To be honest - our blog should now be called "Winter in Sheboygan." We are already back in wintry Wisconsin, living in our igloo:
Well, not really - the igloo belongs to someone down the street. Our house looks great, if almost buried!
Thanks to faithful neighbors for taking care of the snow which fell just the day before we arrived.
We never really finished the Vilnius story, so here is a last chapter. With reluctance - but what can you do?
One of our last days I managed to get to the Vilnius University library (tower above) and had a private tour of some of the old reading rooms, the tower, the observatory and its fabulous old brass instruments, and the collection of old books, some from the early sixteenth century. Many of the most valuable books had been taken away by the Russians and now, after repeated petitions, a small percentage has been returned.
On our last Saturday evening we went over to the nearby Philharmonic -
and enjoyed a tremendous concert by the national symphony: the "Oberon" overture by Weber, the Reinecke harp concerto, and the Brahms Symphony #4. And at intermission we joined the promenade in the lobby - counter-clockwise around the central stairwell - no exceptions! It was a nice evening.
We've enjoyed Wednesday evening fellowship and Bible study all through January and February. Here are about ten of us gathered at Krista's flat for a get-together. Always a pretty simple menu - tacos, spaghetti - but a wonderful chance to share and learn and pray together.
And Liz has enjoyed the Thursday morning women's Bible study as well - a really important connection for those who are able to attend.
On our last Sunday we were surprised with a farewell luncheon after worship at Nic and Edita's home -
And Steve presented us with a book of photographs taken high over Lithuania with small remote-control airplanes and cameras - a beautiful and unusual book, a reminder of what we've seen in our three months, and evidence of all that we haven't managed to see. Maybe next time!
We squeezed in some dinners with friends at places as diverse as Holy Mikos and Aux Champs Elysees, and dinner at Kelly and Jennifer's too - one of those gorgeous old flats with stucco moldings and what seem to be twenty-foot ceilings!
And then Bruce was there - our replacement. It was very nice to have the chance to meet!
We had lunch together, along with Steve, at Zemaiciai, just down the street - a restaurant as Lithuanian as its name - and Bruce plunged right into life in Vilnius by tackling a couple of those fabulous, notorious, cepelinai! He's a brave man - he'll do very well here!
Bruce's wife, Angela, had job responsibilities at home and will join him in two weeks.
Friends told us that our timing was not so good - that the weekend after we were leaving there was going to be an annual street festival, with booths and activities all through the old city. We saw some of the preparations in the Town Hall square -
But it was time to go! We moved out to the airport hotel for our last night so Bruce could move in. But we sneaked back into Old Town for one more dinner at one of our favorites, the German restaurant Bunte Gans - an excellent assorted fish platter for Liz and a hearty jaegerschnitzel for me, with spaetzle and red cabbage.
Our flights worked out very well: Vilnius - Helsinki - New York - Chicago. At O'Hare, John, one of Liz' mom's caregivers, met us with our car for the drive to Sheboygan.
We had wondered what would happen when we finally had to go through passport control, since we had actually stayed in Europe 92 days, 2 over the limit for tourists. The officer in Helsinki was very friendly, but gave us a short lecture on what the law says - that technically we were due a fine for our crime. But he let us go, just making a little scribble on our exit stamp.
And he assured us that we would not be on any "watch list" the next time we come to Europe!
There are many more things to say and pictures to show - more churches and bakeries and cute little winding streets.
But I'll just end with "Stebuklas" -
it's a pavement stone, lower right, just in front of the cathedral.
The translation is "miracle." You stand on the stone and turn a complete clockwise circle and - well, maybe a miracle. (Actually, I think I did a counter-clockwise circle - maybe that's why nothing happened.)
On August 23, 1989, a person stood on this stone and joined hands with another and another and another, and it became a line of people, hand in hand, stretching from Stebuklas in Vilnius all the way to Riga in Latvia and on to Tallinn in Estonia - two million people, almost 400 miles - standing together in a silent demand for independence and freedom.
Some miracles just take a little time. In this case, it was about two years later, August 21, 1991, that the last Soviet troops ended their occupation of Lithuanian government buildings - and Lenin's statue was pulled down in Lukiskes Square.
Thank you to the International Church of Vilnius for inviting us to spend three unforgettable months with them, and to the Lithuanian Lutheran Church for hosting the congregation and providing our "honeymoon attic" studio apartment.
