Author: rphbaker

After a much better nights sleep than any of us expected interrupted only by a falling picture from the wall we are headed out to find breakfast.

We have really embraced the European culture with a departure time of 10am.

First stop is Caffeine which is just past the Circle K and down from the New Yorker clothing store.

Cappuccino’s for me and Greg, white chocolate latte for Brooks, Chai latte for Jake and a smoothie for Maddie. Maddie and I chose filled croissants (accidentally) for breakfast. we normally do go for filling but I’m not mad about this. The rest of the group went to McDonald’s for breakfast.

As it turns out McDonalds doesn’t have breakfast here so the group landed on a burger, a McToasty, a chicken wrap and a Sprite. Sidebar, the total for that order was 8,90 euros. Jake grabbed McDonalds in the Brussels airport which consisted of three chicken tenders (which he said should he offered in the US), fries, a coke and one dipping sauce and the total was 48 euros. I’m glad the chicken tenders didn’t suck because that is hopefully the most anyone will ever pay for McDonald’s. Guess being in the airport in an expensive city means they can charge whatever they want to.

Time to start exploring the city. We are going with the flow with no specific plans.

It turns out the McDonald’s is very close to the Baltic Way Footprint Monument. This memorializes when two million people held hands in a peaceful protest of Russia in 1989.

Next stop…forced kid pic.

Next up a short stroll through a cute park.

These people get real creative with their locks!

From a distance I saw what I thought looked like the entrance to the Louvre. Nope. Not at all the same but it was an entrance to an underground parking garage.

We decided to head toward Riga Central Market which is a large indoor market inside five old Zeppelin hangers. Obviously I’m going to continue to take pics the entire walk.

There was a huge super nice temporary sports clubs set up we think for the soccer games. No one was there yet but they were making cocktails at 11am.

We pulled out of Vilnius around 2pm with me at the wheel so Greg could get caught up on email. Since it was a four lane road most of the way out it was agreed upon that I could handle it. It’s about a 3.5 hour drive back to Riga. We are unsure whether we will drop bags off at our Airbnb before we pick up Jake or go straight to the airport.

And I did, until passing was required and then I happily pulled into a gas station to hand over the driving responsibilities to Greg.

I failed to point out in my earlier post that it didn’t take long for Greg and Logan to channel their inner Lithuanian style.

Thankfully, today’s drive was much quicker than our last. Before we knew it we were in Riga. Jake’s flight is delayed by about 30 mins so we will have time to drop our bags off before meeting him.

Our Airbnb is in old town Riga and parking is not easy to find so we parked the van illegally (we think) and walked the short walk to our apartment.

Thankfully, despite the odd entrance the apartment is nice. My only complaint (currently) is the lack of pillows.

After quickly dropping bags, Greg and the boys decided to walk to find an electronics store in the 20 mins that they had before we needed to head to the airport. Greg had left his AirPods in Tallinn and doesn’t like using mine continually and neither Jake nor Maddie have converters so we need another one ideally. Somehow they only returned with beer.

The airport is a 20 mins drive from here. We all decide to go to pick him up. We had no issues finding our way.

We did however have some trouble figuring out where we could stop to wait so Greg dropped off me and Maddie at departures. He was hoping maybe I’d see a converter cheap. I did not see anyway. We were trying to make our way to arrivals when Jake FaceTimed and said he was outside of departures but he would come inside. I said no stay out, we will come outside!

Greg looped around to pick up back up.

So what do the Baker’s do once they pick Jake up from three flights with only two hours sleep? They take him shopping, to the mall, to Euronics in search of said AirPods, or more specifically some cheaper brand and some converters.

We were lucky and got everything we needed. Our only issues were one person spoke no English and that was a slightly difficult transaction and Logan was checking out a mixer and pressed a button thinking it would turn on and it ejected the beaters. It’s finnnne!

We popped into the DinoZoo in case we saw any animals we wanted. There were some cool birds!

We kept our shopping short, now back towards the Airbnb. Plans are dinner and an early night since Jake is exhausted. Also rain is in the forecast.

