Jim's Monday Tour from Vilnius to Riga (One Way)

The journey to Riga is a lot of pine forests and a fair amount of fields. On our tour we will turn this already quite beautiful scenic journey into a historical endeavour, visiting the main landmarks - the Hill of Crosses (LT), Rundāle Palace (LV), but also taking in the humbler and quieter locations around. Kėdainiai once hosted one of the largest Scottish populations in the Baltics, today its known as the capital of cucumbers. We will try some cucumber delights for a snack. In 1236 the Livonian Brothers of the Sword was smashed by the progenitors of Lithuania (or some!), with the master dead and most of the knights submerged in a bog. Today stands a small monument in a field near where the battle is believed to have taken place (where we will go). The remainder of those Brothers of the Sword were absorbed into the Teutonic Order as the autonomous regional branch of Livonia, eventually building a fortress at Bauska - one we intend to visit before arriving home in Riga.