Memories and hints of a travelling IT professional.
TV towers are always a good option to get another view on the city. The one at Vilnius, Lithuania (Televizijos bokštas) is a bit special as it doesn’t have an outdoor platform. Instead you’ll find a restaurant inside with seats at the windows – and these seats continuously rotate around the tower. Therefore you can sit back, relax and see all of the surroundings of the tower while sipping a coffee or having dinner.
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The railway station (stotis) of Vilnius, Lithuania is a little bit outside the city centre and it is quite special. It doesn’t have a modern station building but it feels for me like a more human-friendly station then most ones in western Europe. Inside the building which was once used to unload and store goods there is a bar with sunbeds on the platform – and a giant statue of a men in bathrobe and briefs.
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I didn’t know what to expect when taking the long walk to the St. Peter and Paul church a little bit aside of the city center of Vilnius, Lithuania. The high number of tourist busses in front of the church were a first indicator that something impressive is waiting inside. It is a catholic church in baroque style that contains a massive amount of white stucco inside. Take your time to discover all the beautiful artworks distributed throughout the church.
Continue reading “Šv. apaštalų Petro ir Povilo”
The Gediminas tower or Gedimino pilies bokštas is the town’s landmark of Vilnius, Lithuania. It is a tower made of red bricks standing on a 142 meters high hill close to the river Neris. It is the only preserved tower of the castle built in 1323 by Gediminas the Grand Duke of Lithuana. You can take the Gediminas hill lift, visit the museum inside the tower and climb on top of it to enjoy good views.
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The cathedral square is one of the most impressive public spaces in Vilnius, Lithuania. It is dominated by the Vilnius cathedral (Vilniaus Šv. vyskupo Stanislovo ir Šv. Vladislovo arkikatedra bazilika) in neoclassicistic style which was opened in 1801. The 52 meters high bell tower is standing separately next to the building – which is typical for churches in the Baltic area. It plays an important role in Lithuanian history as the Grand Dukes were crowned and important Lithuanian personalities are buried here.
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Užupis is a city quarter of Vilnius, Lithuania located in the east of the city center and surrounded by the river Vilnia (Užupis means ‘behind the river’). It was the place were the Jewish community was living that was extinguished during Holocaust. In the 1990s it became the place where many artists live and it was often compared to Montmartre at Paris, France.
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Kaunas is the second largest city of Lithuania with around 300.000 inhabitants and is located at the confluence of the two rivers Nemunas and Neris. A castle at this place was first mentioned in the year 1361. It later became an important center of Jewish life in the region. When in 1920 Vilnius, the capital city of Lithuania became Polnish the city of Kaunas became provisory capital city until 1940.
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The most famous place in rural Lithuana is the hill of crosses (Kryžių kalnas) near Šiauliai. It is a catholic place of pilgrimage that many tourists visit. Countless crosses are assembled on a ten meters high hill and you can walk on a wooden path between the more than 100.000 crosses – or buy one at the shop yourself and add it to the collection.
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Somewhere in rural Latvia, not far away from the border to Lithuania you can find an impressive castle in baroque style: Rundāles pils, the Rundāle palace. It was designed with Versailles in mind and also has a french landscape garden – it is therefore often referred to as the Versailles of the Baltics. The palace was built between 1735 and 1740 by the order of empress Anna of Russia.
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In 1941 Latvia was occupied by Nazi Germany and a forced labour camp was created at Salaspils – 18 kilometers south of Rīga. Captives were intended to do peat cutting and the Nazis wanted to detain Jewish people here. The camp was built by Soviet prisoners of war and Jews mostly from the ghetto of Rīga – and it was used mostly for political prisoners and deserted soldiers. But what really happened here remains unclear because of insufficient research and political motives.
Continue reading “Aiz šiem vārtiem vaid zeme”