We are up an out early today – well, early relative to this leg of the trip! We are on the road by 8:30 (after a little hiccup with the Boston contingent who just, well, don’t seem to listen or want to abide by group times, etc. – not worth going into) circling Riga, out by the river, and off into the countryside. It only takes about an hour for us to pass through the border station at the Lithuanian border. Not manned. Nothing but a big old abandoned building on the side of the road. No worries, we’re EU now, baby!

After another hour or so, we stop at our sight seeing for the day – the Hill of Crosses. Ok, well, whatever. But, to be totally honest? It is WAY better than it sounds! Literally a hill with thousands upon thousands of crosses placed upon it. The legend goes that a peasant fell asleep on the hill one night, and in his dreams a white robed women came to him and told him he had to put a cross on the hill where he slept. If he did that, his ailing daughter would be cured. Of course the peasant listened, erected a cross, and when he arrived home his daughter ran out to him – she could walk again. After this people started putting crosses on the hill to memorialize everything from births to weddings to deaths to asking for miracles. There are approximately 40,000 1 1/2 foot tall crosses, 100 over 12 feet, 1,000 3-6 feet – at least that can be counted. The hill also became a symbol of resistance in the Soviet times.  

On top of these astonishing facts, there is nothing older than 1973 here because the hill was burned in the early 70s. So these hundreds of thousands of crosses are relatively new (so to speak). The Jesuit monastery near here takes care of the crosses and tries to keep the monument safe. But as is evidenced by a recent fire from a candle lit in memorial – the whole hill could be a tinderbox just waiting to explode.

Nevertheless – this became one of the highlights of the tour. Who would have thought it? The pictures can barely do it justice, and we shot a couple of videos to try to take in a 360 scope. But that still doesn’t do it justice.

After that, well, we just had drive through the countryside until we reached Vilnius, a much more cosmopolitan city than Riga. I don’t have clue what we did for lunch – maybe nothing? We checked into to the thoroughly modern hotel, ran next door to the mall for the grocery store, then organized in the room a bit – exclaiming over the brilliant view – oh – and the Putin the Hague is waiting for you banner on the huge skyscraper behind the hotel – before heading back downstairs for our KGB tour this afternoon.