Greg and Brooks had staked out a 24 hour parking lot so we headed back in that direction. The only issue is that we couldn’t figure out how to get in. There was a gate on one side that looked like an exit gate so Greg drove to the other side. Bad idea. No gate. Narrow dead end street.

He decided to go all the way to the end to see if it was wider for him to turn around. It was not but somehow he managed to do it. All while two women walking down the sidewalk judged the hell outta what was happening. We weren’t entirely sure it was a two lane road but really, who was gonna stop us?

On our second attempt at the parking lot a car was coming out and there wasn’t enough room for us to wait so we drove past hoping we could go around the block.

We came to a tunnel type thing with a sign that looked like you couldn’t drive through so again Greg did some crazy turnaround. As he was ready to back out onto the street at an angle that would allow us to only go back the way we came we had to wait for cars to pass behind us, thru the tunnel thing.

Back up the narrow street and finally, we have success at accessing the parking lot. Greg parked the van like a boss in the spot we were directed to park in.

Next stop is the Airbnb to drop off Jake’s luggage and then dinner.

Greg, Maddie and Jake decided on a place for dinner so after a quick stop we were back out. We sat outside at Ogle’s which is a short walk from our apartment.

In Vilnius, Logan and I had each had a drink and needed more so we had ordered table water that took forever to come. I didn’t want to risk not having enough to drink so I ordered the large lemonade (which in my defense was only a few euros more than the small.) She said you want the liter? I said yes without even processing what she said.

I might have overdone it.

I love how they give wet wipes here. This should be a thing in the states. Although I am surprised at on the one hand they are so environmentally conscious with paper straws and a million different types of trash cans for recycling but yet they give out individually wrapped wet wipes almost standard it seems.

Speaking of people watching, the lady with the ponytail, not the one staring directly at the camera, literally kept turning around and staring directly at us. We are pretty sure that she had a convo about us with the server but since none of us speak Latvian we can’t be certain.

This pic was taken as a fake pic of Logan and then cropped so it wasn’t obvious I was taking a pic of them but by the end of the night I wouldn’t have cared if she knew. It was weird. And also they were taking pics of us. Logan thinks it’s because they have never seen another that looks like him here. He’s probably not wrong. 🙂

Logan had banana peppers with his steak which for some reason he thought were hot. He challenged Brooks to a proper eating contest. They both won because they were in fact not hot.

It started raining somewhat steady so Brooks and Greg stayed behind to pay while the rest of us headed back. Riga is starting to really party now that it’s 9pm.

Also, as is standard with many European places we have no air conditioning so the apartment is stuffy. We have opened windows to try to get some airflow.

Fortunately or unfortunately we are here on a large Latvian holiday called Ligo where they party until the sun comes up. Staying in Old Town might not have been our best idea since we typically turn into pumpkins by 10…by we I mean me and mostly Greg.

At 9:30 the band was really just getting started down the street playing “Johnny Be Good.” Greg started praying that rain would come in and send everyone one. While rain did start, it didn’t stop the fun.

The boys and I played a game of Uno No Mercy (not for the faint of heart) and somehow I won. I tapped out of the game, Brooks and Logan stayed to play at least one more with Greg because typically he likes to play until he wins.

Thank goodness for the earplugs from my amenity kit from the plane. Pretty sure that’s the only way I’m getting any sleep tonight.

Not sure what’s on tomorrow’s agenda. Need to see what all is open with the holiday. There’s a large market in a zeppelin hanger that I’m hoping will be open. And maybe pics of the pretty bridge so I can redeem myself with the boys.

Until then!

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!

Today’s meeting time for breakfast was 7:30am for those who wanted to walk around Vilnius before check out. Maddie opted to sleep in a bit and meet us out later.

Greg, Brooks, Logan and I headed back down to the breakfast in the hotel. This time I got a pic (barely of the salmon)

Logan and I went to get a piece of waffle and one of the workers came over to basically tell us how good they were. She started to say we could use the syrups as Logan was picking up the chocolate syrup to drizzle directly on his waffle. She apparently wasn’t expecting that and made somewhat of a high pitched laugh type noise that made Greg think “oh God, what are they doing.” Me not processing what was happening did the same as Logan. When I went back up to get some honey for my bread did it hit me that I assume we were supposed to use the tiny bowls for our toppings….but why? So much more for them to wash.

