Riga - Kaunas (day 16)

Today we also left Latvia behind us and drove back to Lithuania. Here we first went to a 19th century fortress, and then we drove on to our accommodation in Kaunas!

After the extensive breakfast at the hotel, we packed our luggage, left the room key at the reception and loaded the luggage into the car. Then we drove to Kaunas in Lithuania, where we first visited the "Ninth Fortress", just outside the city. This is a 19th century fortress, which was later used as a concentration camp during the Second World War where mass executions of political prisoners, but especially Jews, took place. A total of 50,000 people were murdered here, 30,000 of whom were Jews. People who were imprisoned here were led in groups to the execution site at a wall of the fortress, by the guards, where the prisoners had to dig a trench and then undress completely. Then they were shot dead, so that they fell into the ditch (often still alive), after which the next group awaited the same fate and fell on top of the previous group. Right next to this is also a large field where the bodies were thrown into a mass grave. At this spot there are three gigantic statues in memory of the victims. After we had seen the fortress, execution site and mass grave, we drove on to Kaunas, which is not far from here. Once we arrived, we put our suitcases in the apartment and my parents did some groceries. When they came back, the cooking was done and we had a delicious meal. After dinner, we arranged the accommodation for tomorrow in Poland, then we drove to the old town by car where we walked through the old town. Eventually we got back to the car and drove back to the apartment. As mentioned, we are driving to Poland tomorrow, where we will drive via the north side this time (where we drove via the south side on the way there).

Day 15

Travel overview

Day 17