One week to go

 Just 7 sleeps 'till we go to Mexico.

Massive storms in USA. Flight cancellations (including the flight we will be on).

Weather report says it'll all clear up in a few days, hen looking good :-)

Buongiorno Milano

Lucky we have scarves & beanies, otherwise we'd be freezing to death, it's only about 32C outside. Unusually our room has Air Conditioning that actually works (I'm sure there is a law against that in Europe)

We had a 1:30 flight from Vilnius, getting to the airport was a simple bus ride ( no Sydney airport tax ), we hardly new we were near the airport until we were dropped of at the departure door, too easy.

Lufthansa to Frankfurt, where we may have ad a drink, then Air Dolomite to Milano. Air Dolomite serve Aperol Spritz which were acceptable :-)

Simple train ride to our accommodation (no Airport tax), and a few slices of pizza and some wine for dinner .... molto bene.

We found a cafe that serves good coffee!

Vilnius/Trakai

We caught a bus to Trakai on Thursday to see the Pils (Castle), there were a couple of long walks involved, so we managed to get our steps up for the day.

We have managed to find a few good eateries including Momo Grill (Michelin recommended). The duck sausages were quite rich :-), and "Fiona" for the compulsory Aperol Spritz :-)

Were on the Train to Vilnius

Local trains are good, and the freed WIFI works much better that trains in Sydney (IE they have it :-).

We have mastered the busses in Lithuania .. 1Euro per trip and pay on the bus with pay-wave... Simple.

Anyhow 4 Nites in Vilnius and then to Italy.

Kaunus, Lithuania

We arrived later yesterday, and did a few housekeeping tasks.

The hotel we are staying at is very artsy, which means that the chairs look good, but are really uncomfortable (I'm being unkind most of the chairs are fine, and the room is good).

We went on a tour of a KGB "Atomic shelter" from the cold war, however as the guide said it was a propaganda as there was no way it was atomic fallout safe, and the walls were not even painted with High Lead like those in Prague.

We found a nice Georgian restaurant and had large dumplings that spilled juice everywhere :-)

Neringa (Curonian Spit)

Neringa Municipality is a municipality of Klaipėda County in westernmost Lithuania.

It is on a peninsula however the land bridge is Russian, and, for some unknown reason, the border is closed, so we had to catch the ferry.

Some say they could build a bridge (the separation is only about 100 m at some points) but the government makes too much money from the ferry :-)

Its basically a beach resort area where rich people buy all the houses. However, it's UNESCO listing means that you can only tear down the horrible Russian built houses.

On the island there is the "Hill of Witches" with a lot of large wooden carvings of local folk laws.

Had a great day.

Riga to Klaipeda via Palanga

Currently sitting at Riga Airport having an exotic lunch, getting ready to fly Air Baltic to Palanga in Lithuania, and then to Klaipeda (there are a few ~'s missing in these names).

Our last morning in Riga, and we are wearing jumpers.... what happened to the hot weather (oh yeah we left Madrid :-)), still have not needed scarfs & such, maybe when we get to Italy it will be cold..

Only 1.5 hours left to wait.