…Vilnius, a world of dreams and adventures in learning, culture and history. Jews lived here for over 700 years. Lithuanian Jews are known as Litvaks, and Vilnius, in Yiddish was called Vilna.  We will not, on this trip have time to walk down all the significant streets but just being here is being steeped in history. Today we began to wander around, tomorrow, we will visit the archives and have an opportunity to explore more. By the time we reached Vilnius, checked into our rooms, and got settled (and parked the van) we were tired.

We checked into the Corner Hotel which apparently is split in half – half are basic rooms, probably one step above a hostel, the other half are regular hotel rooms with air conditioning, refrigerators, nice carpeting in the halls, and some toiletries in the bathrooms, also a kettle with fixings for coffee and tea. Although we had reserved the more basic rooms, not understanding what they were, we upgraded!  Marek managed to maneuver the van around a very tight parking lot and found a great spot, slightly out of the way, to leave it.

Lindsay is doing well, but we do have to find a dentist to take care of the root canal she needs, sooner rather than later.  Lina is on top of it and is finding the location and work hours for what seems like every dentist in Vilnius.

We began to explore. The following are our initial photos as we walked around the ghetto streets.

There was more to see and hunger was fighter with our desire to see more.  We promised ourselves just a bit of seeing other sights while looking for a place to eat.

…and now food calls – so many choices, so little time.

This was at a very formal and beautiful hotel.  We consoled ourselves with the thought that eating lunch at 4 PM, pretty much guaranteed that we wouldn’t be eating dinner.

Afterwards, we stopped for some snacks at a supermarket and then stopped in amazement o watch what appeared to either be an exercise or dance class with some new footwear. We think this would be great to have in our office!

When they are in motion (it’s hard to see in a still photo) they are jumping up and down (well maybe bounding is a better term).

I’m tired just looking at them. Tomorrow is indeed another day.