Saturday 15th September The drive from Kriukai to the Corronian Spit. So we get up early to discover Rita had arrived in the night. We also discover that Mindaugas is not coming on the trip but Kazimiras, his father will be driving Rita and Mum while we would travel behind. ( reassurance for dad following- he was on strict instructions to not drive over 100 as we were following - and he stuck to that). We drove to Siauliai - to the hill of crosses. An amazing ...

Friday 14th Sept. Got up nice and early and headed into the shower. Inside this old house they have this bizarre cylindrical cubicle. It is a complete unit, not built in that gets plugged in to a power point to get started. There is a circle of bright blue LED lights in the centre of it. It looks like a prop from Star Trek has been beamed down into the bathroom. Then I turned on the hot tap. The rankest foulest smell came out with the water. Rotten Eggs reached ...

The drive to Kriukai. Thursday 13th sept We got up, packed our small bags into the Subaru Forester, and then headed out of Vilnius. To say the driving is tight is an understatement. And then to add to the joy, I am sitting with the steering wheel on the other side of the car, on the other side of the road. I drove up a winding road, cars parked on my right, cars careering close to the middle line to my left and coming towards me. We get out of Vilnius and dri...

Another quiet day in paradise. This morning we enjoyed a coffee at "coffee inn",then I split from the group to get a special gift for me - I really want to see some Lithuanian basketball - and next Monday night the two best Lithuanian teams are playing in Vilmius. Lietuvos Rytas v Zalgiris. I wish Sam could be here to see it. It is sure to be a grudge match of epic proportions. I got really excellent tickets for everone (except Romas who insists he does not want...

Changes of plans.... This morning we planned to go and hire a 7 seater vehicle with Mindaugas - he arrived a but late- and then got on his phone. With mum interpreting he told us it would be a bad idea to hire a car in Lithuania. You have to leave credit card details with the car hire place- and invariably they claim damage to the car after your hire. You may argue, but they already have your credit card information. He made more calls and decided he was going t...