Beautiful sparkling Vilnius, capital of the Republic of Lithuania, along the Neris river. A tributary is the Vilnia river, where the castle was located, so hence the name.The Gediminas Tower is what remains of the castle. A even an older castle site was on the forest hill in the background — demolished by the Soviets. The forest is now a much loved park in the city along the Vilnia River.The contemporary Modern District shines with prosperity and commerce.Vilnius is in total solidarity with Ukraine — the Ukrainian flag is hung along side their own. It has been only 30 years since Lithuania gained their independence from the Soviets. Very prominent on on e of the tallest buildings: “PUTIN, THE HAGUE IS WAITING FOR YOU”Stebuklas – or miracle tile – was the beginning of a 1989 political protest against Soviet occupation with a 2 million-person human chain — stretching 650km from this spot to Tallinn, Estonia. Today the tile is a symbol of hope and inspiration.Cathedral Square with its distinctive Bell Tower is the center of Vilnius. After the rain there were reflections in the plaza.Nearby, the National Museum is an impressive collection of Lithuanian history. It is built inside the Palace of the Governors. Four different routes take you on a journey through Lithuanian’s complex history — spanning different topics of its events through the ages. We spent an entire rainy day exploring……Excavations of ruins from different eras had glass floored bridges built over the old remains allowing access as it explained life in that century– quite an amazing logistic and engineering feat.Around 1500 the Grand Duchy of Lithuania (shown in Yellow) was the largest European state — controlling an area from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. Note north of them is Livonia which was Estonia and Latvia combined.The National Library was the first purposely built library in the Baltic’s . It is a monument to ‘socialist realism’ — constructed by the Soviets in 1958.It has fun book jackets recreating characters of various famous literary persons. A very nice National Library for everyone.The Hill of Crosses has been resurrected many times in its 300 year history –after demolitions by the Soviets to squash religious practices. It is a very meaningful place for the Lithuanians, recognized by UNESCO, and even visited by the Pope Paul II in 1993.We took a sightseeing bus from Riga to Vilnius, stopping in several places including the second largest city Kaunas. But perhaps most interesting was our stop at the old WWII Japanese Consulate (at the request of our two Japanese co-travelers)……It has been turned into a museum for Chiune Sugihara, a Japanese diplomat who served as vice-consul for the Japanese Empire in Kaunas. This is an original ‘Letter of Transit’ issued in 1940 — we had never seen one before! The dutch ambassador issued a landing permit to their colonies but the letter of transit was necessary to travel so the two worked together tirelessly. Sugihara issued over 2000 without his governments consent to enable many Jewish families (estimated to number around 6,000 individuals) — stuck in limbo between the Nazis and Soviets — to travel to safer areas. We enjoyed staying in Old Town, wandering the campus of University of Vilnius, popping into some courtyards and restaurants. A vibrant hilly metro area that was a pleasure to explore.
