Vilnius, Trakai and Hill of Crosses

Lithuania - June 2017
P001 - P1130400 June 6 Tuesday, a travel day from Warsaw Poland to Vilnius Lithuania...
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P002 - P1130399 ... from Warsaw to Vilnius, according to google map, approx 290 miles 6 hours 30 minutes driving distance crossing the two country border - Vilnius is in a...
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P003 - P1130394 ... our first meal in the Baltics - dinner at this cozy restaurant of authentic traditional Lithuanian cuisine, Senoji Trobelė said to be on the top ten best...
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P004 - P1130396 Lithuanian cuisine features products suited to the cool and moist northern climate of Lithuania - barley, potatoes, rye, beets, greens, berries, and mushrooms...
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P005 - IMG_2076 ... our drinks - homemade draught beer and freshly squeezed cranberry juice...
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P006 - IMG_2080 ... beet root soup - a warm, comforting soup made of beetroot, onion, carrot, and celery mixed with meat stock (usually pork) and seasoned with salt, pepper,...
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P007 - P1130387 ... what's happening - oh, a demonstration of the making of cepelinai (zeppelins)...
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P008 - IMG_2083 ... a national dish of Lithuania, cepelinai is a large dumpling made of a mixture of raw and cooked potato dough that's filled with pork; originally called...
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P009 - IMG_2084 ... cepelinai with mushroom sauce, the potato-based dumpling stuffed with meatball - it's said that one of the prides of Lithuanian cuisine is its wide use of...
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P010 - IMG_2085 ... main course - stuffed chicken and scalloped potatoes...
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P011 - IMG_2088 ... apples, plums and pears grow well in Lithuania; berries and currants also widely cultivated, and made into jams or baked providing a piquant touch to...
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P012 - P1130397 ... this photo taken from our hotel room overlooking Old Town and the Neris River flowing through the city center - it's 10 o'clock at night, look at the round...
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P013 - IMG_2089 ... hmm, what a nice hotel room-suite we're in, a private sauna room inside the bathroom...
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P015 - IMG_0577 Good morning from Vilnius, the capital and largest city situated in southeastern Lithuania at the confluence of the Neris and Vilnia rivers; a cosmopolitan city...
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P016 - IMG_0579 Lithuania (Lietuva), officially the Republic of Lithuania (Lietuvos Respublika), a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe, one of the three Baltic...
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P017 - IMG_0578 ... with a total area of some 25,200 sq. miles, Lithuania has an estimated population of 2.8 million people as of 2017 - Vilnius County, the largest of the ten...
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P018 - IMG_0581 Vilnius, from the 13th until the 18th century, was the political center of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania with a huge impact on the cultural and architectural...
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P019 - IMG_0585 ... the 1897 Neo-Gothic Raduškevičius Palace and Mindaugas Bridge over Neris River connecting city center and Old Town (photo left) - the planetarium of Vilnius...
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P020 - IMG_0583 ... Church of St Raphael the Archangel - a stylish monument of the late Baroque built in the first half of the 18th century, the church towers crowned with...
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P021 - IMG_0590 ... Mindaugas Bridge crossing Neris River and connecting Žirmūnai neighborhood with the Old Town, 331 ft in length and 65 ft in width - the bridge, named after...
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