Some months before we had discussed and decided with our friends Ginta and Hadrien that we would use those four days to travel together to Lithuania. Ginta is originally from Lithuania and would show us around in her home country.
And so off we went on Saturday 14th of May!
First of all "Auguri and happy anniversary, amore mio!" Today we celebrated our 13th anniversary - with a trip with friends to Lithuania :-)
The day had started not so well, though, in the sense that it started extremely early: getting up at around 3:30 a.m. to catch a flight from Oslo at 6:30 a.m., to arrive at Palanga Airport at 08:55.
From Palanga, at the west coast of the country, we had rented a car for a couple of days.
First destination in Lithuania: Klaipėda, from where we took a ferry over to Neringa on the Curonian pensinsular Spit (a 98 km long, thin, curved sand-dune spit that separates the
Curonian Lagoon from the Baltic Sea coast and which is listed as UNESCO World Heritage Site).
On the peninsula we headed to the resort town of Nida.
The moment we arrived in Nida it started raining which made us first have a coffee stop in a local bar before discovering the area.
After the rain was over we rented some bikes...
Back from the excursion to the dune we had our first Lithuanian meal for lunch and then headed back to Klaipėda on the mainland to check in at Hotel Lugnė. Totally exhausted (may I remind you of the alarm clock ringing at 3:30 that morning) we all fell into bed for a short recovery nap.
For dinner we had chosen the restaurant "Forto Dvaras" which offered very traditional Lithuanian cuisine. I tried potato sausages and enjoyed this duck dish...
Not the lightest dinner, but very yummy :-)
Sunday, 15/05:
We started the day with breakfast at Café Max before a short walk through Klaipėda town which for Germans is known under the name "Memel".
We left Klaipėda around 10 a.m. to hit the road further inland, through the flat Lithuanian countryside which was in many parts covered with blossoming rapes dipping the country in yellow.
We took a little detour from our main road in direction Vilnius and drove down along the Memel river. Here we first had a very quick stop at this castle called "Panemunė".
Main stop and reason for this detour was Raudonė Castle, which represented for me a very special visit: it was home to my aunt Marina's ancestors :-) Her father actually still grew up here. So the castle represents the history of a part of my larger family! This is why I did some ancestor research and why I will just go a bit back in the family history to see who the ancestors and previous inhabitants/owners of the castle were:
The most famous ancestor through which the castle came into the possession of my aunt's family is probably Prince Platon Alexandrovich Zubov (1767-1822)...
...who was the last of Catherine the Great's favourites/lovers and the most powerful man in Russian Empire during the last years of her reign. Catherine the Great (1729-1796), aka Catherine II of Russia, was the most renowned and the longest ruling female leader of Russia.
Prince Zubov and Sophia Leontevna had a daughter together: Sophia Platonovna countess Zubov.
After about half an hour we left the castle and tried to find "a big known church nearby with a graveyard where you can find the tombs of some of the ancestors" which my aunt had told me about. Unfortunately my aunt didn't give me any name of the church; thought it can't be difficult to find it if it's big, known, nearby. Turned out there were loads of churches in the surroundings.
The most famous ancestor through which the castle came into the possession of my aunt's family is probably Prince Platon Alexandrovich Zubov (1767-1822)...
...who was the last of Catherine the Great's favourites/lovers and the most powerful man in Russian Empire during the last years of her reign. Catherine the Great (1729-1796), aka Catherine II of Russia, was the most renowned and the longest ruling female leader of Russia.
She got married to Karl Karlovich baron von Pirch, becoming Sophie baroness von Pirch. Together they had a daughter: Sophie Karlovna baroness von Pirch (1818-1894).
She at her turn got married to Lev Nikolaevich von Waxel. (This Waxel by the way is a descendant from Sven Waxel who in the 18th century has discovered together with the danish born explorer Vitus Bering - in the service of the Russian Empire - the Bering Strait.)
Their daughter Sophie Lvovna von Waxel got married to the Portuguese noble man from Madeira José Carlos de Faria e Castro.
Their child again, Joseph de Faria e Castro, married Olga Viktorovna Kordaschevsky.
They are basically my aunt's grandparents :-)
They got three children: Nicolas, Wladimir and Alexander de Faria e Castro.
My aunt Marina de Faria e Castro is one of the two daughters of Wladimir de Faria e Castro and Hildegard Kraus.
She is married to my mother's sibling, my uncle Martin Werland.
She is married to my mother's sibling, my uncle Martin Werland.
They have my four lovely cousins Stephan, Christoph, Annette and Alexander :-)
So far, so good with the genealogy of my relatives. (By the way, my cousins' and aunt's ancestry can be found here - that's where I got most of the information from, besides from some names I got from my aunt herself.)
Time for some pictures from the visit of Raudonė Castle. Unfortunately the castle is no longer in the possession of my aunt's family. Nowadays it's a school belonging to the commune. And since it was Sunday when we passed it, the school was of course closed and thus we couldn't get inside the building. What a pity!
Only the tower is also outside school times open to the public as an observation tower of Nemunas valley.
But what a surprise when we entered the tower: in the hallway hang this information showcase where a picture of my aunt caught my attention.
Excitedly I shouted to the others "hei, this is my aunt! And these [pointing on the pictures I discovered the next second] are my cousins! How funny is this!?". So in this remote place in Lithuania where I was travelling with friends from Oslo I suddenly see in some castle pictures of my dear relatives :-)
The showcase displayed pictures of the recent de Faria e Castro generations, including my aunt with her children/my cousins (in the right pink column), my aunt's sister and cousins with their respective children...
