Another Day Another Country

After an extremely noisy night in our hotel in the Zumaitija National Park, it was time to hit the road again. Our day began with a ride to the nearby Cold War Missile Base,followed by a lovely ride around the perimeter of the lake.

We then met our driver for the long transfer to Riga in Latvia. In the north of Lithuania there is a small mound which had become completely covered in tens of thousands of crosses of every size and shape. This spot has become one of the most visited locations in the entire country.

As our bus pulled into the car park and we saw the many other buses already there, I already had my doubts as to whether I would like this spot. My early opinion was reinforced when we reached the religious souvenir shop. It was doing a roaring trade selling wooden crosses to the arriving tourists. Each tourist then took their newly purchased cross and added it to the mountain of crosses that were already there. It reminded me a little of the padlocks on the bridges over the Seine in Paris. Hardly an authentic religious experience I thought. Nevertheless, it was an interesting spectacle, although I was glad to return to the bus for the rest of the drive to Riga.

When we crossed the border into Latvia, our first impressions were of a country that was even less developed and less affluent than Lithuania. The Latvians speak a different language to either Lithuania or Estonia and their tiny country is only sparsely inhabited.

We finally arrived at Riga about 7.30 pm, bouncing the final few km over rough cobblestones. Our home for the next two nights will be the Metropole Hotel in the centre of the city.Read more