We took a three-hour free walking tour with initially 10 others. Our guide was very engaging and we learnt and saw a lot more than if we’d wandered on our own.

Before the walk I climbed Gediminas Hill to check out the red brick tower. The views were amazing. This next shot shows how new Vilnius is booming across the river.

While I was wandering on high, Mick took a closer look at the Palace of the Grand Dukes. He was relieved when he spotted this sign.

One of our stops was the Presidential Palace where we noticed a small “tent city” of protesters.

Peacefully making their point about corrupt politicians. If you read the link here, corruption is a big issue in Lithuania. Doctors even expect a bribe for preferential treatment.

Our guide told us that Lithuania has a female president who is in her second and final five-year term. She has her black belt in karate and is supposedly very tough. Her best friend is Angela Merkel. The Lithuanian President has the right to amend laws being considered in their one-house government. It makes us think about the formula for appointing a President in an Australian Republic – when it happens.

Our walk through the very sad, previous Jewish Quarter took us to the site of its now non-existent largest synagogue. It could fit 5,000. It was completed in the mid 16th Century and was damaged badly in WWII. The Soviets then knocked it down and built a preschool on the site, which ironically is to be demolished in 2020. The school was typically Soviet; ugly and impractical.

Ninety-five percent of the Jews living in Lithuania were killed before the end of WWII: 195,000. So sad.

Hard to know what to say.

We then strolled on, up another hill to some remnants of the old city wall and its only remaining bastion.

The preservation work has been funded by EU grants. No wonder they love being part of the EU.

Our next stop was the self-proclaimed Republic of Užupis, previously a Jewish suburb of Vilnius. We could have had our passports stamped here.

It has its own constitution – displayed on this wall in more than 20 languages – classic.

One example is “everyone has the right to love”. You should check this out.

On our way home we noticed this solar- powered charging point and wifi zone.

Our guide told us about the Lithuanian national drink – Suktinis (also known as folk dance mead nectar). Apparently you like to start dancing after you drink it.

Mick was keen to try it. It cost €4.49 and is 50% alcohol. Tastes like a cough medicine I once had as a kid! It’s healthy according to Mick – loads of natural ingredients, except for the 50% ethanol.

Our last night out we wanted to try the local garlic bread ( we needed to finish our Baltic comparison) and some local cuisine.

I thought we’d try some local bread with a bottle of bubbles. I did wonder why it was sold by mL.

We tried not to look too shocked. It is made from stale toasted rye bread and yeast and is fermented for s few days – about 1% alcohol. They are raisins floating on top. It was quite nice actually.

Now to the garlic bread – that is raw garlic you can see drizzled over the top of the fried rye bread with a cheese sauce, although there was little or no cheese, just more hunks of raw garlic.

Mick voted it the “Best in the Baltics”, but my favourite was the Latvian version.

We fly to Warsaw today. As mentioned in an earlier post, we had planned on going to Minsk. But we’re both really looking forward to our 3 days and 3 nights in Poland.