After this nice surprise we eventually went up the tower to enjoy the wide panorama over the valley.
Time for some pictures from the visit of Raudonė Castle. Unfortunately the castle is no longer in the possession of my aunt's family. Nowadays it's a school belonging to the commune. And since it was Sunday when we passed it, the school was of course closed and thus we couldn't get inside the building. What a pity!
Only the tower is also outside school times open to the public as an observation tower of Nemunas valley.
But what a surprise when we entered the tower: in the hallway hang this information showcase where a picture of my aunt caught my attention.
...as well as those old photographs of their ancestors, the former inhabitants of this castle as described already further above.
We just stopped at a couple of them, without finding the named graveyard with the ancestors' tombs.
Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to look any further for the right church and graveyard. We were already quite late. At 2:30 p.m. we were invited for dinner at one of Ginta's sisters' place who lives in Kėdainiai, in the middle of the country on the way between the West coast and Vilnius in the East of the country. So we hit the road again.
So, next stop: Kėdainiai. We were invited for a suuuuper delicious lunch. I have no clue how many guests Ginta had announced, but her sister Neringa and her husband had prepared food for maybe 10 people, though we were just 4 of us. Salty pastries, grilled meat, salad, potatoes, cakes (three, not just one!)... That was very and kind of Ginta's sister to have us over. What a pity we weren't really able to communicate with her and her husband as both didn't speak anything else then Lithuanian and no English.
Unfortunately we didn't have enough time to look any further for the right church and graveyard. We were already quite late. At 2:30 p.m. we were invited for dinner at one of Ginta's sisters' place who lives in Kėdainiai, in the middle of the country on the way between the West coast and Vilnius in the East of the country. So we hit the road again.
So, next stop: Kėdainiai. We were invited for a suuuuper delicious lunch. I have no clue how many guests Ginta had announced, but her sister Neringa and her husband had prepared food for maybe 10 people, though we were just 4 of us. Salty pastries, grilled meat, salad, potatoes, cakes (three, not just one!)... That was very and kind of Ginta's sister to have us over. What a pity we weren't really able to communicate with her and her husband as both didn't speak anything else then Lithuanian and no English.
Before leaving we had a quick look at their flower cultivation; Ginta's sister sells flowers on the local market.
After lunch we had a very quick visit of Kėdainiai town with Hadrien while Ginta and her sister needed to go and do some shopping.
In the late afternoon we continued our drive towards Vilnius where we had booked an apartment through AirBnB. Still being full from the vast lunch, we skipped dinner that evening and went after check-in only for a quick drink out.
Monday, 16/05:
Though our apartment was equipped with kitchen facilities, we didn't feel like preparing breakfast there. Instead we grabbed a croissant and a coffee at a nearby book shop café.
Though our apartment was equipped with kitchen facilities, we didn't feel like preparing breakfast there. Instead we grabbed a croissant and a coffee at a nearby book shop café.
Then we drove to Trakai to visit its castle.
Typical lunch with Lithuanian dumplings at "Kibininė" restaurant in Trokai.
When back in Vilnius we packed our suitcases and moved to another apartment. The apartment we had slept in the previous night didn't have warm water as we had to figure out in the morning under the shower. The municipality was doing some maintenance work at the water pipes and had just informed about it on some note board at the building entrance. That way the landlord wasn't informed and so weren't we.
After some back and forth the owner of the apartment had found another place for us to stay - which was nicer, but smaller (with only one bedroom instead of two rooms we had booked). Well, we well let us refund for this after our trip (including the taxi for the transfer).
Later on in the afternoon we walked a bit through town.After some back and forth the owner of the apartment had found another place for us to stay - which was nicer, but smaller (with only one bedroom instead of two rooms we had booked). Well, we well let us refund for this after our trip (including the taxi for the transfer).
Vilnius City Hall and square in front of it
Vilnius Cathedral of St. Stanislaus and St. Vladislav
Here we also met with a friend of Ginta, Rasvita. Together we went out for a drink...
As Lithuanian cuisine isn't really the most dietetic one, but rather fat and heavy (and nevertheless very delicious), we walked back to our apartment - as digestive walk so to speak.
We had to check out in the morning, but had our flight back to Oslo only in the late afternoon. So we first went to the train station to leave our luggage there at some luggage lockers.
When we then passed again in front of the City Hall, we assisted this little Norwegian community here in Vilnius celebrating their 17th of May, their national day.
Last sightseeing stop of the day and in this town:
Gedimino tower.
On our way to the train station we did some groceries for Lithuanian stuff to bring back home and then stopped at quite some posh lounge for lunch.
At last, a little shuttle train brought us to the airport for our flight back to Oslo. Back home at around 8 p.m.
We had a really great time together with out friends Ginta & Hadrien, and it was a pleasure for us to get shown around by Ginta in her home country, see where she comes from, where her roots are :-)
Would be cool to show you then Italy or Germany or see some of Hadrien's places in France/Switzerland.
At last, a little shuttle train brought us to the airport for our flight back to Oslo. Back home at around 8 p.m.
We had a really great time together with out friends Ginta & Hadrien, and it was a pleasure for us to get shown around by Ginta in her home country, see where she comes from, where her roots are :-)
Would be cool to show you then Italy or Germany or see some of Hadrien's places in France/Switzerland.
(Thank you and grazie, amore, for all your beautiful pictures which I mainly used on this blog!)
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