We finish breakfast around 8:00 and it’s time to head out to explore.

We had discussed going to a food hall for dinner. I had seen one with good reviews but it’s 2 miles away and one review mentioned tight parking. Feels dicey to walk that far or to try to park the van.

Greg and Brooks found a food hall that was closer with good reviews so we decided to make the ten min walk there.

Outside our hotel is a tall silver thing we can see from all of our rooms. Turns out it’s a giant slide. The boys decided to all give it a go.

The food hall was super sketch when we got there. Most places were closed and there were only 2 people eating. Nope.

Greg told me to map to my food hall and let’s just see what happened. My map (google since it’s so trustworthy) took us through the crazy maybe apartments with graffiti all over them. I’m not entirely sure we should have been there but there was an elderly lady standing there with her coat and hat on so what could go wrong?

We ended up on a street with tons of restaurants with a great vibe and even better people watching. We decided to find a place and eat. Logan and I checked out a menu at an Italian place and made an executive decision to go there.

Logan got truffle pasta and must have hated it because he cleaned his plate. Also he’s part Italian, or so he says, so it must have been good. Also, he was able to figure out how to eat it despite not having a spoon to twirl the pasta. He said “I can’t believe they don’t give you spoons here.” Maddie said “I know, how am I supposed to eat this?” Turns out Greg had all the spoons at the other end of the table and didn’t hear any of that. It wasn’t until a shared dessert came and I said we didn’t have any spoons that he offered up an entire basket full of them. Cool.

I thought the restaurant was extremely reasonable. We had four beers, three soft drinks, a non alcoholic mojito (so freaking good), two orders of bruschetta, five pasta dishes and a tiramisu for 110 euros.

The people watching was even better than the food.

Logan and I wanted ice cream after dinner. I had seen lots of people with cones so I know they existed somewhere. Alas, we had no luck. The one place I thought had some was just desserts. Greg mapped us to a place that I think was an ice cream cart with no worker. Then we mapped to another place in a mall that turned out to be a robot soft serve machine.

Logan got what he thought was strawberry that turned out to maybe be raspberry. We really aren’t sure since we can’t read the language.

We headed back to the hotel through the same park area we had walked past earlier.

There was some lady singer under a monster tent with random people dancing…really badly.

There are so many restaurants that we walked past that looked amazing. I wish we had more time in the city…to eat! Unfortunately we are leaving early afternoon tomorrow to head to Riga.

I suggested that Greg stop and talk to the front desk to see about getting a late checkout in one of our rooms. The lady that was so excited to help him last night (who gave us the awesome room) was working. He said, “could I please have a late check out for one of our rooms?” She said “sure! You are in room 353 right? How about 3:00?” Greg said “I only need it until 1:00.” She said “ok 1:30.”

So thankfully, Mr. Baker successfully negotiated a later checkout than even he wanted which just makes thing less hectic in the morning. We are planning to go see as much of the city as we can before we pack up and leave.

Until then, time for bed! I’m super tired despite it still being light outside at 10:15pm.

The reviews of the hike were either wrong or we were on the wrong trail. It did seem promising when we pulled in and there was a giant tour bus parked, but we never saw anything that remarkable.

Also, by forced I mainly mean me and Maddie. Brooks was happy to go and I’m pretty sure Logan was indifferent. If he wasn’t happy he never said it.

I would have been happy to hike, I just probably wouldn’t have worn a dress and I might have taken my hiking shoes. But I digress….

I should mention that based on the noises coming from both sides of the path there were either giant flying grasshoppers or rattlesnakes, neither of which I’m a fan of. To be honest, I’m not sure which is worse.

We ended up basically coming to a road and decided this was not the best path to have chosen. We backtracked and picked the upper path.

