Day 6 - Kaunas, Lithuania

We woke to rain splattering on the roof but undeterred we got the #7 trolley bus to near the town centre, about 4km away for €1. The public transport is so convenient as there is a screen which announced each stop.

We stopped to look at the old castle, built in the 14thcentury, then had a look in the nearby RC church (Church of the Holy Most Trinity?)where a service had just finished. It had soaring columns and a high ceiling. There were a couple of ornate carved walkways above us in one section.

It was a short walk to the quiet old town square where the imposing town hall was under renovation. Nearby was the basilica of St Peter and St Paul which is pink on the outside and ornate inside. We went by the house of Perkunas built in 15th century, thought at one time by the Hanseatic league (it certainly boasts the architecture) but now considered to have been built by a rich merchant.

En route for the art gallery we went in to Vytautus the Great Church where there was a service with lovely singing taking place. It was a pretty walk down old streets to a historic Presidential Palace. A photographic display outside told the story of Smetona, who held office from the 1920s till the Soviet occupation of 1940.

From there it we walked uphill to MK Čiurlionis Museum of Art. I loved this building - despite being built in 1921 it has a wonderful modern look with clean lines inside too. Čiurlionis Is probably the most renowned Lithuanian artists who lived to be only 36, dying in 1911. He was a composer as well as artist.

Čiurlionis contributed to symbolism and art nouveau, and was representative of the fin de siècle epoch. A whole section of the gallery was given over to his work but we didn’t find it till we were almost galleries-out, the person on the desk not having given us the plan of the gallery and I didn’t see one till we were ready to go for lunch at 2.30pm. We’d already looked at an exhibition of crosses both wooden and metal - Lithuania is big on crosses. We also saw a retrospective of Antanas Samuolis, famous for “A woman in Yellow”. There was also a room full of paintings inspired by it. It’s the 125th anniversary of his birth.

By then we were very hungry and decided on the nearest cafe. Blipper iaint recommended the pink soup - Lithuanian šaltibarščiai and we were lucky as it was on the menu. The ingredients are beetroot, kefir, finely sliced cucumber and quail eggs. It was served with some roasted baby potatoes so was a full meal. ( I have made this soup at home but not with the quail eggs or potatoes. )

Luckily we found that our #7 bus back could be picked up only 8 minutes walk away which was welcome after 4.5 miles on cobbled streets and hard gallery floors. It’s been a wonderful day - I’m loving Lithuania.

#2 daughter had a wonderful time at her swanky party - eating out, (blankets provided), wonderful menu, free bar and dancing too of course.

#3 daughter, Ella and Nathaniel went to the last night of the play. He’d made bracelets for the adult actors who wondered what the numbers on them were for and were delighted and very amused when he told them they were the number of swear words they’d each had to say. (He counted from the script). And by the time he got home he’d learned all the lines of the others’ first scene. It’s been such a wonderful experience for him and I’m pleased he was still happy and enjoying it after the 2 months of rehearsals and performances.


It was so hard to decide on a Blip. Here is the House of Perkunas