Journey: Hill of Crosses – Kaunas – Kernave
Today is Mabel’s 8th birthday and I woke with her head on the pillow, snuggled under the duvet between us. It’s strange but although I’m not religious I really wanted to visit the crosses without the tourist masses. I slipped away at 7am, leaving her snoring and had the place to myself for 45minutes. It’s a really magical and powerful place. Amongst the many crosses bought at the on-site stalls, there are handmade ones that you know will have deep significance and likely be in memory of someone. Some of the more unusual I found were made of bicycle chain, computer memory board and screwdrivers. There are so many deep personal memories, hopes and prayers held in what must be multiple million crosses.
As a complete contrast to that, our first walk with the pups was to Rabbit Island. The rabbits live in a lovely enclosed run on a moated Island with fun bunny topiary and sculptures, and you can walk around the outside. There were also more mythology sculptures and a great water dragon sculpture.
It was then on to Kaunas which has some really quirky museums. We visited the Devil Museum which has examples of devils and their folklore meanings from around the world and the small but brilliant Museum for the blind, which is an immersive sensory experience that takes you into the pitch black catacombs of a church and turns you blind so have to feel your way around. It really tunes in your other senses!
Obviously with a birthday to celebrate we had to find yummy stuff. Mark had found a traditional donut shop called Spurgine, which was definitely like stepping back in time. The donuts were fresh out of the oven, still warm…he bought two. Not to miss out I found a vegan doughnut at Holy Doughnut…this is a must visit place! So many doughnut options, dog friendly, the brunch looked devine as well. My doughnut looked so good Mark got one to; got to test the competition 😋😂
I took Mabel into the pet store to pick her birthday treats and she had a sneaky duck flavoured bone in the shop while the others were outside, then chose a stinky bag of dried sheep intestine 🤢 Yep disgusting as it sounds but all three loved them, and we have had to hide the bag in the van garage as they kept sniffing it out.
Before dinner we drove out to Ninth Fort which has to be one of the most collosal and striking sculptures I have ever seen. Everything about it screams strength. While I went for a run around the park, poor Mark was left listening to thumping trance music blaring from a car next door to us. The car boys gathered and there was some seriously impressive speakers. I rather liked it… Mark not so much 🙈
For our bedtime walk we drove to Karnave with is UNESCO listed as the site of a medieval town and has the most amazing hillforts. We are looking forward to a long up and down walk tomorrow morning.
With a belly full of treats and a day spent rolling and waddling about, Mabel is crashed out on the sofa snoring away. Pretty sure she had a good day.
SofaWolves 