Day 27 - Vilnius, Lithuania - Found More Ohioans Today

Joan's View

Our biking is done on this trip, and so is Tony blogging. 😜   Theresa, however, is going to join me in writing some vacation memories for the remainder of the trip so stay tuned if you like travel blogs in general. Also, there will be a summary of the bike trip when we get home if you want to check back for that.

After the DeLands got such much needed rest from their flights, we started out to explore Vilnius. Almost across the street was a delicious pastry & cappuccino store that got them moving. 😄

Bud, being one of our faithful blog readers has labeled our bike trips, "The Catholic World Tour." Now, Bud has officially joined The Catholic World Tour.

 

Our first stop to get Bud indoctrinated into The Catholic World Tour was the Church of the Holy Spirit. It was beautifully baroque and ornate. 

Pope JOHN PAUL II sat in the red chair when he visited Lithuania in 1993.

From there, we strolled through Vilnius and worked our way to Gediminas Tower on the hill. The tower goes back to the days of the Crusaders. Thankfully, the temperature was mild for our climb up the hill. There is an excellent view of the city from

The DeLands on the rocky climb

 the top of the hill. 

After that nice hike, we decided on a food break. We found this restaurant that had some Lithuanian favorites and did a light lunch.

The most amazing thing happened after lunch. As we left the restaurant there was a group of Americans led by a Catholic priest gathered near us. We paused to hear what the priest was saying and asked one of the guys in the group where they were from - Cleveland, Ohio! We have met very few Americans on this trip and here was a whole group from Ohio nonetheless. They asked where we are from and one of the ladies, Elaine, in the group heard that we are from Sidney. She then introduced us to Brenda Knight, the wife of Chris Knight, president of Lehman Catholic High School in Sidney.  Chris Knight has been to our house. What a small world!

With Brenda Knight and Jesuit Father Lukas Laniauskas from University Heights, OH

Father Laniauskas was ordained in Vilnius and is leading that pilgrimage for a large group from his parish. We plan to meet them tomorrow at 1:00 mass in the Divine Mercy Chapel.

After all that excitement, we made a pit stop at Maxima for beer and stuff, and headed back to the Airbnb for a break before dinner. Theresa picked the restaurant tonight at a Georgian restaurant. None of us got what we thought we were getting, but it was still fun and quite tasty.

One more picture - Bud named our dog this a long time ago and we found a sign to prove it.

Theresa's Extras

What a great day! Beautiful weather and wonderful architecture to look at.  Having fun trying new foods.

Highlight of the day was meeting the people from Cleveland.  Great start on our trip.