one hand and a fork with cheesecake in the other. Finally, after we spread some cheesecakes on the cookie (I can feel certain grandparents grumbling), she seemed the happiest. The city decorated the sides of the river with two signs made up of flowers. Danik said the one of the left says "I love you," and the one on the right says "I love you, too"
Then we went to Europe mall. We stopped on the way near the opera house to play in its many water fountains. At the mall we rode escalators up and down again at first and then got Dan some jeans – one of his went bad.
After that we went to Tzarskoje Selo for lunch. This place never disappoints – great service, environment, and food. Interestingly they are not listed in the guide and I could not find any references to them online. They’ve brought a basket of Legos for Georgia to play with. And she also played by the little fountain near the stage.
When we got home Sasha called and we decided to go to Kernave instead of dacha on account of the day being a bit on a cool side. The best time to go really would be on June 23 because they will be having the continuation of the solstice celebrations. But we hope to back again on July 6-7 when they will be having the Archeology Day with something similar to Trakai but more scientific and in-depth.
We met up with Lazutka’s on the gas station and followed their car.
Here is some info about Kernave: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernav%C4%97 & http://www.mjr.lt/arc/mjr2004/htm/e_kernava.htm (this looks informative but LT only: http://muziejai.mch.mii.lt/Sirvintos/kernaves_archist_muziejus.htm). We picked up Alicia and went. It is only 35km from Vilnius – about the same as Trakai.
After that we went to Tzarskoje Selo for lunch. This place never disappoints – great service, environment, and food. Interestingly they are not listed in the guide and I could not find any references to them online. They’ve brought a basket of Legos for Georgia to play with. And she also played by the little fountain near the stage.
When we got home Sasha called and we decided to go to Kernave instead of dacha on account of the day being a bit on a cool side. The best time to go really would be on June 23 because they will be having the continuation of the solstice celebrations. But we hope to back again on July 6-7 when they will be having the Archeology Day with something similar to Trakai but more scientific and in-depth.
We met up with Lazutka’s on the gas station and followed their car.
Here is some info about Kernave: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kernav%C4%97 & http://www.mjr.lt/arc/mjr2004/htm/e_kernava.htm (this looks informative but LT only: http://muziejai.mch.mii.lt/Sirvintos/kernaves_archist_muziejus.htm). We picked up Alicia and went. It is only 35km from Vilnius – about the same as Trakai.When we got a little further into the town – a village really we saw a bunch of parked cars and a crowd of bikers. So we realized it must have been the place and parked ourselves near the cemetery. They Then we walked down a wide alley to the beautiful Kernave church. The people must have been hanging out somewhere else because we saw really few 
visitors.
There are lots of old crosses around that look different than crosses everywhere in Europe. One website said the design is due to the combination with pagan symbol.
There is an interesting statue of Moses and ten commandments in directly front of the church. I’ve never seen arrangement quite like this before. On the left of the church there is a museum with more similar crosses, smelly pond with beautiful water lilies, some beautiful little trees, and a weird little garden / pet cemetery with little stone houses. Underneath the bench there is a bunch of the wild strawberries gone wild. I guess no one wants to pick near the sacred place.
There is a beautiful viewpoint behind the church. We walked down
and climbed some of the 
mounds (except Alicia). They are pretty tall and have neat little stairs going to the top. Then we all walked to the river and picked wild strawberries in the forest along the river. Georgia really enjoyed that. She and I learned to string the berries on a blade of grass.
visitors.There are lots of old crosses around that look different than crosses everywhere in Europe. One website said the design is due to the combination with pagan symbol.
There is an interesting statue of Moses and ten commandments in directly front of the church. I’ve never seen arrangement quite like this before. On the left of the church there is a museum with more similar crosses, smelly pond with beautiful water lilies, some beautiful little trees, and a weird little garden / pet cemetery with little stone houses. Underneath the bench there is a bunch of the wild strawberries gone wild. I guess no one wants to pick near the sacred place.
There is a beautiful viewpoint behind the church. We walked down
and climbed some of the 
mounds (except Alicia). They are pretty tall and have neat little stairs going to the top. Then we all walked to the river and picked wild strawberries in the forest along the river. Georgia really enjoyed that. She and I learned to string the berries on a blade of grass.
On the road to Kernave Sasha noticed an Dukstos oak park sign so we’ve stopped there on the 
way back. It was really beautiful little oak and birch park with wood carvings of what looked like pagan gods. There were stories about this area in Lithuanian on the story boards around.
It was a great trip. Back in the city Dan dropped off the car and got a bunch of delicious dishes from Hyper Maxima for dinner.
way back. It was really beautiful little oak and birch park with wood carvings of what looked like pagan gods. There were stories about this area in Lithuanian on the story boards around.It was a great trip. Back in the city Dan dropped off the car and got a bunch of delicious dishes from Hyper Maxima for dinner.
Georgia ate so well that it was not a problem for her to tear of granite tiles from the fountain wall (pic. #4)
ReplyDeleteThat's what she ate.
ReplyDeletetoo bad mom doesn't experiment with cheesecakes...
ReplyDeletethose wild berries look very wild indeed...yum
oh and im very certain that those really are pagan crosses; im pretty sure i remember when we were in barcelona there was a church with a similar symbol that the tour guide told us had pagan influences.
excellent!