We came to a place with a large staircase down near some water. Maddie and I decided to stay up top near a bench and let the boys go check things out. I told Logan to let me know if it was cool enough for me to make the trip down once he got down there. I never heard that it was.

I don’t think it was a terrible walk for them.

Now back to the car to head back to the hotel. Greg and Brooks are headed to the KGB museum. I’m going to stay in the hotel and do laundry. Which for once I’m not mad about.

You know what I am mad about?

This proper castle surrounded by water was on Greg’s Vilnius must see list. This actually is the only thing on his list I think. It was about a 40 mins drive from our hotel to this little town. It was surrounded by lots of water with lots of various boats and water activities.

Greg’s favorite picture of the kids was taken at the Louisville Zoo and he wants it reenacted for his 50th birthday. We decided to do a mash up of his 11 year old Vilnius dream with his 50th birthday wish and recreate the pic here.

These rulers had so much money they just started making things with it. Maybe I could make Greg a beer stein for his 50th with all my leftover foreign change…mine would be one cent pieces though.

So anyway, after five full days together including 9 hours in the car yesterday the kids are really on our nerves. Let’s just lock them up for some peace and quiet.

Time for our next meal. We had seen a lot of cute little restaurants near the water so we decided to stop at a pizza and burger place. Pizza was actually really good. Almost as good as the views.

Apparently now we are headed back to the car for a forced family hike that wasn’t on the original agenda. Greg said this “nearby” trail has really good reviews.

We shall see.

Greg and I woke fairly early and had coffee in the room. Brooks was the next awake followed by Logan. We had agreed on breakfast at 9 but was a little ahead of schedule. Maddie chose to sleep in versus eating.

The Hilton breakfast was decent and mostly like an American offering. The had an omlette station that I was going to wait on but when I saw the amount of ham and veggies they put in Greg’s (laughable honestly) I decided to head for the already prepared scrambled eggs. Instant gratification. They also had chicken sausage otherwise known as hotdogs as an offering which Greg decided to go for.

Other options were waffles (some quarters already made and waiting…by who I’m not sure but that didn’t stop me from taking one.) Apparently syrup isn’t a thing here. Honey, jam, and toppings such as chocolate and caramel were the options.

Red velvet cake for breakfast? Now we are talking .

Not pictured because I didn’t want to be that obnoxious American taking pics of all the things (my other pics were done super fast and clearly not at great angles) were the carved out salmon and the disgusting options of herring. Maybe tomorrow I can get those. By those I mean pics and not on my plate.

Our plan to is to head to some castle this morning followed maybe by a food hall and some other sites depending on time. Greg and Brooks are planning to go to a KBG museum close that I’m going to sit out. One review said it’s not for sensitive dispositions. I will be happy to stay behind and do laundry here at the hotel while they go check that out.

This has been an incredibly long day of driving and riding for all of us and everyone is just ready to be out of this car. But first some random sights.

Like this chair on the side of the road. Actually there were two.

And this circle K which is only one of so many that we saw today. Circle K and Hesburger definitely have the market here for gas and burgers. It’s crazy.

Oh looky there. I can actually finally see the coast line from the car. For only about 30 seconds but I guess it still counts as a costal drive.

We started getting the “what are we doing for dinner” about two hours or so out. I know that Greg didn’t want to stop but when Maddie asked and she she needed to use the restroom pronto he realized a stop was necessary. But where? There’s honestly not a lot out here aside from Hesburger which no one wants to experience for a second time. It looked like we would be coming up on a small town soon so we decided that was our best chance.

Once arriving into Pasvalys we turned onto seemingly the only street into town from the route we were on and saw really no restaurants. We got a tour through the tiny town as Greg took speed humps at 20mph or so with Maddie popping out of our third row seat in the back of the van several times. It was all fun and games until she reminded him of her current bladder situation.

We finally resolved ourself to the fact that a McDonald’s or other fast food option or really any other option wasn’t going to present itself. Back we went to the grocery store we had just passed. Greg was certain they would have a restroom and some grab and go sandwiches. They had neither.

