So…Lithuanian’s are not early risers. Especially on Saturday mornings. We basically have this city to ourselves.

As we were walking there were two youngish guys who were drinking beer and we just couldn’t really tell what the deal was so Greg tried to avoid them by walking on a separate portion of the sidewalk. The guys came over and offered us all a drink of their beers. We declined and they asked where we were from. To say they were intrigued is a bit of an understatement. They said “Americans get up so early! The coffee shops here are not even open yet.” We all laughed that they were drinking beer at 9am. I asked if they were just getting started or still going from last night. They laughed and said they were still going from last night. One of them had just graduated yesterday so they were out celebrating and had no intention of stopping any time soon.

It was pretty obvious after a short time that they were harmless and they also very quickly turned into your guides. They asked if we had visited the tower yet and we said we are heading in that direction. They suggested that we go to an electronics museum just over the bridge that plays AC/DC on Tesla coils. We gave them a cheers with our fake beers and told them congrats and enjoy their partying and we went separate ways.

Since we are up so early we are looking for outdoor activities that are open. We decide to head to a statue of three crosses up on a hillside.

The original three crosses were destroyed by the Russians years ago and were only recently found by locals and placed at the base of the hill.

Time to try to make our way back down

We walked up a giant hill to check out something called Table Hill. That was a waste of energy. Nothing to see here.

So it turns out that the hike Greg wanted to do yesterday he’s getting to do today. Just in a different place.

Next stop is the Gediminas Castle Tower which happens to be up another hill. Why wait for the funicular to take us up in ten mins when we can just walk?

It’s just after 10am now and we have received word that Jake, who is joining us later today, has arrived safely in Brussels. Thankfully, Greg’s misspelling of his middle name wasn’t an issue. That’s good because I was gonna have to ship Maddie home if he didn’t make it. (Kidding I think!?)

As he was going through customs they asked him if he was Scottish because of his last name which means son of a blacksmith. He said he wasn’t Scottish and looked up the meaning of his last name and the customs officer was correct. So…maybe he is? This will be a topic of convo later.

Jake has two more flights until he arrives tonight around 6pm in Riga where we will pick him up. I’m hearing he only got two hours of sleep on the plane so the Baker family is going to have to take it easy on him.

I think we can. I think we can.

Next up…Riga old town.

These dog statues are the Lithuanian hound which is the only Lithuanian hunting dog breed. Logan was impressed by how realistic they were. (See pic two)

There are so many old Churches here with such different architecture.

Maddie had texted Greg at this point and was ready to come meet us so Greg peeled off to go meet her at the hotel with plans to meet me and the boys wherever we landed.

We were thirsty from hiking so Logan found an Iki (grocery store) on the map. This one was an unmanned version where you scan your credit card to enter. I didn’t realize it was keeping track of everything we picked up and put back down at the register for payment. I might not have been so indecisive if I’d known that. A few waters and candy bars later and we were out.

Brooks taking the pretend you’re flying that balloon very serious which I appreciate. He’s got the heat going there!

I think either mass or more likely a funeral had just ended as we neared this Church. We decided to go in and check it out. It was beautiful.

This Church was very interesting. Unfortunately the pictures don’t do it justice. We are pretty sure that people stand on the street for mass. We did walk upstairs and quickly decided we shouldn’t be there and exited.

Greg and Maddie were ready to meet up so we met at City Hall to explore together. There are tons of cute streets here with outdoor dining options and restaurants and store with fancy decorations outside.

We decided to head towards the food hall that I originally had found for lunch. Let’s hope it’s not sketch like the one from last night.

Time to head back to the hotel to grab our stuff.

The workers made great progress on hanging the signs while we have been out.

Brooks’ Adidas shoes aren’t that comfortable which isn’t surprising since he’s had them for two years. We had decided to try to stop in an Adidas store. Luckily we happened to walk past one on the way back.

This Adidas store was huge and carried brand like Nike, North Face etc.

Greg and Maddie were actually buying stuff from Adidas (not a brooks who needed something) and it was getting a little late so me and the boys decided to head to the hotel to grab our stuff.

And one last pretty store front for good measure.

We ended up walking into a protesting group. Not sure what they were protesting.

We got to the hotel at 1:20pm thinking our checkout time was 1:30pm but our keycard didn’t work in the elevator. We went to the front desk. Turns out that the lady wasn’t obsessed with Greg and actually set out check out time for 1pm.

They were very nice and updated it to 1:40pm. 🙂

Now we are off to Riga, Latvia!