Today we visited the Curonian Spit, a unesco site. A sand dune peninsula shared by Russia and Lithuania. We took a ferry to the Nida peninsula and walked the beach on the Baltic Sea looking for Amber. We didn't really find any Amber but walking on a Baltic Sea beach was neat. We then walked through a forested area known as the Hill of Witches. There are about 80 wooden tree structures depicting Lithuanian fairy tales. Our guide,Vita, told us some of the fairy tal...

We left Vilnius this morning. Our first stop was Rumsiskes, what they call an open air museum. Picture a 400 acre Sturbridge. We had a guide takes us through recreations of the highlands where we saw recreations of more well to do house and then a poor family house. Next was the lowland recreation which were basically farms. The farmers house was quite nice while the workers lived in bunkhouses. Most houses had many people living in them. The poorer people had no...

Morning begins with short ride to city of Trakai, de facto medieval capital because Duke Vytautas the Great preferred landscapes with scenic lakes and islands over Vilnius. After short boat ride around the lake we explored the Trakai castle built. To fend off German Knights. The castle was once an. Island but today is a peninsula. We then had lunch at a restaurant owned by local Karims, who belong to the oldest Turkish tribe, Kipchaks, who were brought from Crime...

After 13 hours of travel we arrived in Vilnius to join our group. Our guide, Vita, conducted a short orientation walk, followed group meeting about the trip. Admittedly, Robert and I were having a difficult time staying awake. Dinner was in a local restaurant. Today our morning started with a walk with a local guide around the old town of Vilnius. There 2 cathedrals across the street from the hotel, St. Anne and St. Paul. Much of the architecture is Baroque style...