Grutas Park

***Delayed publishing 13/10/18***

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Today we went to a place called Grutas Park. There was loud Soviet music playing while we walked round some statues. The statues were mainly of a man called Lenin. There were also statues of Stalin and other communists. Lenin and Stalin were not very nice.

There were lots of animals, like llama, emu, different birds, camels, goats and bears in a very small cage.

There was also a very big playground that had wooden statues of Snow White and the 7 Dwarves, the Little Mermaid and the people pulling up the enormous turnip.

Then we did a very long drove to Poland, but we had McDonalds for dinner.  Daddy said it was the cheapest McDonalds.

 

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Trakai Castle

 

***Delayed publishing 12/10/18***

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Today we went to the Lithuanian Folk Museum.  This was very big with lots of different houses. There was a man working on a loom and a lady making baskets. There was a church with wooden statues and lots of nativity scenes set up.  There was also a well and I had to pump to get the water up.

Then we drove to Traikai castle. It was on an island so we walked over 2 bridges. The castle was very big and had a tall courtyard in the middle. There was lots of porcelain princesses. There was also some beadwork that mummy liked. There was a treasury and you could see coins that had been saved in a jar. Daddy put his head in the stocks and then went in a cage called a gibbet.

We have also been spotting lots of big nests that were used by storks.

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The Cold War Museum

***Delayed publishing 11/10/18***

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This morning we visited one of Mummy’s work friends and had some nice Lithuanian sweets.

Then we drove to where my Great Grandfather was a Prisoner of War in World War 2. It was called Stalagluft 6, but there was nothing left as it was demolished by the Soviets.

Then we went to a cold war missile bunker hidden in a forest. Daddy was very excited. There were 4 missile silos, and on the ground you could only see the concrete lids. Then we went underground and saw the silo. It was very big. We saw the world’s smallest nuclear weapon – 1kT artillery round. There were models dressed in Soviet Uniforms. I wouldn’t like to live underground with bombs.

Then we went to a campsite called Honey Valley. Daddy made bread, and we bought some honey. It was yummy!

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Latvia and Lithuania

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We had a nice time on the beach. We drew a castle in the sand. Daddy did some work on the car.

Then we did a drive through Latvia, through the Gauja National Park. We had lunch, then walked over a big bridge. The trees were all yellow and orange and red. Very pretty.

The next day we drove to Riga, this is the capital city of Latvia. In Riga we had a yummy breakfast of pancakes with curd, sourcream and jam. We walked around the town and saw lots of pretty buildings and statues. There was a cat house that had cats on the roof. Then we went to a market and we bought a massive watermelon. Daddy really liked the market. (It used to be a WW1 Zepplin hangar). The market was really big. There was one hall for fish – it was smelly. One hall for cheese and nuts, one for meat, and one for bread and veges.

After Riga we drove to a new country, Lithuania. We stopped at the Hill of Crosses. There were thousands of crosses, some big and some small.  We learnt that the Soviets destroyed them and the local people would sneak back and put more crosses up. There were thousands of crosses.

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Estonia

After Finland we took a ferry to Estonia.

We stopped at a campsite at the Purita marina that was used in the 1980 Olympic Games. There was even an olympic torch still burning.

We did a walk around Purita, and saw lots of men fishing for herrings. We found a sandy beach and a forest of pine trees. Genevieve pretended to be a wolf. We also found a ruined convent. The crosses were a bit creepy.

Then we went to the old town of Talinn. It was very wet. We walked around the cobbled streets. We went into the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral.  There was a lot of incense, and gold and silver paintings. We looked at some shops, then we had a pizza lunch!

Now we are camping under some pine trees, near a beach.  It is very beautiful.

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