Salzburg to Vilnius

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Where do I begin? John is going to cut and paste this for me as we do not have an internet connection where we are staying. Hopefully, this will be corrected. If not, we will figure it out.

Since I do not have the previous blog, I may be repeating myself. So, please be patient with me.

Kate stayed with us until Thursday evening when she returned to Ireland for her final leg of vacation. It was very exciting over there as the Irish Rugby team was up for their championship game against Wales in the Six Nations Tournament and they won 17-15.

She and I toured through Salzburg recreating the Sound of Music. I believe I covered this. On Friday, John had class until noon. We were able to travel to Bertchesgarten in Germany. This is where Hitler built his Eagle Nest atop of the mountain. It is said you are able to view the entire panorama from that sight. We were not able to get up there due to the amount of snow. The buildings in which he lived were destroyed during and after the war. All of his generals had homes in and around that area. This is where he vacationed with Eva Braun and was depicted as a “lover of children and nature”. I know I have seen films of his propaganda there. The town itself is a beautiful Bavarian place with lovely buildings and meandering streets. It is hard to imagine the horrors of World War II here.

That evening we were entertained by a lovely young female pianist about age 27 who is studying for her PhD in Musicology at the Mozart Music Academy. Her repertoire was phenomenal. She had to rest her hands for a bit to continue. Her selections required an athletic skill I have not seen in a long time. It was quite a treat. Following it, we enjoyed dinner with the group at the seminar. All are senior lawyers . To be accepted in this program you must have 25 years experience. Before this requirement was set, a young attorney was intending to sue for age discrimination. It obviously does work in reverse.
The US lawyers were from all over from California, Washington state, Indiana, Tennessee, New York, etc. as well as Scotland and France - 51 participants in all with 34 lawyers. There were also students and professors (TA) from the eastern block countries. It was a wonderful group who shared the anticipation of the future adventure. I am so glad that John opted to do this. (Oddly enough 3 of us were physical therapists. We were
really surprised that we were so well represented in a law seminar.)

On Saturday, we left Austria and traveled to Poland. It is amazing how different each country looks. The houses and public buildings were so colorful in Austria. The buildings in Poland though somewhat similar in structure were of the original stucco color. Winter still predominated and there was much snow on the ground. We went through many beautiful forests. The snow kept falling and made for a beautiful picture. The polish people venerate their dead in their cemeteries with elaborate decorations using fresh and dried foliage. They maintain vigil lights in predominantly red colors at the grave sites and, at night, the cemeteries are aglow with these lights. I would assume that they might be solar powered; they were certainly bright. They also put markers on the roads for their killed in car accidents. They are far more elaborate than ours but it seems to be a universal remembrance. Language is certainly a primary barrier as we found out at the gas stations and restaurants. People were very gracious and patient with us.

Warsaw is an incredibly large city. At this point we drove through it. It is highly industrialized. We are planning to stop there on our return. We stayed at a curious hotel outside of Warsaw that rented rooms with 2,3, or 4 beds per room. We were given the 3 bed room. The beds were smaller than a twin and very firm. They provided a huge breakfast of potato pancakes served either with jam or cottage cheese. They were thin, light and delicious. Then on to Lithuania.

In comparing Poland and Lithuania, the land in Poland is very flat. Lithuania is a continuum of rolling hills. Again, there is color used to paint the houses.- not all but a good number of them in greens and yellows. There is a lot of farm land..

John did allow the purchase of the GPS thank goodness. I don’t know how we could have done this without it. The Sanskrit alphabet is very difficult and far beyond our capabilities. We were able to come to our place of residence easily. We are staying in a large, old building which contains regular apartments as well as guest apartments and is owned by the University. They are in the process of repairing it as so many of the buildings here are. Our apartment consists of an open area where there is a bar size refrigerator, one bedroom with a similar small single bed as above, a living area with a pull out couch (almost double bed size but not quite) and a bathroom with shower. There is an electric pot for boiling water for tea but that is the extent of my “shared kitchen”. Each day the maid comes and redoes the pull out bed providing new linens. I have not been able to convince her to leave it alone yet. The ceilings here must be over 15 feet tall since it is a 3rd floor walkup that is quite a climb for me. I am getting a lot of exercise. Old Town is a 10 minute walk from here.

We are in the process of exploring Vilnius so I will end here. Hope I am not boring you to death. There will be no quiz so don’t feel obligated to read this.

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