I suggested we go to the gas station on the corner (not a Circle K) and Greg reluctantly agreed. He had thought it looked a little sketch from the outside but we were desperate so it didn’t even matter at this point. Especially since he was suggesting maybe we go find a field for Maddie.

The gas station ended up not being too bad. They had lots of sandwich options but unfortunately nothing really for Maddie. Greg had the great idea for he and Maddie to walk back to the grocery store (which was next door) to grab salad or something for Maddie while we paid.

I had gone to use the restroom when all this brain power was happening. He left Brooks with a card to pay. Apparently the cashier did not speak any English and Brooks clearly doesn’t speak and Lithuanian. The cashier kept saying something to Brooks that he didn’t understand. Thankfully there was a military guy in line behind him that said “he wants to know if you want it heated.” Brooks said “oh thank you. No.”

We all got sandwiches (minus Maddie) that were basically all bread. Logan was so mad his had mayo because that wasn’t marked on the package. Greg had been mad there were no condiments mentioned so he bought mayo at the store. So needless to say, once Logan scraped off his mayo we had more mayo that any family of 5 needed on a road trip. Maddie ended up with a homemade cheese sandwich that I never actually saw.

As Brooks told Greg the story about the military guy Logan said “why didn’t you have him toast it!”

After our dinner stop we are finally on a four lane road…with basically no other cars. Guess I could have driven after all now that passing isn’t a requirement.

Just after 9pm we had arrived in Vilnius. A much different vibe than Tallinn with its much bigger downtown vibe. Hopefully Greg’s “dream” of 37 years to visit Vilnius is all that he imagined it to be.

After a somewhat stressful parking situation in a tiny hotel parking garage with our giant Renault Trafic van we unloaded and headed to the lobby of the Hilton Garden Inn Vilnius. They were clearly expecting us. I’m thinking it’s not all that common to get an American family here with three hotel rooms from a Diamond Hilton member but then again I could be completely wrong. The main front desk person made sure to welcome us and helped her newer colleague ensure that Greg got the best room of the three with the best views. You guessed it….all of the rooms are exactly the same with essentially the same view. All are on the third floor on the same side of the building just down the hall from one another.

Our room did have an upgrade, it seems as though “Mr Baker” and his “status” is being recognized again. This time with some macarons and chocolate and a hand written note. I’m not mad about it.

After some back and forth over the morning meet time it’s off to bed. We are all incredibly exhausted and mostly just over being in the car for so long. Hoping everyone gets some sleep and we can get a fresh start tomorrow!

But seriously, I wonder if that sandwich would have been better toasted?

Well, looks like we will be spending all day on the road. Good time for Maddie to catch up on her sleep.

So we expected a four lane highway but we didn’t get that. It’s basically a two lane road for the most part where everyone is passing everyone and it’s flat and looks a lot like Indiana. You wanna know who’s not scared to pass and isn’t content to just poke along? Greg. That’s who. I bet he’s passed 200 cars so far today.

He’s driven for so long today his leg is cramping but he won’t let me drive to give him a break because “that’s not good for anyone.”

Greg said we would be driving along the coast and I got so excited to see the water.

We have made it to the border of Estonia and Latvia.

I noticed on the map there was a tourist spot that was supposedly on the coast. We decided to take a break from the road to stretch our legs. Only Google maps led us astray again. Or maybe not…we might have just not trusted that the road was an actual road after our incident in Salzberg taking us down someone’s driveway.

We entered back into Estonia, then turned around and went back into Latvia, then turned around again and went back into Estonia and decided to call it and get back on the road so back into Latvia we went.

Greg was determined to find something so he followed a parking sign. There was another car there despite it being in the middle of nowhere so we felt good about checking it out.

Time to head back to the car to get back on the road. Might as well use this Toi Toi first.

Greg and the boys decided they wanted to take the path to the watch tower. I have no clue why since Greg and Brooks are scared of heights but whatever. I stayed behind to “take a pic of them” per Logan’s suggestion. I wasn’t fighting him since I was wearing shorts and had no interest in potentially getting a tick.

Actual non zoomed in distance.

Time to officially get back on the road.